Politics & Government

Mayoral, Council Candidates Talk Stop and Frisk, Education at Bay Terrace Forum

Forum draws candidates for mayor, City Council, public advocate and comptroller.

The Bay Terrace Community Alliance held a forum Tuesday night that drew six City Council contenders, eight mayoral candidates, four public advocate competitors, a comptroller candidate and an unexpected stand-up comedy routine.

Five Democrats – Paul Graziano, Paul Vallone, Chrissy Voskerichian, Austin Shafran and John Duane - and one Republican – Dennis Saffran - competing for Councilman Dan Halloran’s seat spoke to the standing room-only crowd on everything from the long-awaited comfort station at Little Bay Park to the NYPD’s stop and frisk tactics.

Mayoral candidates Christine Quinn, Anthony Weiner, Joe Lhota, Sal Albanese, John Liu, George McDonald, Erick Salgado and Randy Credico took questions from the civic’s panel on a number of topics, including education and parks.

Public advocate contenders Reshma Saujani, Letitia James, Cathy Guerriero and Daniel Squadron all gave spirited performances, while Scott Stringer was the only city comptroller candidate to speak during the event.

Candidates who were absent from the forum included mayoral contenders Bill de Blasio, Bill Thompson and John Catsimatidis as well as Eliot Spitzer, who is running for comptroller.

The biggest surprise of the evening was mayoral candidate Randy Credico, a political satirist who used his time at the podium to do a stand-up routine, delivering impersonations of Richard Nixon, Ted Kennedy, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg, Ronald Reagan and Jack Nicholson to applause.

“I think anyone on this panel would be an improvement over the last 12 years,” he said.

Check out Patch’s wrap-up below of what the candidates had to say on a variety of topics.

Stop and Frisk

Graziano: I believe that we need to put much more of an emphasis on community policing. With stop and frisk, we’ve unfortunately created a situation where police seem like the enemy. Crime has decreased dramatically and it was decreasing before stop and frisk.
Liu: Stop and frisk has made it more difficult for cops to do their jobs, which is making it less safe for the city.
Saffran: I support Ray Kelly on stop and frisk, although they have to be as respectful as possible. But it keeps guns off the streets and save lives.
Salgado: You don’t see the beat cops on the street anymore. We have to go back to community policing from the Giuliani era.
Vallone: I’ve always said we must protect stop and frisk, but we must make it better. Public safety is critical in District 19.
Voskerichian: I would have absolutely voted no [on the Community Safety Act]. These two bills would handcuff police. It jeopardizes the lives of our police officers.

Participatory Budgeting
Graziano:
It’s extremely important that participatory budgeting is done correctly, which means not as a popularity contest. This year, 1,200 people voted, but there are 160,000 people in this Council district. We need more people to vote for it to work correctly.
Shafran: I think it’s been a key tool that brings people into the process. Every Council district should get fair and equal in funding.
Voskerichian: This was the first year we held participatory budgeting. It gave taxpayers a voice in how their money could be spent.

Comfort Station at Little Bay Park
Duane:
Little Bay Park: One of the first things I’d do is hold public hearings on that. We need better oversight by holding hearings and embarrassing the agencies.
Graziano: It’s a perfect example of how a project can go wrong. We need more oversight from the Council for agencies.
Saffran: It’s untenable. It’s a great project sitting there tying up parkland.
Vallone: We can’t get into Fort Totten and the parking lot is a damn mess. They said they were going to have a comfort station there – it’s not there.
Voskerichian: We need to sit down as a community and discuss our projects and priorities. I’d propose Little Bay Park to be priority number one.
Weiner: Is the comfort station done yet? Just kidding. We have been holding it in for too long. The Parks Department has to be a little more honest with us. We worship at the altar of the low bid when we hand out contract, so they have us over a barrel.

Schools
Guerriero:
Mayoral control has been an abject failure on the backs of New York City public school children. Every single stakeholder has been removed – the parents, the principals, the teachers.
Lhota: A chancellor needs to have been taught in the classroom. They must also understand how to manage large, complex organizations. We need to give teachers the resources they need.
Liu: To fix our schools, I want to restore the learning environment and stop running our schools as if they are business divisions. And let’s have someone at the top who has a background in education.
McDonald: I’d appoint an educator to the DOE who has experience in the classroom. I wouldn’t teach to the test. Teachers should be involved in developing the core curriculum.
Quinn: I support mayoral control because we want the buck to stop with the mayor. But we need to use it not in a way to keep everyone out, but to bring input in. I want to end vilifying teachers and have a real conversation with stakeholders.
Shafran: My parents are former teachers. They have gone far too long without fair labor contracts. They are the backbone of the middle class.
Squadron: The DOE will never want parents to have a louder voice. It’s not how bureaucracies work.
Weiner: I want to reward good teachers and I want bad ones out of the system. We have to make sure the incentives are right.

Which City Agency Most Needs Reform?
Duane:
I’d definitely support getting rid of the BSA. It has been the vehicle for controlling special interests in our neighborhood.
James: The BSA either needs to be abolished or radically transformed. They have ignored us because they are in the pocket of developers.
Quinn: I’m running for mayor because I want to make sure progress comes to every neighborhood in this city. It means taking on the BSA and the DOB and reforming them.
Saffran: So many people have described the frustrating process of thinking they’ve won an argument. They convince the community board and then are shot down by the BSA.
Saujani: I believe we have to get rid of the BSA. It’s an absolute nightmare. Our politicians make one promise to developers and another promise to all of us.
Stringer: The DOB is a department that can’t get everything right. We need a top to bottom review.

Miscellaneous
Duane:
I’ve not ever nor will I ever take money from a developer because it’s a conflict of interest. I’ll serve this community and not big money developers.
Guerriero: I’m not a politician. I want this job and no other. When I want to run for mayor – and I shall – I will let everyone in this room know. My last name means warrior and I will fight for you.
McDonald: I believe in a hand up, not a hand out. I think our city has an unsustainable budget.
Quinn: Parks: When appointing a Parks commissioner, I want someone who will go out there and work with community boards to get input on what needs to be done and will have a five borough vision. We have to make sure that Parks funding becomes part of the city’s baseline budget.
Saujani: I’m not a politician. I’m a young woman trying to make a difference. I think that those who drink from the well of opportunity should make sure the well never runs dry.
Shafran: Unfortunately, this campaign has been hijacked by outside spending. All but one candidate has denounced that spending. Those who hide behind attacks on people’s character lack the character to lead our neighborhood.
Stringer: I have a boy who is 19 months and a boy who is 12 weeks old, so I have the energy to do this.
Vallone: Don’t believe the smokescreen. My campaign has nothing to do with outside expenditures. What you get in your mail will said it’s paid for by me. Not once have we ever attacked anyone. I’m a good man, a father and husband.


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