Virginia Salow (c.), a member of the Queens Colony Civic Association, says eastern Queens has been divided into three state Assembly districts for the 30 years she has lived there. Photo by Rich Bockmann

Flushing resident Sunny Hahn voices her opinion on redistricting. Photo by Rich Bockmann

Leaders from more than a dozen eastern Queens civic groups met in Bellerose last week, demanding their communities be united by the state task force that will redraw the area’s legislative lines for the coming decade.

The state Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment is expected to release its first-draft maps within the next few weeks, and the members of Eastern Queens United stressed the importance of seeing their neighborhoods represented by one state Assembly district.

Currently, Glen Oaks, New Hyde Park, Bellerose, Floral Park and Queens Village are represented by Assembly members David Weprin (D-Little Neck), Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside) and Barbara Clark (D-Queens Village).

“It’s difficult to get any of them to come to my civic association because we are on the fringe,” said Nagassar Ramgarib, president of the Queens Village Civic Association, in the auditorium of the Queens High School of Teaching, Liberal Arts and the Sciences.

Bob Friedrich, president of Glen Oaks Village, said all of these neighborhood share common quality-of-life issues and that the different civic groups all work together.

“It’s important that whoever represents us understands that when our civics speak, their words are backed up by tens of thousands of votes,” he said.

The group invited a number of politicians to the meeting, asking them to pledge their support for its cause, testify at public meetings and pledge to vote “no” on any map that divided the community.

Before leaving to attend a personal engagement, Weprin said he “fully supported keeping the communities united” and would testify at the public meeting that will be scheduled once LATFOR releases its map.

When Friedrich asked the assemblyman to make the pledge, Weprin replied, “I can’t commit to voting ‘no,’” which drew boos from a handful of the approximately 150 attendees.

“I didn’t like that he wouldn’t commit,” said Charlie Vaicels, of the Queens Colony Civic Association in Bellerose. “He probably has commitments to other people.”

Braunstein was attending an event in Whitestone that evening, and Clark did not respond to an invitation, Friedrich said.

“It goes to show you, if you’re on the periphery of their district, they don’t care,” he said.

Eastern Queens United also wants to be represented by one state Senate district.

“I’ll go to those hearings and scream my head off, but the issue will be decided behind closed doors,” said Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), who affirmed Friedrich’s pledge.

City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens), who used to hold his brother’s Assembly seat, wrote a letter to the heads of LATFOR urging the task force to create a district that resembled the one he represents in the council.

He said the real problem is that the current process is set up so that each political party can keep its majorities in the two legislative houses.

“Independent redistricting is important today because people don’t respect the government,” he said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he would veto any map not created by an independent commission, sending the decision to the courts to be decided.

“That might be the best way to go,” the councilman said. “I like that I can say, ‘The politicians didn’t do it.’”

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.

The Sarwari Halal Food cart has caused a stir with business owners in Oakland Gardens since setting up on the corner of Bell Boulevard and 73rd Avenue last week. Photo by Rich Bockmann

In reaction to what he says is a proliferation of food carts on city streets, City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) said he would like to see the city Street Vendor Review Panel reconvene and implement a new plan regulating where and when the food carts can operate.

The panel was established by Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 1995 and charged with determining which streets would be closed to vending.

Weprin said the panel has not met in 10 years, and food carts have recently set up in his district in areas such as Bell Boulevard, Hillside Avenue, Springfield Boulevard and Union Turnpike, prompting complaints from residents and business owners.

“Food vendors have a right to do business, but the city must ensure that all food carts operate safely and in appropriate locations,” he said.

Matt Shapiro, a staff attorney for the Street Vendor Project advocacy group, said there was little empirical data to suggest on which grounds the panel made its decisions, but competition to businesses would not necessarily be a reason for closing a street to vendors.

One street vendor that has drawn numerous complaints is the Sarwari Halal Food cart that settled on the corner of Bell Boulevard and 73rd Avenue early last week.

“They just showed up last week and 10 businesses in the area and numerous residents complained,” the councilman said.

Business owners up and down the block, from Dunkin’ Donuts to Villa Rustica Ristorante, said the food cart represented unfair competition because it drew customers away without having to pay expenses such as rent.

Shapiro said there was evidence to the contrary.

“We’ve seen a lot of studies that actually show that vending increases business by bringing more foot traffic to the street,” he said.

Cindy Weu, co-owner of Sweet Adele’s, said her customers complained that the food cart was out of step with the neighborhood’s mostly residential character.

One of the cart’s owners, who wished to be identified only by the name Muhammad, said he chose the corner because there was a good amount of street traffic. He said he was doing a fair amount of business between the hours of 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. and that he had a number of loyal customers.

“The city makes the rules, not the store owners. I pay my taxes as the city allowed me to be here,” he said. “Everyone has to do something for a living. This is my job.”

Muhammad said many of his customers tell him that the neighborhood needs a place where they can get halal food and disagreed with the idea that he was drastically changing the character of the neighborhood.

“It’s not like this is Roosevelt Avenue. It’s not going to happen where you get a whole bunch of people and this turns into a busy intersection,” he said.

State Sen. Tony Avella (inset) wants the state attorney general and state comptroller to review land sales of more than $100,000 to private companies, following the sale of Creedmoor.

Inspired by the controversial sale of Creedmoor land to the Indian Cultural and Community Center, state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) penned legislation that would require the state attorney general and state comptroller to review and approve all land sales worth $100,000 and higher to private companies.

The state Dormitory Authority sold a 4 1/2-acre parcel of Creedmoor land to the ICCC, which is seeking a variance to build two nine-story senior housing towers and a community center.

The ICCC’s plans have been heavily criticized by community leaders, who say the group was not upfront about the senior housing proposal and the buildings are out of character with the surrounding community.

“Unfortunately, the lack of oversight from local governments have led to instances of favoritism and lost revenue for the state,” Avella said. “We need to eliminate loopholes that allow private entities to acquire valuable state lands at extremely discounted rates and create a form of oversight that ensures that these deals are done fairly, honestly and at a competitive price.”

Avella and community leaders questioned how the ICCC was able to acquire the land due to its dubious finances — its most recent tax returns show it ran a $29,000 deficit.

The state attorney general’s office and the state inspector general’s office are conducting investigations into the ICCC deal.

Avella’s bill requires that the attorney general and the comptroller review any sale of state-owned land when a public sale or auction is not required.

The ICCC acquired the Creedmoor land through legislation sponsored by then-Sen. Frank Padavan and former Assemblyman Mark Weprin, who now sits in the City Council.

“One of the main intentions of this legislation is to prevent any perceived or actual improper influence from an elected official pressuring state agencies or public authorities to sell state land to specific groups, at a discounted rate for political gain. There needs to be more transparency and accountability involved,” Avella said. “In the end, the taxpayers win as the state will receive more revenue and there will be more competition for available land. It will also afford local elected officials the opportunity for input and review of any proposed sale or transfer.”

Community Board 13 is currently reviewing the ICCC’s plans and is expected to decide whether it approves of a variance for the group when CB 13 meets Oct. 31.

Sen. Tony Avella displays pictures taken by residents documenting quality-of-life violations at the Super Halal Meat Fruits & Vegetables market. Photo by Howard Koplowitz

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and Bellerose civic leaders called on a halal market on Hillside Avenue with more than $25,000 in violations to clear up the penalties or get out of the neighborhood.

While the owner of Super Halal Meat Fruits & Vegetables Inc., at 253-06 Hillside Ave., acknowledged the violations, he claimed the community was discriminating against him and harassing his business, alleging that a man pulled a gun on one of his cashiers Monday night.

Avella said the market has only been in business for a little over a year, yet it has racked up more than $25,000 in violations for unsanitary conditions and other penalties.

The senator said meetings were held with the management of the market, yet the business has done nothing to rectify the violations.

“It continues to be a quality-of-life nightmare,” Avella said, noting an area resident took photos of meat being delivered to the market on the bed of a pickup truck. “Enough of the lies, enough of the phony commitments. Shut this place down.”

City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens), who first pointed out the violations, called on the market to be a good neighbor.

“We always welcome new businesses to our community,” Weprin said. “At the same time, the owners of this supermarket must respect the law.”

Avella said the commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture and Markets told him in August the agency had inspected the market twice and it ?failed both times. Halal food conforms to Muslim dietary laws.

The agency is giving the market 60 days to clean up all the violations or it will take steps to remove its license to operate.

Avella said that since the photos were taken, the market has been taking in deliveries at night — when it is harder to take photographs and a time when the state is not doing inspections.

“The owner clearly knows how to manipulate the system,” the senator said. “How much longer should this go on? It’s incredible that we have this type of situation.”

Sheraz Khan, owner of the halal market, said the business plans on clearing up the violations and does not expect it to be shut down.

“We have the violations and we’re taking care of them. It’s not like we’re ignoring them,” he said.

Khan claimed the business has been subject to discrimination by what he claims are white residents who resent Bellerose’s growing South Asian population.

“We’re being harassed here every day,” he said. “I had a guy pull out a gun on one of my workers.”

Detective Jovoda Cooper of the 105th Precinct referred questions about the incident to the Police Department’s public information arm, which did not comment.

Khan claimed three people on the block where the market is located are harassing store employees.

“I feel this is all racism,” he said. “I’m a minority just doing the right thing. I feel it’s because my skin color’s a little bit darker and my business has ‘halal’ in it. If this were a Stop & Shop or a Key Food and I was Italian,” things would be different.

But a man who lived on the block said that was not the case.

“It’s not racism. It’s a quality-of-life issue that has gone out of control,” he said. “I have nothing against these people, except for the way they’re operating the store.”

Bruno Defrancecschi, president of the North Bellerose Civic Association, agreed.

“How can you call it racist if you’re complaining about something that someone’s doing wrong?” he asked.

Khan said it cost him $1 million to build the store and presented the community with an offer.

“They give us a million dollars, we’ll leave,” he said.

City Councilman Mark Weprin (second from r.) and Mayor Michael Bloomberg (c.) at the signing ceremony for the Workplace Religious Freedom Act. Photo courtesy mayor's office

At a ceremony last week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a law authored by City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) that strengthens the city’s human rights law with respect to religious practices in the workplace.

The Workplace Religious Freedom Act requires employers to detail the fiscal impact an employee’s religious practice would have on the company in order to justify discrimination.

“New York City defined hardship in the past as de minimis burden — basically, it’s an inconvenience. As a policy, it was pretty easy to get around,” Weprin explained.

Under the new law, employers wishing to claim undue hardship will have to identify the cost of accommodating an employee’s religious observation or practice.

“They have to show a significant cost or burden. It sets a much higher standard,” the councilman said.

Weprin said he made a commitment to the Sikh community during his 2009 Council campaign to work on legislation that would prevent public and private employers from banning beards or turbans in the workplace.

Amardeep Singh, co-founder of the Sikh Coalition, said his group had worked on similar legislation with former Councilman David Weprin in 2005 that ran into decisive opposition at City Hall.

“It’s been a long six years. This time the stars just aligned,” he said. Singh said the Sikh community and other faiths were motivated in particular by discriminatory practices by public employers such as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the NYPD.

The MTA, for example, had ?a post 9/11 policy that says Sikh employees who wish to wear their turbans to work must either adorn it with an MTA logo or are relegated to work out of the public view, Singh said.

At press time, the MTA had not responded to a request for comment.

“Public employers create the perception and send the message to private employers that this is acceptable,” he said. “They set the tone for everyone else in society.”

“The beauty of the bill is that it squarely focuses the eye on whether or not an employee can do the job or not when enjoying their religious freedoms.

A bill passed by the City Council and sponsored by City Councilman Mark Weprin extends religious freedom in the workplace and will allow Sikhs to wear their turbans if they work for the MTA or Police Department.

The City Council unanimously passed a bill last Thursday sponsored by Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) that makes it against the law for employers to discriminate against their workers’ religious beliefs or dress.

Weprin said the passage of the bill, which he said he worked on with the Sikh Coalition, means the NYPD or Metropolitan Transportation Authority cannot ban Sikhs from wearing turbans.

The bill, which passed 51-0, requires employers to provide accommodation of their employees’ religious customs “if it will result in the inability of an employee to perform the essential functions of the position in which he or she is employed.”

The legislation now awaits the signature of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, after which the law takes effect immediately.

“This bill sends the message that people should now have to choose between serving our city and adhering to their religious beliefs,” Weprin said. “All Americans should receive the full embrace of our country’s constitutional reforms.”

Amardeep Singh, director of programs for the Sikh Coalition, testified in favor of the bill during a June 30 Council hearing.

Singh derided the MTA’s position that it can “lawfully segregate Muslim and Sikh workers from the general public” unless they agree to put the MTA logo on their religious headwear.

The MTA contended that it could legally force such workers to the railyards and out of public view if they did not fit the authority’s corporate image, Singh claimed.

“The spirit of the city’s anti-discrimination law is to integrate the workplace, not to segregate religious minorities,” Singh said. “We therefore ask that the city enact a law that generally forbids segregation of employees from customers and the general public on the basis of image policies, uniform policies and actual or perceived customer or public preference.”

Failed City Council candidate Bob Friedrich (l.) was assessed $433 in penalties from the city Campaign Finance Board stemming from his campaign against then-Assemblyman Mark Weprin (r.). Weprin returned more than $16,000 in public money from the race.

Failed City Council candidate Bob Friedrich was slapped with more than $400 in fines last Thursday from the city Campaign Finance Board, including more than $350 for what the board said amounted to an illegal corporate contribution.

Friedrich’s 2009 Council campaign racked up a $383 violation for holding a “Bagels with Bob” event at Glen Oaks Village, where he is board president.

Friedrich sent out a Sept. 22, 2009, letter on Glen Oaks Village letterhead that described the upcoming Oct. 24, 2009, event as “an opportunity for us to sit and talk about community concerns and issues face to face.”?

But Friedrich violated campaign finance rules after the CFB determined use of community space for the event amounted to an in-kind contribution.

CFB spokesman Eric Friedman said the fine stemmed from a complaint filed by Jack Friedman, a Democratic state committeeman and former chief of staff to Weprin’s brother, David Weprin, ?alleging Friedrich’s event should be constituted as in-kind corporate contribution.

Friedman said the CFB penalty starts with a baseline amount of $250, with the board assessing that the community space for the Bagels with Bob event was worth another $133 in penalties.

Friedrich said no campaign-related discussions were held during the event and said he would have fought the violation but did not have the funds to hire an attorney.

He also criticized Jack Friedman for lodging the complaints because he is executive vice president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce.

But Friedman said the complaints were filed as a private citizen and had nothing to do with his affiliation with the chamber.

“I filed a complaint against [Friedrich] because he broke the law,” he said. “The chamber doesn’t endorse political candidates. We have as much of a relationship with [Republican lawmakers] Eric Ulrich and Dan Halloran as we do with Mark Weprin and [Democrat] Julissa Ferreras.”

Eric Friedman said the CFB also fined Friedrich $50 for accepting a corporate contribution from the Royal Ranch Association, a local civic organization that is incorporated.?

The CFB also approved a $4,615 post-election payment to Friedrich’s account due to matching funds.

Friedman said Friedrich can only use those funds to pay down debt, but the monies cannot be used to fund another campaign.

Meanwhile, City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) has returned more than $16,000 in public funds to the city Campaign Finance Board from his 2009 campaign.

The $16,346 that Weprin returned was public funding that he did not use during the campaign, a CFB spokeswoman said Monday.

That amount was about 9 percent of the $177,100 Weprin received through the CFB’s matching funds program.

“Public financing has been a boon to participatory democracy in New York City,” Weprin said in a statement. “At the same time, I believe in being frugal with taxpayer dollars.”

“Under New York City’s public matching funds system, there is a mix of private and public funds in every campaign. The requirement to return unused funds to the taxpayers after the election helps ensure that taxpayers get the best value from the program,” Friedman said. “Mark Weprin fulfilled his obligation to the public completely and promptly.”

Ruben Wills speaks at a rally at the Friendship Center in December. He and Councilman Leroy Comrie gave thousands of dollars to the center's parent group, JSPOA, in their member items this year. Photo by Christina Santucci

City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) has given out more than a million dollars in taxpayer money to more than ?a hundred of groups in southeast Queens during this fiscal year.

His fellow southeast Queens members on the Council, Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica) and James Sanders (D-Laurelton), have also parceled out large donations to community groups with a combined total of more than a million dollars, according to the city’s list of discretionary funding.

Comrie, the deputy majority leader at City Hall, has listed 144 member items in this year’s budget, including small donations to neighborhood groups such as the Cambria Heights Civic Association, which received $3,500, and large contributions to long-running community organizations, such as the $28,000 he gave to the Afrikan Poetry Theatre for workshops.

In total, the councilman, who represents the neighborhoods of St. Albans, Hollis, Cambria Heights, Jamaica, Baisley Park and Addisleigh Park in the 27th Council District, distributed $1,124,121.

The largest single contribution went to a performing arts center at York College, at 94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd. in Jamaica, where the councilman’s wife, Marcia Moxam Comrie, works in the Department of Marketing and Communications. Comrie gave $45,000 to support the center’s 12-part series that brings the arts to southeast Queens.

The councilman gave a combined $57,550 to the Jamaica Service Program for Older Adults, JSPOA, in four separate items. The nonprofit has been caring for senior citizens in the neighborhood for years and was on the verge of losing one of its centers, the Friendship Center, due to a cut in funding from the city Department for the Aging.

The city reversed its plans and restored the funding after a massive rally in December which Comrie attended.

“The Council member does not want to put them in a situation where they can not fund their centers,” Reggie Thomas, the director of legislative budget affairs for Comrie’s office.

Comrie was not available for comment.?

Although he has been in the Council for less than a year, Wills had 69 member items listed and has given a total of $577,071.

Wills, who replaced the late Thomas White as the Council representative for the 28th District in a special election in November, gave $28,500 to the nonprofit group Young Leaders Inc. to help fund after-school activities for elementary and middle school.

“These groups do an incredible amount of work in the community, but they have not secured enough grants to do a lot of services. I decided to fund them based on that,” said Wills, who represents the neighborhoods of Jamaica, South Ozone Park, Richmond Hill and Rochdale Village.?

Comrie, Sanders and Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) have all contributed to Young Leaders during this financial year, according to the member item list.

Wills’s other member items include two grants to the southeast Queens housing advocacy group Neighborhood Housing Services of Jamaica that totaled $20,000 and $12,500 to JSPOA.

Sanders, who represents the neighborhoods of Rosedale, Laurelton, Springfield Gardens, Far Rockaway, Arverne, Bayswater and Edgemere in the 31st Council District, donated $588,321 with 48 member items. The councilman gave a combined $183,750 to the Margert Community Corp. with three different member items for senior, youth and community engagement services, according to the expense list.

The Rockaway-based nonprofit focuses primarily on housing counseling, but it also provides free services such as trips for seniors and a summer concert series in southeast Queens, according to Sanders.

“Margert is kind enough to sponsor a music festival that has become regionally renowned,” he said. “We have had groups as [big] as Roberta Flack, Ernie Eisley and Maxi Priest.”

Sanders said the money has gone a long way to help out his constituents over the years.

“Overwhelmingly, the city and the taxpayers of New York feel proud for what their Council members are using their money for,” he said.

Gil and Roz Kleinman renewed their wedding vows during a ceremony at SNAP of Eastern Queens officiated by City Councilman Mark Weprin. SNAP was the largest beneficiary of the funds the councilman earmarked from the city's 2012 budget.

City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) earmarked more than $600,000 in discretionary funds from the city’s 2012 budget for nonprofits, mostly in eastern Queens.

The list of organizations receiving their share of the $610,321 ranges from youth athletics, such as the Auburndale Soccer Club and the Glen Oaks Little League, to volunteer ambulance corps in Glen Oaks, Jamaica Estates, Holliswood and South Bayside.

“I try to emphasize senior and youth programs and the local ambulance corps that help make the community a better place,” the councilman said. “In many cases, if not for the city money these organizations would have a hard time surviving.”

The largest beneficiary was Services Now for Adult Persons, or SNAP, which received two grants totaling $57,750.

“SNAP is a senior center that serves hundreds of seniors in the area. It has become an invaluable resource to seniors as so many centers have lost a lot of state funding,” Weprin said. “They literally live and die with this grant money.”

SNAP offers services to seniors in their homes and at its two full-service sites, at 80-45 Winchester Blvd. in Queens Village and One Cross Island Plaza in Rosedale, as well as at a satellite location at 227-02A Hillside Ave. in Bell Park.

“We offer transportation, which is critical in this part of Queens because there is hardly any public transportation,” said SNAP Associate Executive Director Marian Lewek. “A good part of the money is going to be used for vans to take people into the centers, or food shopping or to medical appointments at hospitals for dialysis and chemo radiation.”

Lewek said SNAP also provides more than 300 hot meals through five different routes throughout Community Board 13 for home-bound seniors who are deemed unable shop for food or prepare their own meals.

The organization also provides services to the caregivers of seniors, such as individual counseling and group support. Lewek said some funds can be used to provide financial assistance for items such as ramps for wheelchair access or adult diapers.

“We provide really as much as we can to help them be safe at home,” Lewek said.

Former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner announces his resignation from Congress during a news conference in Brooklyn. Nominees for his seat from the heads of the borough's two major parties are expected to be announced by July 11.

The heads of the borough’s two major parties are expected to name their nominees to replace former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner by later this week at the earliest after Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for a Sept. 13 special election to fill the vacant 9th Congressional District seat in Forest Hills.

Weiner resigned in disgrace last month after admitting to tweeting a photo of his boxer-clad crotch to a Seattle college student. He initially lied and claimed his Twitter account was hacked.

A source close to the Queens Democratic Party said state Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) is the odds-on favorite to be picked as the Democratic candidate for the seat by Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights), who also doubles as the Queens Democratic Party chairman.

“If I was gambling, I would bet on Rory,” the source said, claiming the assemblyman is out of favor with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan).

“He’s had some run-ins with Shelly,” the source said.

But Lancman denied butting heads with the speaker.

“I haven’t had clashes with [Silver],” Lancman said. “We have a good relationship, I have excellent committee assignments.”

On the Republican side, the Queens GOP is not tipping its hand as to who it will designate as the party’s nominee, but among the contenders is retired Rockaway businessman Bob Turner, who mounted an unsuccessful campaign against Weiner in 2009.

City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) said Tuesday he would not run for the seat.

Queens GOP spokesman Robert Hornak said seven or eight candidates have expressed interest in running on the Republican side.

“We’re going to screen every potential candidate before we make a final decision,” he said. “We’ve cast a wide net.”

Both parties have until Monday to name their nominee, who will run under the party’s line during the special election.

With the state set to lose two congressional seats due to redistricting following the 2010 census, most political observers believe the 9th Congressional District — which covers Forest Hills, Rego Park, Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill, Howard Beach, part of the Rockaways and Brooklyn — will be eliminated, which makes the seat less attractive to ambitious politicians.

Other Democratic names mentioned to be in the running include former City Council members Eric Gioia and Melinda Katz, City Councilmen Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) and Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria), Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Little Neck), former Borough President Claire Shulman and former Congresswoman and city Comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman of Brooklyn.

“It’s going to be interesting,” the source said.

The special election is set for Sept. 13, Primary Day, when there will also be special elections to fill the seats of former Assemblywomen Nettie Mayersohn in Flushing and Audrey Pheffer in Rockaway Beach.

Mayersohn, 85, retired in April after nearly 30 years in the Assembly, while Pheffer stepped down last month to fill the vacant county clerk position.

David Waltzer (r.), a UFT chapter leader and MS 158 teacher, as well as Sarah Garry, a math teacher at MS 158, hand out fliers at the Bayside Long Island Rail Road station earlier this year asking that teachers not be laid off.

The City Council and Mayor Michael Bloomberg reached a tentative budget agreement Friday that would prevent laying off thousands of the city’s public school teachers. As of press time Tuesday, the full Council had not voted on the budget.?

The mayor’s Executive Budget had called for the elimination of 2,000 teaching positions through attrition and another 4,100 through layoffs in order to trim $270 million from the fiscal 2012 budget.

After talks with the Municipal Labor Committee to tap into a health care pension fund broke down, the United Federation of Teachers began negotiating late last week with the mayor directly, said Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens), who sits on the Education Committee.

The UFT made two major concessions in its contract in order to save the 4,100 teachers from being laid off. The union has agreed to end all teacher sabbaticals for one year and to reform the Absentee Teacher Reserve that will require all teachers in the reserve pool who do not have full-time assignments to work as substitute teachers — reducing substitute costs — according to the mayor’s office, which estimates the union concessions are expected to save a total of $60 million.

“I want to thank all the parties involved in this agreement for their willingness to come together to prevent the harm that would come to our students from a massive loss of public school teachers,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement. “In particular, I’d like to cite the key role played by Council Speaker Christine Quinn and her members and staff, along with Chancellor Dennis Walcott and the DOE officials who worked with us to find ways to prevent what could have been a disaster for our schools.”

The mayor’s office also said tax revenue projections have increased by a total of $170 million in the two months since the budget was presented, which is also used to avoid more job losses.

Weprin said the number of teaching positions lost through attrition would rise to 2,600 — based on a more accurate method of accounting — and that some 1,000 city employees in human service agencies would be laid off.

“Is [the budget] perfect? No, but I’m very happy to keep the teachers,” he said during a phone interview Monday, calling the plan a shifting of budget priorities. “The money did have to be saved somewhere.”

U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner announces his resignation from Congress in the same Brooklyn senior center where he started his political career. Photo by Christina Santucci

After three weeks of media frenzy surrounding Weinergate and a curt final press conference last Thursday, U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner officially left Congress Tuesday, creating a unique political vacuum in his district that stretches across much of Queens into Brooklyn.

The Forest Hills Democrat submitted his official resignation letter Monday and was out at midnight Tuesday. His staff will continue to operate his offices for the time being, but the names of several Queens prospects are already being tossed around as replacements for the disgraced lawmaker.

Elected officials like City Council members James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows), Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park), Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) and Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) as well as state Assemblymen Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) and David Weprin (D-Little Neck) have already been mentioned as possible successors to Weiner.

Republican Bob Turner, who ran against Weiner last year, and former Council members Melinda Katz and Eric Gioia, both Democrats, have also been mentioned as possible replacements.

Most on the list could not be reached for comment by press time, but talk about the vacant seat has increased now that Weiner has ceased to make headlines around the country and draw a hoard of photographers who followed him from home to office and even to the Laundromat. The frenzy culminated with last Thursday’s press conference, where scores of reporters gathered and a heckler interrupted his farewell speech.

“It is a great privilege to serve as a member of the City Council and as chairman of its Committee on Environmental Protection, and I have been very fortunate to have had my environmental work recognized nationally. And, as the only prospective candidate for the 9th Congressional District who has a national profile on any important issue, it makes sense that I consider this opportunity, which I am doing,” Gennaro said in a statement. “But I cherish my current job, and have not yet made a decision.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo will ultimately decide how the seat will be filled. Cuomo can call a special election, which must take place 70 to 80 days after the announcement.

If the governor wanted to hold the election on Primary Day, since voters will already be out and machines set up, he would have to call the election no later than June 24. Alternatively, Cuomo could choose to leave the seat vacant until 2012.

According to political insiders familiar with the situation, the seat will most likely be in existence for one year only.

After each census, state lawmakers appoint a committee to redraw the lines of electoral districts to reflect any shift in population. ?Since New York will is set to lose two seats, congressional and state politicians from both parties will each decide one seat to eliminate. Since nobody is likely to volunteer, Weiner’s seat was basically served on a silver platter, sources said.

Because of the position’s limited lifespan, Democrats must be careful not to endorse anyone too ambitious, sources said. If the seat is eliminated, the newly elected lawmaker, now out of a job, might try to run against other party members to gain a seat again, sources said.

But Democrats cannot put up too weak of a contender, other insiders said, since the Republican Party had a strong candidate last year in the form of Bob Turner.

Turner garnered 41 percent of the vote and has publicly expressed his desire for the seat.

“This is more than a place holder,” Turner said. “I think there will be many important points that Congress will make running up to the 2012 election of the president.”

But for each party, picking the right candidate right after a scandal also proves complicated, sources said, which is why a woman might do well to take constituents’ minds off the scandal.

U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, who has taken a leave of absence from Congress, carries his laundry to a cleaner near his Forest Hills apartment. AP photo/David Karp

Calls for U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-Forest Hills) resignation grew stronger this week, but the embattled congressman had still not caved in to pressure.

Weiner asked for and was granted a two-week leave of absence and announced he was entering rehab after his embarassing Twitter scandal came to light, although it was unclear what kind of help he was seeking or where the facility was.

The congressman’s pregnant wife, Huma Abedin was due back in the country Thursday after traveling overseas with her boss, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

President Barack Obama, who initially declined to comment on Weiner’s situation, suggested Monday that the congressman should step down.

“If it were me, I would resign,” Obama said.

Weiner’s predecessor in the House, U.S. Sen Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), said he was “heartbroken” over the congressman’s behavior.

“For those of us who are longtime friends of Anthony Weiner his wrongful behavior is distressing and saddening,” Schumer said. “It’s clear he needs professional help and I am glad he is seeking it.”

Many top Democrats have urged Weiner to resign, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who ordered an ethics investigation to determine whether Weiner used any government resources in the texting scandal.

The House Ethics Committee began a preliminary investigation Monday into Weiner.

When Weiner held a news conference last week to admit to sending a photo of his boxer-clad crotch to a college co-ed on Twitter, he claimed he used his private phone and personal computer to communicate with the woman and six others.

Momentum for Weiner’s resignation gained steam after an X-rated photo of the congressman was made public along with shots that appeared to show the Forest Hills Democrat taking pictures of himself from the House gym.

Among the candidates whose names have been floated to succeed Weiner if he resigns are former City Council members Eric Gioia and Melinda Katz, state Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) and City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens).

Some of Weiner’s constituents, including members of the Juniper Park Civic Association, protested outside his Kew Gardens Road office over the weekend demanding his resignation.

“It’s a question of morality,” said Howard Beach resident Ed Kampermann. “He has tarnished his office. He cannot bring home the bacon for the district.”

The protest drew a separate crowd, who said they were standing by their congressman.

“It’s easier to crucify and abandon someone when they are down than to stand up for them,” said 47-year-old Jim Sideris of Flushing, who was a classmate of Weiner’s at Brooklyn Technical High School.

Weiner has a sizable campaign war chest and led all Democratic challengers in fund-raising in the 2013 mayoral race, although it appears unlikely that he will run for that post following the scandal.

Evan Bell, a Manhattan donor to Weiner’s campaigns, said he would support the congressman “financially and emotionally” should he decide to tough it out and seek re-election.

Borough organizations that have been beneficiaries of Weiner’s member item allocations have stayed silent on his situation, including Queens College, where Weiner steered $540,000 in federal funds for various programs over the last two years.

State Assemblyman David Weprin (c.), state Sen. Toby Stavisky (second from r.), and city Councilman Mark Weprin urge residents in Bayside Sunday to become familiar with the new voting process they will encounter during next month's primary election. Photo by Anna Gustafson

Queens legislators gathered in front of the Alexander Graham Bell School in Bayside Sunday to urge residents to educate themselves on the new voting procedures they will encounter next month when they cast ballots in the primary.

Gone are the big, bulky voting machines with the red levers city voters have used for the past five decades. In their place will be paper ballots with fill-in ovals — something reminiscent of multiple choice tests — that will be fed into a scanner. The scanner records the voter’s choice, but the physical evidence of the vote will remain.

“Voters who voted in the old school board elections, not a lot of us voted in those elections but I always did, and those who voted by absentee or the occasional absentee ballot might not be totally thrown off by the new system, but the reality is that the overwhelming number of voters in a primary and certainly in a November election never touched a paper ballot,” said state Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Little Neck).

David Weprin was joined Sunday by state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Whitestone), City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) and a group of residents from northeast Queens Sunday at the Bayside school that is used as a voting site.

Legislators and residents stressed the importance of voters familiarizing themselves with the new process, which individuals may do at free demonstrations at sites throughout the city. Locations can be found online at http://vote.nyc.ny.us.

City officials have also been mailing information about the new process, which was mandated by a federal law called the Help America Vote Act. The act was drafted in part as a response to the confusion over paperless ballots in the 2000 presidential election.

“We have to commend the city and state Board of Elections for preparing voters for this new form of voting,” Stavisky said. “New technology can be a little scary, but two years from now, during the next election, it’ll be second nature.”

Mark Weprin suggested residents give themselves a little more time to vote this year in case there is any confusion.

“I want to make sure people realize learning the new process will be a little difficult,” he said. “But in the end, this will be a much simpler process.”

Officials said they were especially pleased that there will be a permanent record of the vote.

“It makes it easier to identify the actual vote,” David Weprin said. “That’s the main advantage.”

Marsha Roth, a polling site coordinator who last year was stationed at the Alexander Graham Bell School, said she is looking forward to the new machines.

“It’ll definitely be an improvement over what we’ve had,” Roth said. “It’s more beneficial for the voter.”

A passenger boards the Q79 bus along Little Neck Parkway in Floral Park.

The recently shuttered Q79 bus line that ran from Little Neck to Floral Park is being considered for the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s group ride livery program and both City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) and Weprin family archnemesis Bob Friedrich are taking credit for the development.

Weprin, who squared off against Friedrich in the Democratic primary in 2009 and again in the general election when Friedrich ran as a Republican, said he wrote to TLC Commissioner David Yassky before Q79 service ended last month requesting the route be considered for the program. But Friedrich, who challenged state Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Little Neck) last year and is a candidate again this year, said he had also been in contact with the TLC and criticized Weprin for not doing enough to save the Q79. Friedrich is president of the Glen Oaks Village cooperative, whose residents used the Q7 route.

“His letter — too little, too late,” Friedrich said. “He needs to be held accountable for [the Q79’s] demise.”

Friedrich held a rally late last month imploring the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reconsider its decision to cut the Q79 and said the event “was just one component of what led to the TLC considering incorporating the Q79 into the [group ride] program.”

“There is no question that it was my conversations with the TLC office that is responsible for this line being considered,” he said.

Weprin said he did not understand how Friedrich could accuse him of doing more to save the bus line that ran along Little Neck Parkway.

“I’m not sure what he’s referring to,” Weprin said. “Politicians in election season might say anything, so I can’t respond to those types of comments.”

Weprin wrote a letter to Yassky June 23, suggesting the commissioner consider the Q79 for one of six commuter van routes Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he would put in place in the wake of the MTA cuts.

Yassky wrote back June 30, saying the Q79 was among the six being reviewed for the group ride livery van service. The letter reached Weprin’s office July 6.

A day earlier, on July 5, Friedrich sent out a news release announcing that the Q79 was being considered for the program.

Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.

Meng and a small crowd of students held signs reading “No Cuts to Student Aid” as they decried the Metropolitan Transportation Authority actions Saturday along Union Street in Flushing.

“We are not going to sit back and take this,” the assemblywoman said. “We’ll fight for our students.”

Under the agency’s 2010 budget plan, students will begin paying half fare that year and full fare in 2011. An estimated 417,243 city students currently receive free MetroCards, while another 167,912 get half-fare cards.

Meng said the city has provided a policy of free and discounted rides to students since 1948.

“The cuts approved by the MTA are a disheartening sign of our priorities,” she said. “Cuts in service are acceptable in difficult economic times, but cuts into our children’s future are not.”

The MTA is facing a $383 million budget gap in its $11 billion budget due largely to cuts in state aid and lower revenues from a payroll tax that was enacted to fund public transportation. Planned cuts include eliminating the W and Z subway lines, several bus lines and weekend service on other lines.

State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Whitestone) said the city’s decision to close several Queens high schools, including Jamaica High School, will force students to travel farther.

“It is wrong for the MTA to eliminate free student MetroCards because I see it setting off a ripple effect,” she said. “Without that benefit, some families will have to choose between paying for food or transportation to school. I hope this doesn’t result in students missing school or jumping turnstiles.”

Several Flushing students who attend Manhattan’s Hunter College High School said the cuts will likely make their travel to the city more difficult.

“We work hard and our parents want us to have a good education,” said Lily Kong, 15. “Our parents do not mind sending us to school farther away.”

Meng said the cuts would likely cost the average family an additional $1,000 in transportation fees each year per child.

Saturday’s event was one of several protests officials and students are holding on the student cuts, and students from throughout the city gathered in Manhattan Monday afternoon to voice their anger over the transportation proposal. Monday’s event was publicized through Facebook’s “Protest the MTA getting rid of student MetroCard” page, which has more than 71,000 members.

Forest Hills students expressed outrage over the possibility that they could lose their student cards. While meeting with state Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) and state Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) last week, Forest Hills High students said the proposed cutback would discourage students from attending school.

After Forest Hills High junior Ronel Puello asked why the MTA was getting rid of the cards, students erupted into cheers and applause.

“It’s a bad proposal,” Addabbo said. “We’re not going to balance the MTA’s budget on the backs of the students.”

Hevesi also said he did not believe the MTA would actually go through with any plan to eliminate the student card program.

“This is just to scare us into not implementing those cuts,” Hevesi said of the state Legislature’s decision earlier this month to carve $143 million from the MTA to fill the state’s budget gap.

Another student said should the MTA eliminate this program because “half of us aren’t going to go to school and a lot of us will get into trouble.”

State Assemblyman Mark Weprin (r.) at a Sunday dinner thanks volunteers who worked on his Council campaign. Photo by Anna Gustafson

For Cardozo High School senior Patrick Jordan, volunteering for state Assemblyman Mark Weprin’s (D-Little Neck) City Council campaign was an intense crash course in the political life.

He spent nearly every day of the summer working for Weprin’s successful campaign, logging more than 1,000 hours for the legislator and doing everything from staying up all night with other volunteers to put together a mailing to collecting petition signatures so Weprin could appear on the primary ballot.

“It was really interesting,” Jordan said.

People like Jordan, Weprin said, were the tour de force behind his victory in November, which was why the councilman-elect held a dinner this week to thank the more than 300 individuals who volunteered for his campaign.

“We had high school students, we had college students, we had so many people working for us,” Weprin said. “What better time than right after Thanksgiving to say thank you for helping us make it through the campaign?”

More than 100 volunteers attended the dinner at the Santoor Indian Restaurant in Glen Oaks Sunday night, including Weprin’s office coordinator and Bellerose resident George Woolsey.

Working for Weprin was Woolsey’s first foray into politics and he said he was heartened by the lawmaker’s ability to resolve issues raised by constituents.

“In my 74 years I’ve seen politicians come along and say I’ll do this or I’ll do that, but nothing gets done,” Woolsey said. “If I went to Mark with a problem, he’d listen and a problem would get resolved.”

There were a wide variety of people at the dinner, from Community Board 8 members Martha Taylor, Marc Haken and Tammy Osherov to Santoor’s owner, Kirpal Singh.

“I like Mark very much, and there’s no doubt in my mind he’ll rise to the leadership in the City Council,” Haken said.

Weprin’s campaign manager, Dirk McCall, said they chose Santoor’s because it “has so much history for the campaign.” Weprin participated in three campaign events at the restaurant.

Singh said despite his fellow Sikh Swaranjit Singh’s loss to Weprin in the Democratic primary, the Sikh community wants to work with and for Weprin.

“We’ll work closely with Swaranjit,” Weprin said. “I’ve always been very involved in the Sikh community, and I look forward to working with the Sikh community.”

Weprin said upon taking office, he plans to immediately address issues such as education. The assemblyman is known as a vocal opponent of the importance the Bloomberg administration and city Schools Chancellor Joel Klein have assigned to standardized testing in schools.

“I plan to fight back on their emphasis on testing,” said Weprin, who has two children in public schools and whose wife is a PTA president.

Andie Amit, a student at Francis Lewis and a Weprin volunteer, said she appreciated the legislator’s stance on testing.

“The public schools only focus on testing,” Amit said.

David Weprin (l.) declared his candidacy for the state Assembly seat to be vacated by his brother while Glen Oaks Village President Bob Friedrich has yet to decide to enter the race.

Outgoing City Councilman David Weprin (D-Hollis) has decided to run for his brother’s soon-to-be-vacant state Assembly seat as one possible contender, Glen Oaks Village President Bob Friedrich, is mulling his options.

Assemblyman Mark Weprin’s (D-Little Neck) seat will open once he is installed in the City Council Jan. 1, taking his brother’s seat.

Gov. David Paterson has to set a date for a special election to fill Mark Weprin’s Assembly seat. He is expected to call for the contest in February.

David Weprin said he made the decision to run for his brother’s seat last Thursday and he has the support of the district’s four Democratic district leaders who are key to getting on the ballot: himself, his brother Mark, Honey Miller and Martha Taylor.

“This is an opportunity for me to contribute to the public. People have been coming over to me to stay in public service,” he said in a phone interview Monday.

Weprin said state Senate President Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans) tried to recruit him to run against state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose), who won a tight election a year ago against City Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows).

Meanwhile, Friedrich, who launched a failed bid for the Council this year, said he is “strongly considering running.”

“The Republicans, they have offered me the line in the special election. It’s the only way voters get a choice,” said Friedrich, who lost this year’s Democratic primary and was defeated again running on the Republican line for the November contest.

Friedrich alluded to the possible seat swap as a case of dynasty politics. Mark Weprin won a special election for his Assembly seat following the death of his father, Assembly Speaker Saul Weprin, in 1994.

“The name ‘Weprin,’ that’s not a reason for someone to hold public office,” he said. “It should be based on community service. To me, this is nothing more than musical chairs.”

But Weprin said he was not running on his last name alone, although he said he was not running away from it either.

Voters “shouldn’t vote for me because my name is Weprin,” he said. “They should vote for me because I’ve been a good councilman for the last eight years.”

While not officially declaring his candidacy for the seat, Friedrich took the time to criticize David Weprin.
“I think David’s constituent services have left a lot to be desired,” he said, claiming he did not get calls back from him on matters pertaining to Glen Oaks Village. “I think David has a lot of vulnerability.”

City Council contender Bob Friedrich throws one of the opening pitches for the Glen Oaks Little League in April. Photo by Christina Santucci

City Council contender Bob Friedrich defended a letter he sent last month as president of the Glen Oaks Village Co-op’s board to the housing community’s tenants after his opponent, state Assemblyman Mark Weprin (D-Little Neck), accused him of using the co-op’s official letterhead to promote his candidacy.

Friedrich was defeated by Weprin in the Sept. 15 Democratic primary but with the support of the Queens County Republican Party will face off against Weprin in the Nov. 3 general election. The winner of the race will replace Councilman David Weprin (D-Hollis), who lost to Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) in the city comptroller race during the primary.

Dirk McCall, Weprin’s campaign spokesman, said he believed Friedrich should not have sent out a Sept. 22 letter to his co-op’s tenants in which he discussed primary results and the November election.

“When you participate in the city’s campaign finance program, you cannot accept corporate contributions,” McCall said. “A co-op is a corporation under New York state law. Sending out a letter on letterhead is a corporate contribution. The shareholders have been calling us and we share their concerns. [Friedrich] has been saying this was an informational letter, but it looked blatantly political to us.”

But Friedrich defended the letter and called McCall’s criticism “much ado about nothing.”

“This was not a campaign piece,” he said. “It was a perfectly appropriate letter from the president of a co-op to residents. There was nothing saying to vote for Bob Friedrich. This is politics as usual. My opponent will try to stir the pot and create and issue where none exists.”

In the Sept. 22 letter to co-op residents, Friedrich announced a “Bagels with Bob” event for Oct. 24, during which attendees would discuss concerns within the complex’s community.

“This is an opportunity for us to sit and talk about community concerns and issues face to face,” Friedrich wrote.

But Friedrich also wrote “that the race was far from over” in the letter.

“I will be on the ballot in the November 3 general election for City Council,” he wrote.

The letter also discussed his disappointment with voter turnout.

“Although I was able to generate a 25 percent voter turnout in Glen Oaks as compared to a 10 percent citywide total, it was not large enough to win against an incumbent,” he wrote. “I am grateful to the 660 out of the 2,600 eligible Glen Oaks voters who came out to vote, but it was a disappointment. Unfortunately, three out of four eligible voters chose to stay home rather than go to the polls on a beautiful day, which is a sad commentary on the times.”

Friedrich said as president he has insisted on keeping his duties as the co-op board’s president separate from his campaign, such as asking the co-op’s employees not to wear his campaign buttons or place bumper stickers supporting his candidacy on their cars.

On Monday, state Committee member Jack Friedman filed a complaint against Friedrich on the matter with the city’s Campaign Finance Board.

Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at nduke@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.