CANDIDATES DUKE IT OUT

At its Oct. 1 meeting, the Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association (RPOCA) hosted a debate between the two candidates for the 30th City Council District seat, the incumbent Council Member Elizabeth Crowley (at far left) and former Council Member Thomas Ognibene (second from left). Moderated by RPOCA President Charles Ober (at far right), the duo was asked questions by a three-person panel: (from left to right) RPOCA board member Gae Lee Kappauf, Richmond Hill Historic Society president and Historic Districts Council board member Ivan Mrakovcic and Robert Pozarycki of the Times Newsweekly. (photo: Peter Comber) The two candidates running for the 30th City Council District seat in the November general election pulled no punches during a debate hosted by the Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association (RPOCA) at its Oct. 1 meeting at I.S. 93.

City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley and her challenger, former City Council Member Thomas Og nibene, worked to win over voters while answering questions from a panel that included Ivan Mrakovcic, president of the Richmond Hill His torical Society and board member of the Historic Districts Council; Gae Lee Kappauf, RPOCA board mem ber; and the Times Newsweekly.

Charles Ober, RPOCA’s presi dent, served as moderator and re viewed the rules for the debate. Each candidate provided two minute open ing and closing statements and had two minutes to answer each question.

The two candidates were among four individuals who ran for the 30th Council District seat in June 2008 after it had been vacated that April by former City Council Member Dennis Gallagher. That election was won by Anthony Como, who Crowley de feated that November for the right to serve out the remainder of the term, which expires on Dec. 31 of this year.

Council Member Crowley, a De mocrat from Glendale, touted a num ber of accomplishments in her 10 months in office, including working to prevent the closure of Engine Co. 271 on the Ridgewood/Bushwick border, securing priority zoning for District 24 students at a new high school to be built in Maspeth, and campaigning for lower malpractice rates for doctors.

“We’re doing things like that in politics that are thinking outside the box, making waves on whether it’s health care access or quality of life is sues,” she said. “We’re open to more suggestions to work with you, be cause you know what’s best.”

Ognibene, a Republican from Middle Village, reflected on some of the items he worked on during his previous tenure in the City Council between 1991 and 2001. He observed that he utilized his office not only to campaign for lower crime and better public schools, but also to act as a community ombudsman to address everyday issues local residents face.

“We weren’t content to just write a letter, hold a press conference, just make a phone call,” he said. “We went after the problem, we analyzed it, we looked for solutions and help from the city agencies. And when we got the solution, we fought to imple ment it.”

Both Crowley and Ognibene were asked by the Times Newsweekly about ideas they would propose to in crease the number of officers at the 104th Precinct. Ognibene stated that he talked with Mayor Michael Bloomberg (who endorsed his candi dacy) about the issue and would work to find ways to increase the law en forcement tools needed to fight crime.

“We sat down with the police cap tains to find out what they needed to make the men they had in their com mand more effective,” Ognibene said, referring to meetings we had with then Mayor Rudy Giuliani and police officials during his first term in the City Council. “We found out that they needed more police cruis ers. ... We got six police cruisers for our precinct” among other improve ments to help police operate more ef fectively, he added.

Noting that the New York Police Department has lost 4,000 officers since 2002, Crowley suggested that the city find ways to reduce wasteful spending in other agencies in order to fund the hiring of new police officers.

“Crime is on the rise, especially quality of life crime,” she said. “We cannot bridge budget gaps by reduc ing our police force. That’s no way to balance the budget. ... There are ways we can cut from certain departments in order to put more uniformed police officers on the street.”

Mrakovcic asked if the two can didates favored a proposal that would allow the Fire Department to inspect illegal occupancies if the Department of Buildings does not have the re sources or the ability to conduct in spections.

Council Member Crowley stated that she would favor such a plan, not ing that firefighters have died while battling blazes in illegally converted buildings. She indicated that the issue is a public safety matter that must be addressed by the FDNY if the Build ings Department is unable to address complaints.

On the other hand, Ognibene sug gested that the Buildings Department needs to be better coordinated in re sponding to building situations. He called for the assignment of a build ing inspector to each community board, adding that while there are enough investigators in the depart ment, they need to be more “direct and effective.”

Crowley and Ognibene also took different sides when Kappauf asked them if they would support legisla tion allowing the city to take control of its rent control laws (which are currently under the state’s purview).

The former legislator observed that the current City Council with 48 Democrats and three Republi cans leans too far to the left, open ing the door for the body to institute rent regulations that may prove too restrictive for landlords.

The current Council member stated that the city should be able to coordinate its rent control policy since “the city knows what’s best” for itself; to allow for moderate regula tions, she suggested that rent control laws should be enacted only with the support of either 2/3 or 3/4 of the Council.

The Times Newsweekly asked the two candidates about what they would do to ease overcrowding at local medical centers following the closure of St. John’s and Mary Im maculate hospitals earlier this year.

Ognibene suggested that the city establish a new entity similar to the Health and Hospitals Corporation that would take over St. John’s and Mary Immaculate and reopen the fa cilities as medical centers. He also suggested that the city provide greater funding for local volunteer ambulance corps to respond to med ical emergencies.

“We have the Health and Hospi tals Corporation, and that’s to take care of poor people, and that’s okay,” he said. “We need neighborhood hos pitals. What we want is the city to take over those hospitals and then make working arrangements with full service operating hospitals, like North Shore/LIJ, St. Francis, Cornell New York Medical Center. If we can do that, then that’s a great achieve ment for these services.”

Crowley said that she hasn’t “lost hope” that St. John’s will be pur chased by a medical group and re opened in some capacity. The legislator offered that the city help foster partnerships among doctors to share medical space. Crowley also called on the federal government to boost Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals to keep them sustain able.

“We need elected officials to en sure bonding” to reopen St. John’s Hospital, she said. “[The HHC hos pitals] are not just for the poor. We need to make sure that people in our communities that have private health insurance feel confident enough to go to private or public hospitals in our area. And we don’t do that. We cer tainly have good public hospitals.”

Some common ground Despite their differences, Crow ley and Ognibene were on the same side when it came to certain topics such as the preservation of the Ridge wood Reservoir on the Brooklyn/Queens border adjacent to Highland Park. Both candidates ex pressed favor of a plan to preserve the space as a natural sanctuary for plants and wildlife.

The current and former Council members also said they would sup port legislation allowing landlords to sub meter water systems in their apartment houses so property owners are not saddled with paying for the entire bill.

Both candidates also supported the continuation of the Department of Buildings’ self certification program, but only with certain reforms to pre vent architects and builders from sub mitting plans that do not conform with existing zoning and building codes. Crowley called for greater fines and other penalties against vio lators; Ognibene suggested that the Buildings Department monitor self certified plans more carefully.

In addition to supporting the cre ation of more landmark districts in and around Ridgewood, Crowley and Ognibene also denounced last year’s extension of the term limits law by the City Council and Mayor Bloomberg. Both candidates stated that changes to term limits should be voted on by the public through a bal lot referendum.

The next Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association is scheduled to take place on Thursday, Nov. 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of I.S. 93, located on Forest Avenue between Woodbine and Madison streets.