Ex-DOB official arrested for alleged cocaine parties is back pulling agency’s strings

A former New York City Department of Buildings official with a checkered past is quietly again dealing with the agency and lobbying city officials for policies that will benefit his businesses.

Ron Lattanzio, who was fired by the agency in 1986 for allegedly throwing midnight cocaine parties at his city office, now runs one of biggest consultant businesses in the city, the New York Daily News reported. Two of his companies, Construction & Realty Services Group and Domani Consulting, employ 24 expediters and five site safety managers.

His companies are also lobbying the City Council to pass bills that will likely require developers to hire more safety managers. Through his company, he also donated $6,500 to the campaign of City Council member and Buildings Committee Chair Jumaane Williams.

After his arrest in the 1980s, Lattanzio became an expediter himself, though he quickly again fell into trouble. After cutting a deal with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, he admitted to bribing several DOB officials and paid off a retired engineer to certify more than 100 buildings as safe even though he never saw the properties. He avoided jail time and worked as an informant for the DOB for two years.[NYDN]— Kathryn Brenzel