Hamptons building department faces backlog, bribery charges, slowing sales

A backlog in East Hampton Town’s Building Department has become more than a paperwork problem. As permits stalled and inspections slowed, contractors, homeowners and real-estate deals across the Hamptons faced longer waits, higher carrying costs and delayed closings, while prosecutors say some applicants were getting to the front of the line with cash.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney announced indictments on April 2 against Evelyn Calderon, a senior office assistant from Mastic, and Ryan Benitez, a former East Hampton building inspector. Prosecutors charged both with bribe receiving and official misconduct, saying the conduct occurred in 2024 and involved cash bribes from contractors seeking accelerated building permits and certificates of occupancy. Local reporting said permits that normally took months were allegedly issued within days for those who paid.

The case did not come out of nowhere. Former chief building inspector Joe Palermo first raised concerns about suspicious patterns in late summer or early fall 2024, according to local reporting. By then, the department was already struggling with staffing issues and a backlog of hundreds of permit applications, creating a system where even ordinary approvals could drag on for months.

The slowdown became visible to residents and builders last fall, when East Hampton Town closed the Building Department to the public on Wednesdays so staff could work through the pileup. In January, Councilman Tom Flight said the town had created 313 new records through OpenGov and issued 558 permits, a sign that the department was still pushing through a heavy volume after moving applications online in May 2025.

Town leaders have since taken steps to ease pressure on property owners caught in the delay. In March, East Hampton Town temporarily paused enforcement of updated certificate-of-occupancy requirements for property transfers, saying the Building Department needed time to work through pending applications. The stay is retroactive to January 1, 2024 and runs through December 31, 2026.

Recent figures show the scale of the load still facing the office. The department issued 1,342 building permits, 722 certificates of occupancy, 739 permit renewals, 1,397 certified copies of permits and certificates, and 3,257 inspections while continuing to work through applications submitted in September 2025.

For East Hampton, the damage is now as much about trust as delay. Every stalled permit can hold up a renovation, a home sale or a seasonal business opening, and every bribery allegation raises the same question: whether the town can restore a building process that is predictable, fair and credible enough for the East End economy to keep moving.