They should have given them the chop.
The city Parks Department has come under fire for awarding $40 million in tree service contracts to a firm convicted of insurance fraud.
Brooklyn-based Dragonetti Brothers Landscaping currently has ten contracts for tree pruning, stump removal, planting and other services throughout the five boroughs and have secured a total of 97 contracts since 2010, according to data compiled by Comptroller Brad Lander’s Office.
“This is not a contractor the Parks Department should be working with,” Councilman Shekar Krishnan (D-Queens) said during a budget hearing earlier this week.
Krishnan, chairman of the Council’s Parks Committee, said there’s “an immense backlog and delays” in tree planting and maintenance — which he says is because of the firm’s legal woes.
In 2022 the firm — Dragonetti Brothers Landscaping, Nursery & Florist — pled guilty to Insurance Fraud in the Second Degree, a class C felony and the company’s principals, Nicholas and Vito Dragonetti, also pled guilty to offering a false instrument for filing, a Class A misdemeanor. They declined to comment when reached by The Post.