The NY Times reports: The official responsible for elevator safety for the New York City Housing Authority will resign this week, amid criticism that the system’s 3,300 elevators are chronically unsafe, unreliable and poorly maintained.

The official, Charles Miraglia, who directs all elevator inspections for the authority and is one of the top managers in its 400-person elevator division, will step down on Friday. Howard Marder, an agency spokesman, said Mr. Miraglia was leaving to pursue a career in the private sector.

Reached at his Housing Authority office on Tuesday, Mr. Miraglia declined to comment. Mr. Miraglia, 48, submitted his resignation on Dec. 3, Mr. Marder said. He has been with the Housing Authority since 1985 and worked his way from elevator mechanic’s helper to his present position of deputy assistant director of the elevator support services unit.

The authority, which operates hundreds of low-rent public housing complexes across the city that are home to more than 400,000 people, has been under a microscope since August when a 5-year-old boy, Jacob Neuman, fell 10 stories to his death trying to get out of a stalled elevator in a Brooklyn project.

A report by inspectors with the city’s Department of Buildings found that problems with the elevator, including excessive wear on electrical components, were tied to faulty maintenance by the housing authority. The Brooklyn district attorney’s office is investigating the accident.

The NY Times also found that the authority had fallen behind on inspections. A review of Buildings Department records for more than 100 authority elevators found that 80 percent were overdue for inspection. Some had not been inspected in more than two years, records showed. City law requires elevators to be inspected five times in two years.

Among those overdue for inspection was the elevator involved in Jacob Neuman’s death. Authority officials who examined The Times’s data shortly after the boy’s death said that, according to their own data, only 25 percent were overdue.

They could not explain the discrepancy between the Buildings Department’s and the Housing Authority’s data. According to documents filed with the conflicts board, Mr. Miraglia’s duties include ensuring that all mandated tests are completed and submitting those results to the Department of Buildings.