By Chris Fuchs
A consultant who assisted contractors and developers in dealing with the city Department of Buildings sought out help from City Councilman Thomas Ognibene (R-Middle Village) and asked him to use his political influence to secure a job for a friend as a city architect, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The newspaper said the consultant, Ronald Lattanzio, was heard on wiretaps recorded by the Manhattan district attorney’s office during an investigation into corruption at the Buildings Department, arranging vacation trips to Vermont and Walt Disney World for Ognibene and one of his aides.
Aside from seeking the councilman’s help in finding his friend a city job, the consultant called Ognibene’s office hundreds of times in hopes that he would use his clout in dealing with the Buildings Department, The Times said.
Ognibene did not return a telephone message seeking comment on the report Wednesday morning.
The Manhattan district attorney obtained indictments of eight people, including four high-placed officials in the Buildings Department in September, as the result of the investigation, the newspaper said.
Ognibene, who cannot seek re-election this year because of term limits, was not charged, nor was his aide, The Times said. He had been considering a run for mayor on the Republican ticket, but after meeting with prospective rival Michael Bloomberg, Ognibene lost interest and is now up for a State Court of Claims judgeship.
In 1997 A&E Consulting Service, a firm owned by Lattanzio, was the target of an eight-month wiretapping probe, The Times said. After Lattanzio, a former city buildings official, was arrested, he agreed to help with the investigation, the paper said.
In one instance, Lattanzio paid a licensed engineer $2,000 a month in exchange for his certifying stamp, using it himself to approve some 150 sets of plans, the Times said. Plans that are submitted to the Buildings Department require the seal of a professional engineer. But when the state Department of Education launched an investigation into Lattanzio, the consultant phoned Ognibene’s office, spoke with his aide, Dennis Gallagher and said, “If you can do anything.”
On the wiretaps, Gallagher responded that he would “go in and talk to Tom,” the newspaper said, in an apparent reference to the councilman.
The wiretaps also recorded a conversation between Lattanzio and Ognibene in which the two discussed difficulties encountered with a city official who was delaying the hiring of the consultant’s friend as a city architect, the newspaper said. Ognibene and Gallagher are heard on tape discussing this problem, saying they would consider beseeching the mayor’s inner circle for help, according to The Times.
Lattanzio faxed instructions to a travel agency in Brooklyn, detailing arrangements for the councilman and his aide to receive vacations, the newspaper said, but the transmission was intercepted by investigators. The fax said Ognibene was the second-place winner in an annual contest in which business cards are drawn, awarding him with a trip to the Equinox Hotel and Spa in Manchester, Vt.
An additional letter was sent to the agency, The Times said, saying Gallagher had won a trip for four to Walt Disney World.
Reach reporter Chris Fuchs by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 156.
