Mayor asked for leniency in 9/11 report

In some cases, he succeeded in getting the commission to use not-so-harsh wording on city's performance

More than a month before the 9/11 Commission released its final report, Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to persuade the commission to craft its findings in a way that would portray the city in a better light, according to a memo obtained by Newsday.

The June 15 correspondence from Bloomberg to Chairman Thomas Kean said the city's latest written plan for handling an emergency was "consistent with federal standards." The commission concluded in its July 22 report that the city's effort "falls short of an optimal response plan" for a future attack.

Bloomberg also tried - with some success, in these cases - to sway the commission on other topics, such as problems with firefighter radios and police-fire cooperation. The commission reflected some of those concerns in its report, Al Felzenberg, a commission spokesman, said yesterday.

Bloomberg's June 15 letter used sharp wording to criticize what he portrayed as the commission's failure to be fair to the city, based on the statements of staff members. "The staff statements routinely draw negative inferences regarding actions taken by the city's police and fire departments even when there is significant evidence to the contrary," the mayor wrote. "Compelling evidence supporting alternative and favorable explanations is typically omitted. Ambiguities are always resolved in a negative fashion without mention of other possibilities, even where those possibilities have strong basis in fact or logic."

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