NYC-WTC_000230671

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document Damocratle candidnins Femanda Ferrer, loft, and Mark Greon belore debato Green Has Harsh Words for Ferrer By Robert Polner and Curtis Taylor STAFF WRITERS Mark Green criticized rival Fernando Ferrer on the campaign trail yesterday for waiting nearly three wocks since the destruction of the World Trade Center to pro- pose a recovery plan. Ferrer detailed his plan on Mon- day, “two weeks after | first spoke out and one week after I noted his silence,” said Green in an unusu- ally barbed statement. . Green, the city’s two-term pub- lie advocate, fired the shot as he rolled out additional details of hia own proposal for a mayor-gover- nor authority to solicit and spend billions in federal disaster aid. “There are some rea) differenc- es in our approaches, and consid. erable omissions,” said Green, embroiled in a close and increas~ ingly negative Democratic mayor- al runoff. Green's statement appears crafted to seize back the momen- turn that Ferrer gained by coming out against Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's attempt to pressure the State Legislature to allow him to stay in office for an extra three months. Green hopes to make the re- maining days before the Oct. 11 runoff a test of which candidate has the moat smarty and beat ad- visers to pull the city through its’ darkest hours. For Green, the need to change the topic appears obvious. Ferrer, the Bronx borough president, has often dominated the conversation in recent days by- repeatedly charging that Green’s bowing to Giuliani’ resurging popularity was @ sign of weakness, and he even asked at one point: “Why i 18 a candidate wasting the time of the electorate if he is not ready for a crisis?” John Del Cecato, a Ferrer cam- paign spokesman, responded to, Green's ‘oritcism: “Borough Presi- dent Ferrer understands that this (the Trade Center recovery] is an extremely important matter that warrants .a deliberative process and a thoughtful, collaborative discussion with leaders through- out the city. So that’s what he did _before releasing his framework. He didn't think it waa appropri- ate for him to have a knee-jerk re- action and two-page press release 48 hours after (he tragedy.” On a busy day for the Demo- crata, Ferrer picked up the en- dorsement of the Rev. Floyd Flake, leader of the 12,000-:mein- ber Allen’ AME Church in Queens, Newsday: Phote 4 Kon Sawchuk NEWSDAY, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2001 PARRA warren tines NYC-WTC_000230671 CITY. 21MC100_011830714