Mount Vernon City Hall was closed Thursday amid major problems with the building and ongoing strife with unpaid bills and wages.

Mount Vernon Mayor Shawn Patterson-Howard says City Hall will be closed Friday too because there is no heat in the building. She blames mounting unpaid bills from the comptroller’s office for the lack of heat inside, boiler problems and flooding.

City workers are also targeting the comptroller. It was just less than 24 hours ago when they took to the steps of city hall demanding the city pay them for overtime wages chanting “No pay, no peace, No pay, no peace!”

The workers claim that they haven’t been paid overtime hours they’ve been working for about the past three months.

But that’s not all, they also say working conditions are not safe. They say the inside of the city’s garage leaks profusely when it rains.

But Comptroller Deborah Reynolds is pointing at the mayor saying, “Mayor Patterson-Howard and her administration violated the labor law by letting the DPW work overtime, knowing her city’s 2021 budget was not adopted until Wednesday. Her failure to do her job creates this type of hostile environment.”

Patterson-Howard says she stands with the union members, saying, “It’s a shame that the comptroller tries to vilify their workers and deny them overtime wages.”