A team of about 20 city inspectors, escorted by armed police officers, concluded a two-day safety-inspection sweep of a handful of rental properties owned by landlord Dario Pini, “red-tagging” one, relocating 12 tenants, and yellow-tagging another. City Attorney Ariel Calonne said the surprise inspections revealed as many as 16 beds jammed into one two-bedroom unit and an abundance of rat feces, cockroach infestations, faulty water heaters, and bad plumbing. At some, outdoor patios had been converted into plastic-tarp-encased living quarters.
Twelve of the tenants, Calonne said, were currently being housed at City Hall’s expense elsewhere until the properties in question can meet basic habitation standards. Calonne would not say how many properties exactly had been inspected or where they were, though Pini’s attorney, Larry Powell, stated city inspection teams had raided eight Pini properties, including Pini’s personal residence on the Riviera. “They searched his home,” Powell exclaimed. “Dario’s sister — who lives right next door — was really upset; you can imagine.”
Calonne stated that police had to intervene on at least two occasions to prevent Pini from interfering with city officials as they interviewed tenants. In one instance, Calonne reported, Pini was “yelling and screaming” as assistant city attorney John Doimas sought to question a tenant. Attorney Powell said the landlord felt protective of both his property and his tenants, and that in these instances, Pini was seeking to communicate with his tenants at the same time city official were.