Surfside Councilman Told Condo Board 2018 Engineering Report Showed No Major Issues
A Surfside, Florida, official said the building was in "very good shape" at a November 2018 meeting of the Champlain Towers South board, just over a month after an engineering firm warned of major structural problems, according to the minutes of the meeting released Monday.
Rosendo "Ross" Prieto was quoted as saying the Morabito Consultants engineering company had issued a report after collecting necessary information and, he said, "it appears the building is in very good shape" nearly three years before the building's collapse, the Associated Press reported.
The report from Morabito, which came just over a month before the meeting, had described key flaws in the structure, including "abundant cracking" in concrete columns and beams, along with a problem with the pool deck.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below:
The discussion with Prieto came as Champlain Towers was beginning to explore what work was needed under city and county ordinances for the building to meet a 40-year recertification that was to arrive in 2021.
A day later, Prieto told the then-town manager of Surfside he thought the meeting was a success and credited Champlain Towers with getting a good early start on the recertification process.
"The response was very positive from everyone in the room," Prieto wrote in the email, also released by town officials. "All the main concerns over their forty-year recertification process were addressed."
Yet there is no evidence any of the critical concrete structure work ever started, the documents show. Owners of the 136 units had been told earlier this year they would have to pay their share of a $15 million assessment—$9.1 million of which was major work—by July 1. That assessment ranged from about $80,000 for a one-bedroom unit to more than $330,000 for a penthouse.
Prieto no longer works at Surfside and efforts to locate him Monday for comment were not immediately successful. Prieto previously told the Miami Herald he didn't remember getting the Morabito report and declined to comment on the November 2018 board meeting.
The minutes were forwarded to Surfside officials on Sunday by an attorney for the board, according to the town.
The Morabito report focused attention on the pool deck, which was found to have waterproofing underneath that had failed and had been laid flat instead of sloping to drain off water. This threatened not only the concrete slab under the pool but also other structural areas.
"Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially," said the report.
While numerous theories have emerged, no definitive cause has been identified in Thursday's collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South building that left at least 10 people confirmed dead and 151 missing.
One problem that surfaced back in 2019 involved work at another building adjacent to Champlain Towers South.
"We are concerned that the construction next to [Champlain] is too close," board member Mara Chouela wrote in an email to Prieto in January 2019. The construction work, she added, is "digging too close to our property and we have concerns regarding the structure of our building."
Prieto responded that Surfside didn't have an official role in that issue. "There is nothing for me to check. The best course of action is to have someone monitor the fence, pool and adjacent areas for damage or hire a consultant to monitor these areas," he wrote.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said during a news conference Monday that the minutes of the building board meeting were of some concern but did not elaborate. He said the town continues to gather documentation on the history of Champlain Towers South and inspections of its structural integrity, and is posting them online as they become available.
"We will be 100 percent transparent," Burkett said.
