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Gov. won't play blame game in WTC shortfall

By Matthew Sweeney | msweeney@am-ny.com

6:47 PM EDT, June 30, 2008

Construction crews continue work down at the World Trade Center site. A number of signature plans for WTC development may be delayed such as the Calatrava Path station. Additionally, the WTC Memorial may not be completed before the anticipated date of Sept. 11, 2011. (Emily Anne Epstein, Emily Anne Epstein / June 29, 2008)

Refusing to assign blame Monday for the massive delays and cost overruns that are plaguing construction at Ground Zero, Gov. David Paterson ordered the Port Authority to come back in 90 days with an assessment of the many projects slated for the site.

The progress report may include a timetable and could determine that some projects, like the transit hub have to be scaled back, the governor said. There is no new timetable as yet, though, Paterson said.

Although Paterson said he would not blame anyone for badly mismanaged redevelopment -- in which 19 agencies are participating -- at one point he seemed to take a swipe at former Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg, when he said there would be no more "phony ribbon cuttings."

"We're not going to give any phony dates or timetables at this point and then follow it up with phony ribbon cuttings or encouraging words and no follow up," he said. "We are instead going to change the culture of the way the management of this project is working."

Paramount to changing that "culture" is to create a central construction oversight for all of the construction work. Although there is a Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center that already has that role -- created by Bloomberg and Pataki -- the bleak report from the Port Authority bemoaned the lack of any central organizing power.

"We do not have a central command structure that can supervise the driving costs and schedules," Paterson said. "Nor do we have an entity that oversees what would be the management of the construction . . . We need a strong central command."

He added that he sympathized with the challenge earlier officials faced in trying to respond to the attack on 9/11.

"I don't know that it would be important to assess that it was the fault of people or that they're responsible," Paterson said. "I think all in all everyone was trying to do the right thing."

"I'm not saying necessarily that there may not be some (blame)," Paterson said.

Nevertheless, the current state of progress on the Freedom Tower, the memorial, the transit hub, and other buildings around the 16-acre site is "nothing less than unacceptable," the governor said.

"The public can hold me accountable at this point," the governor added.