Developer paying off late sewer fees
Paterson criticize for lax enforcement
By: Joe Malinconico
Paterson Press
PATERSON - The city's most prolific housing developer Charles Florio, has been making $50,000 monthly payments to Peterson to cover overdue fees for sewer connections for new apartments he built form 2021 through 2023.
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The Paterson finance department sent an invoice dated January 1 [2025] to Florio's Ania Management, which said the developer had owned the city nearly $790,000 in fees. The invoice said the builder has previously paid $150,000, with another $50,000 payment pending. The document said Florio's new balance is nearly $590,000.
.... Unpaid sewer charges - which have also involved builders other than Florio - became an issue of controversy in Paterson about 16 months ago, as critics wondered how a cash-starved city could forgo collecting much-needed revenue from a powerful developer.
..... Some unofficial city ablations at that time put the total amount of unpaid fees among developers at more than $2 million.
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The controversy over the uncollected fees was compounded by the lack of detailed information provide by Mayor Andre Sayegh's administration.
..... Florio - who has maintained an alliance with Sayegh for more than a decade - has said he never tried to avoid the fees. he blamed the city for simply not collecting the money. Last October, [2024] Florio told a reporter he has established a payment plan with the Sayegh administration to cover the overdue fees.
..... Paterson Press filed a public records request seeking a copy of that payment plan, but the Sayegh administration said last month [12/0224] that the document does not exist.
..... Florio and his
lawyer, Omar Bareentto, declined to provide a reporter with a copy of the agreement, but the developer sent a copy of the January 1 [2025] invoice, which he said proves the existence of the payment plan.
..... David Gilmore, the city's Community Improvements director and longtime critic of the mayor, said the invoice doesn't explain why the Sayegh administration made what he called "allowances" for Florio.
..... "The question I have is why?" Gilmore said. "Why they derele9ct in their obligation to collect those fees? The only person who can answer that is the mayor."
..... But Sayegh is not saying anything about the uncollected sewer fees. The mayor did not respond to a series of inquires about the topic during the past months.
.... Last fall, [2024] Sayegh's allies on the City Council adopted a change in the timing of when Paterson will collect the sewer connection fees. In the past, builders were supposed to pay the fees before they started constriction.
..... Under the new law, developers do not have to pay until the work is finished and they are ready to have the buildings occupied.