Newsday from New York, New York • 14

4 14 A Weekly Report on City People and Issue in the Capital By Jack Sirica A PAIR OF.UPSET STOMACHS --5s-V Anyone who ever wondered whether New York City Comptroller Elizabeth Holtz man and Staten Island Borough President Guy Mo-linari can stomach one another had only to be within earshot of the pair the other day to realize that tiie answer most likely is: NO. Outside a House hearing room Monday where both had testified on the subject of the Staten Island Homeport Democrat Holtzman for shutting down the facility and Republican Molinari for keeping it open Holtzman confronted Molinari about his testimony that she had turned down a classified Navy briefing on the port This exchange ensued: Molinari: Well, let me ask you this: Have you asked for a briefing? How can you take this position without asking for a briefing? Holtzman: Im not sure the Navy would be willing to supply it Molinari: Oh, come on. The Navy has provided anyone who has asked for a briefing. Holtzman: Listen, you didnt know what you were talking about and you said it anyway. Molinari: I know a little more about the city, I think, than you do.

To make the outrageous statement that you have here today. Holtzman: I dont agree with you about that. Molinari: You would take a briefing? Holtzman: Im happy to. Holtzman then turned and walked away. Without even a goodbye.

Hu Npf Yotfc Historical Society The 105-year-old Pier off the Battery, has fallen into disrepair since its heyday earlier in the century. An aerial photo shows the British liner Lusitanias first appearance in New York Harbor on Sept 13, 1907. only justified but necessary. Nonetheless, Solarz said he was unconcerned that he had made few new friends among the Wisconsin party activists. Usually people go out there just to win friends rarely to influence people, Solarz said.

I had no illusions about who was likely to be at this convention, but I felt strongly enough about the future of the Democratic Party that I felt it worthwhile to tell people not necessarily about what they wanted to hear, but what it would be useful to hear. if they want to recapture the White House. The $18 million project would include a visitors center, a dty museum and several restaurants. A city marine firehouse operates from the pier now. But not everyone at the hearing supported redevelopment.

Mtuxy Benstock, executive director of the New York City Clean Air Campaign, argued that intrusions into the water such as a planned deck and new pilings would be unnecessary because adequate space for proposed construction existed on dry land. Benstock also said the premature granting of a non-navigable designation could prejudice decisions about other permits. NAVIGATING IN TROUBLED WATERS I SOLARZ BEFORE A CRITIC AL AUDI ENC EJ To seek to declare the waters around a port non-navi gable" would seem pointless. But thats what Rep. Ted Weiss (D-Manhattan) and the New York City Public Development among others, asked of a House subcommittee last week in an attempt to promote the redevelopment of historic Pier at the foot of Battery Park City.

The supporters request resulted from a nearly century-old federal statute that gives the government tiie right to condemn without compensation anything built in navigable waters. The feds definition of navigable waters is pretty sweeping: They include all waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tide, andor non-tidal waters which are presently used, or have been used in the past, or could with reasonable improvements be used in the future, to transport interstate or foreign commerce. The definition applies to the Hudson River. And, as the Army of Corps of Engineers put it, a cloud hangs over the title to any property in navigable waters, making it difficult to obtain financing. Without action now, Weiss told a House Public Works subcommittee last Wednesday, the Pier A project would experience long delays in commencing construction and significant difficulties in attracting private investment.

The 105-year-old pier had served as the welcoming Bite for such notables as Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Ear hart, but lately has fallen into disrepair. No matter how hard he tries. Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-Brooklyn) cant get Democratic activists to buy his argument that the war against Iraq was worthwhile. Recently, Solarz plied this notion at a state Democratic convention in liberal Wisconsin and mostly what he received were boos and hisses.

It told me something I basically already knew: There is a not-insignificant pacifist element which is disproportionately represented among political activists in the party, Solarz said afterward. The convention during the weekend of June 15 served more or less as a magnet for many of the Democrats who have been mentioned as potential presidential candidates in 1992. Solarz, who insists that he is not a candidate, but who Bays he might accept a draft if all the potential nominees were far-left wingers, noted that the Democrats "could very easily lose the presidential election on foreign policy. There were jeers as Solarz said: We must demonstrate that we recognize that while force should always be a last resort, last is not the same as never, and that there are times when war is not Five men on the Supreme Court and another one in the White House have scorned fairness for women. 9 Planned Parenthood president Faye Wattleton on the recent Supreme Court decision banning federally funded clinics from dispensing Information on abortion THE MAIN EVENT VOTES LAST WEEK BY AREA MEMBERS OF CONGRESS CRIME BILL PROVISIONS.

The Senate June 20 voted 55-41 to strike a provision from the omnibus crime bill that would have allowed minorities to challenge a death sentence as discriminatory If statistics showed a disproportionate number of their race being condemned to die. The provision, known as the Racial Justice Act, would have reversed a 1987 Supreme Court decision by allowing minorities to use statistics to prove discriminatory treatment in the administration of capital punishment Members voting against the provision argued that studies being used to determine racial discrimination are inconclusive. Supporters claimed that while the legislation would not abolish the death penalty it would distribute fairly the sentencing of the capital punishment Voting against the Racial Justice Act: D'Amato (R). Voting for: Moynihan (D). HIGHWAY RATIOS.

Before passing legislation to restructure federal spending on transportation systems, the Senate rejected, 53-44, an attempt June 19 to maintain, rather than lower, the current federal matching ratios for interstate maintenance and bridges. The amendment would have kept the federal funding share for interstate maintenance at 90 percent and bridges at 80 percent The legislation as later passed by the Senate would lower the federal share to 80 percent for interstate maintenance and 75 percent for bridges in exchange for establishing a $37.2 billion fond that states could use for any surface transportation project. Voting to kill the amendment to maintain current funding ratios: Moynihan (D), D'Amato (R). HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES. At the conclusion of India's national election June 19, the House approved, 271-144, an amendment that urged the government of India to promote adherence to worldwide human rights standards, but stopped short of reducing development aid to the nation.

Voting to condemn human rights abuses in India but not reduce aid: Engel (D), Rake (D), Ackerman (D), Scheuer (D), Manton (D), Owens (D), Solarz (D), Scheuer (D), Towns (D), Green (R), Rangel (D), Weiss (D). Voting against: Schumer (D), Molinari (R). Not voting: Serrano (D). NEW YORK NEWSOAY, MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1991 1 mm.