Miami building collapse: Official who assured residents block was safe doesn’t remember receiving engineer warnings, reports say

A former Surfside official who told residents the collapsed Miami building was "in very good shape" says he doesn’t remember receiving an engineer’s report that warned of "major structural damage".

While minutes of a 2018 meeting obtained by NPR said town official Ross Prieto reviewed the structural engineering report, he told The Miami Herald he didn’t recall the report or receiving emails that show a condo board member who sent it to him.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Mr Prieto reportedly said. “That’s 2018.”

He declined to comment on the 2018 board meeting citing the advice of an attorney, the Herald reported.

It comes after Champlain Towers South resident Susana Alvarez told NPR that they were told during the 15 November 2018 meeting the building wasn’t in bad shape, despite the report warning five weeks earlier of concrete deterioration if repairs weren’t made "in the near future".

"We sat there with the town of Surfside. And the town of Surfside said to us that the building was not in bad shape, that the building was not in bad shape. That is what they said, OK? The structural engineer has been around for a while. We took out $15 million to fix that building at his say-so," she said.

"No one ever, ever, ever told us that this – that that building was in such bad shape – no one, no one."

The minutes of that meeting reported by NPR said: "Structural engineer report was reviewed by Mr Prieto. It appears the building is in very good shape."

The nine-page "Structural Field Survey Report" from Morabito Consultants was sent to Champlain Towers South treasurer Maggie Manrara on 8 October, according to emails released by the Town of Surfside.

While it said waterproofing below the Pool Deck & Entrance Drive needed to be completely removed and replaced, the report did not warn of collapse, and the cause remains unknown.

“The failed waterproofing is causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas. Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially," the report said.

The emails show board member Mara Chouela sent that report, along with a mechanical and electrical engineering report by Thomas E Henz, to Mr Prieto on 13 November, two days before the meeting between building residents and the town of Surfside.

An email from Mr Prieto to former town manager Guillermo Olmedillo said the meeting went "very well".

"The response was very positive from everyone in the room. All main concerns over their forty-year recertification process were addressed. This particular building is not due to begin their forty-year until 2021 but they have decided to start the process early which I wholeheartedly endorse and wish that this trend would catch on with other properties," Mr Preito wrote.

Mr Olmedillo, who was town manager from 2015 to 2020, told the Herald he didn’t remember that email. Mr Prieto is also reported to have left his post with Surfside last year.

In a statement on Saturday, Morabito Consultants said they provided the condominium association estimates of the costs to make the “extensive and necessary repairs” in 2018.

“Among other things, our report detailed significant cracks and breaks in the concrete, which required repairs to ensure the safety of the residents and the public,” the statement said.

“Approximately a year and a half after we provided our report. Champlain Towers South Condominium Association engaged our firm again in June 2020 to prepare a ’40-year-Building Repair and Restoration’ plan,” they added. “At the time of the building collapse, roof repairs were underway, but concrete restoration had not yet begun.”

The condo association’s lawyer, Donna DiMaggio Berger, said in a tweet there’s a "desperate race to assign blame" for the collapse based on the Morabito Consultants engineering report that outlined repairs more than two years ago.

"W/ release of 2018 report, media is questioning why time elapsed. The pandemic meant no construction projects were possible in multifamily bldgs for more than a year. Also competitive bids take time," she said.

"Has the media forgotten that 2020 precluded any type of major construction projects in occupied communities due to the pandemic? Communities shut down access to their buildings as part of their Covid safety protocols," she added in a follow-up tweet.