Ron Barney, Coordinator for Malone, NY Office of Community Renewal failed to prevent Carpenter Jack Nichols from doing shoddy workmanship installing a HUD-paid-for drop ceiling. Neither did he takes steps to correct the problem when it was brought to his attention. In addition Town Supervisor Mike Lawrence who shares responsibility for monitoring the project refused to act when it was brought to his attention. A HUD renovation project that was supposed to be completed in 3 months dragged out to over 11 months because my parent, who has 40 years experience in the building trades objected to the extremely poor workmanship and ugly outcome of incompetent carpenter Jack Nichols work.
Ronald Barney told my parent he was required to accept the ceiling however the carpenter chose to install it, or he was considered to have refused the work. My parent insisted he wanted the work, but done properly. Ronald Barney in retaliation for not giving in ordered carpenter Jack Nichols off the job.
When the problem was brought to the attention of Mike Lawrence, Town of Brandon NY supervisor, Ron Barney lied in front of the entire town boars claiming my father ordered Jack Nichols off the job.
When I stood up and stated that was a lie, Ronald Barney picked an arguement with my parent in retaliation. When my parent refused to allow shoddy work to continue,. Ronald Barney continually shouted" Are you questioning my integrity?" over and over. When my parent indicated that a person who tells falsehoods cannot have integrity, Ronal Barney stated "I am not going to stay here and take this" and stormed out. Mike Lawrence called the carpenter on teh telephone, and then told my parent the carpenter was right even after the town code enforcement officer stated Jack Nichols was "impossible to work with" and described further incompetent work he had done. Mike Lawrence labeled my parent a chronic complained from this one incident.
Ronald Barney insisted that if my parent did not sign off to pay the carpenter, he was breaking the HUD contract and would be required to reimburse all the HUD allocated funding. My parent felt coerced to let the carpenter return to finish the job however he wanted to do the work.
When Jack Nichols returned, he damged a very expensive lighting fixture because he couldn't remember how to put it back up after taking it down to put in his shoddy ceiling. He accused my parent of trying to do him injury because he was working with the elictric still on and he got a shock. Then he became extremely verbally abusive cursing and swearing when my parent insisted that if he didn't know how to re-install the light, that he get someone in to do the work. When I called him to account for the language he became angrier and then walked off the job. When I tried to get some relief from Mike Lawrence, who is one of the persons responsible for overseeing the project, he refused to act in any way and acted like he didn't believe anything he was told.
I wrote a letter to Gail Hammond in the Albany Office on 10/6/09. She responded 10/23/09 that she was putting the matter back into the hands of Mike Lawrence and the local Office to resolve and I would receive a letter from him in response to my complaint-never happened.
When my 83 year old retired building contractor parent contacted one of the other bidders to finish the job, he did what Ron Barney was told by Gail Hammond to do, and never did. The work that had dragged on for 11 months was finished in 2 days by the second carpenter.
Ronald Barney was required to inspect the work to close the HUD contract. Because my parent had to allow him into his home to inspect the work, he was deliberately verbally antagonistic trying to get my parent to lose his temper. I believe it was a ruse to trick my parent into not signing for payment to the second carpenter so that Ronald Barney could discredit my parent and his complaint against him.
NEVER, NEVER GET INVOLVED WITH ANY HUD PROJECT IN YOUR HOME. They have no internal controls or accountability at the local level and will leave you with a job so badly done you will have to pay someone to do it over at your expense.