Official who said Champlain Towers were ‘in very good shape’ also inspected building that collapsed in 1997

The same official who allegedly said Champlain Towers were “in very good shape” three years ago also inspected a building that collapsed in 1997.

In 2018, Ross Prieto was the chief building official in Surfside, Florida, where he allegedly delivered a glowing report on the doomed condo’s condition. But before that, The New York Times has revealed, he was the assistant director of building and zoning for Miami Shores, where another disaster occurred decades ago.

According to the Times, Mr Prieto made multiple visits to the Biscayne Kennel Club as it was being demolished by an “unlicensed, uninsured and unregistered subcontractor.” In May 1997, the structure unexpectedly came crashing down, killing two people and injuring three.

Just after the collapse, Mr Prieto told the Associated Press that his inspectors had found nothing wrong at the site.

“Everything was going according to plan,” Mr Prieto said at the time. “From what I hear, this is just a construction accident. Accidents can happen.”

Twenty-four years later, that incident is facing new scrutiny as investigators look into the history of Champlain Towers, which collapsed last week and left at least 20 people dead.

Mr Prieto is part of that history. According to documents unearthed by NPR, he reported on the building at a meeting of the Champlain Tower South Condominium Association in 2018.

“Structural engineer report was reviewed by Mr Prieto,” the minutes of that meeting say. “It appears the building is in very good shape.”

According to NPR, this directly contradicted the actual engineering report, given by Morabito Consultants just five weeks earlier, which warned of “major structural damage” to the building and noted “abundant cracking” in concrete beams and walls.

Mr Prieto has said he doesn’t remember the report.

“I don’t know anything about it,” he told the Miami Herald. “That’s 2018.”

He declined to comment further, citing his lawyer’s advice.

The Miami condo’s collapse is being investigated, and its cause is still unknown. It remains possible that the disaster happened for reasons unrelated to the building’s condition or any of the work Mr Prieto was involved in.

In the meantime, however, Mr Prieto has reportedly been put on leave from his current job. Until recently, he was working for the contractor CAP Government in Doral, Florida. But according to the city, Mr Prieto is no longer on duty.

“On June 28, 2021, C.A.P. Government, Inc. notified the City of Doral that Mr. Prieto was on a leave of absence and assigned another employee to assist the City of Doral Building Department on a temporary basis,” Doral spokesperson Maggie Santos said in a statement.

The company has not said whether this leave is related to the collapse of Champlain Towers.

The Independent has reached out to CAP Government for comment, but has not yet heard back.