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A Harlem pol hoping to become the next City Council speaker has racked up more than $265,000 in unpaid code violations, property taxes and water bills on four decrepit apartment buildings she co-owns, The Post has learned.
Records show that Democratic Councilwoman Inez Dickens — the head of the council’s Ethics Committee — and older sister Delores Richards are on the hook for nearly 200 infractions over dangerous and disgusting conditions that include missing smoke detectors, broken wooden flooring, faulty electrical outlets, peeling paint and mold.
The oldest of the unpaid violations dates back nearly a decade, to when Dickens was ticketed in 2004 for a dirty sidewalk in front of one of the buildings, 2380 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. Dickens lives in the building.
Dickens, a contender to replace mayoral candidate Christine Quinn as council speaker next year, was even cited for illegally slapping political posters on or around the buildings, which were formerly owned by her dad, the late self-made millionaire and state Assemblyman Lloyd Dickens.
The political ads were designed to aid such cronies as embattled Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) and New York Supreme Court Judge Milton Tingling, as well as Manhattan Surrogate’s Court Judge Nora Anderson, who beat the rap on campaign-finance-fraud charges in 2010.
Dickens was even fined $200 for brazenly touting her own 2004 council campaign on a lamppost in front of 2155 Adam Clayton Jr. Blvd., one of the buildings she and her older sister inherited after their father’s 1988 death.
Some of the illicit signage also included advertising for Nike. It’s unclear how much Dickens pocketed from the sneaker giant for touting its gear.
In addition to the code violations, Dickens and her sister owe nearly $40,000 in property taxes on three of the buildings. That’s after recently making an 11th-hour payment to keep the properties from being sold to pay off liens slapped on them by the city.
Sources said Dickens also entered into a payment plan to satisfy more than $115,000 in outstanding water and sewer bills for 187 Lenox Ave., an eyesore on a block of immaculate, recently renovated brownstones.
While the other buildings all have grand staircases leading to their front doors, the residents of 187 Lenox — which has been designated a city landmark — have to pass through a bent-up, wrought-iron and chicken-wire fence before entering the four-story, six-unit building through a basement door.
Buildings Department records list the landlord as 1389 Stebbins Corp. — but state records show that firm was officially dissolved in 1993.
The company has served as a virtual dumping ground for violations, including mold, fire damage, faulty lighting and electrical outlets and unlicensed construction work.
The city Department of Environmental Protection sent the water bill to an address for a company called 1389 Stephens Corp. — which doesn’t even exist.
Dickens refused to discuss any of her debts with The Post last week, slamming the door to her apartment after calling a reporter “you lying piece of s–t.”
Follow-up e-mails and phone calls to the foul-mouthed lawmaker’s office and her sister weren’t returned.
A former tenant at 187 Lenox, David Wilburn, said he and his pregnant wife fled their “massively molded” and mildewed walk-up in the Dickens building last summer after its “rotting” floor caved in.
“There was zero maintenance done,” said Wilburn, 41, who paid $1,150 a month for a two-bedroom apartment there.
Wilburn called Dickens’ neglect of the building “unconscionable,” adding: “I thought her whole job was to go out and find slumlords — and here you have this happen.”
Albert Benson, 74, who lives around the corner, lamented that the building “does drag the block down.”
“But it’s not the tenants; they’re working people that don’t bother nobody. It’s the owners,” he said. “Look next door, and you can see how nice it could have been.”
Additional reporting by Lia Eustachewich and Kevin Sheehan