Congressman Joseph Crowley (back) puts his arms on Councilman Peter Koo's shoulders during an event to announce that Koo was switching his affiliation from the Republican to the Democratic Party. Councilmen Jimmy Van Bramer (second r.) and Ruben Wills look on. Photo by Christina Santucci

Councilman Peter Koo (c.) shakes hands with state Sen. Toby Stavisky (l.). Photo by Christina Santucci

Councilman Peter Koo (front r.) shakes hands with Barbara Conacchio, the chief clerk for the Board of Elections' Queens office, after his registration card was stamped. Photo by Christina Santucci

City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) officially registered with the Democratic Party Monday at the Queens Board of Elections offices in Kew Gardens after running on the GOP line three years ago to win a seat on the Council.

Koo is the wealthy owner of the Starside Drugs pharmacy chain and self-financed his campaign.

“We cherish the diversity of our party,” said U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-East Elmhurst), chairman of the Queens Democratic Party, during a news conference Monday at the BOE. “Peter’s joining this effort is a boon to our party and I think it’s great for Flushing in particular.”

Koo said infighting within the Queens GOP was part of his decision to switch parties. He said Democrats had “more leadership” and “more members” on the Council.

“From the beginning, I was always a Democrat at heart,” Koo said.

Queens GOP spokesman Robert Hornak said the party expects to work with Koo in the future.

“We’re disappointed to see him go, but we’ve always had a good relationship with him and we think highly of him,” Hornak said.

City Comptroller John Liu, Koo’s predecessor on the Council, said Koo’s stances on social issues were more in line with Democratic views.

“The issues that he’s talked about … [are] ?really much in line with our Queens delegation,” Liu said, shortly before Koo handed in his registration form to Barbara Conacchio, chief clerk at the BOE. “So it’s only rational that Peter Koo is about to be a Democrat.”

Koo’s switch to the Democratic side means Queens has only three GOP elected officials: U.S. Rep. Bob Turner (R-Middle Village) and Councilmen Dan Halloran (R-Bayside) and Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park).

“We’re used to electing Democrats, not always converting them,” Crowley said.

After Koo’s switch, Halloran said, “political parties aren’t everything.

“Peter is still my friend and colleague, and I’ll still work with him to cut taxes and create jobs in northeast Queens,” he said.

During Turner’s race, Koo went against his party and endorsed state Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Little Neck).

When Koo ran in 2009, the Democratic field had five candidates running in the primary.

Koo also said the Republican presidential primary process “was a small part of my decision … especially on immigrant issues.

“I understand how hard it is to be a newcomer,” he said.

State Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) joked that he was mystified why Koo first joined the Republicans in the first place.

“I never quite understood why he was a Republican,” Lancman said. “Such a nice guy. He likes people, he likes the immigrant community.”

Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans), dean of the Queens Council delegation, said the party always had a good working relationship with Koo.

“We always treated you like one of our own,” he told Koo. “We always treated him as an equal part of the delegation because it’s about serving people.”

City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (pictured) was near the top of his class, according to the Urban Justice Center's Human Rights Report Card, whereas Councilman Peter Vallone's score indicated he could use some tutoring.

City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) is going to have to make some room on his fridge.

The chairman of the Council Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations had the best record of the Queens delegation on human rights issues last year, according to the Urban Justice Center’s 2011 Human Rights Report Card.

The report card identified 72 bills introduced over the past year that focused on housing, voting, disability and workers’ rights as well as issues concerning criminal and juvenile justice, health and government accountability.

Each Council member was graded on his or her votes and sponsorship of these bills as well as their response to a questionnaire.

Van Bramer voted in favor of eight bills, sponsored 52 — including two he was the primary sponsor of — and returned his questionnaire, all of which earned him an “A-.”

He fared particularly well when it came to housing rights and government accountability.

On the other end of the spectrum, Councilman Peter Vallone’s (D-Astoria) score of 12 earned him a grade of “D+,” the lowest in the borough.

Vallone was the primary sponsor of two human rights bills and sponsored three others. He voted in favor of four bills and did not respond to the questionnaire.

The councilman criticized the methodology of the report, calling into question the voting records of other Council members who scored higher than he did.

“Apparently, supporting brutal and repressive dictators gets you an ‘A’ from this supposed human rights group. I’m proud to be at the bottom of any list Charles Barron is at the top of,” he said.

Councilman Barron (D-Brooklyn), who praised the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, earned an “A” on the report card.

Council members James Sanders (D-Laurelton) and Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst) both received a “B-” and Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) got a grade of “B.”

Receiving a grade of “C” were Council members Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills), Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village), Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) and Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans).

Councilmen Peter Koo (R-Flushing), Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) and Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) each scored slightly lower: a “C-.”

Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows) got a “D+” and Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica), who took office last November, did not receive a grade.

While the report assigned each Council member a grade, its primary criticism was of the political power of the speaker and the Council’s failure to challenge that power.

Of the 72 bills introduced, only eight were brought to a vote, and the report implied this was because Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) did not support them.

Quinn’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The report cited two rules that allow the Council to advance the process of legislation that does not have the speaker’s support.

“There are no clear reasons for the Council’s reticence in taking advantage of these two rules. However, based [on] reports that the speaker readily wields political power internally, and on conversations with advocates, we speculate that failure to do so is linked with the desire of most Council members to maintain a relatively friendly relationship with the speaker,” the report read.

“However, given its impact on human rights in New York City, business as usual is not sufficient to protect our human rights. Council members should act — individually and as a collective — to challenge the status quo even in the face of political reprisals,” it continued.

George Stamatiades (c.), of the Dutch Kills Civic Association, speaks at a press conference held by Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (third from l.) calling for BSA reform. Also attending were Assemblyman Michael DenDekker (second from l.), CB 2 Chairman Joseph Conley (fourth from r.) and other civic leaders. Photo by Rebecca Henely

City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) announced last week he was introducing four pieces of legislation dedicated to reforming the city Board of Standards and Appeals.

The councilman said the BSA, which he calls a “bogus agency,” regularly ignores community protests against out-of-character developments and dismisses community board recommendations to satisfy the wants of developers. Van Bramer said that of the 2,855 appeals to the BSA by developers between 2001 and 2005, only 2.7 percent were rejected.

“These folks to go the BSA, claim a hardship and boom, they’re able to be approved,” Van Bramer said.

The BSA said they had no comment on the legislation.

Van Bramer’s first piece of legislation, called Intro 678, would create a standard procedure for the BSA that would incorporate City Planning?, community boards, borough boards, leasees and tenants into the BSA’s decision on whether to grant a variance to a developer. These groups can currently comment on a variance, but their concerns often do not factor into the decision, Van Bramer said.?

Intro 679 to 681 would expand the BSA to include appointees from the city public advocate, each borough president and each community board; create a formal complaint procedure for community members; and require the mayor’s appointees to be approved by the Council.

State Assemblyman Michael DenDekker (D-Jackson Heights), Community Board 2 Chairman Joseph Conley, CB 1 District Manager Lucille Hartmann and numerous civic leaders joined Van Bramer for his announcement Dec. 14 at a site at 64-01 Woodside Ave. in Woodside.

Van Bramer said the developer of the site has filed to create an eight-story building with 27 apartments, although the new Sunnyside-Woodside rezoning only allows for five stories and 17 apartments. The building will sit on a block with residential houses and some small businesses across the street.

“You have to ensure the quality of life in the neighborhood,” said Rose Daraio, president of the Communities of Maspeth and Elmhurst Together, “and you have to build in the context of the neighborhood.”

A number for the owners of the property, listed on the city Department of Buildings’ website as 64-01 Woodside Realty, was disconnected.

Van Bramer’s proposals are similar to two pieces of legislation Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) introduced in August.

Halloran’s bills would require the community board and the borough president to have advisory input into a BSA decision, have the BSA notify property owners when they need to apply for new variances and make the BSA levy fines if owners operate without a variance for six months.

Halloran said he was worried that Van Bramer’s idea to have the Council appoint BSA members would violate the separation of powers between the city’s executive and legislative branches, but hoped the best part of the six bills could be merged in committee meetings.

“I think Jimmy’s got some great ideas,” he said.

The United States Postal Service is proposing to close down the College Point sorting facility as part of a national consolidation effort.

A group of postal workers and two politicians voiced their opposition Friday night to the U.S. Postal Service’s proposed closure of a College Point facility that could leave hundreds of jobs in limbo.

Stephen Larkin, vice president of the Flushing chapter of the United Postal Workers Union, said that USPS has not made clear what will happen to the workers at the plant who number about 1,000.

“We have clerks, mail handlers, maintenance and motor vehicle operators that will be affected and they won’t give us any information about what they plan to do,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the USPS said that about 700 workers will be relocated to other jobs.

The proposed closure of the facility — one of nearly 300 that USPS would like to shutter across the nation at the expense of 35,000 jobs — would save the struggling system nearly $31 million, according the spokeswoman said.

Larkin said that there is a layoff clause in their contract, but that he suspects the USPS will try to circumvent it anyway.

The spokeswoman said “changes are being sought after” with regard to the contracts, though USPS would work to find everybody a landing spot.

If the plant is eventually consolidated or closed, the work would instead be done in Brooklyn or in Manhattan.

The switch would not cause any delay in service, the spokeswoman said, but USPS is changing the definition of first-class mail on a national level.

Instead of some mail arriving in one day, it will soon take two to three days if the cost-cutting proposal goes through in March and is approved by Congress.

A USPS spokeswoman said that while the mail will be slower because of the policy change, it will not be due to the consolation of facilities all over the country.

But City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) cited traffic between the two boroughs as reason to question USPS’s statement.

He also took issue as to why the Queens facility was slated for closure in the first place.

“They wouldn’t tell us how they reached the conclusion to close this the facility instead of Brooklyn,” he said.

But the USPS’s budget woes have another source as well, according to state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) who also spoke at the hearing.

In 2006 the U.S. Congress passed legislation requiring the USPS to pay pension costs for an employee upfront — a process that Avella called “absurd,” and U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside) sought to overturn by co-signing legislation earlier this year.

Pre-funding pensions means that when a new employee is hired, the USPS must pony up the money for that person’s benefits in one lump sum. It costs the postal service, which is the only agency required to do so, about $5.5 billion a year, Avella said.

Workers will find out in March whether the facility will be closed or consolidated pending congressional approval.

City Councilman Eric Ulrich will be chairing Mitt Romney’s campaign operation in the city. Photo by Christina Santucci

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has tapped City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) to head his campaign operations in New York City.

Ulrich, 26, is a rising star in the Republican Party who was first elected to the Council when he was 24.

He is one of five Republicans on the Council and among three GOP councilmen from Queens.

Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, is the frontrunner for the GOP nomination in the race to decide who will face President Barack Obama in November 2012.

The announcement came from Romney’s New York state chairman, Guy Molinari, the former Staten Island borough president and congressman.

“Since being elected in 2009, Eric Ulrich has emerged as one of the rising stars in the Republican Party,” Molinari said in a statement. “I am honored that he has agreed to work with me to ensure that Gov. Romney assembles a formidable organization here in New York City for our party’s primary and we return New York to the Republican column next November.”

Ulrich said he believes Romney is the best candidate in a crowded Republican field.

“As the debate over our nation’s future reaches a critical stage, I am certain that Gov. Romney has the experience and ideas needed to get our country moving again,” the councilman said in a statement. “In 2009 and 2010 the Republican Party in New York City experienced remarkable gains in city, state and congressional elections. I am looking forward to working with Guy Molinari to build on those successes and elect Mitt Romney the next president of the United States.”

The gains Ulrich was referring to include U.S. Rep. Bob Turner’s (R-Kew Gardens) upset victory in September over state Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Little Neck) in the special election to replace former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner and the elections of GOP City Councilmen Peter Koo (R-Flushing) and Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone).

City Councilman Dan Halloran has not played down the fact that he was caught on video swearing at employees of the Star Nissan repair shop in Auburndale.

City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) was caught on video in Auburndale last month giving an expletive-laced tongue lashing to a car shop, but instead of letting the incident fade quietly into the past, he has worn it as a badge of honor at subsequent public appearances.

“I’m not f—ing joking,” Halloran can be heard saying as a car alarm sounds in the background at the Star Nissan repair shop on 172nd Street. “Either these doors stay closed, top to bottom, all the f—ing time, or we’re going to have a problem! This is the last time we have this conversation!”

The video was posted on the Internet and covered in news reports, but Halloran has posted it himself and referred to it during later news conferences and meetings.

On Oct. 31, Halloran posted the video and an analysis of the footage on Facebook. After pointing out the noisy car alarms captured by the camera, he ended his post with an assessment of the videographer and other employees at the shop: “You F*cking morons.”

That same day, Halloran spoke at a news conference in Bayside. He stopped with a smirk several times to assure the crowd he was not going to swear.

Two days later at a Community Education Council District 25 meeting, after sternly addressing a city official, Halloran again paused and turned to the crowd.

“And I didn’t curse, notice, in case anyone’s wondering,” he said to chuckles from the audience.

While the councilman appears to enjoy the media attention, Halloran said he keeps bringing the incident up to let constituents know they can approach him about it.

“A lot of people are on edge about it,” he said. “And I make light of it because I don’t want people to think that they need to be careful about how they talk to me about the issue … I’m still a guy from the neighborhood,” he said.

Halloran was raised in his district, has owned a business, put himself through school and has never been anyone’s “political lackey,” which he said allows him to offer sometimes blunt assessments other politicians would not.

“I got a lot of, ‘Atta boy’ and, ‘Wish you were my councilman’ kind of stuff. Obviously from the Republican delegation,” he said of his fellow legislators. “But I got a lot of kudos from Democratic colleagues as well, many who are fed up with some of the nonsense they have to deal with on these same issues.”

Halloran has made no apologies for his profanity and said that he has mostly been getting pats on the back from constituents, too.

“Some of my sensitive older constituents are not comfortable with me using profanity,” he said. “But they all simultaneously praised the sentiment.”

The string of profanities came after what Halloran called two years of attempts to deal diplomatically with the repair shop, which he said had not made good on repeated promises to curb noise and traffic issues caused by the shop.

He had given the shop until Tuesday to come through with improvements like automatic closing doors and sound proofing, but the shop did not comply and the councilman scheduled a Monday news conference with city Public Advocate Bill de Blasio on how they will try to cripple the shop with violations from city agencies.

Kings County Supreme Court Judge John Ingram (r.) swears in U.S. Rep. Bob Turner at a ceremony Sunday. Photo by Rebecca Henely

Despite a disruption from a small protest, U.S. Rep. Bob Turner (R-Kew Gardens) was inaugurated Sunday at Metropolitan High School in Forest Hills before an enthusiastic crowd. The first Republican congressman to represent the district since 1923 received support from Republicans and Democrats at the ceremony.

“We are here today because Bob Turner stood up for what was right,” said Rep. Peter King (R-Massapequa Park), who acted as master of ceremonies for the inauguration.

About 150 people attended the event at the 91-30 Metropolitan Ave. schools in Forest Hills. Turner’s wife Peggy held the Bible as he was ceremonially sworn in by Kings County Supreme Court Judge John Ingram.

But the swearing-in did not go completely as planned when Astoria resident Adam Weissman, 33, yelled out a criticism of Turner during the oath and was escorted out.

Weissman said he was a part of TradeJustice, a collective of various organizations against free trade. The protest, which included two other people, was sponsored by the protest group Occupy Wall Street and targeted Turner’s ?yea vote on a free trade agreement with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. President Barack Obama signed the bill last month. Weissman said the law would outsource hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

“I was trying to say that Bob Turner, after two months in office, has already sold out the voters of Queens and Brooklyn,” Weissman said.

The interruption did not faze Turner, who received a standing ovation. After being sworn in, Turner said the country was off-track because of a drift in foreign policy, out-of-control spending and regulatory organizations that he claimed hindered business development.

“People are waking up as you’ve woken up,” Turner told the crowd. “Things are wrong.”

He also characterized Occupy Wall Street as being on “the wrong track” and said America’s capitalist system leaves people free to work and keep their profits.

“America has been a beacon to the world,” Turner said.

Turner’s win over state Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Little Neck) in the special election for the 9th District seat, which opened after former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner resigned amid a sexting Twitter scandal, was seen as an upset for the largely Democratic district. His coverage area winds through Queens and Brooklyn, including the neighborhoods of Kew Gardens, Forest Hills, Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood, Ozone Park, Rego Park, Howard Beach, Glendale, Fresh Meadows, Oakland Gardens, Rockaway Beach and Woodhaven.?

Former Democratic Mayor Ed Koch, whose endorsement of Turner was a great factor in him getting elected, said that while he has known Turner a short time, they have become good friends.

“I look forward to participating in his next election,” Koch said.

While Turner was joined for his inauguration by City Councilmen Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) and Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park), Turner’s Democratic colleagues also attended the inauguration, including state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) and Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Howard Beach).

Addabbo, who supported Weprin in the special election, said he was happy for Turner and dedicated to working with him to serve their constituents.

“People benefit when elected officials work together and that’s the oath we took,” Addabbo said.

Grace Meng chats with the Queensboro Hill Civic Association as members nosh at Flushing's Palace Diner. Photo by Rich Bockmann

State Assemblywoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) paid a visit to the Palace Diner on Main Street last week — not to chow down on burgers and fries, but to dish with members of the Queensboro Hill Civic Association about 2012 legislative initiatives such as the creation of a city liquor authority and an English-language signage bill.

Back in her district before returning to the capital in January, Meng spoke about the difficulties of relating city issues to Albany, 150 miles away, and vice versa Oct. 26.

One example she pointed to was the state Liquor Authority, which she criticized for its ineffectiveness in properly regulating establishments that sell alcohol.

“When places apply for a liquor license, the state doesn’t know what’s going on in the community,” she said. “A city liquor authority would be more responsive.”

Meng said she would also like to see businesses such as delis and gas stations to be required to seek community board recommendations for selling alcoholic beverages.

“In many ways, they’re more dangerous. Minors purchase alcohol from them and the community board has no say,” she said.

The assemblywoman also said she would work on legislation at the request of Queens District Attorney Richard Brown that would give his office the power to intervene in Housing Court proceedings. She said her office constantly receives complaints about fliers, some for illegal massage parlors, posted around the neighborhood.

“We are in America, and we can’t tell them not? to distribute flyers,” she said, admitting her own propensity for distributing fliers during campaign season.

She said landlords who wish to evict unsavory tenants often face a lengthy and sometimes prohibitively expensive process in the city’s Housing Court and that she was looking into more innovative ways to find a solution, such as allowing the DA to intervene.

Meng also said she was in the process of putting the final touches on an English-language sign bill, which would replace the one currently sitting on the books, unenforced. It calls for imprisonment for violators.

She said the legislation would work hand-in-hand with a city bill being drafted by City Councilmen Peter Koo (R-Flushing) and Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) that would have the city Department of Consumer Affairs enforce a 60 percent English-language requirement.

“This is not just a Flushing business problem. With every new wave of immigrants there is this concern,” she said. “The problem has existed for decades, and we’re not going to change the law overnight.”

City Councilman Dan Halloran (l.) hosts his second annual town hall meeting. Photo by Rich Bockmann

With representatives from a number of city departments sharing the stage with him at Holy Cross High School on Francis Lewis Boulevard, City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) hosted his second annual town hall meeting, where he sharply criticized the city for what he characterized as either neglect, malfeasance or outright targeting of his northeast Queens district.

The city Departments of Finance and Education, Water Board and Board of Standards and Appeals were all targeted by the councilman.

He took umbrage with Finance’s over-assessment of co-ops earlier this year and the DOE’s handling of yellow bus service to College Point Junior High School and its failure to provide more seats despite growth and over-saturation in his district’s schools.

He called the Water Board’s rate increase a back-door tax that fills the city’s coffers and railed against the BSA for granting unpopular variances at the Oct. 25 meeting.

As for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Halloran said he held him accountable for the reduction of 6,000 police officers and 900 firefighters since he took office, for the over-budget overhauls of 311 and 911, the CityTime scandal and for a focus on Manhattan at the expense of the outer boroughs.

“There are some things about this position that bother me, and there are some things that I really love. I don’t love hearing about city waste,” he said. “I’m going to be critical of the mayor. It is what it is.”

Halloran also invited 109th Precinct Commanding Officer Brian Maguire to update the community on crime. He said major crime in the precinct was down nearly 5 percent over the previous year, but noted that robberies, especially of rims and tires, were on the rise.

He said his precinct had successfully closed five problem bars in the area, to which Halloran quipped that Bell Boulevard in the 111th Precinct has 600 bars on one block.

The 111th precinct’s commanding officer, Capt. Ron Leyson, said robberies were up, especially among students at the precinct’s large high schools.

“They’re after the iPhones, the iPads and the iPods that are out there,” he said.

Leyson was satisfied, he said, with the precinct’s crime statistics on stolen cars for the year.

“We have 85 stolen cars for the year, which unless it’s your car is a great number,” he said.

Halloran also invited his constituents to bring their questions and concerns before representatives from some of the city’s departments.

Henry Euler, of the Auburndale Improvement Association, wanted to know what the city Department of Buildings did with all the money in fines issues for violations at construction sites. A DOB representative said the city Environmental Control Board collected the fines and that the DOB was working on a plan to place liens on property owners.

Halloran said he was working on legislation that would impose escalating fines for violations.

Vallone said increased funding and hours for receiving centers across the city does not make up for Queens not having an animal shelter. Animals found in Queens are often sent to other boroughs, like Wilbur the pig, who was found in College Point but sent to Manhattan.

City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) criticized a bill passed by his fellow Council members and championed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg that increases funding and the hours of operation for animal receiving centers but gets rid of a requirement for full-service shelters in Queens and the Bronx.

“We will probably see it rain cats and dogs in Queens before we ever see a shelter,” Vallone said.

The law provides more than $10 million in funding to Animal Care and Control, the nonprofit group which runs the city’s animal shelters. The operating hours of receiving centers, which take in animals so they can be put through the shelter system, have also been increased from eight hours a day once or twice a week to 12 hours a day seven days a week.

“This bill paves the way for a significant increase in public funding for the city’s animal shelters, which will greatly expand and improve care for homeless animals,” Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) said in a statement.

In exchange, the city will no longer be required to build two full-service shelters, one for Queens and one for the Bronx, in accordance with a law passed in 2000. Vallone Jr.’s father, former Council Speaker Peter Vallone Sr., oversaw the passage of the previous law.

The new law was passed Sept. 21, with 46 votes in favor. Four Queens councilmen — Vallone Jr., Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans), Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) and Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) — were the only ones to vote against it. Bloomberg signed the bill Tuesday.

Vallone Jr. said that while he was in favor of the increased funding and hours, a receiving center was no substitute for a shelter. He said he had heard a story about one family who lost their dog and after they eventually tracked it to a Manhattan shelter six hours later, they found the dog had been killed, with the shelter claiming it was sick. Vallone Jr. said he believed the situation could have been avoided if Queens had had a shelter.

The councilman said that since 2009, the nonprofit Stray from the Heart has sued the city Department of Health for not complying with the 2000 law and claimed Bloomberg pushed the new law to avoid an unfavorable court ruling. Stray from the Heart won its suit in New York Supreme Court, but lost a Health Department appeal that said the nonprofit did not have the standing to bring the claim to court. Vallone Jr. said the nonprofit was working to appeal the decision.

“The mayor wanted it done so there would not be a court ruling that the city was in contempt of the law and the City Council did it for him,” Vallone Jr. said.

The mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Vallone Jr.’s claim.

Last month, members of the Bayside Hills community boarded a bus to attend a city Board of Standards and Appeals hearing on a controversial plan to place a second home on the lot at the corner of 51st Avenue and 216th Street.

As the city Board of Standards and Appeals waits to reconvene the hearing involving a Bayside Hills home next month, City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) has introduced two pieces of legislation designed to give the community more recourse on uncharacteristic development.

Halloran said the bills were partly inspired by the BSA process for the home at 50-20 216th St., whose developer seeks a variance in order to build a second home next to an existing one on a subdivided lot.

Both Community Board 11 and Borough President Helen Marshall’s office oppose granting the variance. The Bayside Hills Civic Association — along with a number of politicians — have vociferously protested the application through rallies and busing neighborhood residents to the developer’s July 26 hearing in Manhattan.

The next hearing for the home is Sept. 13.

“Zoning variances are a powerful tool, which some developers have used to fundamentally change our neighborhoods,” Halloran said in a written statement. “Bayside Hills, for example, is a cozy community made up of low-rise, low-density homes. Our current laws let developers run wild with variances and don’t provide us with a way to keep them in line and preserve the character of our communities.”

The first of the two bills would give the community board and the borough president the power to appeal BSA variance decisions to the Council.

Currently, BSA decisions are final. If passed, the law would call for a Council committee to hold a public hearing on appeals. The full Council would then vote on the committee’s recommendation.

“Our city’s charter put the Council, not an unelected board, in charge of land use decisions,” Halloran wrote. “These laws would give the land use authority in New York City back to the City Council and would increase the vital role that the community board plays in the process.”

The second bill would impose fines upon homeowners who either violate or fail to comply with BSA requirements or operate with an expired variance.

Halloran said there is presently no penalty for a property operating with an expired variance, which he called a “major loophole” that leaves both the community and community board virtually powerless.

The bill would fine property owners in violation of BSA requirements up to $250. It would also require the board to send out notices six months before a property’s variance expires. If the variance is not renewed, the homeowner would be fined $500 for every six-month period thereafter until a homeowner applies for an extension of the variance.

Community Board 11 Chairman Jerry Iannece said he supported the councilman’s efforts and added he had brought the idea up before the board several years ago.

“This isn’t anything new. In fact, I think Tony Avella as a councilman introduced a similar type of act where the BSA wouldn’t be the final word. I applaud him and hope he has better luck with it,” he said.

City Councilmen Dan Halloran (l. to r.) and Peter Koo speak with Terence Park and members of the Asian-American Advisory Committee. Photo by Rich Bockmann

City Councilmen Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) and Peter Koo (R-Flushing) met with a handful of members of the Asian-American community last week to discuss how the ever-growing segment of the northeast Queens population is served and represented in that area.

The July 27 meeting was the second with the Asian-American Advisory Committee, a group composed in total of about 40 members that was formed at the request of the first-term councilmen shortly after they took office.

In his office at 166-08 24th Road, Halloran pointed out that the Asian populations — which include Koreans, Chinese, native Americans and a growing cadre of Indians and Southeast Asians — in schools such as Bayside High School are approaching or actually are the majority of the student bodies.

“The Asian-American population really snuck up on this community,” he said, pointing out that even though School Districts 25 and 26 are ranked among the best in the state, poor English language learning proficiency scores highlighted an inability to teach children whose parents do not speak the language at home.

Committee member Terence Park said the student body of PS 130 in Bayside is 69 percent Asian, but the school has only one Chinese-American teacher. Halloran suggested language barriers in grade schools could be avoided by sending ELL students to two-year language immersion schools. He admitted, though, that creating such schools would be difficult given budget restraints.

The Council recently passed a budget that saved 4,000 teachers from being laid off, but the loss of 2,600 positions due to attrition will leave many classes overcrowded in the coming year.

“Yes, it saves layoffs, but what we actually need are new hires,” Halloran said.

The members of the committee also said they believed they were under-represented in the Police Department.

“We all know new immigrants are not very familiar with the laws and regulations and it’s imperative that [the police] understand the diverse culture and community,” said Park, who added that Asian Americans represented less that 2 percent and 3 percent of officers in the 110th and 111th precincts.

Halloran said these problems were present back in 1990, when he was an officer in the 109th. He said Asian Americans were the fastest-growing demographic in the department, but most were second- or third-generation who are not native English speakers.

The councilman said he and Koo would request information on the languages of officers being deployed, and that he would like to see at least two or three Asian-language-speaking officers on each tour.

“That’s six officers in a day — that’s not a lot. It alleviates 80 percent of the problem,” he said.

Debra Markell's 2009 campaign for City Council was found to have committed two violations, according to the Campaign Finance Board.

The city Campaign Finance Board determined last week that the 2009 campaign of Debra Markell to fill the District 19 City Council seat left vacant by state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) had committed two violations.

The Democrat’s campaign failed to refund in a timely manner an inappropriate contribution it received and reported several improper post-election expenditures, according to CFB spokesman Eric Friedman. The campaign was not, however, penalized for the violations.

“The campaign, in general, has a good record of compliance, and this was not a small campaign. It was a pretty serious campaign,” Friedman said. “If a campaign has a good record, the penalties are sometimes waved.”

Markell’s campaign independently raised approximately $42,000 and received an additional $96,999 in public funds, $1,046 of which were repaid in full, Friedman said.

Markell lost the Democratic primary in a five-way race to Kevin Kim, an aide to U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside), who also prevailed over Jerry Iannece, Paul Vallone and Steve Behar. Kim was defeated by current Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone). None of these candidates have yet been audited by the CFB.

According to CFB records, the Markell campaign received a personal contribution of $500 Sept. 6, 2008, from Joan Lawless, chief executive officer of the Brite Adventure Centre in Jamaica, which does business with the city. Individuals are allowed to contribute up to $2,750 to a campaign, unless they do business with the city, in which case their contributions are limited to $250.

After receiving notice of an improper contribution, a campaign has 20 days to refund the part of the contribution in excess of the limit. CFB records show that the Markell campaign refunded $250 to Lawless March 30, 2009.

Friedman said that after an election, a campaign is required to stop spending funds, except for certain routine expenditures associated with winding down the campaign. According to CFB records, Markell’s campaign documented five separate expenditures totaling just under $350 for fruit baskets and flowers at the Queens Garden Florist in Whitestone. The campaign provided documentation to the CFB that said these transactions were “gestures of gratitude.”

When asked to comment on the violations, Markell said she did not believe her campaign was guilty of any violations.

“We complied to all the paperwork requested and there are no violations,” she said.

Markell is, and was at the time of the election, the district manager for Sunnyside’s Community Board 2. She had previously served as president of Flushing’s 109th Precinct Community Council, on Flushing’s CB 7 and as the Queens director of the Community Assistance Unit under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and as the north Queens director under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

A Virginia campaign vendor is suing City Councilman Dan Halloran for more than $12,000 in connection with debts the legislator never paid the firm for services rendered during his 2009 campaign.

A campaign vendor is in the advanced stages of pursuing a judgment against City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) for more than $12,000 worth of fees and interest resulting from services the firm performed to assist his 2009 campaign, according to an attorney for the company.?

The vendor, Advantage Inc., of Arlington, Va., filed a suit against the legislator in Manhattan Civil Court Nov. 22, 2010, seeking $12,792.29 in payment. The sum includes fees for telephone advocacy, voter identification and other work the firm provided during the freshman councilman’s 2009 race as well as interest the firm assessed after failing to receive payment for the services.

Halloran’s campaign raised $63,237 in funds for his 2009 run for office, according to city campaign finance records, but racked up expenditures of $207,244 — much of which it has not paid.

Advantage is now seeking a judgment against Halloran, according to Kenneth Sugarman, a lawyer for the company.

“We’re going to get a judgment from the court saying he owes what he owes,” Sugarman said. “We have to submit various paperwork to the court, who will rule whether or not we are entitled to a judgment.”

Halloran, an attorney, responded to the suit by filing a document on Dec. 10, 2010, saying he denies “each and every allegation” made by Advantage, one of at least four entities which as of last week had not received more than $1,000 each from Halloran for services they performed during the campaign.?

The document went on to request that the case be dismissed for a number of reasons, including Halloran’s contentions that the court lacks jurisdiction over him because he as an individual has no contract with Advantage and that “the plaintiff failed to join necessary parties, namely the city Campaign Finance Board and the Committee to Elect Dan Halloran.”

Advantage Vice President Aris McMahon said he has never heard of a situation in which a politician failed to pay for services for so long after they were provided.

“It’s just bizarre. We’ve done races from president to City Council and we’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “Eventually he’ll pay up, what this guy’s doing I just don’t understand … Advantage Inc. did not go out and volunteer $12,000 for Dan Halloran to get elected to City Council. It’s embarrassing to have worked for him.”

Halloran spokesman Steve Stites said last week that he could not get into details about the case, offering only a one-sentence statement.

“Our campaign finance situation is under review by the Campaign Finance Board,” he said.

Stites contended in January that the councilman planned to eventually pay for the work, but that Halloran would be forced to give up more than $100,000 in matching funds if he were to pay his debts before the city Campaign Finance Board completed its standard post-election audit of him and his Democratic opponent, Kevin Kim.

“If he raised the money and paid it from a separate account, he wouldn’t be eligible for the money from the CFB to which he is legally entitled,” Stites said at the time.

But Judge Andrea Masley, who is considering whether to award a judgment to Advantage, moved forward with the proceedings during a June 30 hearing despite that argument.?

Eric Friedman, a Campaign Finance Board spokesman, said in January that Halloran could have settled with the vendors without jeopardizing any public matching funds for which he is eligible.?

“There’s nothing that prevents him from borrowing money to pay them off,” Friedman explained at the time. “He could get a loan from a bank to pay the previous debt from the campaign and that wouldn’t preclude him from getting paid.”

On Tuesday, Friedman said the board had not yet finished audits of the Halloran and Kim campaigns.

“The work of the audits ?is continuing and we can’t really discuss further the contents of the work until it’s completed,” Friedman said.

To fund his campaign, Halloran accepted public financing while Kim did not, and the councilman was thus eligible to receive city matching funds based on how much Kim raised.

Kim raised enough money to qualify Halloran to receive the highest level of matching funds, Friedman said.

But the campaign has yet to receive a large portion of that money because much of Kim’s fund-raising was reported on post-election disclosure forms and the Campaign Finance Board has not yet ruled on what additional funds Halloran will receive.

City Councilman Dan Halloran takes part in the 2010 Bayside Little League Opening Day festivities. Halloran just secured $15,000 in funding for the Little League under the city's recently adopted budget plan.

City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) received more than $350,000 in discretionary funds under this year’s budget and distributed the amount evenly between senior centers, youth and church programs and volunteer ambulances.

Of the dozens of groups Halloran spread his $358,821 across, the Samuel Field Y was the largest beneficiary with $39,500, or 11 percent of the councilman’s discretionary funding.

The Samuel Field Y will be using $20,000 for a 14-seat van to provide transportation service for seniors in Clearview, Whitestone, Le Harve, Bay Terrace and Flushing, according to budget documents.

Another $12,000 was earmarked by Halloran for the Y to help children with autism spectrum disorders.

The remaining $7,500 will be used to fund home-based mental health counseling and other services for seniors.

Halloran is also giving $20,000 to the Alley Pond Environmental Center.

“The center is dedicated to establishing an awareness, understanding and appreciation of the environment and the responsibilities associated with preserving the environment in an urban setting,” Halloran said in explaining why he was funding the center.

The councilman steered $15,000 to the Bayside Senior Center, run by Catholic Charities Neighborhood Services.

“Council discretionary funding is needed to enhance and subsidize the services due to budget reduction in the past few years and the increased needs of the elderly,” Halloran said. “Funds will be used to support educational and recreational services provided to the seniors at the program and provide supplies to operate the program.”

Halloran also funded a variety of youth programs, including $7,500 for the Bayside-based DAC Athletic Club, $10,000 for the College Point Little League, $15,000 for the Dwarf-Giraffe Athletic League and $15,000 for the Bayside Little League.

The councilman also distributed funds to four volunteer ambulances in his district, including the Bay Community Volunteer Ambulance Corp., the College Point Community Ambulance Corp. and the Flushing Community Volunteer Ambulance.

All of the ambulances received $3,500 apiece.

A variety of after-school and youth programs will also be receiving funds from Halloran, including the after-school program at PS 41 and the Beacon 194 Summer Club, run by the YMCA of Greater New York.

Both programs received $5,000 from Halloran.

Diane Pekarski and her daughter Cheyenne, 6, protest outside Engine 294 in Richmond Hill earlier this month. Photo by Christina Santucci

After weeks of heated debate, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council have reached a tentative agreement that would save four Queens FDNY companies from the chopping block.

Late Friday afternoon, the City Council hammered out the parameters of a deal that would save Engine Cos. 294 in Richmond Hill, 306 in Bayside and 328 in Far Rockaway and Ladder Co. 128 in Blissville from being closed. As of press time Tuesday, the Council had not voted on the budget.

The fire companies were among 20 across the city Bloomberg proposed in late May to close in order to save $55 million in the coming fiscal year.

Almost immediately after the announcement, unanimous condemnation of the mayor’s proposal came from the affected communities, which did just about everything imaginable — from holding demonstrations to writing letters and passing resolutions — to let the mayor know they found public safety to be their top priority.

The mayor, Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) and Chairman of the Council Finance Committee Domenic M. Recchia Jr. (D-Brooklyn) all praised a budget that preserved essential services in the face of state and federal budget cuts without raising taxes.

“I want to thank … the public. They called our offices, they flooded our inboxes, they showed up in force at our hearings and they told us exactly what was important to them,” wrote Recchia in a statement.

Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) sits on the Fire & Criminal Justice Committee and organized several efforts to rally public support for Engine Co. 306 in his Bayside district.

In a phone interview Monday, Halloran said that by going through both the Public Safety and Fire department budgets line by line, the Council trimmed certain programs in order to come up with the money to keep the fire companies open.

For example, Halloran said that measures such as adjusting fire call-box maintenance schedules and eliminating bureaucracy in vendor support were ways the Council readjusted line items to ensure the companies would remain open.

“I’m delighted to see that the firehouses were saved — not just Engine 306, but all the firehouses across Queens and the city,” he said.

“This was clearly democracy in action as communities raised their voices and expressed just how much of a lifeline their local firehouse is. The mayor and Speaker Quinn’s announcement that the fire companies will not be cut shows that our city’s leaders heard what their constituents demanded,” Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy wrote in a statement.

Traffic agent Daniel Chu stands next to his vehicle in Whitestone in 2010. Photo courtesy Dan Halloran

A city traffic agent who was disciplined by the NYPD after improperly ticketing City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) is suing the lawmaker, his former chief of staff Dennis Ring and the city for $6 million, alleging that the politician and Ring racially slandered him.

Chu, who also wants to be reinstated as a Queens North traffic patrol agent, contends in the suit filed Monday in Queens Supreme Court that Halloran made a series of discriminatory statements after Chu ticketed his car June 14 along 150th Street in Whitestone.

“You need to go back to the police academy,” the suit says Halloran told Chu at the time. “Go ahead, give me a f—ing ticket …. When you lose your job, you can go back to your old job delivering Chinese food. What is that, $5 or $4 per hour?”

Chu claims in the suit that the verbal assault left him with physical damage including “suffering Bell’s palsy.”

Halloran denies the allegations by Chu.

“New Yorkers should consider the source. Agent Chu has a documented history of being a renegade agent and abusing his authority — so much so that he was disciplined by the NYPD and forced to take sensitivity classes,” Halloran spokesman Steve Stites said in an e-mail Tuesday. “So we shouldn’t be surprised that Agent Chu is now suing the taxpayers he once harassed.”

City Law Department spokeswoman Connie Pankratz declined to comment on the case. Ring could not be reached for comment. Chu’s attorney, Michael Berkley, did not return a call requesting comment.

A Queens traffic court judge dismissed the ticket Chu gave Halloran after the councilman spotted Chu driving recklessly and running stop signs along 150th Street, Halloran said last year. An administrative judge told Halloran he did not have to pay the ticket after reviewing evidence from the scene of the incident.

It was ruled that the councilman’s vehicle was idling, not parked, and that his license plates prohibit him from getting parking tickets while on Council duty.

The NYPD punished Chu by cutting his vacation time, taking away his NYPD vehicle, forcing him to undergo sensitivity training and relocating him to a different section of Queens.

In the suit, Chu also alleges that Ring made racist remarks to him when Chu ticketed him June 5, 2010.

“You are lucky to be wearing a uniform,” the suit contends Ring said. “You should f—ing go back to China.”

Halloran said the incident set off a flood of phone calls last summer from northeast Queens residents who said they had been ticketed by Chu. One told him the agent had ticketed mourners who were loading a coffin into a vehicle for a funeral, while another said she was given a summons while loading groceries into her running car.

On June 14, 2010, the councilman and his then-chief of staff Ring were driving along 150th Street when they spotted Chu talking on his cell phone while speeding down the street with his siren on. The agent drove recklessly and then parked illegally in front of a crosswalk on Clintonville Street while he went into a Dunkin’ Donuts store and bought coffee.

Halloran followed the agent in his car and approached him as he left the coffee shop. The councilman was then handed a $155 ticket for blocking the pedestrian ramp. The traffic judge sided with his argument that his car was idling and that Chu’s vehicle was blocking the sidewalk. Halloran recorded Chu’s actions with his iPhone.

During an internal NYPD review, Chu admitted he was speeding and talking on his cell phone at the time of the incident with Halloran, the councilman said. He also said he had parked illegally in front of Dunkin’ Donuts.

City Councilman Dan Halloran shovels snow on 24th Road in Whitestone after a January dusting. Photo courtesy Councilman Halloran's office

City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) has said he believes voters in his district continue to support his efforts to investigate the city’s handling of the Dec. 26 blizzard despite a new city report that effectively debunks his claims that a work slowdown among city workers took place after the massive snowstorm.

“As the report states, the DOI was unable to track employees and get the quality of testimony it would like to have,” Halloran said in a statement. “Disturbing questions remain about why plows went down streets with their blades up or sat unmoving for hours as the snow fell. I am hopeful that the city can move on and fix the many issues that plagued the snowstorm response. My constituents expect me to shed a light on problems and come up with solutions, and I am going to do that, even when it makes the powers that be uncomfortable.”

The report, released last week, suggests that Halloran was on a mission to prove there was a work slowdown among city workers following the blizzard, which crippled Queens and the other boroughs.

The thorough investigation by the city Department of Investigation directly discredits Halloran’s claims that a deliberate, concerted slowdown was behind the several days of uncleared roads in northeast Queens after the storm.

“In toto, Mr. Halloran’s information about city employee statements contributed no actual evidence about a possible slowdown,” the investigation concluded.

The DOI said in the report that it interviewed two city Department of Transportation employees who contended they never said they had evidence of such a slowdown.

Halloran told investigators the two DOT supervisors came to him after the storm to confess they had been a part of a widespread, orchestrated effort to slow the cleanup process in the aftermath of the storm to “send a message to City Hall,” according to the report.

One of the two workers told investigators that neither of them told Halloran they had been a part of, or had evidence of, such a labor action. The two also said it was “upsetting” to see in media reports after their conversations that he had “mischaracterized their words” in order to use their alleged admissions as evidence of such a scheme, according to the report.

“[DOT] Supervisor 2 said Mr. Halloran was trying to ‘get information out of him’ as well as [DOT] Supervisor 1, about the alleged slowdown, but he explained they did not have any knowledge of a slowdown,” the report said. “Supervisor 2 said that the meeting was very uncomfortable and he felt like Mr. Halloran was ‘annoyed’ that they did not have any information that would confirm a slowdown.”

One of the two supervisors said Halloran was brashly seeking evidence to back the alleged slowdown storyline, according to the investigation.

“As they were leaving the meeting, Mr. Halloran said, ‘If you don’t want to talk, I will find a disgruntled worker who is ready to retire who is,’ according to Supervisor 2,” the report said.

Despite a discussion about possible conflict of interest issues related to his providing law services to them, Halloran refused to tell investigators the names of three city Sanitation Department workers he said also corroborated the slowdown narrative.

The report blamed the slow rate of street clearing throughout the city on a combination of other problems, including but not limited to the sheer amount of snow that accumulated in a short period of time, the number of cars that drivers abandoned on roads, bad planning by the city, understaffing and inadequate snow chains on plows.

The report — for which the DOI interviewed more than 150 witnesses, elected officials, members of the public and city employees; read numerous e-mails, reviewed photos and videos provided by the public and law enforcement sources; issued numerous subpoenas; and worked with several city prosecutors — will be referred to the Sanitation Department, the Brooklyn and Queens district attorney’s offices and the U.S. attorney’s office for New York’s Eastern District.

State Sen. Tony Avella (l.) has said a new civic proposed by Devon O'Connor (r.), president of the Welcome to Whitestone community group, may divide the Whitestone community.

Whitestone’s civic leaders are clashing and local politicians are taking sides.

The Greater Whitestone Taxpayers Association will likely soon be facing new competition from the Welcome to Whitestone Commercial and Residential Civic Association proposed last month by Devon O’Connor, founder of the year-old Welcome to Whitestone community group.

The possibility of a new game in town has instigated divisive reactions by Whitestone’s local legislators and its other, smaller civic, the Malba Gardens Civic Association, which was reactivated several years ago by Al Centola after more than a decade of inactivity.

City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) has said he supports the creation of any new groups that will advocate for his constituents, while state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) has argued emphatically that the creation of a new civic would divide Whitestone.

“It’s unfortunate there will be another civic that is in competition with the Taxpayers,” Avella said earlier this month.

Marlene Cody, a vice president for the Taxpayers, and Avella did not return repeated requests for comment.

Avella ruffled O’Connor’s feathers earlier this month when he contended that the 20-year-old may find himself in legal trouble by raising money for the Welcome to Whitestone community group while it is still under consideration for official nonprofit status, according to Avella spokesman Ed Fleming and O’Connor.

“Tony Avella told my grandparents that someone should look into Devon’s finances, that maybe [I] was doing the organization wrong,” O’Connor said. “I haven’t done anything wrong, my lawyer says I haven’t done anything wrong, so I have no idea what the problem is.”

O’Connor said he wants to start the civic to help the community, which he says is not being fully represented by the Taxpayers.

“To say the Taxpayers represent the community, I’m not saying they don’t, but I’m not saying they do either,” he said. “A lot of people I’ve spoken to don’t even know who the Taxpayers are.”

Cody has not commented publicly on the new civic, but she has taken a chilly tone toward Centola’s group. Both O’Connor and Centola have expressed dissatisfaction with the efficacy of the Taxpayers.

An e-mail Cody sent Centola May 11 about a community issue revealed a new contempt for the community, according to Centola.

“We received your e-mail. You are not a member of our civic. If our members have questions, they can contact us,” the e-mail began before failing? to respond to his concerns.

Centola believes that the group feels it is under assault by new blood.

“They’ve had a lock with the politicians and now there are other groups making a stink and mixing things up and they’re worried,” Centola said. “Anything that’s going to come out for the betterment of the community and is going to open dialogue and discussion I think is good. The Whitestone Taxpayers have had a stranglehold on the community for too long, and they’ve become complacent.”

O’Connor and Centola planned to meet Tuesday to discuss ways they can work together.

Halloran said he supports the creation of new civics.

“We want to preserve and protect the neighborhoods, but at the same time we need to represent the small-business owners in the community,” Halloran said. “It’s a big enough community, there certainly could be more than one civic association here.”

In this 1998 file photo, Osama bin Laden speaks to journaists in Khost, Afghanistan. AP Photo/Mazhar Ali Khan

The borough’s elected officials said the death of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in which 76 firefighters from Queens were killed, was a tremendous achievement but cautioned that the killing does not mean the country no longer has to worry about terrorism.

U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was told of the operation that killed bin Laden about one hour before President Barack Obama addressed the nation late Sunday night.

Although members of Congress are privy to sensitive intelligence on occasion, Meeks said he and his colleagues were not briefed on the operation or that the administration had bin Laden in its sights.

“I think this was at the upper-most levels of intelligence, as it should have been,” he said. “We knew that it was a focus of the president, but the specifics — where in Pakistan? — of course not. That was top secret. But we knew that they were hunting him down.”

With bin Laden identified as the FBI’s most wanted man since 2001, Meeks said the operation, which was carried out early Monday morning in Pakistan — Sunday afternoon Eastern Standard Time — should make those who plot against America think again.

“I think it sent the message to terrorists: It may take us a year, it may take us five years, it may take us 10 years, but we’re going to get you,” Meeks said.

But the congressman said bin Laden’s killing does not mean America will stop its counter-terrorism activities.

“This does not end the war on terror,” Meeks said.

His colleague, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside), who also sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee, agreed.

“The head of the al-Qaeda worm has been cut off,” Ackerman said. “But we must remember, worms grow new heads.”

Ackerman called the operation that killed bin Laden “a huge victory for the United States and proof that no matter how hard they try, our foes cannot hide from us.”

Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights), whose firefighter cousin, John Moran, was killed in the World Trade Center attacks, said the killing of bin Laden reminded him of those who lost their lives Sept. 11.

Queens had 76 firefighters who were killed in the attacks — about 22 percent of the total number of firefighters who died responding to the terror attack.

“In particular, my thoughts are with the families from New York and across America who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, 2001. There is no doubt the world is a safer place without bin Laden, but our efforts to eradicate the threat of terror will continue without pause and on behalf of everyone who has been killed or injured as a result of senseless terror and violence.”

City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) also had a family member who died Sept. 11; his cousin, FDNY Lt. Vincent Halloran, perished when the Twin Towers fell.

“Today I will remember him and the many other victims of Osama bin Laden’s violence,” Halloran said. “The families of the victims can finally enjoy some degree of closure.”