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Architect David Mammina has done work on the deck and addition over the garage of Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez's (b.) getaway home on Long Island.*--googleoff: index * *--googleon: index **-- ARTICLE CONTENT START *
An architect who made more than $1 million from the nonprofit housing empire Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez founded did work on the pol's weekend getaway home, a Daily News probe has found.
It's unclear if architect David Mammina was paid in 1999 for designing a deck and an addition on the Long Island retreat Lopez owns with girlfriend, Angela Battaglia.
Architects usually get between 5% and 15% of a job's total value, state guidelines say. In this case, the fee would have ranged from $1,000 to $3,000 on a job Mammina estimated would cost $20,000.
Through the years, Mammina designed several taxpayer-funded jobs for the nonprofit Lopez founded and Battaglia helps run - the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Center.
Mammina did not return calls for comment. Lopez and Battaglia declined to answer questions, although a spokesman for Ridgewood Bushwick said, "There was nothing improper about it."
While working on the getaway home, Mammina was paid $1.1million from the state for work on Ridgewood Bushwick's Buena Vida nursing home, records show.
Lopez founded Ridgewood Bushwick before becoming an assemblyman in 1984. Since then, he's steered at least $430,000 in taxpayer money to Ridgewood through "member items."
Lopez was a paid consultant for a Ridgewood Bushwick affiliate, Community Property Management, around the time Mammina was working on his house. He quit that job in 2002.
Battaglia has been a Ridgewood employee since the 1980s, and is its $343,000-a-year housing director. Ridgewood Bushwick is the subject of several criminal investigations.
In late 1997, Lopez and Battaglia bought the brown single-family wood-frame home in a remote subdivision of Southold called Peconic Knolls. In November 1999, Mammina filed papers with local officials describing $20,000 in planned renovations.
Mammina signed it Nov. 4, 1999; local officials approved it eight days later. Battaglia was the only named "owner of premises" on the permit, though records show Lopez co-owned it.
Mammina's track record as a campaign donor for Lopez and a vendor for Ridgewood Bushwick is long and lucrative for all. He's given Lopez $6,500 in campaign donations between 1999 and last May, records show.
He also repeatedly won work from Ridgewood Bushwick, starting with a 1991 rehab of eight buildings in Brooklyn.
Besides working on Ridgewood Bushwick's Buena Vida nursing home, records show Mammina filed plans for another Ridgewood housing project, Linden Court, in July 1999. Details of his fees were not available.
Since 2003, Mammina has designed several more Ridgewood Bushwick projects, including one on Myrtle Ave., another called West Bushwick Neighborhood Rehabilitation Program and the conversion of the old Rheingold brewery into affordable co-ops.
Mammina is also involved in a $326,000 renovation of Ridgewood's Bushwick Ave. headquarters, records show.
Edward McDonald, a lawyer for Ridgewood Bushwick, said, "The selection of the Mammina firm for the various projects was done on the merits."
Many of Mammina's Ridgewood projects needed approval from the city Planning Commission, which regulates land use.
That's where Battaglia comes in. She's a planning commissioner who votes on specific projects. Because of this potential conflict, Battaglia has recused herself from votes on Ridgewood Bushwick.
Records show she has done so in at least two projects in which Mammina was involved.
She did not recuse herself from a non-Ridgewood project involving Mammina in 2003, approving his design plans to expand a Bronx nursing home.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/11/14/2010-11-14_vitos_decks_appeal_architect_draws_1m_in_biz_after_working_on_lopez_house.html#ixzz15IDVYYjQ
