The war between Mayor Giuliani and the Port Authority went nuclear yesterday, as the mayor talked about hauling the agency into court, while the PA charged he’s already wasted nearly $275 million.
Giuliani said grounds for legal action to break the PA’s lease at Kennedy and La Guardia, which doesn’t end until 2015, would include its poor snow-removal efforts, dreadful maintenance and rising crime at the airports.
The mayor has been fuming about the PA almost daily since the Dec. 30 snowstorm hit the city, causing long flight delays.
“We’re very hopeful that under the lease, there were clauses that were violated [by the PA], and we’ll be able to bring a lawsuit,” Giuliani said at a City Hall press conference, adding that a decision on going to court would be made by next week.
“What we want to do is further the efforts to take the airports away from the Port Authority.”
In a scathing statement, PA spokeswoman Kayla Bergeron shot back that Giuliani is “creating new work for lawyers and consultants instead of offering plans with any substance.”
Bergeron charged that the mayor’s attack on the PA has already cost taxpayers $275 million, mostly from rejecting higher payments that the PA offered to the city in 1994, and from $1.3 million doled out to airport-related lawyers and consultants.
“For $275 million, New York City could have paid for a lot of ball fields, school libraries and housing,” Bergeron said, referring to some of the mayor’s own priorities in his final year in office.
Giuliani is itching to turn over management of the airports – which are on city land – to a private firm, British Airports Authority, which the mayor believes will result in better-run facilities for travelers and a more lucrative financial deal for the city.
City Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Queens) said he is on board with the possible lawsuit.
“When the mayor told me about it, I said, ‘Sounds like a great idea.'”
A spokesman for Gov. Pataki did not return a call for comment about the mayor’s possible lawsuit, but Pataki said earlier in the day that he does not oppose handing over operation of the airports to a private company.
The boss of the bistate agency, Robert Boyle, was appointed by Pataki, and sources said the governor has been disturbed by Giuliani’s near nonstop attacks against the PA.