In Ocean County Man's Sandy Rebuilding Nightmare, Builder Lends A Helping Hand

BRICK, NJ — "Sometimes I wish I had never accepted this RREM grant," Robert Steimle says, a sigh punctuating his frustration.

His Mantoloking Road home, flooded by 4 feet of water during Superstorm Sandy, sits on pilings, waiting for him, almost mocking him with its emptiness. The U.S. Air Force veteran and his adult son have not been able to live in the house for two years now, ever since Rayne Construction Management Systems started work to raise his house, which was being paid for by a grant from the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation, and Mitigation (RREM) program.

Until a couple of months ago, Steimle wasn't sure it would ever be finished. Then a local contractor stepped up to help, and with the news Monday that the state attorney general's office filed a 48-page complaint against RCMS and its owners, Jeffrey Colmyer and Tiffany Cimino, Steimle is starting to have hope that his RREM nightmare will be over. The complaint accuses the two of taking nearly $1 million in RREM funds from Sandy victims and then never doing the work to repair their homes, according to the state attorney general's office.

"This the best thing in the world to hear this," Steimle said Monday afternoon after learning about the complaint. But he quickly turned his attention to the kindness he's received.

"I can't thank Tim Ferguson and Hale Built enough," he said.

It is Ferguson who has helped get the construction moving again on Steimle's home, even with the funding in limbo, Steimle said. Ferguson, through his company Hale Built, has not only gotten Steimle's home raised on pilings — after repairing damage caused by work done incorrectly by RCMS — he also has helped arrange for another company to do the remainder of the reconstruction on Steimle's home.

"This is the entirety of his net worth," Ferguson said, referring to Steimle's home. Seeing to it that he is able to go home is a matter of doing what is right, he said.

Ferguson, who had been one of the contractors Steimle talked to early in the process, said he reached out to Steimle after passing the house repeatedly and seeing a message Steimle had painted on the front beam: "Gov. Christie, Ask me about RREM."

"He left a note in my mailbox saying 'give me a call,' " Steimle said.

A few weeks later, Ferguson said, he was in 7-Eleven and heard someone talking about issues with rebuilding, and realized it was Steimle, and walked up and offered his help again, to get the house raised and to connect him with the proper people to get his home rebuilt.

Steimle was reaching the point of desperation. Colmyer had taken the $54,000 check Steimle gave him, which Steimle said was half his RREM award, and after beginning the work, disappeared, leaving the work unfinished. (These issues are documented in the state Attorney General's complaint filing in Ocean County Superior Court that was released Monday.)

Colmyer's actions also left Steimle and his adult son living in a camper and trapped in a seemingly neverending Catch-22 of paperwork and regulations, Steimle said. "We lived at a campground for seven months, but the town let us put the camper on the property," he said. "But you can only live in a camper for so long."

Steimle has wanted to get the work on his home completed, but he needed funds to do that.

"RREM applicants can only access undisbursed RREM funds once they have submitted proof that the previously disbursed funds were used for eligible work on their rebuilding project," said Lisa M. Ryan, a spokeswoman for the Department of Community Affairs, which oversees the RREM program.

That means providing receipts for the money Steimle already received and proof that work has been completed. Steimle does not have receipts because Colmyer gave him nothing, he said. But simply saying that Colmyer took the money and left was not sufficient, either, said Steimle, who filed a complaint with the DCA about RCMS months ago.

"A RREM applicant alleging to be a victim of contractor fraud must wait for a government agency to allege the crime of fraud against the contractor and provide a legal document such as an arrest warrant, a criminal complaint, or an indictment as evidence that the applicant cannot avail themselves of grant funds previously distributed before additional funds can be released," Ryan said.

Which means waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more. Nearly a year has gone by since Colmyer and Cimino were arrested in connection with a Long Beach Island home where they are accused of taking $40,000 and doing no work. And until Monday, there had been no word on the investigation.

In the meantime, Steimle said, he lost his homeowner's insurance because the house was not completed, so he had to scramble to obtain a construction homeowner's insurance policy. And because of all the tie-ups with the grant and the insurance, and then an injury he suffered, he hasn't been able to get a home equity loan to pay to get the work completed.

That's where Ferguson has stepped in. The Brick Township resident offered to get Steimle's house raised, at no cost to Steimle.

"We're not Robin Hood, but Mr. Steimle is a good person," Ferguson said. "He has no money. We try to be charitable."

Ferguson enlisted the help of Acme Piling, owned by his friend Tom Tedesco, to help get the house raised properly. They discovered the issues Colmyer left behind were more than just monetary, Ferguson said.

The first step was to get Hale Built listed on the construction permits as the contractor of record, Ferguson said. But when they went to the Brick Township building department to do that, they encountered a nasty surprise: Colmyer had been working without a permit.

"The check he gave the township bounced," Steimle said. "(The town) had issued a stop-work order, but the next day he (Colmyer) took it down and said it was taken care of," and Colmyer put up a permit he claimed was issued by the township.

What they found out, Ferguson said, is that Colmyer had faked the permit, information backed up by the attorney general's complaint.

So Ferguson paid for a valid permit on the spot.

"He reached into his pocket and paid for it," Steimle said; the permit cost $2,600, he said. "I'm a grown man, and I wanted to cry that these guys would do that for me."

With the permit in hand, Ferguson said they set to work, and discovered that RCMS had done "a really bad job."

"They left the house canted about 5 or 6 inches," Ferguson said, meaning the house was not sitting evenly, with one corner sitting significantly lower than the opposite corner. RCMS had used the wrong kind of jacks to do the raising, he said. The canted angle caused what is best described as warping of the house that had to be corrected, and it actually split in some places, Ferguson said.

"We had to stretch and twist the house" to get it back into the proper shape, Ferguson said, before it could be lifted. That caused the process that normally takes about a day, to take three and a half days, he said. Though Ferguson was paying his employees to do the work, "my men volunteered an additional day of labor to get the work completed," he said.

Once the house was raised, Ferguson then enlisted the help of Dream Homes to complete the work of rebuilding Steimle's home — work that both Ferguson and Steimle expect will be paid for from the rest of Steimle's RREM grant eventually, now that proceedings have begun against Colmyer.

"Whatever it costs me to help, I will," Ferguson said. "I can go home and I have a house to sleep in. He doesn't."

Ferguson said the unfortunate part of this situation is he had spoken with Steimle when Steimle was trying to find a contractor to raise his home, but because a series of missed messages and time constraints, Steimle went with Colmyer.

"He was under the gun to sign a contract," Ferguson said.

Steimle blames himself, in part.

"Like an idiot I gave him my whole check," Steimle said. He had chosen Colmyer from a list of state-approved contractors, he said. "I thought since he's approved, he would be safe."

"There will always be one bad egg in a dozen," Ferguson said.

Unfortunately, in this case it has left Steimle and more than two dozen other Sandy victims — the state attorney general's complaint names 26 victims who had received federal money, and noted there were several others who had filed complaints that were not Sandy-related — trapped in a disaster on top of the natural disaster.

The state's complaint seeks consumer restitution, the disgorgement of RREM funds to the Department of Community Affairs, reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and costs, and civil penalties. The state also seeks to permanently revoke the registrations issued to both Colmyer and Cimino to operate as home improvement and home elevation contractors and new home builders, as well as bar them from having those businesses ever again in New Jersey.

But it may be a while before that comes to fruition.

In the meantime, Steimle said, the kindness of Ferguson, his employees and those of the other contractors helping him restores some of his hope.

"This is the best news," he said. "Now I have hope."

RREM applicants who believe they have been defrauded by a contractor must file a complaint with the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs to report the allegation of fraud, Ryan said. The NJ Division of Consumer Affairs can be reached by calling (973) 504-6200 or by visiting http://www.njconsumeraffairs.gov. RREM recipients should also file a police report with their local municipal police department. "An investigation can take some time so we urge applicants to follow up with the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs and/or the appropriate law enforcement agency for updates on the investigation." she said.

Photo: Robert Steimle had a message for Gov. Chris Christie about the RREM program after he became trapped in a Catch-22 between a contractor who walked away and the state program's reporting requirements. Photo credit: Robert Steimle.