The adult children of late village residents returned to the Village of Plandome to petition the Board of Trustees once more to lower the $40,000 fees it is asking to close open permits before they can sell the house.
Mark and Julia Brickell, the children of the deceased property owners, and their attorney, Ken Robinson, attended the Monday, Feb. 9 board meeting.
The Brickell family’s house on 44 North Drive has two open permits—one for a change to the porch by the prior owner from 1958 and one for a renovated bathroom from 1999.
Mark Brickell showed a records access request that claimed “no such data or record exists” for “Village of Plandome building permit extension fee schedules from 1958 through 2025.”
He said he then went to the building inspector, who “showed us his copies of the village code that were collected by his father dating back to 1955.”
“Subsequently, [the building inspector] found that the code was amended in a substantial way in 2002, which you probably know,” Mark Brickell said. “And it was in that year that the provision was added to charge a monthly fee for a certificate of completion that had not yet been acquired.”
Mark Brickell said there was no monthly fee in 1958 or 1999 when the permits were taken out, and the building inspector calculated a fee in the hundreds of dollars, far less than the $40,000 figure initially billed.
Village Attorney Paul Pepper said the permits were never closed so the Brickells would have to pay the current fees. “This is not an ex post facto situation,” Pepper said.
“He seemed to have a little bit of a change of heart when he quoted you hundred-dollar numbers, not thousand-dollar numbers,” said Mayor John Kurkjian about the building inspector.
“He’s done a great job. In this case, we’ve had some miscommunication, and I’m gonna fix it.”
No decision was made, but the board then entered an extended executive session to discuss the matter.
The board unanimously approved a tax cap override to give the village flexibility for next year’s budget. Clerk/Treasurer Barbara Peebles said the village is not close to knowing whether it would have to increase taxes, but it has only done so twice in the past nine budgets.
The board also welcomed Deputy Commanding Inspector Kristin Rhine as the police liaison to the village after the retirement of Commanding Officer Mark Vitelli of the 6th Precinct.
Rhine was previously an officer in Plandome. “I know the ins and outs of the village,” she said.
Turkjian thanked Rhine for coming and asked her about the increase in rates to pay for police coverage. “Our rates got raised by what we thought was an exorbitant amount.”
The rates are around 50% of the budget, after a 10.5% year-over-year increase.
Rhine reported that crime is down 67% from 2024 and alerted residents, especially the elderly, to the dangers of phone scams.
“If it’s too good to be true, it’s too good to be true.”
Rhine also spoke on the village’s new hotline. “Anything that is in regards to bias, there’s a phone number that can be called, a hotline that is manned 24/7 now.”
Peebles spoke about the police cracking down on stop signs “The word honestly would spread really quickly in this village.”
The next Board of Trustees meeting will be held on March 9.
