The licenses of five Rockland contractors have been revoked since the beginning of the year, part of a trend of increased vigilance by both the county and consumers against noncompliance.
Terry Grosselfinger, director of the county's Office of Consumer Protection, said there has been a push to keep tabs on Rockland's contractors since the 2005 rape and murder of New City mother Mary Nagle by a contractor's employee who was working illegally for New Jersey-based Coloron Painting.
Grosselfinger said the number of revocations this year - three in January and two this month - was higher than normal, and that three of the licenses were pulled in large part due to customer complaints.
Revoked were the licenses of Gerald Braithwaite, owner of Art Construction and Paving in Spring Valley; Keith McShine, owner of Keith's General Maintenance in Spring Valley; Alcedo Arias, owner of Alcedo Construction Inc. in Haverstraw; Frank Mittiga, owner of X IT in Congers; and Robert Doyle, owner of Hudson Valley Construction of Rockland Inc. of Congers.
The licenses of McShine and Alcedo were revoked for failure to provide proof of liability insurance, while the other three revocations came after the Office of Consumer Protection received multiple consumer complaints and staff members found problems with their operations, Grosselfinger said. The revocations, all decisions made by the county's Home Improvement Licensing Board, are for a minimum of one year.
"There's no guarantee they get their licenses back even after one year," he added.
Frank Errico of New City was one of the complainants against Mittiga's company, X IT. He contracted with Mittiga in December 2005 to build a two-car garage with a storage room on his property.
Errico said that not only was the job not finished by Mittiga and his employees, the work done on the garage was shoddy.
"He left it wide open at the top when it was snowing," Errico said.
And, he added, Mittiga and his employees poured concrete over a rock in the garage, making it look like "a pitcher's mound." The work was so bad, he said, that it failed the town's inspection.
Then, Errico said, "he abandoned his job." After five or six months, Errico said he wrote Mittiga a letter dismissing him from the job. He later paid two of Mittiga's employees day-to-day to finish the work.
Mittiga did not return phone messages Tuesday or yesterday.
Judy Canetti filed a complaint against Mittiga and X IT in the fall of 2004. She contracted with X IT to demolish and renovate two bathrooms in her Suffern home at the beginning of 2004. The work was done by one of Mittiga's employees and left much to be desired, she said. The tile work was a mess: not straight, cut wrong in places, different spacing, grout everywhere.
"I could feel it give as I walked on it," she said. "So three of the tiles cracked within a week."
And the contractors she later hired to fix what Mittiga's employee had done found open wiring left behind in the attic. "The wiring in the attic could have caused a fire," she said.
Canetti said Mittiga came to look at the work once, in April 2004, but never came back. Finally, she released him from the job.
Canetti said she was impressed with the office's diligence once she made her complaint. She even got back all of the money she paid Mittiga - about $5,000.
After the Nagle murder, the Consumer Protection staff was increased by four people, Grosselfinger said. Staffers routinely drive through Rockland's neighborhoods looking for contracting vans and then questioning the owner to make sure the paperwork, insurance and workers are legit and that they are doing good work.
Contractors themselves have also been helping, calling the office when they see or hear about something suspicious.
"We encourage that," Grosselfinger said. "We don't ask their names."
Not only have the number of license revocations gone up since the Nagle murder, more consumers have been willing to file complaints.
Braithwaite said it's important that Rockland's consumers have an advocate, but that advocate doesn't always listen to the contractor's side of the story.
"They protect the consumer. They don't want to listen to the contractor whatsoever," he said.
Grosselfinger said revoking a contractor's license is a last resort and that each contractor was sent two to three notices prior to the licensing board's hearings and given time to correct mistakes.
Braithwaite said the licensing board told him to work for another contracting company until he could get his license back, but he's having a hard time finding work this time of year.
"I'm basically stuck," Braithwaite said, adding that he's got three children to care for.
Braithwaite said all contractors are definitely not treated equally by the licensing board, and he was not given a fair chance to explain that he had gone back and made amends after complaints were filed against his company.
"I explained myself, and they totally cut me off," he said.
Documents from the county show that Braithwaite's license was revoked also in part because he used another contractor's license and was unwilling to comply with the board.
Braithwaite said he was working under the other contractor's license before he got his own and saw nothing wrong with that and, in the second case, the board asked him to do work on a complainant's home that went beyond the contract terms.
Arias, speaking through his daughter Wendy, said his lawyer is going to try and help him get his license back.
"He's going to try to do that as soon as possible because he needs his license," she said, translating for her father.
McShine and Doyle also did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Grosselfinger said Mittiga and Doyle still have time to appeal the revocations to the county Legislature. The time to appeal for the other three has already passed.
Reach Sarah Netter at
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