Content area
Full Text
Fired Deputy Transportation Commissioner David Steinberger told the City Council Transportation Committee yesterday that DOT Commissioner Lucius Riccio once threatened to throw a memo voicing bridge safety concerns into the garbage.
Riccio, in turn, testified that Steinberger's Aug. 17 memo, which warned against returning subway service to the Manhattan Bridge, made him angry because it directly disputed earlier conversations the two had had about train service on the bridge. Riccio said that in anger, he did mention throwing the memo into the garbage. "But I did not throw it in the garbage."
Instead, Riccio filed the memo and later turned it over to the Transportation Committee, which convened for a five-hour hearing yesterday in an effort to get to the bottom of the Riccio's handling of the Manhattan Bridge.
Committee chairwoman June Eisland (D-Bronx) was non-committal on how Riccio emerged from the hearing, which had been seen as a proving ground of his viability as commissioner. Councilman Walter McCaffrey (D-Queens) said he...