07 Feb 02 - 08:57 AM (#644471)
Subject: New Song: 'The Greediest'
From: GUEST
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nytwinvr2578646feb07.story
Twin Towers Fund Takeover
Rudy wants control of $%100M in assets
By Stephanie Saul
STAFF WRITER
February 7, 2002
The Twin Towers Fund has suspended payments to the families of dead firefighters, police
officers and other uniformed heroes while former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani tries to move the
fund's assets - about $100 million and growing - from City Hall control.
The switch, which would need the approval of State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, would move
the fund from the mayoral-controlled New York City Public and Private Initiative, a group
founded to raise money for various city projects.
The privately run Twin Towers Fund board would include Arnold Schwarzenegger, who donated
$1 million to it and whose new movie, "Collateral Damage," has come under criticism from
police and firefighters as capitalizing on the Sept. 11 attacks. Giuliani was slated to appear at the
New York City premiere for the film last night to thank Schwarzenegger. In the movie,
Schwarzenegger plays a Los Angeles firefighter who seeks vengeance after his wife and son are
killed in a terror attack.
"We're saddened ... any time a tragedy is used to promote a movie," said Debra Caruso, a
spokeswoman for the Uniformed Fire Officers Association. Other union groups weighed in
with similar complaints.
Before last night's premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre, Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel
defended his plans to appear. "The mayor will talk about how grateful he is that Mr.
Schwarzenegger is serving on the voluntary board of the fund and continues to support the
important effort," Mindel said.
Giuliani aides filed legal papers last fall and then sought in December to take over the Twin
Towers Fund. The fund's new board would also include the mayor's frequent companion, Judith
Nathan.
Spitzer is slated to meet this month with lawyers for Giuliani's fund and the New York City Public
and Private Initiative. Charity experts could cite no precedent for a city fund transferring
such large assets to a privately controlled fund.
But the chairman of the New York City Public and Private Initiative, CUNY vice chancellor
Frederick Schaffer, said the organization had planned from the outset to spin off the Twin
Towers Fund.
"The transfer of assets from PPI to the fund was made pursuant to the original understanding and
intention of the parties," Schaffer said yesterday, referring to the city-run PPI and the Twin
Towers Fund.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who technically controls the fund under the PPI bylaws, has not
commented on Giuliani's attempts to take it over. Calls to several members of his administration
seeking comment were not returned.
Since Sept. 11, the fund has sent checks totaling about $48 million to the families of dead
firefighters and law enforcement personnel, but Schaffer said the remaining funds will not be
disbursed until Spitzer makes a decision.
But a member of the City Council said the spinoff is just an example of Giuliani's tendency to
attempt control.
"This is the megalomaniacal Rudy we know best," said Manhattan Councilman Philip Reed, a
Democrat. "None of this should be surprising to people. He's trying to take the money he raised
under the guise of the city of New York and he wants to control it."
A proposed budget of Giuliani's fund lists a payroll
of 11 employees who would earn up to $1.2 million apiece.
Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.
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