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Nadler lauds successor to retiring boss of Hook piers

The hiring of a city commissioner with ties to the Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey to run American Stevedoring in Red Hook is being hailed
by working waterfront advocates as a move that will keep open the city’s
last working cargo port in Brooklyn.

Leading the praise of Red Hook piers boss Sabato “Sal” Catucci’s
choice of Christopher Ward, the city’s Environmental Protection commissioner
and a former Port Authority official, to run his cargo business, was Rep.
Jerrold Nadler.

Nadler said that while he was sorry to hear about Catucci’s semi-retirement
he thought Ward, who on Sept. 28 announced his resignation from the city
post, was a positive addition to the stevedoring company.

Through his spokesman Nadler said, “I thank outgoing CEO Sabato Catucci
for his years of dedication and service to the port, Brooklyn, the city
and most importantly to our economy.”

Announcing Ward’s resignation on Sept. 28, Mayor Michael Bloomberg
publicly lamented the loss of a great leader — also the highest ranking
official to leave the Bloomberg administration — to whom “all
New Yorkers owe a debt of gratitude.”

Ward, 50, is presumed to have been offered a major raise in pay from his
$162,800 job with the city. In turn, the last cargo port on the Brooklyn
waterfront has just been delivered a helmsman with stronger ties than
a sheepshank knot.

Nadler, a major ally of Catucci and supporter of maintaining Brooklyn’s
working waterfront, said the 66-year-old dock boss will be missed just
the same.

“The congressman is sorry to see Sal Catucci retire,” said Robert
Gottheim, an aide to Nadler, who nevertheless added, “It’s a
good step for the future, and for more of a working waterfront future.”

“It’s good news for Brooklyn,” said Matt Yates, a spokesman
for American Stevedoring, about the hiring of Ward, who worked as the
chief of planning for the Port Authority until Bloomberg recruited him
in 2002 to head up the DEP. Prior to that, Ward had also worked for the
city’s Economic Development Corporation and for American Stevedoring.

It is believed the hiring of Ward to run American Stevedoring, a longstanding
maritime shipping company that employs 600 people on the Red Hook Piers,
will help in current and future negotiations with the city and Port Authority
to keep the company operating on the Brooklyn piers.

As to other options for a working waterfront, Gottheim said everything
was still being discussed.

“Nothing’s been abandoned,” he said. “This month,
they should get their approval for a three-year extension of the piers,
and that will be until March 2007.” He said he hopes the ports will
only grow in their capacity for encouraging off-road shipping options.

Nadler would ultimately like to see the operations shifted to Sunset Park
as part of his push for a cross-harbor freight tunnel system linking the
Brooklyn waterfront with New Jersey.

Ward had previously worked as the Director of Business Development for
American Stevedoring.

Ward’s role may be strategically beneficial to the company, which
is still awaiting a determination by the Port Authority as to their status
of a bid for an extended lease on Piers 8-10.

Catucci maintained a defiant stance in public meetings earlier this year
with consultants hired by the city to determine the best uses for Piers
6-12. In one instance, he planted himself in the front row of the room
and offered unsolicited critiques during an hour-long presentation by
a consultant. Later, he set up his own community information meeting on
what to do with the piers.

And at the sentencing of a former Catucci business associate in May on
federal tax fraud charges, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Weinstein told
a judge that investigators had evidence establishing that Catucci and
his brother Ronald were “Gambino associates who do business primarily
out of Brooklyn.”

Catucci, who has never been charged with a crime, lashed out at the prosecutors,
saying they “must be hallucinating or be morons.”

“I don’t take crap from nobody. … I’m just a fighter,”
he said. “If that makes me a mobster, then I’m a mobster.”

Catucci went on to claim the allegation, reported by the Associated Press,
was also an attack on his ally Nadler and an attempt to derail the negotiations
over the piers.

“This was done for political reasons,” Catucci told The Brooklyn
Papers in May. “[The article] states Jerry Nadler in the beginning
and Jerry Nadler in the end. I think they’re trying to derail the
negotiations.”

American Stevedoring’s lease with the city expired in April. The
company and the city worked out a deal last month to maintain operations
on a few of the piers but it still needs to be ratified by the Port Authority.

Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said he couldn’t confirm whether
the three-year extension would be voted on at their next meeting, because
the agenda isn’t finalized until a day or so before hand.

“We are still in discussions with them on several issues, but until
the issues are concluded, the board won’t be taking any action. The
terms are still being negotiated,” Coleman said, and could not confirm
which piers were in discussion.

The Brooklyn Papers reported in August that the Port Authority had offered
a deal to American Stevedoring, which is the largest importer of cocoa
in the nation, wherein the company would be able to keep piers 8, 9 and
10, but piers 11 and 12 would presumably be assigned to cruise ships as
part of a city deal with the Carnival and Norwegian cruise lines.

Pier 7 is still a subject of contention, according to sources.

Yates said negotiations with the Port Authority were promising.

“We’re eager to continue working with everybody to ensure that
the vision of Brooklyn’s vibrant and economically vital port operations
develop to best serve the needs of all.”