A top agency official was caught on tape explaining how he regularly killed code violations as a favor to the guy who got him his cushy job.
On Wednesday Daniel Cornwell, 31, the $105,000-a-year chief of the Emergency Response Unit that responds to building collapses, became the 12th DOB employee busted in the city Department of Investigation’s probe of corruption at the troubled agency.
In a criminal complaint filed Wednesday, DOI revealed how Cornwell was caught on tape discussing killing a code violation as a favor to Donald O'Connor, the agency’s chief of development for Manhattan.
Prosecutors say O’Connor – who was busted in February – who was regularly pocketing bribes from contractors to ignore or kill their many code citations.
On Aug. 12, 2014, someone filed a complaint with the agency about a contractor working without a permit at a Bayside, Queens jobsite.
DOI says they overheard O’Connor – who had no jurisdiction in Queens – call Cornwell to say his contractor friend “Mike” needed a favor. He asked Cornwell to kill the complaint, and Cornwell had O’Connor send him the complaint number.
DOI checked and discovered the contractor was, in fact, working without a permit, but discovered that the complaint had nevertheless been dismissed.
17 comments:
What will it take to clean up corruption at that agency? The mayors change but the problems remain. It's good to see DOI crack down, but I feel like they are barely scratching the surface of the problem.
I wonder which Bayside job was? Tommy Huang's project?
I am sure it was a minor issue and this is just a misunderstanding...
"What difference does it make" - Hillary Clinton
We need more of DOI in Queens! This is good news but only caught because of Manhattan connections!
So will the city go back and review every DOB permit issued in Queens for the last 15 years or so? Or will it just let things slide?
Sayre & Kaufman, Governing New York, 1959 said the bureaucrats act as if they will outstay the citizens and the electeds. Nothing has changed, never will. City needs to be broken up into ten cities, too big to manage. VIncent Cannato, Ungovernable city,
"What will it take to clean up corruption at that agency? The mayors change but the problems remain. It's good to see DOI crack down, but I feel like they are barely scratching the surface of the problem."
A - A mayor who cares about eliminating corruption.
B - A former prosecutor as DOB Commissioner.
C - An informed electorate.
D - all of the above.
How about a mayor that doesn't worship Karl Marx.
“I could not be more humbled to join Mayor de Blasio’s administration as the head of the Department of Buildings,” said incoming Department of Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler. “The stakes of this work are incredibly high. We’re there to make sure New Yorkers’ homes and workplaces are safe. We’re there to help get more affordable housing and job-creating construction underway. We’re going to advance those priorities safely, responsibly and fairly for all New Yorkers.”
You know it is wonderful when this mayor appoints a guy who wants to make things "fair".
The entire electorate is more interested in Kim Kardashian's A$$.
Just look at who they elect.
We have NO %@✴#ing chance...
What it would take to clean up DOB I had suggested many years ago to some high up DOB representatives.
SPOT CHECK POLYGRAPHS of DOB inspectors and department heads....maybe ALL of the DOB's employees.
Does that sound too "big brother"?
NOT REALLY!
DOB has proven to be a very dirty agency over the years. Many security firms routinely polygraph their key employees to guarantee
a subscriber of their services, that they have honest men and women working for them.
Until then, nothing will change at DOB. Only a few "bad eggs" will be caught from time to time and then quickly replaced by new ones.
There was a major DOI sweep of DOB back in the early 1990s and another soon after.
That's when we lost about 14+ crooked building inspectors.
The result was DOB was short of building inspectors so everything slowed down to a snail's pace.
It seems we cannot win either way. We either accept crooked inspectors or have only a handful of honest ones.
NYC makes tons of money processing new building permits. That is the real purpose of DOB!
Safety and honesty come second.
As long as buildings go up at a rapid pace, REBNY is happy. Then there are all of those political candidates who benefit from REBNY campaign contributions. You rarely find a political reformer willing to go "gung ho"against DOB because it would slow down their cash flow.
Large political war chests are necessary for a candidate to win an election.
The biggest war chests have been supplied by REBNY sources.
NYC is really REBNY NYC! The real estate industry calls the shots in New York. Every political wimp just tags along.
Do you have a REBNY owned council member in your district? Most probably!
Then you have mob influence in the building trades.
The FBI should do a thorough investigation of the situation.
one wonders who will pay for the 1600-2000 Syrian REFUGEES(ALL 18-40 yrs.of age, military cowards,scheduled to arrive in the U.S. in 2015. and the 120,000, in the future. Sen. Sessions,AlA. says the estimated cost to Patriots is $72 BILLION for one year.
SPEAK SYRIAN< YOU ARE IN AMERICA NOW....
You also have the corrupt school construction authority as well. Which works along with dept of buildings and the trades. If you want to smell a fishy deal, look into a school lease deal for building rental in corona. Initially ask SCA and DOE said they could pay was $450k per year. Now after a year of talks SCA offered the church that owns the building $625 k per year. That's some big jump. But let's look at the people that got involved in this deal.......the Vallone consulting firm, his recommended real estate broker George Rivera and the man who put it all together......the infamous Gus Prentzas. Need I say anymore. He also has a long time relationship with the president of SCA from his wonderful days on the school board. We all know how they worked. Hopefully DOI and SCI talk a long hard look at this. What's weird is the Vallone only got around 20 k but the real estate guy gets half a million dollars.
they r nor refugees
THEY ARE INVADERS!!!
one wonders who will pay for the 1600-2000 Syrian REFUGEES(ALL 18-40 yrs.of age, military cowards,scheduled to arrive in the U.S. in 2015. and the 120,000, in the future. Sen. Sessions,AlA. says the estimated cost to Patriots is $72 BILLION for one year.
Will they be working for the DOB?
These busts almost resemble the busts of street corner or park drug pushers. And the likes of REBNY and the predator developers are the drug lords that can't or won't be touched.
Despite the amount of those caught and indicted, a few months ago about 20 at once I think, the damage is already done. Just look east of the triboro area of Queens,Brooklyn and Manhattan. This would have more of an impact if our local news media wasn't a A & R or PR firm for the nexus of real estate and development.
But once these buildings materials start shedding like cats and tenants start getting injured or killed, and there have been elevator malfunctions in some luxury rentals in Williamsburgh, one resulting in a death, maybe those responsible for informing the public and these sellout officals and elected will finally get called on their criminal negligence. One can only hope and dream.
In Forest Hills there is a house on 6774 Exeter street with a complaint of "illegal attachment". Clearly it was an illegal attachment and it was filed as "non issue" by the inspector. The property owner also cut his brick garage in half.. added 4-5ft of concrete on top and to the sides of his garage and rebuilt his garage. So now the garage is like 18-20ft high and dwarfs every building in the common drive. It also extends feet, not inches but actual feet out onto the common driveway. I'm not sure how one can build over the property line and not get in trouble. Every lot on the street is 18x100 and his is now 18x110 or so because he built onto the common drive.
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