NEW YORK — A senior city buildings official took bribes in exchange for falsely reporting that cranes had been inspected and that crane operators had been certified, but his actions did not appear to be connected to two recent crane collapses that killed nine people, authorities said Friday.
James Delayo, acting chief inspector with the Department of Buildings’ cranes and derricks division, accepted thousands of dollars in bribes from a crane company, Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said in a statement.
In return, he signed off on crane inspections that he did not perform and helped crane operators cheat on licensing exams by providing questions and answers, the city said.
Delayo’s actions apparently had no connection to two cranes involved in fatal collapses this year. Both of those cranes were tower cranes, not the mobile cranes at the center of the investigation into Delayo, she said.
It is troubling that an official responsible for ensuring cranes are safe in New York City would be “selling out his own integrity in a way that compromised public safety,” Hearn said.
City investigators said Delayo had been taking the bribes for eight years.
Delayo, 60, has worked for the Buildings Department since 1982, a career that spans the administrations of four mayors and several buildings commissioners. The Department of Investigation said he earns $74,224 and faces suspension from his job.
Delayo was released without bail after he was arraigned Friday on charges of bribe receiving, tampering with public records, falsifying business records, filing a false instrument and receiving unlawful gratuities. He entered no plea, and his attorney, Lawrence Linzer, declined to comment.
The charges represent another embarrassment for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration as it tries to quell the outrage over the two collapses.
Bloomberg said in a statement that his administration has “zero tolerance for any corruption anywhere in city government” and said it was particularly deplorable that it occurred in an agency charged with protecting the public.
The mayor’s last buildings commissioner resigned following the collapse of a crane in March that left seven people dead.
