September 27, 2007 -- Current and former downtown-development officials launched a bitter battle of words yesterday over whether warnings about safety concerns at the former Deutsche Bank building were ignored before two firefighters were killed there.

The former official in charge of dismantling the contaminated tower at the World Trade Center site said he was berated by his ex-boss, Avi Schick, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., for talking about safety.

Charles Maikish, the ex-director of the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, said that in an early-June meeting, Schick rebuffed any attempts to discuss a May 25 memo Maikish wrote warning that the demolition contractors were not subjected to proper oversight.

Instead, Schick ripped into Maikish for penning the alarming memo, said Maikish spokesman Ken Frydman.  "[Schick] asked, 'Why did you send the memo?' [Maikish] said because it was important to document these issues and he put it in memo form for the key players," Frydman said.  "Schick apparently wasn't happy and let him know as much. He went so far as to say, according to Charlie, that he can't wait until July 15," Frydman said. 

Maikish had previously announced that would be his last day as head of the LMCCC.  Through his spokesman, Errol Cockfield, Schick insisted the meeting never happened.  Schick also said that neither he nor any other of the four LMDC officials who were sent copies of the memo got it.

David Emil, president of the LMDC, along with board members Robert Douglass, Carl Weisbrod and Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, were all sent copies of the memo, Frydman said.

As The Post reported yesterday, the memo, written a week after a pipe fell from the building onto the Engine 10 firehouse below, voiced concerns that his agency could not "safely or efficiently" manage the demolition because it lacked two supervisors to oversee the contractors.  The memo was delivered by a messenger service and there are documents proving receipt, Frydman said.

The opposite accounts of what may or may not have transpired indicate growing worries about the ongoing criminal investigation into the fire.  Investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office are probing the Aug. 18 blaze that killed firefighters Joseph Graffagnino and Robert Beddia on the 14th floor of the burning building.  The building's standpipe, which that was supposed to supply water, was broken, allowing the fire to rage out of control.

The main contractors on the job, Bovis Lend Lease and John Galt Corp., had been cited for numerous safety violations, and investigators are looking to see what role, if any, the companies played in allowing the standpipe to fall into disrepair.
Maikish's memo asked for more resources to manage the demolition.

Frydman said Bob Harvey, Maikish's former deputy who replaced him in July, helped draft the memo. In a statement yesterday, Harvey denied ever knowing about the memo.  Adding to the confusion, Cockfield said the only meeting Schick had with Maikish in early June was to discuss a multimillion-dollar publicity campaign for the LMCCC.

cbennett@nypost.com