Steven Fiedler - Queens Person Of The Week: Dedicated Volunteer Keeps Juniper Valley Park In Tip-Top Shape By: Angela Chen - NY1.com

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The latest Queens Person of the Week is Middle Village resident Steven Fiedler, who for the past decade has spent his only day off from work to help maintain Juniper Valley Park.

St. Saviour's Backers Fight Development by Rebecca Henely - YourNabe.com

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Maspeth Development LLC has filed plans to build warehouses on the former site of St. Saviour's Church in Maspeth, despite community activist and political support for parkland on the spot.

Despite efforts by area politicians and activists to preserve the property, Scott Kushnick, developer at Maspeth Development LLC, said he is moving forward with plans to build warehouses at the former site of St. Saviour’s Church at 57-40 58th Street in Maspeth.

“It would be a shame if there were warehouses built there,” said Maspeth resident and activist Christina Wilkinson.

The site has long held the interest of western Queens activists, who want to preserve the area as parkland. The land was sold to Maspeth Development in 2006, which formerly wanted to sell the land or develop it as apartment buildings. In 2008, Maspeth Development, LLC, donated the church building to the Juniper Park Civic Association and allowed the group to remove the 163-year-old church from the site. The Association dismantled it piece by piece to be rebuilt later.

Bob Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, said in an e-mail the church would be rebuilt either at the original site, if the city can acquire the land as the association hopes, or it would be at All Faiths Cemetery at Middle Village.

“The St. Saviour’s site is one of the last historic properties in Queens County,” Holden said. “It must be saved.”

The plan to turn the site into a parkland is supported by the area’s elected officials.

“Maspeth has been under-served when it comes to park space and we need to seize on this opportunity to invest in open space for the residents of Maspeth,” City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) said in a statement. “That is why Borough President [Helen] Marshall and I secured $1.5 million to acquire park space in this area of Maspeth. I hope the owners of the property see this commitment and begin negotiations to sell the property to the city as soon as possible.”

Yet Kushnick said the offer from Marshall and Crowley was not a “real offer” since he paid between $7 million and $8 million for the property.

“The amount of money that they have is a fraction of the value of this property,” Kushnick said.

He has submitted plans for warehouses to the city Department of Buildings, which have not been reviewed yet.

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Wilkinson said she does not see the purpose of building warehouses on the site, pointing out that the West Maspeth area already has many empty warehouses.

“I’m not a businessperson, but to me that just doesn’t seem like a very smart decision,” she said.

Wilkinson said she believed the developers should see the money raised by Crowley and Marshall as the city making a commitment to turning the area into parkland.

“The problem is he’s not negotiating with the city,” she said.

Holden also called upon Mayor Michael Bloomberg to help.

“He should make good on his promise of building more parks,” Holden said, “especially for the neighborhoods that desperately need more greenspace such as Maspeth.”

Note: This story has been corrected since publication to reflect the fact that Maspeth Development donated the church building to the Juniper Park Civic

Middle Village Car Crash Claims Life? by Holly Tsang & Shane Miller - QueensLedger

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The residential intersection of Juniper Boulevard South and 70th Street was blocked off for hours Friday morning after a car crashed into a tree at approximately 10:30 a.m., killing the driver.

“I was watering the flowers in my yard when I heard a big bang,” said a witness, who was standing about 15 feet from the site of the crash. “It’s a different sound when metal hits wood.”

He noted there are usually four cars parked in front of the tree on any given day, but today for some reason, all the spots were unoccupied.

Details on the cause of the crash were not yet available, as police are still investigating. An officer on the scene estimated that the male victim was in his sixties.

The witness pointed out that there was no collision except with the tree.

“He lost control. Maybe he had an attack or something,” he said.

The force of the impact was so great that the car was completely destroyed, and emergency crews had to cut the victim out of the wreckage. One of the car's headlights was still lying on the sidewalk on 70th Street, about 100 feet from the scene of the accident, hours after the incident.

The witness, who asked that his name not be printed, was surprised that no relatives of the victim had arrived nearly two hours after the accident, admitting that he himself was a little shaken up.

“Every accident is a shock because it’s something you don’t expect, and you try to wish it away, but it happens,” said the witness, adding that he was so close to the site that fluid from the car sprayed the back of his shirt. “If that tree hadn’t been there, I’d be dead.”

Senator Addabbo's Middle Village Town Hall on May 20: 8pm - 10pm...

NYS Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr., will host a Community Discussion on Thursday, May 20, from 8 - 10 PM at Our Lady of Hope gym located at 61-21 71^st Street, Middle Village.

Addabbo will discuss issues that are important to his Middle Village constituents: jobs, transportation, Juniper Valley Park, education, public safety, traffic, parking, sanitation, the new voting machines, the 2010-2011 state budget, the 2010 Census, and programs to benefit our veterans and seniors.

The current legislative session in Albany will also be covered during an anticipated lively exchange with the audience. “There are residents who are unable to see me during working hours and have issues they want to have addressed. I want to be there for them,” Addabbo stated.

For further information on the community discussion, please call Senator Addabbo’s Howard Beach district office at 718-738-1111 or his new Middle Village office at 718-497-1630

New York & Atlantic Railway to Spend $1 Million to Curb Train Emissions in Glendale by Lisa L. Colangelo - NY Daily News

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Glendale residents living next to the Otto Road rail yards got some good news Tuesday when New York & Atlantic Railway announced it will spend $1 million to cut emissions on its 11-unit fleet.

Neighborhood and environmental activists have long complained about noise and pollution from diesel engines idling there.

Railway officials said the work, which will "lower its carbon footprint by 35%," should be completed by the end of the year.

Most of the funds will come from a U.S. Department of Transportation grant through its Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program. The railway will kick in about 20% of the cost.

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall said the change will "dramatically reduce emissions and lower noise related to idling engines."

Railway officials said the trains will be retrofitted with devices that monitor the temperature of the water in the engines. They will also ensure the water is heated, reducing the need to keep the engines idling. Currently, they are kept running so their temperature does not drop below 38 degrees.

Residents of Glendale, Middle Village and Maspeth - neighborhoods bisected by the railroad tracks - have said the CSX and New York & Atlantic Railway trains are a ongoing source of problems in their areas.

They formed a group called CURES - Civics United for Railroad Environmental Solutions - to address the issues.

Some Middle Village residents have said the noise and stench from trains carrying trash in the early morning hours make it impossible to get a good night's sleep.

And Glendale homeowners who live alongside New York & Atlantic's Otto Road facility said noise and pollution are a constant headache.

Railway officials said they have worked hard to improve air quality along its 269-mile freight route.

"This is a step in the right direction," said Mary Parisen, a founding member of CURES. "But we want them to address other issues, such as scheduling of these trains. People are hearing trains banging [from trains coupled] at all hours of the night."

Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association and a member of CURES, hailed the latest effort, but noted it "doesn't solve the quality of life problems for people living near the tracks."

Queens Journal - Juniper Park Civic Association Flexes Its Muscles by Fernanda Santos - NYTimes.com

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Robert F. Holden, left, the president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, and John Killcommons, the vice president. Uli Seit for The New York Times

All manner of politicians have made it a point to show up at meetings of the Juniper Park Civic Association in Queens: City Council members; Representative Anthony D. Weiner, who represents parts of the borough; and even George E. Pataki when he was governor of New York.

The Juniper Park Civic Association has fiercely fought a proposal that would bring a truck depot to Maspeth, Queens.

Mayors past and present have also made the trip — from Edward I. Koch to Rudolph W. Giuliani to Michael R. Bloomberg. In fact, Mr. Bloomberg, who has visited the group four times, once called it “the most successful civic association in the city.”

The association, which represents Middle Village and Maspeth, proudly highlights the mayor’s compliment on its membership forms.

Mr. Bloomberg just may have a point. The group’s track record suggests it knows a thing or two about getting what it wants.

When a 24-hour 7-Eleven store opened in Middle Village in 2005, its members threatened a boycott until the owner installed 16 surveillance cameras to discourage loitering.

That same year, Representative Jerrold Nadler proposed a rail tunnel linking Brooklyn to New Jersey that would include a large truck depot in Maspeth.

In response, the association put up a billboard over the Long Island Expressway that read, “Congressman Nadler Wants 16,000 More Trucks a Day to Exit Here.” The ultimate fate of the depot as well as the tunnel is unclear.

The group, which was founded in 1938 under a different name, also helped defeat a plan to build a Home Depot on a lot owned by KeySpan in neighboring Elmhurst. Instead, Mr. Bloomberg got the company to donate the land for a park, which is what the association had wanted.

The group is now fighting with the city’s Department of Transportation to limit Maspeth to local truck traffic to prevent trucks traveling through Queens and bound for Brooklyn from using the neighborhood’s streets.

About 300 people typically fill the public school auditorium where the civic association’s meetings are held. It claims 1,670 members, many of them proud homeowners with multigenerational ties to the area who typically vote for candidates based on what they have done for the neighborhood.

It is no surprise, then, that politicians are keen to pay the group proper respect by making time to accept the association’s invitations. “We’re watchdogs,” said Lorraine Sciulli, 75, the association’s first vice president and the editor of The Juniper Berry, the group’s 64-page quarterly magazine. “We’re the people who stand up and say: ‘Wait a minute! You can’t do that in our neighborhood.’ ”

Still, some of the tactics the association uses to make its arguments have provoked a backlash. “They either work very well with you or they don’t work well at all, depending on whether you agree with them,” said City Councilwoman Elizabeth S. Crowley, who represents the area. The Queens borough president, Helen M. Marshall, said the group’s persistence could sometimes be alienating. “I’ve seen them go after politicians who don’t do what they want, and it’s murder,” Ms. Marshall said.

Joseph Pisano, 48, who lives in Middle Village with his wife and their two giant schnauzers, is the president of another local community group, the Juniper Valley Park Dog Association. For two years, the group has tried to build a dog run in the park, but it has faced intense opposition from some of the civic association’s members. “It’s their way or no way,” Mr. Pisano said.

Even Mr. Bloomberg, who was twice named man of the year by the association, in 2003 and 2006, has fallen out of the group’s favor.

In recent issues of The Juniper Berry, he has been blamed for things like crime (“We pay huge amounts in taxes and yet know that the police are short-staffed,” the group’s secretary, Robert Doocey, wrote in the December issue), construction violations (“The buck must stop at the desk of Mayor Michael Bloomberg,” its president, Robert F. Holden, wrote in September) and illegal immigration (“He thinks he could sustain the drain on our tax dollars by illegal aliens who do not pay taxes into the system,” Ms. Sciulli wrote in March).

The turning point in what was once a friendly relationship came in 2006, Mr. Holden said, when firefighters booed Mr. Bloomberg during an appearance at a civic association meeting over the possible closing of firehouses. That same year, the association sued the city, claiming that an informal policy allowing dogs to be off a leash in parks during certain hours was illegal. It lost the lawsuit, but the litigation forced the city to make the policy official.

Then came the Bloomberg administration’s denial of landmark status for St. Saviour’s, an old Gothic-style church in Maspeth that was bound for demolition, but was spared after the association intervened. It has been dismantled and will be reassembled at a local cemetery; Ms. Marshall’s office has set aside $1.4 million for the project.

At a rally in July 2008 that the association organized to save the church, someone in the crowd had a sign with a noose and the words “reserved for,” followed by the names of several city officials, including Mr. Bloomberg. The administration threatened to cease dealing with the group if Mr. Holden did not apologize, which he refused to do.

“Bloomberg is our mayor,” said Mr. Holden, a graphics design professor at New York City College of Technology. “We elected him, and we have a duty to hold his feet to the fire, which is exactly what we’ve been doing.”

Stu Loeser, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, did not want to publicly comment about the group’s views of the mayor except to say: “It’s great when civic groups honor the mayor. But they’re mistaken if they think that’s going to tip the balance in their favor.”

Mr. Holden said that City Hall no longer responded to his letters or complaints — for example, over what he said was the city’s failure to shovel public sidewalks after snowstorms. Mr. Bloomberg has also changed his position on the freight tunnel that Representative Nadler proposed: he is now a proponent.

On recent balmy Wednesday morning, Mr. Holden was holed up in his home office in Middle Village, putting the final touches on the March/April cover of The Juniper Berry. It featured an illustration of Mr. Bloomberg conducting a freight train loaded with garbage bags under the headline, “City’s Waste Management Plan Dumps on Us.”

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for New Playground at PS 117 November 20, 2009

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at PS 117 November 20, 2009
Photo by lancmanoffice

Assemblyman Rory Lancman, Councilman Jim Gennaro and Juniper Park Civic Association President Bob Holden at the ribbon cutting ceremony today, November 20, 2009, for the new playground at PS 117...

City Mulling Acquisition of St. Saviour’s by Jeremy Walsh - TimesLedger Newspapers

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As preservationists continue to clash with the owner of the land where the 162-year-old St. Saviour’s Church once stood, the city may be making its first tentative steps toward acquiring the property.

The land at 57-40 58th St. has been on the market since 2006 when groups like the Juniper Park Civic Association began advocating for the preservation of the wooden structure. Recently the land owner, Maspeth Development, switched to a new real estate company. Manhattan-based Berko & Associates has listed the property for $8.5 million.

Borough President Helen Marshall’s office contacted the real estate company Oct. 14, said Newtown Historical Society President Christina Wilkinson. Marshall’s office also contacted the nonprofit Land Trust Alliance about getting the land put on the list for the $60 million Environmental Protection Fund allocation the state plans for the 2009-10 fiscal year, Marshall spokesman Dan Andrews said.

Getting St. Saviour’s on the list would require the support of elected officials who cover the area, including state Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach), who said he wanted to research the fund before throwing his support behind it.

“We have to make sure there are no strings attached,” he said. “We still want to make sure that the community, the residents would have input as far as the future fate of the property.”

Wilkinson said the next step is for the city Parks Department to ask the Department of Citywide Administrative Services for an appraisal of the land.

In the meantime, she and others have taken to monitoring the progress of construction equipment at the site. A partial stop-work order was slapped on the property last week after a retaining wall collapsed during excavation work, but it appeared to have been lifted by Monday.

A DOB official said the developer will have to get an engineer’s report and remediation plan to address the retaining wall problem.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Wilkinson said. “We just keep calling it in, calling it in and they keep sending me the same thing. If I tell them they’re starting before 7 o’clock, then what’s the purpose of coming at 9?”

The city’s interest in the site appeared to have begun this summer.

In an Aug. 28 letter to a Ridgewood resident, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe wrote that “while we could not justify the forcible acquisition of the site through condemnation, we would consider purchasing the land if the current owners are now willing sellers.” The letter was a milestone for civic leaders in the area who previously understood the Parks Department was not interested in the property.

The church was built in 1847. The same Episcopal congregation worshiped there until the mid-1990s, when it disbanded. A Korean church then bought the property and held services there until 2002, when it sold the land to a developer.

Preservationists succeeded in getting the church dismantled and, with the help of Marshall and City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village), are raising the funds to rebuild it at All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village.

10 Cherry Trees Downed: Vandals at Root of Growing Problem Around Queens by Lisa L. Colangelo - NY Daily News

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Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Assn., left, and Dorothy Lewandowski, Queens Parks Commissioner, in Juniper Valley Park where young cherry trees were cut down by vandals. The circular brown spots are where the trees once stood. Pokress for News

Someone really hates trees in Queens.

Dozens have been destroyed in the past few months - their roots torn up, branches snapped and trunks hacked.

Most of the damage has taken place at Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village, which lost 10 young cherry trees and two oaks a little more than a week ago.

Parks Department officials said this is the worst case of arborcide in recent memory.

"It looked like carnage," said Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski. The saplings had toppled over after being cut off at the base.

"It appears premeditated," she added. "They came in the park with a power saw."

A few days ago, someone ripped the limbs off several small trees at Lefferts Playground in South Ozone Park. The six plum and one redbud trees had been planted in 2003 as part of a 9/11 memorial site.

"There are a lot of disturbed people running around," said Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association.

Parks officials said more than 20 trees have been destroyed at Juniper Valley this year. Some were older trees but many were new plantings.

Parks officials and police are investigating, Lewandowski said. There are no suspects but community watchdog Holden said he had some ideas.

"There were a group of young people drinking in the park and they were chased out of here," he said. A short time later, several young trees were ripped from the ground, he said.

The incidents have dismayed locals, who use the 55-acre park like a community backyard. It is one of the most meticulously maintained parks in the borough.

"Everyone is talking about it," said Lewandowski, who lives in the area.

The Juniper Park Civic Association, along with City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley and former Councilman Tom Ognibene have offered a $2,500 reward for information about the incidents.

Crowley and Ognibene are set to face off in next month's election for the Council seat.

The young trees cost about $1,000 apiece, Lewandowski said. She expects all of them to be replaced by next spring.

"This was planned to be a grove of cherry trees," she said. "We never even got to see them bloom."

lcolangelo@nydailynews.com

Proposed Downzoning Plan to Protect Mid-Queens by Ben Hogwood - Queens Chronicle

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Tom Smith, with the Department of City Planning, presented a proposal to downzone parts of three neighborhoods on Thursday to the Juniper Park Civic Association. (photo by Ben Hogwood)

Residents in middle Queens may soon get some relief from overdevelopment in the area.

The Department of City Planning is moving forward with a proposal to rezone sections of Middle Village, Maspeth and Glendale to protect them from out-of-character, and usually unwieldy, growth.

The Juniper Park Civic Association widely welcomed the proposal, presented by planner Tom Smith, during a meeting held Thursday in Our Lady of Hope School in Middle Village.

Residents have been calling for the rezoning for years in an attempt to thwart the breakneck pace of development taking advantage of the lax zoning in the neighborhoods.

That zoning, said Smith, is not limiting enough to protect their character and as a result, large, incongruous structures have gone into one- and two-family residential neighborhoods.

“Just ride around the neighborhood, you can see them,” said Bob Holden, president of the JPCA.

One of the main problems with the zoning is that it allows for infill — the use of land within a built-up area for further construction — which enables a developer to build a structure 1.5 times the size of what it should be.

The JPCA even took on Paul Graziano, an urban planning consultant, to help survey the area and draw up a common-sense proposal.

The zoning for the 300-block project area has remained unchanged since 1961. The new zoning, if implemented, would be far more area-specific, reflecting the type of development on each block, than the current zoning, which applies blanket restrictions to the district.

Most in attendance were pleased with the proposal, but some were concerned that about 40 blocks in the study area weren’t included.

Smith said the majority of that area is composed of rowhouses that don’t fit in to zones the city already has. He also doubted that further growth would take place in these neighborhoods.

“We don’t foresee much development there,” he said. “They are built out.”

But Graziano questioned the wisdom of such a decision. He said that if the included areas get rezoned, it would push further development onto the other blocks. Like several in attendance, he wants the city to create a single-family rowhouse district, something it doesn’t currently have.

Still, he was pleased with the planning department’s proposal and said it corresponds closely to the one he drew up. “At first glance it looks pretty good,” he said. “Hopefully they keep to it.”

The plan must now go through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure before it can be enacted. The planning department intends to go before Community Board 5, which oversees the three neighborhoods, sometime in the spring, starting the process.

The board will make a recommendation on the proposal, which will then move on to the Queens Borough President’s Office, the City Planning Commission and finally the City Council.

Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village), who took up the project even prior to being seated this year, said she hopes to make it law by May, beating the current downzoning record held by Park Slope in Brooklyn.

The area included in the proposal has been divided into four sections.

The first section, in Maspeth, is bounded by 59th Street, Mount Olivet Cemetery, the Queens-Midtown Expressway and Admiral Avenue.

The second section, in Middle Village, is bounded by the Queens-Midtown Expressway, Woodhaven Boulevard, Mt. Olivet Cemetery, 80th Street, Juniper Boulevard and Lutheran Avenue.

The third section, in eastern Glendale, is bounded by Woodhaven Boulevard, 76th Avenue, 88th Street, 77th Avenue, 80th Street and Cooper Avenue.

The fourth section, in western Glendale, is bounded by the Long Island Railroad, 70th Avenue, 69th Place, Myrtle Avenue, 73rd Street and Mt. Carmel Cemetery.

Juniper Civic Congratulates Liz Crowley and Joe Addabbo -

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Christina Wilkinson, Joe Addabbo, Lorraine Sciulli, Robert Holden and Amy Holden

The Juniper Park Civic Association congratulates City Councilwoman-elect Elizabeth Crowley and State Senator-elect Joseph Addabbo on their decisive victories this Election Day. Their margins of victory were:

Joe Addabbo - 57%; Serphin Maltese - 42%
Elizabeth Crowley - 56%; Anthony Como - 44%

Christina Wilkinson, Lorraine Sciulli, Elizabeth Crowley and Robert Holden

We thank Senator Maltese for two decades of dedicated service as our State Senator.

The race for State Assembly District 30 went as follows:

Marge Markey - 68%; Tony Nunziato - 32%

While we are disappointed that Tony did not win, we are happy to retain him on our executive board so that he may join us in working closely with our new representatives on our neighborhood's key issues.

Email: cwilkinson@junipercivic.com

Juniper Park Civic Association Debate Night - October 30th at Our Lady of Faith Church

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Liz Crowley Fundraiser at Woodhaven House, Middle Village - Friday September 26th...

City Council Candidate Liz Crowley with Councilman David Weprin

The Crowley Sisters...

Community Board 5 Members Patty Crowley and Steve Fiedler

Suraci Drops Out; 2 Are No-Show in JPCA Debate by Austin Considine - Queens Chronicle

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For those keeping track, and depending on one’s politics, Tuesday May 20 may go down in history as the most pivotal — or, at least controversial — day of the District 30 special election to replace the disgraced former Councilman Dennis Gallagher.

Most significantly, the day saw the elimination of Joseph Suraci, a Middle Village lawyer, who was widely seen as the election’s anti-establishment Republican.

At a Board of Elections hearing in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, the board voted unanimously to strike his name from the ballot for failure to obtain enough signatures.

Rules for the special election had required candidates to gather 986 signatures in order to appear on the ballot. According to the BOE clerk’s report, Suraci only filed 828.

Before a candidates debate in Middle Village that evening, hosted by the Juniper Park Civic Association, Suraci told reporters that he had a date in federal court scheduled for the the next day, where he planned to file a show cause order.

Citing regular election rules, which allow candidates six weeks to collect their signatures, he said he would be filing suit against the BOE for violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Suraci called into the Queens Chronicle on Wednesday morning, however, to announce that he had decided to drop out of the race, citing “too much aggravation, too much stress.”

That Suraci even showed up at the JPCA debate Tuesday night, despite having been kicked off the ballot, set him apart from two candidates still on the ballot who failed to appear: Middle Village Republican Anthony Como, and Glendale Democrat Elizabeth Crowley, both of whom have the backing of their respective county parties.

Ridgewood Democrat Charles Ober and Middle Village Republican Tom Ognibene, the only two of the four balloted candidates to appear for the debate, said they had received a call after 4 p.m. from Walter Sanchez, publisher of the Queens Ledger, inviting all candidates to a meeting so he could determine whom to endorse in his paper.

Robert Holden, who lambasted both candidates for failing to appear, said he had emails from all the candidates confirming that they would attend. Before the debate, he received phone calls from Como and Alyson Grant, Crowley’s campaign manager, canceling for the evening.

According to Holden, Como cited a meeting with an unspecified newspaper as the reason for his absence, while Grant cited an unspecified scheduling conflict.

“What does that tell you about their character?” Holden asked the audience, referring to the no-show candidates. At the end of the debate, he closed by asking audience members to “please remember these candidates who insulted you tonight.”

Holden also pointed an accusatory finger directly at Sanchez for calling the meeting at the same time as the debate, which was widely publicized.

“The Queens Ledger has been at odds with the Juniper Park Civic Association for quite some time,” he said.

After the debate, Sam Esposito, Ober’s campaign manager, noted that Sanchez had left them the option of coming after the debate, which they intended to do.

With two candidates missing, the debate was a spirited affair, with attacks on the missing candidates coming from all sides.

Members of JPCA asked Ober and Ognibene several questions throughout the evening, including questions about Crowley’s past campaign finance violations, which incurred over $56,000 in fines, and about a house Como is building in Middle Village — a house many have characterized as out-of-character in a district where overdevelopment is a major issue.

Ognibene presented the audience with a blown up photograph of Como’s house, which Department of Buildings records show has garnered 14 violations and 21 complaints.

Ober, fresh from having received a key endorsement from Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) earlier that afternoon, presented himself as a candidate with deep ties to the community and a history of civic action — including, most notably, efforts to clean up crime along the Queens-Brooklyn border and to help write and pass the city’s Graffiti Nuisance Abatement Law.

Ognibene, who touted his 10-year history of service as the former councilman for the district, had spent a chunk of his day at the BOE hearing to defend himself against objections to his petition filed on behalf of Como. Of the 2,057 signatures he submitted, 1,318 were determined to be valid, allowing Ognibene to stay on the ballot.

After the hearing, Ognibene called the objections “very disingenuous,” referring particularly to allegations by Como that some of his signatures had been fraudulent. One issue was the validity of signatures gathered by witnesses from outside the district, which state election law prohibits, but was unclear on the Special Election ballot forms. The BOE ruled to keep signatures collected by those witnesses, citing previous court rulings on the matter.

Council Debate Snubs Prompt 'Character' Jab | NYPolitics.com

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Two candidates in the June 3 special election to replace ex-City Councilman Dennis Gallagher backed out hours before a debate this week in what was seen as a political snub by the event’s host.

Democrat Elizabeth Crowley and Republican Anthony Como had pledged to attend the Juniper Park Civic Association’s debate Tuesday night, but both bailed out via phone message shortly before it was to begin, said association President Bob Holden.

Both candidates ditched the debate in order to meet with the editorial board of a Queens weekly newspaper, the candidates confirmed to the Daily News.

Holden said the pair feared being asked tough questions.

“To me, this is disgraceful,” Holden told the 150-person crowd at Our Lady of Hope in Middle Village. “They made a commitment in writing to us, the neighborhood, and then at the last minute they renege. What does that tell you about their character?”

Crowley chose the option that would “allow her to communicate with a broader audience,” her campaign manager, Alyson Grant, said in a statement.

Como said he chose the newspaper meeting for the same reason when faced with a conflict after the debate was rescheduled.

Como and Crowley’s absence left only former Republican Councilman Tom Ognibene and Democrat Charles Ober to answer questions.

Kew Gardens lawyer Joseph Suraci - who had previously campaigned in the nonpartisan 30th Council District race - failed to secure enough signatures to appear on the ballot.

Of the no-show pair, Crowley took the hardest hits, as Ognibene and Ober blasted her for campaign finance violations in her unsuccessful 2001 bid against Gallagher, who resigned from office in April after pleading guilty to sex-abuse charges.

Crowley was fined $56,267 for exceeding spending limits and for failing to explain allegations of money order fraud, according to a 2005 Campaign Finance Board audit. She is currently ineligible to receive public matching funds in the special election.

Ober called Crowley’s campaign indiscretions arrogant. But Ognibene was far more critical, accusing her of manipulating laws designed to protect taxpayers.

Grant said in a statement that Crowley is adhering to campaign spending limits while continuing to pay off her 2001 debt.

Ognibene said candidates should not be allowed to run for office again until they pay off all campaign finance penalties.

“It’s an outrage,” he said. “If you owe a parking ticket, see how long you can go owing the city $56,000.”

The Campaign Finance Board announced Wednesday the first payment of public matching funds to qualifying candidates. Como received $75,192 while Ognibene got $58,351.

Source: NY Daily News