Ex-official who said Surfside condo was sound leaves new job
The Surfside collapse could shake up Florida condo laws. Image via AP.

surfside 9m
Rosendo “Ross” Prieto is on a leave of absence.

 A former municipal official in Florida who assured condo board members that their building was in “very good shape” three years before it collapsed has left his new job, a city spokesman said Wednesday.

Rosendo “Ross” Prieto is on a leave of absence from his temporary job with a contracting business that provides building services for the city of Doral, a city spokeswoman said in an email statement Wednesday. Doral is located about 20 miles west of Surfside, where the Champlain Towers South is located.

When he was a building official in Surfside in 2018, Prieto told members of the Champlain Towers South board that their condo building was sound. His assessment came a month after an engineering firm identified key structural deficiencies requiring major costly repairs.

The Doral statement said Prieto works for a firm called C.A.P. Government Inc., which provides building services to governments. That firm notified Doral that Prieto was on a leave of absence, the statement said, with another person taking over on a temporary basis.

Efforts to reach Prieto by telephone and email since the Surfside condominium collapsed last week have not been successful. He left his Surfside job in November.

The Champlain Towers South collapse has left at least 16 people confirmed dead and 147 still unaccounted for.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

Associated Press


3 comments

  • zhombre

    June 30, 2021 at 2:15 pm

    I suspect his future job prospects are rather dim.

  • Ed

    June 30, 2021 at 2:21 pm

    He will most likely be one of the fall guys. Not sure if it is completely deserved though. I read where the building needed over $16 million in structural repairs. The smallest unit was facing an $80,000 assessment up to $300,000 for the largest condos. I can only imagine all of the bickering, bitching and complaining that took place at the board meetings and therefore nothing was getting done to enhance the structure. RIP to all of those that perished.

  • Joe

    June 30, 2021 at 2:24 pm

    Annnnnndddddddd……the point of this story is…….

Comments are closed.


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