FOR THE RECORD

FOR THE RECORD

After we ran a story last week about a Steamfitter's angry confrontation with an asbestos supervisor, accompanied by a photo of the supervisor giving him the finger, the supervisor called to say he was guilty, with an explanation.

"From the minute I got there, all this man did was yell and scream at me," said George Palermo, the Department of Education's Asbestos Supervisor Liaison Officer of Environmental Health and Safety. "He was yelling obscenities at me. He baited me. I didn't use obscenities; I used an obscene gesture."

The incident occurred June 27, the day after another story ran in this paper regarding the complaint by Steamfitter John Kielbasa that he had been improperly disciplined for reporting asbestos hazards in city schools. When Mr. Kielbasa discovered that old safety valves that had been delivered to his work location at the Queens Area Office appeared to contain hazardous asbestos, he reported it to his supervisor.

Mr. Palermo was summoned to the building, where he said Supervisor of Mechanics Chris Dalimonte informed him, "We have an asbestos complaint."

Mr. Kielbasa told us two weeks ago that Mr. Palermo had angrily challenged his claim. Mr. Palermo said last week that it was Mr. Kielbasa who got overheated. "He came out raving and ranting about how I was threatening his life" by allowing the asbestos to be brought there.

Mr. Palermo said that as he supervised the removal of the allegedly contaminated safety valves, Mr. Kielbasa took out a camera, prompting someone else to yell, "Look out!"

When he turned and saw Mr. Kielbasa taking pictures, he said, "Inadvertently, I gave him the finger, which wasn't professional, but I was startled."

A reporter noted that most people when startled don't respond by extending their middle finger, and Mr. Palermo conceded the point but said he had become frustrated with someone who "followed me and stalked me. Whatever is going on with him and the Department of Education has nothing to do with me."

A DOE spokeswoman had declined to give his side of the story a week earlier, explaining that the agency could not comment about "a personnel matter."

Mr. Palermo was more forthcoming when asked what the DOE reaction had been to the photo of his offending finger: he has been ordered to attend a class in anger management.

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Aside from Scooter Libby himself, the person who may have been most heartened by President Bush's pre-emption of the prison sentence for Vice President Dick Cheney's former Chief of Staff was our old friend Bernie Kerik.

The ex-Correction and Police Commissioner is the target of an ongoing Federal inquiry into possible tax evasion - pertaining to his failure to report nearly $200,000 in home-improvement funds he received from three businessmen, two of them with alleged mob ties - and illegal wiretapping, stemming from former Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro's attempt to determine whether her husband Albert was cheating on her.

Mr. Bush's decision to spare Mr. Libby from the rigors of the Federal prison system before he served a day behind bars gave Mr. Kerik reason to hope that he might receive similar mercy from the current administration should his own legal troubles matriculate into criminal convictions.

He also received hope for the future, should his case outlast Mr. Bush's time in office, from the reaction of his old boss and business partner, Rudy Giuliani, whose campaign issued a one-sentence statement on the Libby commutation. "After evaluating the facts, the President came to a reasonable decision and I believe the decision was correct," Mr. Giuliani said.

That statement, coupled with our ex-Mayor's remark following Mr. Kerik's guilty pleas in Bronx Supreme Court a year ago to improperly receiving money from individuals doing business with the city that his conviction should be weighed alongside his past public service, gives Bernie reason to be optimistic about avoiding the slammer should Rudy win the White House.