Spring Valley mayor, jailed for contempt, due in court Tuesday

SPRING VALLEY – Mayor Demeza Delhomme returns to court Tuesday morning in hopes of getting released from jail where he's been held since Friday on a contempt charge.

Delhomme — who is prone to pronounce he's in charge by saying, "I am the mayor" — has been behind bars until a state Supreme Court judge is satisfied the mayor has fulfilled an order to open a summer day camp for village children.

Jared Viders, an attorney representing Delhomme, said although he and Village Attorney Jerrold Miles tried to get their boss released on Monday by showing Justice Gerald Loehr that Delhomme had fully complied with his order, the judge told them to come back Tuesday morning for another hearing.

Viders said Delhomme has followed the order and made the Louis Kurtz Civic Center fully available for the village's summer camp.

"I wouldn't have brought the application this morning unless I was convinced there was full compliance," Viders said Monday.

Dennis Lynch, an attorney representing Delhomme's opponents, Trustees Vilair Fonvil, Asher Grossman and Emilia White, said Delhomme has to honor the July 2 village board resolution, which called for restoring the village's summer camp at the civic enter.

"The order means he has to facilitate the opening (of the camp)," said Lynch, adding that Loehr requested a report on camp registration status Tuesday.

Officials who want to open the camp complained that Delhomme blocked access to the facility, leading Loehr to issue a contempt order July 16.

At Thursday's hearing,Loehr told Delhomme to give the program full access to the civic center. Delhomme repeatedly told Loehr that trustees don't have the right to run the village, only the mayor does.

On Friday morning, some of the office doors at the center were still locked when camp organizers and several parents went to the center. Loehr then jailed Delhomme for contempt of court. He remained in the Rockland County jail Monday. No bail is set for contempt of court charges.

Youth Director Sonia Barton, who has been in charge of the village's summer camp for the past 14 years, said Monday she was getting ready to open the camp Wednesday. Barton was suspended by Delhomme in May, but the trustees hired her as a private contractor to run the summer program.

Barton said because of the limited time left this summer, she was planning to host a curtailed program that would not require county Health Department approvals.

Virginia Jeanty, a longtime village resident and activist, said the village government has been dysfunctional because elected officials are not acting for the betterment of the village, but to protect their egos.

"There's no place for arrogance on the board. And that board is full of arrogance," Jeanty said. "They made it into a political quagmire."

Delhomme's jailing continues a contentious relationship between the mayor and the three trustees. All of them are Democrats.

His critics say Delhomme has acted arbitrarily, firing union employees against civil service law, pulling back plows during a snowstorm, and banned village employees from responding to fires as volunteer firefighters during their work hours.

The mayor has responded that he was the only one who was trying to get things done in a village that was badly in need of management.

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