The official who signed off on the collapsed Miami condo after residents complained of "shaking" in 2018 has been suspended.
Rosendo "Ross" Prieto, the former top building official for the town of Surfside, is now on a leave of absence from his job as a government contractor, The Sun reports.
Champlain Towers South resident Mara Chouela wrote to Prieto in January of 2019 to express her concerns, which were also echoed by other residents, about the construction of new luxury condos known as Eighty Seven Park next to the building.
CNN reports that Chouela, a board member of the condo association, wrote: "We are concerned that the construction next to Surfside is too close."
She noted that workers were "digging too close to our property and we have concerns regarding the structure of our building."
According to CNN, Prieto responded less than half an hour later, telling Chouela that "there is nothing for me to check," as the building went over the border that separates Surfside and Miami Beach.
The building went on to collapse on June 24, and while the cause of the incident has not yet been established, the construction at Eighty Seven Park is now being scrutinized.
At the time of writing, 12 people have been confirmed dead as a result of the incident, with a further 149 people still unaccounted for.
Magaly Ramsey, the daughter of a resident who is missing, told CNN that her mother Magaly Delgado had been concerned about the construction of the nearby luxury condos and complained of "tremors".
"She did complain of a lot of tremors and things that were being done to the other building that she sometimes was concerned what may be happening to her building - that might be putting it at risk," Ramsey said.
The development group behind Eighty Seven Park said in a statement to CNN on Tuesday: "We are confident that the construction of 87 Park did not cause or contribute to the collapse that took place in Surfside."
Peter Dyga, the president and CEO of Associated Builders and Contractors, said that while the odds of the construction of the building "being a significant cause" in the Surfside collapse "is slim, but no lead or idea should be excluded."
CNN reports that there is evidence of other potential causes including a 2018 report warning of "abundant cracking" in the parking garage of the building.
