The State Department of Labor has issued a violation to the City of Troy for beginning demolition on the former City Hall in Monument Square. Solomon Syed has more.

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TROY, N.Y. -- The State Department of Labor has issued the City of Troy three violations for its demolition of the former City Hall in Monument Square.

A Department of Labor spokesman says the city started tearing down the building before removing asbestos. At the start of the demolition, the city engineer told YNN they knew there was asbestos in the building.

The mayor's office says they didn't violate any laws because they haven't started demolition yet and they are calling the work exploratory excavation. The mayor says he will fight the violations.

"Whether it's a genuine violation or one based on political pressure, we're going to continue our good relationship with the department of labor. The department that's allowed us to do this work without the background noise of the violation, so we're going to do. We're going to follow the law as we have. And continue with the demolition of the building," said Mayor Harry Tutunjian.

"There is no demolition that should be allowed right now. We made it very clear with these violations, what we expect is to properly remove the asbestos from the building before any demolition should occur," said Labor Department spokesperson Leo Rosales.

It will take about a week and a half before the asbestos removal will be finished.

The labor department has not put a stop to that work.