Mold Hearing and Legislation

[Guest guest]

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for allowing my Family and others to speak on the issues of Toxic Mold. Many other citizens from Massachusetts wanted to come and speak but were unable to make work and day care arrangements due to the few days notice of the hearing. Many others also wanted to come from across America to tell of why they support our Mold Bill, S2353.

Bill Tone, from you Committee staff, called me this morning for background information of our situation. I am enclosing our story to hopefully explain in some detail about the mold issue. It also details some of the corruption that leads to mold.

As Virginia told you yesterday, America is watching Massachusetts to see if you will protect your citizens from the mold and those that cause or allow it. As I told you, our local and state government have a Constitutional responsibility to protect citizens. This protection must be from toxic mold and government corruption that allows or created the conditions for mold to grow just as you must protect us from crooks and murders.

It is now up to YOU and your fellow elected officials in Massachusetts to decide who is more important, sick citizens or corrupt government employees and officials. You must decide who you work for, the voters or the special interests. I, and many others, pray that the citizens of Massachusetts win this battle without any votes in opposition. This is not an issue of Democrats or Republicans but rather of Americans.

Ken Moulton

For most of us, when we first get married, buying a home is a lifelong dream. We save every penny we can and scrimp on extra "luxury" items like food, vacations, clothes or new cars. Buying a home is the biggest financial investment we will ever make during our lifetime.

Sadly, there is no protection for our investment. While we can buy insurance to protect us from fires, floods or theft, we are powerless against the biggest threat of all. This threat is toxic molds and the illnesses they create.

You might think that if there are laws to protect you when you buy a faulty car, appliance or consumer service, you are protected here too. You see you are defenseless against mold. There are few States that protect you in this type of situation.

Our families concern is for our health. In a News story in September of 2000, they detailed the medical problems presented by mold in homes. The mold they showed came from water leaking into homes, just as our home leaks.

Some of the medical problems discussed were respiratory problems and loss of memory. Most of us have ongoing respiratory problems that might be caused by this mold. Tumors and brain damage are also side effects.

Shortly after the news story we contacted the Doctors mentioned in the report. They said to tell our Town and State of this health problem. At a televised Town Council meeting in October of 2000 I told them of the mold and showed them a photograph of the mold in our home. I asked them to help my family and they ignored me. We also told the state, to include the Governor, Attorney General and Department of Public Safety, and sent them photos and were ignored by them as well.

We have now begun to have more respiratory and other serious health problems from the mold. We have just gotten blood test results back that show abnormal levels of mold in our systems. We expect the pulmonary tests to show the same type of results too.

Virginia has breathing problems, hair loss, constant sore throats and diarrhea, swelling in her body and problems sleeping. She has failed three different breathing/lung tests. I have breathing problems, sore throats, sleeping problems and forget ordinary things.

We have also gotten test results back from a Lab about the mold in our home. It is a health danger. To test to see if it is the possibly deadly mold required us to hire specialists to come to our home and remove sections of walls, floors, rugs and ceilings for Lab testing. Again, large levels of dangerous molds.

We don't know how much longer we can survive either the health issues or the safety issues. We fear for our lives because one of these "problems" is bound to kill us sooner or later. We just had to place my Mother in a Nursing Home. She suffered a mild stroke and our Doctors don't want her to return home due to the mold.

Another byproduct of this mold issue against home and property owners is the lack of insurance coverage. While banks and mortgage holders require loan holders to have insurance coverage, very few insurance companies nationwide will cover any claims or loses that are suffered due to mold or the substandard construction that might cause it.

Should a home collapse or burn down there is no protection. Should anybody die or suffer injuries due to this mold or substandard construction, there is no protection for the public. Nationwide, insurance companies are refusing to over any homeowner coverage for mold or anything caused by poor or illegal construction.

In this same light, banks are beginning to refuse to grant mortgages without this coverage. In turn our state and federal economies are just beginning to feel the effects.

With banks giving fewer bank mortgages for construction, union carpenters, plumbers and electricians are working less. Realtors are selling fewer homes.

This leads to job losses in many of the side industries effected by new construction. This also leads to high unemployment. When people realize they lost their jobs, health and homes because politicians at the local, state and federal level ignored the causing issues, they become angry.

Fourteen Years ago, Virginia and I sank our life savings into purchasing the home of our dreams. We bought it because the wide hallways and doorways allowed us to better care for our Son, Kenny, who is multiply handicapped and retarded. It meant Kenny could remain at home and not have to be institutionalized.

Today, the home we live in is the "Money Pit" or the "House from Hell". Not only do Virginia and I live in the home but so does the rest of our family of four generations. These members include our daughter, , and Granddaughter, Bridget, and my Mother, May. Sadly, my Mother just suffered a stroke and has memory loss. Due to the mold she must go to a nursing home.

Walls bow, floors sag, wood floors are rotting, beams are too short or extended by plywood, mold grows throughout the house causing illness, the fireplace is lined with wood and mold, rain water leaks through the wall partitions and exits out of electrical outlets and the roof is collapsing. The home is a disaster waiting to strike.

We first started to discover these construction facts in 1992 while having handicapped alterations made to our home by the State. It seems that the State never got a building permit for the renovations as was required by law. They cut the floor joists in the middle of the house which has caused the center of the home to sink. We asked them to correct the sinking and they said to get a home equity loan and ignored us.

At the same time, a Police investigation into an attempted extortion complaint against Barnstable building inspector Bearse found that the building department portion of the original building permit for our home was never signed as required by State law. The police report stated that the inspector told the police that he signed the original certificate of occupancy on December 28, 1988. Sadly it was signed on July 1, 1988.

The building inspector admitted he never signed the original building permit as the law requires. His personal notes that he gave to the Police show that he was aware of many dangerous instances of building code violations but he still signed the certificate of occupancy so the builders, town and the realtor could sell us the home.

When Bearse signed the certificate of occupancy, the building defects and code violations were still in the home. On October 15, 1993, Mr. Daluz, the then Barnstable building commissioner, ordered and paid for an inspection by Philbrook Engineering.

The Philbrook report showed that the illegal construction that was seen by Mr. Bearse on April 9, 1987 was still present in 1993 and that it is considered life threatening. Also, a 1994 report from the Fire Department detailed the illegal construction.

Mr. Bearse knew the home was built in violation of state and local codes, that it was a safety hazard that could kill and that it was built illegally. In spite of all of this knowledge and facts, Mr. Bearse knowingly signed the certificate of occupancy on the Town's behalf. It is bad and getting worse each day as is stated in another structural engineer's report of 1998.

Mr. Daluz also wrote in a Town Document that he and a State building inspector did a drive-by inspection of our home without getting out of their vehicle. Mr. Daluz seems to have a documented past. Seems he was fined about 150 thousand dollars by the Federal Government for his involvement in straw loans in a 50 million dollar failed Credit Union.

According to Government Public Documents, it also seems that Mr. Daluz accepted "free" vacations from a convicted Federal felon that ran the scheme that caused the 50 million dollar loss. These same documents mention illegal and unsafe construction he knowingly allowed. In spite of all of this, he was never fired but was given a retirement paid by taxpayers.

The Barnstable Town Attorney has repeatedly acknowledged to the media and on the Public Record the fact that the building permit was not signed as required by law but blame everybody else rather than the town and the town's corrupt employees. He also stated he did not have documents that I requested under the Freedom of Information even though it showed he was copied.

While we won our case for breach of contract against the builders, one filled bankruptcy and the other moved to New York State, so they didn't pay us. The builder in New York is still building even though I notified the local officials. The jury award would have been much higher if the jury had been allowed to know all of the facts that the town hid and obstructed.

From 1993 to the present, we filed numerous Freedom of Information requests with the Town for various documents. In the responses, we have been told, as was the Massachusetts Secretary of State, that the requested records did not exist. In September of 1996 we found these requested records in the very file within the Building Department that has been so "thoroughly" searched. We had been lied to and our Town had obstructed justice and denied us our rights.

We also found the unsigned original building permit, a public record document, had been illegally tampered with. It now had the initials of the building inspector Bearse and comp added. Even more shocking was the fact that it had been faxed because there was a partial fax phone number at the top of the illegally altered permit.

It would seem that this corrupt and illegal act took place to conceal the facts of the illegal construction so that the jurors in our case would not know Barnstable had knowingly allowed our home to be built illegally and were helping the builders to conceal these facts.

Barnstable, despite their knowledge of the condition and illegality of our home, refuses to grant tax abatement. They demand full taxes on a home they know has a zero value. Their assessors recently inspected the home but refuse to put anything in writing or provide public records I have requested under the Freedom of Information.

The certificate of occupancy is fraudulent because the town, with the complete knowledge that the home did not meet any of the local, state or federal building/fire/safety codes, knowingly gave it. The land is also worthless because the builders dumped paint and other building/waste materials into a whole in the front yard and covered it up with dirt.

The Town was told of this in 1987/8 by a concerned neighbor. We told the Town, upon our being made aware, in 1993. The Town has done nothing while the land has been contaminated and the land is sinking. Recently, I told the EPA of the mold and ground contamination and they have done nothing. The EPA has failed to provide specific government documents under my Freedom of Information request.

In a May 19, 2000 meeting with our Town Manager we again told of our concern for the safety of our family and neighbors. He stated it was not his problem. Virginia told him that if our home caught on fire, many of our neighbors would also be killed. He again stated it was not his problem. State Public Records show that he has known all about the corruption since 1996. He refused to look at the pictures of the mold or collapsing roof and walls.

A month later we meant with the building inspector and a member of the Town Attorneys staff. We asked, we have asked since 1993, to have the inspector come to our home as the State law orders. We were told the town would incriminate themselves if they sent the inspector. In effect, they took the protection of the Fifth Amendment as any criminal would.

The person at the State level responsible for the enforcement of building codes and home inspections is , the chief inspector from the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety. As can be seen in letters to him and his staff, they have refused to turn over inspection reports to the State Attorney General. The Attorney General closed the investigations. They have also ignored the Legislature.

Mr. Wojciechowicz is, I understand, either the nephew or stepson of Mr. . In response to my two Freedom of Information requests, it seems that Mr. also refused to write any report of his inspection of the illegal building construction and corruption by local building inspectors in our case. He, with his team, inspected our home in December 1993. I have found that this has been his practice for many years to refuse or fail to write reports of their inspections into corrupt builders and inspectors.

Since 1995, we have told the Commissioners and Secretary of the Department of Public Safety about our home, and other homes in the State, and the many documented failures of our local inspectors and Mr. and his staff. Their legal staff told us that they would no longer communicate with us for fear of incriminating themselves.

Since 1993, we have written to Governors Weld, Cellucci and Swift about the

open corruption within their administrations. In a June 2000 letter to then Governor Cellucci, we requested to meet with him to review these criminal acts of his staff and Administration. Our request was denied and they refused to put this denial in writing as we requested.

The Attorney Generals', since 1994, have known of these illegal acts but have done nothing but fight our attempts to stop it. They stated it was their job to protect government employees that are charged with criminal acts rather than my family. They have also refused to turn over specific documents about corruption that I requested under the Freedom of Information. The Secretary of State ruled against the Attorney General and in my favor but the Attorney General ignored them.

According to State Public Records Mr. is not qualified to be a building inspector. The agency that made this statement is now headed by Mr. . In my opinion, the acts of many of these officials seems to be an act of Criminal Conspiracy and Racketeering as well as massive consumer and bank fraud. If bribes were involved we also would have income tax evasion.

This is what the combined corruption of Barnstable and Massachusetts have done to us. We are being held as prisoners in our home because they refuse to do anything. By closing their eyes and ears, they have allowed the corruption to continue for years.

They have caused us more pain and suffering than any citizen should ever have to endure from their Government. They have robbed everything from us except our dignity. We refuse to surrender that!

We have written Federal Building Standards Legislation as well as State and Federal Mold Protection Legislation. Sadly, Americans suffer while the special interests and lawbreakers get richer.

Ken Moulton

38 Hawser Bend

Centerville, Ma. 02632

508-771-6365

E-mail: kenhmoulton@...