Leaf it to city Parks Dept.

Sticks with tree-service frauds

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 10 contracts for tree pruning, stump removal 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 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 — pleaded guilty to Insurance Fraud in the Second Degree, a class C felony. The company’s principals, Nicholas and Vito Dragonetti, also pleaded guilty to offering a false instrument for filing, a Class A misdemeanor. They declined to comment when reached by The Post.

In a plea conviction announced by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg last October, Dragonetti Brothers admitted to evading more than $1.1 million in insurance premiums between 2017 and 2019.

They had intentionally misclassified employees on its applications to the New York State Insurance Fund for workers’ compensation insurance. The fraudulent scheme lowered the required premiums the firm paid.

The guilty plea barred Dragonetti from working with the city’s Department of Design and Construction and Business Integrity Commission for three years — but Parks and other agencies were free to keep working with them.

Some of the contracts awarded to Dragonetti are still in place, a $7.3 million agreement for tree and stump removal in Queens awarded in 2022 that runs through 2025 and a $6.89 million contract for those services in Brooklyn and Staten Island over the same period. Another $7.6 million, two-year contract running through 2024 is for street tree planting in Manhattan.

During the hearing, Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue insisted “we are constantly monitoring our contractors” but are not going to suspend Dragonetti’s contracts.

“It’s a balance,” she said. “We believe it’s in the best interest of New Yorkers to complete these contracts so as not to further disrupt citywide tree pruning and planting.”

Krishan did not buy the explanation about retaining Dragonetti.

“I would urge the Parks Department to look at alternative contractors,” he said.

Parks officials said they rely on 10 to 12 contractors for its tree program.

This is not a contractor that the Parks Department should be working with.

— Councilman Shekar Krishnan