Originally published: July 24, 2012 9:18 PM Updated: July 24, 2012 9:20 PM By EMILY NGO  emily.ngo@newsday.com

A Sea Cliff village code provision that allows the building inspector to enter residents’ properties without consent or warrant “is unconstitutional on its face,” the State Supreme Court in Mineola found.

The decision stems from a lawsuit filed by village resident Anthony Losquadro, who said his civil rights were violated in November 2010 when buildings superintendent Andrew Lawrence entered his yard to examine a shed and dog run.

The village code’s right-of-entry provision unconstitutionally “authorizes unconsented and warrantless inspections of residential real property without regard to an emergency situation,” acting Supreme Court Justice Steven Jaeger said in the July 18 partial judgment.

The decision serves as a reminder to officials “not to infringe on residents’ and taxpayers’ rights,” Losquadro said Monday. “A lot of local governments put these laws on the books, knowing that . . . most people aren’t going to take the time to challenge them, but they just came across the wrong guy.”

Sea Cliff Mayor Bruce Kennedy said the village is still studying the judgment and has not decided its next move.

The village was in the process of reviewing its code book before the lawsuit, and the provision could potentially be modified, Kennedy said.

“It’s the last thing in the world that we wanted: anything that was unconstitutional on our books,” he said, adding that constitutionality issues should be taken up with the state attorney general’s office, which approves local laws.

Lawrence could not be reached for comment.

Judgment on whether Lawrence had consent to enter Losquadro’s property — which Kennedy called “the real case” — is still pending.

Losquadro’s lawyer, A. Thomas Levin of Garden City, said the matter would probably go to trial.

According to court documents, Lawrence said Losquadro’s housekeeper said he could enter; she said she gave no such permission.

Kennedy said the village had de facto consent.

Losquadro in 2010 was told he needed a permit to build his tool shed and received a stop-work order, documents show. He said he has paid $2,750 in fines and applied for a permit for the shed.

Losquadro, 47, earlier this year publicly assailed the village for raising taxes. He ran for trustee in March but lost his bid.

In 2011, we commenced litigation against the Village of Sea Cliff based on the view that portions of the Village code were unconstitutional. Following an incident with Andrew “Drew” Lawrence the Building Superintendent of the Village over a toolshed and alleged “dog run,” Lawrence stated that he had the right to search any property for any reason in the Village.

We felt constitutionally protected Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights of Villagers were violated. In fact, Lawrence stated verbally and in writing that he had the right to search any home or property without a duly authorized search warrant. We disagreed.

There controversy boiled over into the Village of Sea Cliff 2012 local elections. While the Sea Cliff POC candidate was running for Trustee, he was simultaneously suing the Village for an unconstitutional search of his property by the Village Building Inspector Andrew Lawrence.

In an article by Newsday’s Carl McGowan on March 4, 2012 “Losquadro said he sued the village last year because a building inspection at his home was “unconstitutional.” The inspection led to charges that Losquadro’s shed and dog run violated the building code. He said he has appealed his conviction on those charges and has not paid the $2,750 in
fines. Mayor Bruce Kennedy, who supports Hayes and Powell, said the lawsuit was
“frivolous.”

Kennedy also made statements in the Gold Coast Gazette, and in robocalls to
voters, that “We have no laws on the books that are unconstitutional. The Village submits that this is a frivolous lawsuit that does nothing more than cost the taxpayers
money and drains time from our staff from being of maximum service to all
our residents. I am confident that our Village will be triumphant. ” See attached Gold Coast
Gazette article.

On July 19 2012, the Honorable Steven M. Jaeger of the NYS Supreme Court agreed with us. In his ten page decision on a motion for partial summary judgement, he struck down Section 48-7 of the Sea Cliff Village Code as unconstitutional. Judge Jaeger stated ” Based on the foregoing, the plaintiff is entitled to partial summary judgement declaring that Section 48-7 of the Code of the Village of Sea Cliff is unconstitutional on it’s face.”

Judge Jaeger further stated, “Overall, defendants [Village of Sea Cliff] have failed to raise any triable issue of fact, or any legal authority to support the constitutionality of Section 48-7 [Village Code]. The other elements of the case will continue to trial.

Apparently Mayor Bruce Kennedy either has no understanding of basic constitutional issues, or little concern for the rights of residents.

Furthermore, Andrew Lawrence is an Village official with a bad attitude. He walks around the Village with a gold shield on his belt like a western sheriff. The is a growing chorus of residents in the Village that are extremely unhappy with him. He had no prior experience as a building official prior to his employment by the Village. If fact his prior employment experience was as a locksmith and part time home inspector. Lawrence was hired by Kennedy. Incidentally, Kennedy also appoints the Village Justice, which makes contesting Lawrence’s decisions very difficult in Village Court.

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North Shore School Board is now distraught over loss of Glenwood Plant. However the school board sheds alligator tears over the loss of tax revenue. The Board won’t remind you how they tried to squeeze LIPA for even more money in 2004.

Lipa has responded by closing the plant.

NEWSDAY

Kessel calls for 2-year freeze on LIPA’s tax rate

Published: October 27, 2004 8:00 PM By ERIK HOLM. STAFF WRITER

Long Island Power Authority Chairman Richard Kessel yesterday called for school districts and others that levy property taxes to freeze the power authority’s tax rate for the next two years, saying LIPA already pays $278 million a year – up 25 percent from five years ago. But LIPA isn’t alone in having to deal with skyrocketing taxes, especially in Nassau County. “Everyone’s taxes have probably gone up 25 percent” in the past five years in Nassau, County Assessor Harvey Levinson said yesterday. “LIPA isn’t alone on that.”

Though Levinson’s office could not immediately confirm the average tax increase in Nassau in that time, it said the total amount of money collected through taxes is up 27.8 percent, and the average homeowner is paying 45 percent more in school taxes – which makes up the largest portion of the tax bill. Figures for Suffolk were not immediately available. Kessel’s demand for a tax freeze comes amid wrangling among LIPA, the Nassau assessor and the North Shore School District over payments LIPA proposes to make on two small plants it owns in Glenwood Landing. Kessel and the power authority contend that LIPA, as a state-run agency, doesn’t have to pay anything at all, but has offered to pay so-called payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOT payments, amounting to $2 million on the two plants. PILOTs are the equivalent of property taxes for government-owned parcels of land.

But the North Shore school board has said that, under its reading of the rules that govern LIPA, there’s a chance that the power authority or KeySpan may be responsible for much more than $2 million. In the middle is Levinson, who said yesterday that he “was close to making a decision” as to how much LIPA would have to pay.

Kessel cautioned yesterday, however, that the small plants in Glenwood Landing were among 16 across Long Island for which LIPA had offered to pay $2 million apiece in property taxes. Any increase in the payment at one plant, he said, would mean the price LIPA would have to pay at the other plants would likely go up, as well. And since any increase in taxes to LIPA translates into increased costs – and potential increased rates – for its customers,

Kessel said he didn’t want any more taxing entities to “dump their problems on the back of LIPA.” Already, LIPA customers spend about 2 1/2 months every year paying the costs that LIPA incurs to pay school districts, towns, counties and other taxing districts, Kessel said. Some of the $278 million in property taxes and PILOTs that LIPA claims it pays is actually paid by KeySpan, which LIPA employs to run the electrical system on Long Island. But LIPA reimburses KeySpan for the cost of its property tax bills. Kessel’s demand for a tax freeze comes as oil prices – the other rising cost outside the control of the power authority – continue to climb.