Thread: NY:Spring Valley ratifies mayor's hire of illegal workers

Spring Valley ratifies mayor's hire of illegal workers

By SUZAN CLARKE
THE JOURNAL NEWS


(Original publication: August 1, 2007)
SPRING VALLEY - The village board of trustees has voted to reimburse Mayor George Darden for the cash he paid to illegal immigrant workers he hired for a village project.


In a Village Board meeting last night, Darden, along with Deputy Mayor Noramie Jasmin and Trustee Joseph Desmaret, voted in single resolution to approve the $925 repayment and ratified the contract with the workers. The board agreed, in order to comply with a state Departement of Labor order, to pay back wages this week for the immigrants' work in removing unusable furniture from 65A N. Main St.


The back wages could constitute thousands of dollars.


Village resident Emilia White was furious to learn of the move.


"I can't believe it. I'm so upset," she said today. "That's insane. I think that is absolutely the wrong thing to do because that's not our fault, the taxpayers' fault, that he went out and hired illegal immigrants. I don't know how he didn't have to pay for breaking the law."


Darden has said he discussed "seasonal labor" with a man - whom he did not name - who was able to produce "legal identification." Darden has refused to answer all questions regarding specifics about the incident, including whether he or the village had used such workers before, and said he the village did not intentionally or knowingly hire undocumented workers.


Immigrants at the project told The Journal News they were undocumented, and one man, Felix Sandoval, said Darden came to Route 59 and asked him to come to the job with nine other workers.


Read more about this story tomorrow in The Journal News.

http://www.nynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art ... /708010434

Perhaps the taxpayers should sue the esteemed mayor.

Spring Valley trustee says mayor hired illegal immigrants on other occasions in past year

By SUZAN CLARKE
THE JOURNAL NEWS


(Original publication: August 2, 2007)
SPRING VALLEY - A village board trustee said she believed Mayor George Darden had hired illegal immigrants to work on village projects before.


"Just last week one of the former DPW workers informed me that in the previous year the mayor had done this as well," Bettie Brown, a frequent voice of dissent on the board of five Democratic trustees, said this morning.


She did not name the Department of Public Works employee whom she said had told her of the previous hirings.


Darden has been criticized in recent weeks for having hired - and paid in cash - undocumented immigrants for a village public works project in July.


He has denied any wrongdoing.


Darden was unavailable for comment this morning, a village staffer said.

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs ... /708020420