9/11 Memorial Settles With Manager Who Queried Safety

The Sept. 11 Memorial has settled with a former manager who said he was fired for flagging health and security concerns at a place steeped in safety consciousness.

Thomas Cancelliere had said he lost his job as the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum facilities director last year because he alerted bosses to problems including illness-causing bacteria in the Memorial’s signature fountains, narrow exit gates that could hinder an evacuation and a lack of security checks at a public parking garage directly below the off-site room where Memorial visitors are screened.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Cancelliere’s concern for the safety of visitors was not shared by his supervisors,” who told him the issues weren’t his responsibility or were being addressed, but they weren’t, his lawsuit said.

When the suit was filed, a Memorial spokesman said that Cancelliere’s concerns were unfounded and that he had been dismissed for bad job performance. The fountain water was never found to have the bacteria Cancelliere named, an algae problem was resolved and posed no danger, and the exit gates passed muster in a roster of regulatory reviews, they said.

This article appeared in print on page 5 of the June 21st, 2013 edition of Hamodia.