In a rare public break with his successor, Rudy Giuliani yesterday called on the Bloomberg administration to green-light medical coverage for a former top deputy stricken with Ground Zero-related respiratory illness.
Giuliani leaped to the aid of his former deputy mayor Rudy Washington after The Post reported that the aide was seeking workers’ compensation insurance benefits – and the Bloomberg administration was trying to block him.
“Putting the city’s welfare before his own, Rudy Washington courageously and tirelessly worked at Ground Zero on Sept. 11 and for weeks afterwards,” Giuliani said in a statement.
As reported in yesterday’s Post, Washington filed a claim last year for health-insurance coverage to treat his asthmatic condition, which he believes was caused by breathing contaminated air at Ground Zero.
Washington, the highest-ranking black city official at the time, was nearby when the first tower collapsed, helped supervise the emergency response, and later ordered air-quality testing.
But Bloomberg administration lawyers told Washington that they would appeal the initial favorable ruling for him by the state Workers’ Compensation Board.
“The former mayor hopes the original decision stands,” a Giuliani spokeswoman said of Washington’s case.
Former Giuliani deputy Joe Lhota yesterday publicly held Bloomberg himself responsible for the treatment of Washington.
Lhota fumed over the “total lack of benevolence on the part of Mayor Bloomberg and his administration toward Rudy Washington.”
“This is a civilian who dedicated himself to the search and rescue operations and ultimately the cleanup like no one else in the Giuliani administration. Where’s the humanity? Humans shouldn’t treat humans like this,” Lhota said.
“Everything [Bloomberg] represents to the rest of the world is totally contrary to the way he’s treating Rudy Washington.”
Another former Giuliani aide, Randy Mastro, demanded the city “cease its appeal.”
John Sweeney, chief of the city Law Department’s workers compensation division, last night said his office and Washington’s lawyers are “currently in discussions about the case.”
Sources said city officials routinely appeal such rulings because they concerned about financial liability.