U.N. Dealings With FDNY 'Unacceptable'

U.N. Dealings With FDNY 'Unacceptable'

BY BENNY AVNI - Staff Reporter of the Sun
July 20, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/58772

UNITED NATIONS — Wednesday's steam pipe explosion happened several blocks away, but judging from recent angry exchanges between city and United Nations officials, if a similar emergency occurs at the U.N. building, rescue efforts are not likely to run nearly as efficiently as they did Wednesday on 41st Street and Lexington Avenue.
Increasingly contentious haggling over issues such as legal jurisdiction and procurement rights have stymied efforts to address hundreds of violations of safety codes discovered at the U.N. building recently, more than 50 years after it was built, U.N. leaders have been slow to address them, frustrating the city's commissioner for the United Nations, Marjorie Tiven, who is Mayor Bloomberg's sister.
Months after fire department officials discovered the violations, the pace at which the United Nations is moving to tighten cooperation between the world body and the FDNY is "unacceptable," Ms. Tiven wrote last week to the U.N. undersecretary-general for management, Alicia Bárcena Ibarra.
Ms. Bárcena, a Mexican national who in January replaced the American Christopher Burnham as management chief, has been unable to act quickly to resolve bureaucratic issues in order to address the code violations, according to several sources familiar with the negotiations between the city and the United Nations. Ms. Bárcena was out of the country yesterday and could not be reached for comment.
The American U.N. mission — at times frustrated with the U.N.'s bureaucratic trip wires that prevent quick action — has tried to work with both sides to overcome issues relating, among others, to the "host country agreement" under which the U.N. operates in New York. That agreement, as well as a number of other legal and procurement issues, was raised by the U.N. to explain its inability to comply with the terms set by the FDNY.
Ms. Tiven "has the right to be frustrated," the American U.N. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, told The New York Sun yesterday. Resolving this issue, he said, "is in the U.N.'s interest, as well as in the city's larger interest. We are working to make sure that this happens as quickly as possible."
Agreements meant to assure the U.N.'s independence of its host country are important, one U.N. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
But when it comes to the staff's safety, such legal issues should take a back seat, he said. "What do they expect, the fire brigade of Fiji to come to our rescue? We are in New York," he said.
"The city has worked with the United Nations to improve fire and safety conditions there, as it does with all property owners," a spokesman for the mayor, Jason Post, said yesterday.
In her July 13 letter to Ms. Bárcena, Ms. Tiven demanding a timetable for completing the installation and renewal of such items as smoke detectors and the antiquated sprinkler system, in order to comply with city code. She also stressed the need to improve communication between the U.N.'s own fire team and the FDNY.
The letter was written a day after one in dozens of recent meetings between city and U.N. officials that according to Ms. Tiven are conducted "as part of the city's continuing efforts to ensure that the United Nations cures the 866 fire and safety violations issued on January 22, 2007."
According to the letter, Ms. Bárcena told Ms Tiven that legal and procurement issues have prevented the activation of a direct notification system between the U.N. and the FDNY. "It is unacceptable that this relatively uncomplicated item is still outstanding nearly seven months after you were notified of this deficiency," Ms. Tiven wrote.
"The U.N. is doing everything it can to meet standards," a U.N. spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, said yesterday.
A system for direct communication to the FDNY is "completed and inspected," she said, adding that the U.N. procurement and legal team is "finalizing negotiations" to activate it.
Code violations related to expensive items such as a sprinkler system, meanwhile, are "already included in the renovation budget," Ms. Bárcena told reporters during a recent press conference.
The renovation may take a while. According to a recent audit of the $1.2 billion blueprint known as the Capital Master Plan, U.N. bureaucratic and legal issues, as well as indecision on such matters as picking contractors, have created significant delays in the renovation.
Those delays are projected to balloon the CMP budget by "at least $148 million," according to the audit.
Late last year, according to a U.N. official, the fire department asked the U.N. for technical details relating to the ability of fire trucks to enter the campus in case of emergency.
To the surprise of city officials, the U.N. legal team objected to the city's legal rights to receive such data. The entry issue was later resolved, and the fire department was even allowed to carry out an inspection of the building — the first since the landmark building was erected in 1952.
The inspection discovered 866 fire and safety violations, which the city and the United Nations have attempted to resolve ever since.