By Chris Fuchs
In 1997, the Manhattan district attorney''s office began an investigation into whether high-level city officials, including the Queens Buildings Department commissioner and the borough''s chief construction inspector, had accepted favors in exchange for relaxing enforcement of city building regulations.
What emerged, according to an indictment filed in September in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, was a tight-knit web of dealings among city officials that reached as far as Councilman Thomas Ognibene (R-Middle Village) and his chief of staff, Dennis Gallagher.
James Leonard, the buildings commissioner for Queens, Joseph Mineo, the chief construction inspector for Queens, and Barry Cox, the deputy commissioner of the city Department of Buildings, were among eight people charged in the indictment with crimes ranging from bribery to official misconduct.
Neither Ognibene nor Gallagher was charged.
Phone calls to Ognibene, the Council''s Republican minority leader and a close ally of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and to Gallagher were not returned by Tuesday.
At the center of the nearly three-year investigation was Ronald Lattanzio, who has been linked to Ognibene in court papers and pleaded guilty to bribery and evidence tampering in 1998.
A former employee of the city Buildings Department, Lattanzio signed an agreement to cooperate with authorities, which allowed the district attorney to wiretap the phones of his Manhattan firm, A&E Consulting Service, an intermediary between developers and the Buildings Department, court papers showed.
The indictment cited two instances in which Lattanzio had dealings with Ognibene. In one case, Lattanzio introduced Deputy Commissioner Barry Cox, the second highest-ranking official at the Buildings Department, to Ognibene. And in 1999, the councilman referred an acquaintance to Lattanzio, who in turn met with the Queens buildings commissioner, allegedly to have a certificate of occupancy changed on a Middle Village house owned by the acquaintance''s mother.
The Village Voice first reported last week that Ognibene and Gallagher received vacations from Lattanzio in exchange for the political influence the councilman wields within the mayor''s inner circle.
In April, Ognibene, who cannot run again because of term limits, said he expected to leave his post in June for a judgeship with the State Court of Claims. Gallagher, his aide, was one of four candidates who were to run in a special election to fill the vacancy. It was canceled, however, after Ognibene''s appointment reportedly was delayed because of the investigation.
Between 1994 and 1997, prosecutors contend, Cox received a number of gifts from Lattanzio for favors that the deputy commissioner carried out. In return, the documents showed, Cox helped Lattanzio obtain construction permits or waived certain building requirements on at least seven occasions, including the Queens West Project, a plan to develop the Hunter''s Point waterfront both commercially and residentially, in 1995.
Detailed in an affidavit filed by Assistant District Attorney Daniel Cort, Lattanzio introduced Ognibene to Cox in 1997. At some point that year, Cox received a ticket to a fund-raiser held by Ognibene, the handwritten affidavit said, but Cox did not attend.
It also said that Ognibene was going to submit Cox''s name for a position as vice president of the School Construction Authority, a post with an annual salary of $130,000. Cox was earning $104,000 a year as deputy commissioner of the Buildings Department.
In the summer of 1999, Ognibene''s name came up on wiretaps when an ally, Joseph Defronzo, wanted to sell his mother''s house in Middle Village, according to court filings. Defronzo needed to amend the certificate of occupancy to show that there were four apartments, rather than two, in order to sell it legally, prosecutors said.
Defronzo asked Ognibene for assistance, according to court papers, and the councilman referred him to Lattanzio. On July 22, during a recorded phone conversation, Defronzo and Lattanzio discussed three options for changing the certificate, prosecutors said.
When Lattanzio told Leonard the project was for a public official – namely Ognibene – he seemed eager to help, court documents showed. “Line ''em up … line ''em up … just send it to me,” he said. In many of the recorded conversations, prosecutors maintain, Leonard expressed a willingness to please Ognibene since Leonard was a prospective candidate for city commissioner of the Buildings Department.
In October 1999, Lattanzio, realizing that a Buildings inspector would have to inspect the house, placed a call to Leonard, court papers showed. “You''ll give me the blind inspector?” Lattanzio asked. “Yeah,” Leonard said. He then said that he would have to talk to Mineo, the executive chief inspector, prosecutors said.
Mineo eventually signed off on the plans on Oct. 29, 1999, despite one of the inspectors raising concerns that they did not match the layout of the house, prosecutors said. Lattanzio placed a $250 American Express gift certificate in a promotional video and $150 in cash in a brochure, court papers said.
“The brochure is for you and the videotape is for the inspectors,” Lattanzio said to Mineo.
Reach reporter Chris Fuchs by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 156.
