Key West’s chief building official, Raj Ramsingh, remains on paid administrative leave while awaiting an employment hearing.
City manager Brian L. Barroso has indicated in a letter to Ramsingh that it is his intent to fire Ramsingh for violating several city policies, including falsifying building permits and records. Raj Ramsingh has been indicted on eight felony corruption charges. His brother, Ron Ramsingh, the former Key West city attorney who was terminated without cause last week by the city commission, faces three felony corruption charges, and now-retired code compliance manager Jim Young faces one charge.
Raj Ramsingh was scheduled to have an employment hearing last week, but it was postponed at the request of his attorney.
Meanwhile, the state attorney’s office continues to pursue its investigation and trial of the three indicted men. Prosecutors last week released another cache of discovery documents in the case, this one containing summaries of FBI interviews with current and former city employees.
Those who were interviewed weren’t shy in describing an atmosphere of special favors, political influence, cronyism and corruption at city hall in recent years.
Enid Torregrosa, a historic preservation expert who recently retired from the city, described her job as “hell” while working with Raj Ramsingh as chief building official.
She told FBI investigators, according to the interview summaries, that Ramsingh would approve permits and projects without ever letting planning and historic preservation staff know about or review them.
Torregrosa told investigators Ramsingh would routinely go into the city’s permitting software and change entries, at one point making it look like Torregrosa had noted, “No review required,” when in fact Torregrosa had noted several questions about the plans and requirements for a project in the historic district.
Torregrosa told investigators Raj Ramsingh routinely approved permits and variances for his personal friends, coworkers and politically powerful people in town.
Torregrosa and others, including current city planning director Katie Halloran, named names and businesses in their interviews, but as those people have not, as of yet, been charged with or indicted for any crimes, the Keys Weekly is not including them.
Torregrosa provided investigators with several documents and printouts from the city’s permitting software showing occasions when Raj Ramsingh allegedly altered entries.
Conflict of interest concerns
The latest release of documents by the state attorney’s office also contains copies of dozens of checks that were written to Strykker-Avery Homes, a contracting and construction company that Raj Ramsingh owned and operated before he started working for the city, and which he continued to operate while working as the city’s chief building official, creating significant concerns about conflicts of interest that would arise from a building official also working as a contractor that needs approvals and permits from the city.
City records show that Ramsingh initially had permission from the city to operate Strykker-Avery Homes, but that eventually became a problem. State corporation records show that Ramsingh dissolved the company in 2021, but investigators obtained dozens of checks totalling more than $250,000 that were written to Strykker-Avery Homes in 2022, 2023 and 2024 for construction and remodeling projects.The state attorney’s cases and investigations are ongoing. Stay turned to keysweekly.com for the latest updates.
