By Dan Murphy
Yonkers Inspector General Brendan McGrath and Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano issued the following statements upon the release of the inspector general’s report regarding improper actions in the Department of Housing and Buildings, including acceptance of bribes.
“This is unacceptable behavior that violates every aspect of the public’s trust,” said IG Brendan McGrath. “The individual in question has been terminated from his job and the appropriate law enforcement authorities were made aware of our findings. I am also pleased that not only did honest employees of the city tip us off to this behavior, but that we had the full support of the mayor in rooting out this behavior.”
Spano said: “I want to commend the inspector general for an exhaustive and complete investigation, and let this be a warning to anyone in public service who is less than honest. We don’t tolerate bribes, and I will continue to provide the full support of this administration in dealing with dishonest behavior.”
According to the inspector general’s report a senior housing inspector accepted bribes from a Yonkers landlord to forge records relating to his properties. The forged records were designed to clear the landlord’s properties of outstanding violations.
The employee was terminated by the city upon being informed of the inspector general’s findings prior to the release of the final report.
The report also highlighted other shortcomings in the buildings department, including an employee who was working a second job while also supposed to be on city time, and haphazard record keeping.
Noting that he recently appointed a new commissioner of housing and Buildings, Vincent Pici, Spano said: “Commissioner Pici is the right person to reorganize the department, maximize the abilities of the many dedicated and hard-working people we have there, and show the people of Yonkers that they will have the honest and efficient services that as taxpayers they deserve.”
McGrath concluded: “This ends an unfortunate chapter, but this office will continue to aggressively root out dishonesty wherever we find it, and that job is made easier with the support of a mayor who is equally dedicated to ensuring honesty and fairness in the delivery of city services.”
Editor’s note: This report should be read by all of our readers of Yonkers Rising. It highlights wrongdoing in city government, but also addresses an issue of illegal apartments in Yonkers that needs to be addressed for many reasons. We print most of the report below, and will follow up next week.
The IG’s report found that the Department of Housing and Buildings had an “inadequate system of tracking and securing buildings or portions of buildings that had been condemned by DHB.” And in many illegal basement apartments, “the failure of DHB to follow-up and ensure that the condemned properties were either legalized or remained unoccupied, put lives in jeopardy and enriched property owners.”
The report also found that “landlords paid bribes to DHB employees to look the other way or, in some instances, affirmatively assist the property owners in perpetrating fraud.”
In addition, the report found a lack of supervision “concerning time and attendance policies, enforcing the take-home vehicle policy and ensuring that employees are free of conflicts, especially related to the properties in which they have financial interests.”
Some of the background, and ways that this scandal was uncovered, from the report:
“In December 20 17, the Department of Inspector General was contacted by the Yonkers Fire Department Fire Prevention Division to report concerns regarding multiple properties in the City of Yonkers relating to violations that jeopardized the health and safety of the residents within those properties. These concerns centered around properties that housed illegal basement apartments, also known as single room occupancies.
“More concerning was the fact that DHB had condemned these illegal apartments on multiple occasions, however without enforcement of those condemnation orders the apartments would be re-occupied, creating the unsafe and potentially life threatening conditions.
“During our investigation we also learned of criminal activity related to forgery and the filing of fraudulent documents by DHB employees. We obtained credible evidence that DHB personnel was accepting cash payments for performing a variety of illegal, unethical and inappropriate actions in their official capacity as City of Yonkers employees.
“Condemned Properties: On Dec. 7, 2017, a homicide was committed in the basement apartment of 9 Riverview Place in Yonkers. The Yonkers Police Department responded to the scene and discovered a large amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Based on the evidence collected, the YPD determined that the victim was a drug dealer who was a resident in a basement apartment of the premises, and that the homicide was drug related.
“The layout of the basement apartments led YPD to suspect that the residence was an illegal SRO. The Yonkers Fire Prevention Division was notified and responded to the scene to inspect the property. Upon inspecting the premises, FPD issued violation notices to the owner and reported the property to DHB, which ordered the condemnation of the basement apartments.
“The Fire Prevention Division then informed the IG that the basement apartments of the 9 Riverview Place property had actually been condemned back in 2010 based on the same violations of an illegal SRO. In fact, multiple properties owned by the same individual, Aurelio, who was issued summonses for illegal basement apartments and other violations back in 2010. Despite the fact that numerous summonses and letters were served upon Assuncao, he failed to make the necessary alterations to the properties.
“After the homicide at Riverview Place, the YFD xxxxx, conducted inspections of all the Riverview Place properties and discovered that the property was once again housing tenants and collecting rents in illegal basement apartments. Again, orders of condemnation were issued by DHB and violations issued.
“It was at this point that the commissioner of the Yonkers Fire Department reached out to our office, which led to our investigation. YFD’s main concern was that the conditions in these properties were not only illegal but unsafe and potentially life-threatening and it did not appear as though DHB was enforcing the condemnation orders or ensuring that the conditions surrounding the illegal apartments were corrected.
According to the report: “We know that the situation with the owner of the Riverview Place/Beech Street properties is not isolated. Personnel from both DHB and FPD have reported that illegal basement apartments are rampant in Yonkers, particularly in the Southwest part of the city.
“Landlord Assuncao sold some of his properties in 2016, despite having outstanding violations or fines. All the properties were being sold to the same buyer, Jason Stricker. The building department files for Assuncao’s properties included what the IG found was a forged document, claiming that three properties had been inspected.
“The letters concerning 9 Riverview and 141 Beech were purportedly signed by Patrick Losco, senior building inspector, and the 13 Riverview letter was purportedly signed by Lawrence Donahue, buildings supervisor. These letters were forged in an attempt to clear the properties of any violations prior to their sale.
“In our initial discussion with then DHB Commissioner William Schneider in January 2018, he stated that he was unaware of any forged documents related to the subject properties. He specifically stated that there had been no involvement by the Yonkers Police Department related to any forgery investigation in his department as related to the subject proper1ies. The Yonkers Police Department also confirmed in January 2018 that there was no record of a complaint or investigation related to the subject properties or forged documents at DHB.”
We interviewed Lawrence Donahue in February 2018 and asked him about the forged clearance letters. He stated that he became aware of the documents as the result of a conversation with a title insurance company. Donahue denied wrongdoing according to the IG’s report. An employee of Statewide Abstract, a company that provides title insurance, reached out to Donahue by e-mail to ask whether the two other clearance letters purportedly signed by Losco were legitimate. Donohue responded by e-mail July 28, 2016 that Losco did not perform inspections on either 9 Riverview Place or 141 Beech St., and “these letters are also forgeries.
“It should be noted that Commissioner William Schneider was CC’d on that e-mail. When we asked Mr. Donahue what became of the forged letters, he stated that Commissioner Schneider came to his office, took the files and told Mr. Donahue that the matter was being referred to the YPD. Finally, we asked him whether he knew who had forged the letters and he stated that he had no idea.
“Patrick Losco was also interviewed regarding the forged letters and he confirmed much of what was stated by Larry Donohue. While he stated that it was his belief that the matter was being referred to YPD, he was also under the impression that the matter was referred to the Yonkers inspector general.
“In attempting to determine who may have benefitted from the forged letters, we turned our attention to the property owner, Aurelio Assuncao. It made sense that if the violations and condemnations would prevent the sale or lower the value of his property, he would stand to gain if those violations and condemnations were cleared. It was certainly possible that he could personally access the property files and insert a fraudulent clearance letter.
“At this point in our investigation a determination was made that however the forged document ended up in the DHB file, it was a criminal act. The matter was referred to law enforcement and our office maintained a limited jurisdiction to facilitate the investigation from an administrative perspective. Mr. Assuncao was interviewed and provided information implicating a senior housing inspector at DHB by the name of Joseph Guarniero. Assuncao stated that he had paid Guarniero cash on multiple occasions to either ignore certain violations or, as was the case here, provide fraudulent documents asserting that certain violations had been cleared.
“Assuncao was able to present evidence linking Guarniero to the forged documents. Specifically, during questioning led by our office, with assistance from law enforcement agencies, Assuncao stated that given the relationship between him and Guarniero, Guarniero offered to provide fraudulent clearance letters for the properties that were the subject of the sale. In addition to his statements, Assuncao provided a string of text messages between himself and Guarniero further demonstrating that there had been a scheme to defraud the title company and the potential buyer of the properties
“He stated that ultimately Guarniero provided a clearance letter for each of the three properties for $2,000 in cash.
“As we continued our investigation, it became clear that Guarniero used his influence as housing supervisor at DHB to assign himself to certain housing complaints for properties where he knew he could shake down the property owners. Our office interviewed other property owners who recounted similar interactions with Guarniero. They stated how certain violations would be ignored with the simple gesture of putting up fingers. Three fingers – $300, five fingers – $500, etc.
“Based on those same interviews we learned that Guarniero may not have been the only employee in DHB to abuse his authority in this manner but he is the one for which corroborating evidence was discovered.
“Given the fact that we sat down with the commissioner at the outset of our investigation to be told that he had no recollection of any forged letters in his department was hard to believe. By the time we learned that Commissioner Sclmeider had in fact been copied on an e-mail from one of his inspectors to a title company questioning the authenticity of the clearance letters, the commissioner had retired.
“For the record, the commissioner had announced his retirement prior to our becoming involved in the matter so there is no indication that he left his position in contemplation of the investigation. There is still a question however, as to what would have become of the forged letters had we not commenced an investigation. Clearly, the YPD had no information related to the matter.
“The inspectors whose names were forged on the clearance letters sat by for a year and a half without ever asking a question about who might have perpetrated this criminal act. They were the victims but they didn’t act like victims. One of the inspectors whose name was forged was asked if he was ever questioned by the police or whether he was asked to provide a handwriting sample. He was not. The point is that someone violated the public trust for personal gain and no one in DHB seemed to be concerned in the least.
“When the mayor’s office was initially notified of our findings in August 2018, they immediately terminated Guarniero from his position and commenced disciplinary actions. At all times the administration supported our investigation and followed our interim recommendations,” write the IG in his report.
More next week. Send your comments to dmurphy@risingmediagroup.com.
