NYC COMMISSIONER TIVEN'S COURTESY CALL ON

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000273 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OFDP PREL SUBJECT: NYC COMMISSIONER TIVEN'S COURTESY CALL ON AMBASSADOR RICE ¶1. New York City Commissioner for the UN, Consular Corps and Protocol Marjorie Bloomberg Tiven paid a courtesy call on Ambassador Rice on March 17. Ambassador Rice expressed gratitude for the assistance the City - particularly the New York Police Department (NYPD) - gives USUN in support of the UN and the Missions and diplomats accredited to it, underscoring that meeting our obligations is not always easy and that USUN could not do so without the City's help. Ambassador Rice indicated that Mayor Bloomberg is hosting a dinner in her honor in April, but expressed the desire to meet with the Mayor separately before then to open a substantive discussion. Commissioner Tiven agreed to set a meeting up in the near future. The Commissioner requested the opportunity for Ambassador Rice to get a briefing from Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Falkenrath, the NYPD's senior office dealing with terrorism issues, who chairs the NYC Interagency Committee that is engaged with the UN on UN Capital Master Plan security issues. ¶2. During the course of the meeting, Commissioner Tiven raised the frustration she and the Fire Department have been facing on what she termed "life and safety issues" at the UN. The UN has been slow to implement what the City sees as critical fire safety improvements in its complex, largely because "the UN doesn't seem to have the capacity to cross the cultural gulf" necessary to meet NYC fire safety codes. The City, concerned with liability issues, is concerned that a fire-related event at the UN could bring additional liability claims and "it's not good for the UN to be poorly thought of". Ambassador Rice emphasized that the UN and the City need to assume good faith and good intentions on both sides. The Ambassador stated that she believed that Under-Secretary General Angela Kane and others at the UN were good people who share our overall objective of assuring a safe and productive working environment and expressed confidence that, bearing that in mind, we would all succeed. Ambassador Rice further assured the Commissioner that USUN looks forward to working together with the City into the future on a range of issues. Rice