&tmday, Jam:mry 19, 1980
15 cents
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Simon demands state answer aua it questions By Ira Rich Bronx Borough President Stanley. .Simon announced this week that the state legislative hearing which he requested to look into "the shameful truth about the defect design and construction of Co-op City" will be held on Friday, February 1, at 10 a.m. at 270 Broadway in Manhattan. Theshearrrig will be conducted by Assemblyman George Friedrnanb, èl).¡ürman of the Assembly l\/Iitchell:Lama Subcommittee, local Assemblyman Eliot Engel and other committee members. In his announcement Simon said, "One year has passed since the public release of former State Comptroller Arthur Levitt's audit of .Co-op City construction alleging failure after failure by the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) in approving flagrant examples of overcharges and mismanagement by contractors and suppliers. "For some reason the DHCR has not responded to the study and Comptroller Levitt's accusations against the Housing Division remain unanswered and unexplained." The borough president strongly urged Assemblyman Friedman to make certain that the responsible state officials are subpoened to attend the hearing to answer all questions raised by the Levitt audit and to identify those responsible for the failures revealed by Levitt. Simon said, that he "expected
Inside Cooperator income tax deductions a1mo1.mced ••.. page 8
Inside our Ed Park ••••••. page 16 Metroviews
page 19
the the legislators will have the Division of Housing tell us: (1) "Who made the decision to allow the project sponsors to issue the famous Information Bulletin of May 12, 1965 describing the Co-op City construction contract as a lump sum contract with the risk of completion on the contractor -· when in reality the cooperato.rs would have to pay for excesses and .cost overruns? Why did the Division of Housing continue to allow this Information Bulletin to go to prospective cooperators for years after the original lump sum amount had been exceeded? · (2) "Why did the Division of Housing and Community Renewal fail 'to exercise even minimal control over construction costs' as Levitt said, and who at DHCR was supposed to exercise that control? (3) "To what extent did DHCR control extra work orders before the general contractor authorized them? (4) "How does DHCR explain Levitt's allegation that it approved the purchase of 29o/c more doors than Co-op City plans called for -· and what happened to those doors? (:5) "Who at DHCR approved the instaHation;~ the Westinghouse Com!)Q¡lly ol· hundreds of elevator indicators that never worked? (6) "Who approved the construction of incinerator chutes which began to crumble as soon as they were put into use because structural support elements had been left out? "It is unfair to the victims of the leaking roofs, wet walls and falling bricks to.. be left without any means of redress and unfair to the taxpayer to allow those responsible to escape the blame."
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