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.

Jose Quizhpilem (c.), of the nonprofit Make the Road NY, joins city Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and other elected officials at a news conference protesting the federal detention center in Jamaica. Photo courtesy Bill de Blasio's office

The city public advocate is calling on the federal government to shut down the controversial immigration detention center in Springfield Gardens and rethink its partnership with the private organization that runs it.

Bill de Blasio and a host of other New York elected officials gathered in Manhattan last Thursday to protest the GEO Group, which runs the Queens Detention Facility, at 182-22 150th Ave., that is used for suspects who are arrested for immigration issues and awaiting trial.

The for-profit organization that runs 7,000 out of 32,000 immigration detention beds in the country has come under fire over the last couple of years for alleged abuses and mistreatment of their detainees.

In 2004, 175 detainees at the Queens Detention Facility went on a hunger strike to protest their deportations and the use of solitary confinement, and five years later two of the center’s prison guards were convicted of covering up the beating of an inmate, according to de Blasio.

“This isn’t how our country should treat immigrants — regardless of their status. We need a serious investigation into the charges leveled against this industry,” he said in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Justice has had a contract with GEO for years, and the public advocate charged it of not having strong oversight. Representatives for the DOJ and GEO did not return phone calls for comment before press time Tuesday afternoon.

The DOJ and GEO did not respond to requests for comment.

De Blasio urged the federal government to end all GEO contracts immediately and conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations at its detention centers. He also called for an establishment of an “abuse-free zone” at the jails.

“Government should not be in business with any company that seeks to profit off of the mistreatment of human beings,” he said.

City Councilman Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights), who chairs the Council Immigration Committee, agreed.

“In most instances when government privatizes services that government should be doing, it invites corruption,” he said in a statement. “The federal government should immediately act to stop GEO from operating [the] Immigration Services Center in Jamaica that has already had a detrimental effect on our community.”

The jail has been a huge problem for the community for years. Residents have held several rallies and elected officials say it has hurt their quality of life since it is located not too far people’s homes.

There has been a 56 percent rise in pothole complaints since 2006, according to city Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

Queens roads are in the worst shape in the city, according to a new study by city Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

Of more than 80,000 calls to 311 this year requesting road repairs, more than 22,000 were about Queens streets, the report found.

The city has witnessed a 56 percent increase in pothole complaints since 2006, and the city has been ineffective in adapting to the surge, according to de Blasio.

His analysis showed that repair requests are regularly dropped as they are passed between various city agencies, forcing complainers to call again and wasting time and city tax dollars for required re-inspection of the roads before the repairs can be made.

Under existing procedures, when 311 gets a complaint about a pothole, it forwards it to the city Department of Transportation, which dispatches a paid inspector. But if the DOT rules that the damage was due to a “sinkhole” rather than a “pothole,” the agency often drops the case without resolution — and only if the complainer calls 311 again to check on the status of the repair will he or she be told that the case was dropped because sinkholes are handled by the city Department of Environmental Protection.

The caller then has to open another case, which 311 sends to the DEP, which performs a redundant second inspection before making a repair.

The agency shuffling can take weeks.

De Blasio recommended in the report that the city streamline the road repair process in order to better manage the more than 100,000 annual pothole complaints. He said complaints and inspection reports should automatically be forwarded to the proper department whenever an agency finds a street repair it is not assigned to handle.

“This is a classic example of one hand of government not working with the other,” de Blasio said in a statement. “This bureaucracy is wasting taxpayer dollars. Agencies should forward these requests and inspection reports automatically and immediately respond to each other to get repairs made as quickly as possible.”

Not fixing potholes also costs the city many thousands of dollars each year in claims by drivers whose cars are damaged by bad roads.

Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (l.) and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio (r.) speak to PS 16 PTA president Maria Quiroz at a signature drive at the school against teacher layoffs. Photo by Rebecca Henely

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst) visited Corona’s PS 19 last week and collected about 100 signatures from parents and students within an hour imploring Mayor Michael Bloomberg not to fire 4,100 teachers from city schools.

He then took his call for action to the borough streets last Thursday.

“The issue here is to get parents engaged and make sure parents’ voices are heard,” de Blasio said.

The May 24 visit was part of a campaign de Blasio has been waging to prevent Bloomberg from laying off 4,100 teachers as proposed in his city budget. Wylie Norvell, a spokesman for de Blasio, said the public advocate has been collecting signatures, testimony and videos of parents who do not want teachers laid off.

As part of the campaign, de Blasio has also been going to schools throughout the city, and Norvell said last week he planned to visit one in each of the five boroughs. PS 19, at 98-02 Roosevelt Ave. in Corona, one of the most crowded schools in the city, was where de Blasio decided to appear in Queens.

The public advocate said the layoffs would create an “unprecedented danger” to the city school system and would constitute the largest number of teachers lost at one time since the 1970s.

“We’re going to make a bad situation worse in those schools that are overcrowded,” de Blasio said.

Ferreras, who went to PS 19 as a child, said she remembers the school bursting at the seams as a student there. She said that as the school is now, special education is taught in the hallways and lunch periods begin at 10:30 a.m.

“This is not a new issue. The problem is that we haven’t applied new solutions,” Ferreras said.

Yoselin Genao, Ferreras’ chief of staff, said PS 19 has the capacity for 1,305 students but there are 2,012 students currently enrolled.

“In the average class there’s 30 students,” said Maria Quiroz, president of the PTA who has two children at the school. “Where would all these students go?”

Eddie Paez, a fifth-grade student at the school who lives the Corona, said he signed the petition to help his teachers.

“They teach us a lot and they show us how to improve in life and what to do,” Eddie said.

De Blasio and state Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Jamaica) gathered more signatures and support with a series of rallies in Queens last Thursday. The public advocate’s supporters met at the Parsons Boulevard-Archer Avenue subway station, PS 40 and PS 30 in Jamaica, the Queens Plaza subway station and the Roosevelt Avenue subway station to voice their disdain against the city.

“That is 4,100 less teachers that our children will have to educate them, 4,100 less teachers our children can go to for help and guidance and 4,100 less teachers to make our schools tolerant, safe and productive,” Huntley said in a statement.

At the PS 19 drive, Ferreras said now that Dennis Walcott has become city schools chancellor, the lines of communication have been better. She said previous Schools Chancellor Cathie Black never returned her calls, but Ferreras was one of the first electeds to meet with Walcott.

“For me personally, it’s been day and night,” she said.

But the public advocate said Walcott needs to demonstrate that policy has changed among the administration.

“He has to show people there’s a change in direction at the Department of Education,” de Blasio said.

Visit parentsforteachers.com for the petition.

City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio talks about his plans to punish landlords who violate building laws. Photo courtesy public advocate's office

The city public advocate is taking his fight against the city’s worst landlords, many of whom are in southeast Queens, to the World Wide Web in order to help tenants avoid the headaches of moving into poorly maintained apartments.

Bill de Blasio laid out a multipoint plan last week that he said would punish those building owners for not adhering to city guidelines and responding to tenants’ complaints, such as maintenance repairs and lack of heat and hot water.

De Blasio already has arranged for his office’s worst landlords online database to be posted on Craigslist as a link for renters to check when they search apartment listings.

“We need to creatively use the tools we have right at our fingertips so that more New Yorkers can finally live in safe apartments,” he said in a statement.

As of press time Tuesday, there were 15 landlords listed on the watch list, 10 of whom were located in southeast Queens. The borough building with the most building violations was at 88-22 Parsons Blvd. in Jamaica, which had 143 infractions that included citations for lack of heat and hot water, according to the database.

Aside from exposing the landlords online, de Blasio has other plans to curb the building offenses.

He proposed cutting off Section 8 and other taxpayer dollar-funded initiatives to building owners who have a long history of tenant neglect and prevent those landlords from buying more properties. De Blasio also pushed for field organizers to go into the troubled buildings and asked for help from new tenant associations so the apartment dwellers could organize better.

The public advocate indicated that he would support legislation introduced by state Sen. Liz Kruger (D-Manhattan) that would establish minimum penalties for several housing violations, including no heat.

“Negligent building owners do not make repairs because they know that New York City’s enforcement agencies do not have the tools nor the resources to make them comply with housing codes,” she said in a statement.

Log on to landlordwatchlist.com for a list of the landlords on the list.

City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio (r.) speaks at a meeting of the Queensboro Hill Civic Association while Don Capalbi (l.), the group's president, looks on. Photo by Connor Adams Sheets

City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio brought his vision of a New York City government that treats all five boroughs as equal to the Queensboro Hill Civic Association last week.

Speaking before a full house at the Palace Diner, at 60-15 Main St., de Blasio, the second-highest-ranking city official, discussed ways for improving how the city is run and answered residents’ questions and concerns during an appearance March 30.

A former Brooklyn councilman from 2001-09, de Blasio said he sympathizes with Queens residents who believe Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration focuses most of its attention and resources on issues in Manhattan, shortchanging the other four boroughs.

One time that inequity had significant importance for residents of both Brooklyn and Queens, de Blasio said, was the city’s response to the Dec. 26, 2010, snowstorm, which Bloomberg himself described as “inadequate” and “unsatisfactory” and which left many streets uncleared throughout Queens and Brooklyn for days after the blizzard hit.

“At times Bloomberg was talking about the Bronx and Staten Island and Queens and Brooklyn as if they were foreign countries. The attitude and the assumptions were the underlying issue,” de Blasio said. “We learned about the inability and unwillingness of the city to try a five-borough strategy.”

De Blasio, who serves as a watchdog over city government in his current role as public advocate, also commented on the city and state’s budget issues and offered his opinions on choices state leaders made in recent weeks to reduce deficits.

“In Albany, what happened in the last few days may be the beginning of some real change,” he said. “In the short term, there will be some real pain … but someday we’ll probably say that this was a turning point and a point when the state finally got its act together.”

He said the city now needs to make tough choices about its own budgetary priorities and the first step is to decide which areas are off limits for cuts, then make decisions about what to cut based on remaining resources. He laid out his vision for the budget, admitting it will be difficult, but suggesting what must be preserved.

“Keep the level of policing we have now, don’t close firehouses, and keep the level of teachers we have now,” then look at where costs can be trimmed, he said.

He also answered a number of questions from the Queens residents, instructing them on how to go about getting enforcement for idling buses and cars, and discussing how to fix the problem of children who must take long journeys across the city to get to class when there are good schools in their neighborhoods.

But he would not commit on one of the biggest questions many have for the top official: Will he run to replace Bloomberg in 2013?

“It’s very flattering, and the day will come when we’ll all have to figure out what we’re going to do after Michael Bloomberg ceases to be mayor, and I’ll make those decisions at that time,” he said.

Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has refused to apologize for ridiculing the way Chinese President Hu Jintao speaks. AP Photo/Rob Carr

An angry outburst at state Assemblywoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) over her repeated request that controversial radio host Rush Limbaugh apologize for his impersonation of Chinese President Hu Jintao seems to be ebbing after she received no phone calls and few racially charged e-mails from the talk show’s supporters over the weekend, according to Meng spokeswoman Linda Sun.

But she, City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) and city Public Advocate Bill de Blasio want to keep up the pressure on Limbaugh to take back his comments, and Koo gave Meng his backing over the weekend, offering to join her in her effort to calling the shock jock to task for offending the Chinese-American community. De Blasio issued a statement expressing his support of Meng on Monday.

Meng’s office has been inundated with more than 50 hateful and racist phone calls and e-mails since she publicly criticized Limbaugh for mocking the way Jintao speaks during a segment of his radio show Jan. 19.

On Thursday and Friday alone, Meng received about 30 calls and e-mails from people across the United States, some of whom used anti-Chinese slurs and profanity when lambasting Meng for asking that Limbaugh apologize for performing what she described as a racially insensitive impression of the Chinese leader.

On his radio show Jan. 19, Limbaugh lamented that a speech Hu gave during a recent visit to the White House was not translated as he listened to it on television.

“Hu Jintao, he was speaking and they weren’t translating and they normally have some translator every couple of words, but Hu Jintao was just going ‘Ching chong. Ching chong, chong chong!’” he said during the show, proceeding to spend more than 15 seconds mocking and imitating Hu’s accent. The AP reported that on the following day he addressed his remarks but did not make an apology.

“We’ve been getting e-mails and phone calls from all over the country. People telling us to go back to our country and that Asians work for them and if we don’t like it we can go back to our country,” Meng’s spokeswoman said Friday afternoon. “The majority of the phone calls have been from outside of [New York], people yelling at us. People have said to us that we’re defending China or China’s policy. That’s not our intention. We’re just standing up for all our fellow Chinese Americans.”

Meng is the only Asian American in the state Legislature. Koo, the successor to John Liu, the first Asian American city Council member, said on Monday that Limbaugh’s comments were out of line.

“We don’t want other people to make fun of minority groups, especially a public figure like Limbaugh,” Koo said. “The FCC, they have some regulations against it. You can’t use profanity and you also can’t discriminate against a group of people.”

Meng has stood by her comments despite the conservative backlash, saying in a follow-up statement that she still wants an apology from Limbaugh.

“I still stand fervently by my statement. I want to clarify that while any private citizen is free to say anything they want, I do not believe it is appropriate for anyone, especially a person with national recognition, to imitate the manner in which a group of people talks,” she said. “As someone who is proud to have been born in America and to be an American, I was often saddened and hurt as a child when people made fun of the way I looked or the accent they automatically assumed I had.”

An Associated Press story quoting Meng and headlined “Asian-American Lawmakers Demand Limbaugh Apology” was listed as the most-e-mailed article on Yahoo! News Friday afternoon. In the AP article, Meng was joined by California state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) in calling for a Limbaugh apology.

Sun said Yee, who was more prominently featured in the AP piece than Meng, has received some of the most offensive calls and e-mails. His office has released a fax Yee received Jan. 26 that read “Death to Marxists!” and “Fish Head Leeland” accompanied by a drawing of a noose around President Barack Obama’s disembodied head being dragged by a pick-up truck bearing an American flag. Yee’s office forwarded the fax to the California state Senate sergeant-at-arms.

Dave Backer, a Guilford, Ill., man who owns two companies that deal with various aspects of the radon industry, sent an e-mail to Meng after seeing the AP article on his Yahoo! News home page. He said in a phone interview Friday that Meng should apologize to her constituents for wasting taxpayer money and time by asking for an apology.

“Rush does not owe you or anyone else an apology. How about instead of thrying [sic] to grab headlines with crap you get out and actually do your job which is helping Americans. Yeah did you forget we still live in this country and you work for us,” Backer’s e-mail read. “Anyone who is Asian and has such thin skin when they are in our country should leave. So here is a suggestion for you. Either get a little thicker skin or take your ass back to where it is you came from. Back to your ancestry that you think we are picking on. Ching chong,chang!”

DeBlasio added his name to the growing number of officials calling for Limbaugh to take back his words.

“The recent threats sent to Assemblywoman Grace Meng are ugly and bigoted. Grace was right to speak out against Rush Limbaugh’s offensive parody of Chinese President Hu Jintao,” de Blasio said. “That doing so made her a target of harassment demonstrates the inherent dangers intolerant speech like Mr. Limbaugh’s can let loose. We must never be afraid call out intolerance when we see it, and we must all work to prevent our words from inciting division.”

Councilman Bill de Blasio (D-Brooklyn) was elected public advocate on a bright fall day that drew what appeared to be an average number of voters to the polls. for a non-presidential election year.

Marshall, a Democrat, easily defeated Republican candidate Robert Hornak and Conservative Robert Schwartz, garnering 166,439 votes, or 75.63 percent of the vote, with 99.75 percent of the precincts reporting, according to unofficial results from NY1. Hornak received 44,641 votes, while Schwartz landed 8,982 votes.

Marshall has been borough president of Queens since 2001, prior to which she served as a city councilwoman and state assemblywoman in Queens for nearly two decades.

She led a relatively quiet campaign this summer, but said if re-elected she would push hard to increase the number of hospital beds in Queens and continue her support of bolstering minority- and women-owned businesses in Queens.

Bloomberg in his third bid for the city’s highest office beat Democrat Bill Thompson, but with a much thinner margin than expected. Bloomberg won 555,254 votes, or 50.6 percent, while Thompson, the city comptroller, received 505,452 votes, or 46.06 percent, with 99.89 percent of precincts reporting.

“The voters have spoken and now it’s up to us to deliver,” Bloomberg said during his victory speech Tuesday night. “Can we do it? I know we can, and I know we will.”

Thompson and Bloomberg said they planned to work with one another following the campaign.

“We’ve had our differences, but we’ve always found a common ground in our deep desire to serve this city,” Thompson said. “I pledge to do whatever I can to put the differences of the campaign behind us.”

Some residents at Queens polling stations expressed confidence in Bloomberg’s background as a successful businessman who has ruled the city as students’ test scores have risen and crime has dropped, while others criticized the billionaire independent’s bid to extend term limits and run for a third term.

“I’ve always voted for Bloomberg,” said Lina Hsu, 77, of Forest Hills. “Right now, the whole city is in crisis and you better let him go after it.”

Rose-Ann Georgilis of Woodside too praised Bloomberg’s record on crime and education.

“I don’t like that housing seems to be more expensive under Bloomberg, but it’s more important to me to feel safe and like my kids are doing well in school,” Georgilis said.

Many residents in southeast Queens threw their support behind Thompson and said they disapproved of Bloomberg’s drive to extend term limits.

“I think Bloomberg is a good person, but even if you’re good, you can’t disrespect the people,” said Laurelton resident Roy White.

Bloomberg, who spent a record-breaking estimated $90 million on his campaign, said he hopes to further funnel his efforts to reducing crime, reforming education and making affordable housing more available.

Liu swept to a landmark victory, drawing 695,335  ballots, or 75.97 percent of the vote, with 99.89 percent of precincts counted. Liu, the first Asian American to hold citywide office, easily trounced his Republican opponent, Joseph Mendola, who received 176,681 votes, or 19.3 percent.

“Indeed this is an historic night for New York City and a milestone for Asian Americans across the nation,” Liu said Tuesday night. “I’m truly humbled to have this place in history, and I stand here extremely optimistic about the opportunity to bring change to New York City and about the economic outlook of our future.”

DeBlasio defeated Staten Island Republican Alex Zablocki, receiving 671,412 votes, or 76.85 percent of the vote, with 99.89 percent of the precincts counted. Zablocki landed 156,715 votes, or 17.94 percent.
Ivan Pereira and Jeremy Walsh contributed reporting to this article.

Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 174.

City Councilman John Liu emerges from the voting booth at St. John Vianney in Flushing as wife Jenny looks on. Photo by Christina Santucci

Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) defeated Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn) in the run-off election Tuesday to determine who would take the Democratic slot in the Nov. 3 race to replace city Comptroller William Thompson.
Liu captured 55.6 percent of the vote in the run-off, while Yassky took 44.4 percent of the light turnout, according to unofficial election results.
“I’m deeply honored to stand before you tonight to accept the Democratic nomination for city comptroller,” Liu said during his acceptance speech. “We had a cross-section of support from New Yorkers. We won this election in the streets.”
Now Liu will face-off against Republican challenger Joseph Mendola in November’s general election. If elected, Liu would become the first Asian American to hold a citywide office.
Thompson, who was first elected as comptroller in 2001, is running against Michael Bloomberg in this year’s mayoral race.
In the run-off election for the city’s public advocate, Councilman Bill de Blasio (D-Brooklyn) drew 62.5 percent of the vote, beating back Mark Green, who had held the post from 1993 to 2001 and made an unsuccessful run for mayor in 2001. Green garnered 37.5 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s election.
“I want to thank the people of this city for their faith in me,” de Blasio said after he was declared the winner. “I’ve had the honor of being in public service in this city for 20 years. New Yorkers stand by each other. We are a compassionate city, an extraordinary experiment in democracy.”
De Blasio will face Republican Alex Zablocki in the November election. Incumbent Betsy Gotbaum declined to run for a third term.
A total of 228,888 votes were cast in the comptroller race, while 221,977 votes were cast in the public advocate race, according to the city Board of Elections.
The elections were held this week because none of the candidates running in the Democratic primary for comptroller and  public advocate was able to win 40 percent of the vote.
Turnout in Queens for the run-off election was sporadic throughout the day, poll workers in Flushing and Bayside said.
“It’s been very, very light,” said Rich Allen, site coordinator at the Latimer House Community Center’s poll on 137th Street in Flushing.
Allen said a total of 150 people had voted all day as of 6:45 p.m, while coordinator Frank Albaneze said he had only seen half of the usual number of voters at the Flushing House Adult Residences on Bowne Street.
Poll workers at both the Taiwan Center on Northern Boulevard in Flushing and MS 158 in Bayside said few voters had shown up to vote. MS 158’s poll workers said no more than 100 people had voted as of 3:30 p.m.
Joanne Trikas, a poll coordinator at Bayside’s PS 41, said it had been a quiet day at her polling site.
“It’s been a light turnout,” she said around 3 p.m. “I expect some more after dinner.”
None of the workers at the polls could say whether there had been any mobilization among the Asian-American community for Liu.
Liu has served two terms as Flushing’s councilman and formerly worked as an actuary with PriceWaterhouseCooper – experience he touted in his bid to capture the top financial post in the city. He has also served as the City Council Transportation Committee chairman for the last several years.
Yassky, meanwhile, has been the chairman of the Council’s Small Business Committee since shortly after taking office in 2001. He also served in the city budget office and worked for U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) prior to that.

Qunnipiac University Polling Institute Director Maurice Carroll said the Sept. 29 runoff is expected to have less than 10 percent turnout and suggested get-out-the-vote efforts would be crucial to both campaigns.

“That cliche that they gave an election and nobody came might not just be a joke after all,” he said. “Only about 10 percent of Democrats voted the first time around and less than that are likely in the runoff.”

“People who care about who should be… Public Advocate care a lot, but there aren’t many of them,” he said.

Eric Gioia (r.) greets Michelle Nova at PS 11 in Woodside.

City Councilman Eric Gioia’s (D-Sunnyside) run for the public advocate’s seat ended in defeat when he finished third in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, which resulted in a run-off between rivals Councilman Bill de Blasio (D-Brooklyn) and Mark Green.

De Blasio had 32.61 percent of the vote with 112,556 constituents voting for him compared to the 106,654 voters, or  30.90 percent, who chose Green, according to preliminary results from NY 1. Gioia came in third with 63,616 votes, or 18.43 percent, according to the NY 1.

A runoff primary for public advocate is likely to be scheduled take place on Sept. 29.

Gioia’s office declined to comment on the results of the primary.

Norman Siegel took fourth place with 49, 283votes, or 14.28 percent, followed by Imtiaz Syed, who had 3.78 percent of the vote with 13,035 New Yorkers picking him for the seat, according to the NY 1.

The winner will face Republican Alex Zablocki in the November election. Incumbent Betsy Gotbaum declined to run for a third term.

A day before the primary, Gioia’s wife, Lisa Hernandez Gioia, gave birth to the couple’s second daughter, Rosalee.

Despite Gioia’s loss, some voters in Queens said they backed the councilman because of his previous experience fighting for the rights of western Queens residents. Gioia has been an outspoken advocate for various issues, including the rising cost of utilities, food stamps and tenants rights.

“I’m a big Eric Gioia fan,” said Queensbridge Houses resident Corinne Haynes, 48.

Green previously held the public advocate post for two terms from 1993 to 2001 and made an unsuccessful run for the mayor’s office in 2001.

De Blasio was first elected to the Council in 2001 and has served two terms representing the 39th Council District in Brooklyn. He was nearly knocked off the ballot in July due to a clerical error his office made when submitting their campaign signatures.

Siegel is the former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union and is an active civil liberties attorney in his own private practice.

Jeremy Walsh contributed to this article.

It backed Coucilmen Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) and James Sanders (D-Laurelton) in their bids for a third consecutive term. Clergy United did not make an endorsement in the race for District 28, where incumbent Thomas White (D-South Ozone Park) will be facing off against five challengers.

The clergy leaders also backed William Thompson in his bid against City Coucilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside), John Liu in the comptroller primary, Eric Gioia in the public advocate race and incumbent Helen Marshall in the primary for borough president.

The group stated in a press release:

Along with diversity, we are confident in the quality and qualification of those whom we have endorsed will help to raise the quality of life in [a] vast urban center and provide the needed resources necessary to care for the people we serve in the most diversified borough in this city.

Among the ministers endorsing Gioia are Rev. Charles Norris of the Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church and Bishop Lester Williams of the Community Church of Christ. Both churches are based in Jamaica.

“Eric Gioia will be a public advocate for all New Yorkers – standing up for the middle class and the most vulnerable, and making sure that government hears their voice,” Williams said in a news release sent out by the Gioia campaign.

“Eric Gioia has shown that he listens to communities and responds to their problems,” Norris said.

Gioia said he has a record of working with religious leaders “to make real change in communities,” claiming he teamed with them to make positive changes at the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City.

“It’s an honor to have the support of so many leaders of faith from around the city,” Gioia said.

Gioia is up against former Public Advocate Mark Green, City Councilman Bill de Blasio (D-Brooklyn) and civil liberties lawyer Norman Siegel in the Democratic primary in the race for public advocate.

Mayoral Primary: William Thompson

In the Democratic mayoral primary, we are not able to give our support to the candidate from Bayside and

Whitestone, City Councilman Tony Avella. Readers of the TimesLedger Newspapers will recognize Avella as an activist whose name and photo are frequently found on our pages. We are impressed by Avella’s enthusiasm and his dedication to the people who elected him.

But he is a politician with an unfortunate tendency to shoot from the hip without carefully weighing issues.

This was evident in his opposition to the opening of a state-of-the-art health spa in College Point because some of his constituents were suspicious of the Korean Americans running the spa.

TimesLedger endorses city Comptroller William Thompson. Thompson comes to the table with a wide range of valuable experience. In the past eight years he has done a credible job as the city’s financial watchdog. As a deputy borough president in Brooklyn, Thompson helped to bring together black, Jewish and Latino leaders to heal the racial divide in the aftermath of the Crown Heights riots. He was appointed Brooklyn’s representative to the city Board of Education, where he served five years as the president until 2001.

Neither Avella nor Thompson will find it easy to unseat Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is running for a third term as an independent and the Republican candidate. He continues to enjoy strong ratings from voters despite the hard economic times the city has experienced.

Public Advocate Primary: Eric Gioia

In the primary for public advocate four worthy candidates — Councilman Bill de Blasio, Mark Green, Councilman Eric Gioia and Norman Siegel — are competing for an office that most voters do not even know exists.

This office nearly disappeared under the leadership — we use the term loosely — of Betsy Gotbaum. If the city cannot find someone better than Gotbaum to represent the consumers of its municipal services, it may be better to do away with the office.

De Blasio led the high-voltage battle against the mayor’s move to extend term limits last year, which drew support in many corners of Queens.

Green, who served as public advocate from 1994-2001, used the office as a bully pulpit. Each Sunday Green gathered the city’s press to take on a new adversary. At times it appeared Green was more concerned with promoting his own agenda.

But there is more to this office than generating controversy.

As a civil rights lawyer, Siegel has fought valiantly for the rights of the city’s minorities. Although we respect his work ethic and commitment to the causes we believe in, we suspect working from inside government will not be a good fit for him.

As a young councilman, Gioia has been a strong advocate for the concerns of his middle-class constituents in western Queens. Following a blackout that devastated residents and small businesses in his district, he became a vocal critic of Con Edison, whose response to the power failure was far from adequate. He fought valiantly at that time for the people who put him in office.

He has shown compassion for the condition of the city’s homeless and has worked to make prescription drugs and milk more affordable. His tenacity and youth make him an outstanding candidate for this underused office. TimesLedger endorses Gioia for the position of public advocate in the Democratic primary.

Comptroller Primary: John Liu

Although many New Yorkers know little or nothing about the comptroller’s office, it remains one of the most important positions in city government — second only to that of the mayor.

The comptroller serves as the city’s accountant. It is his or her job to make certain city and agency budgets are balanced, assure contracts are valid and make sure pension funds are safe. The sums involved are huge.

The city’s budget this year will be more than $60 billion with $83 billion in pension funds for city workers.
Democratic voters will choose from a field that includes four strong candidates. They include Brooklyn Councilman David Yassky, who has taught at Brooklyn Law School, and three Council members from Queens: David Weprin, who runs the Finance Committee; Melinda Katz, who chairs the Land Use Committee; and John

Liu, chairman of the Transportation Committee, who has fought passionately for his Flushing constituents on many fronts.

Liu has demonstrated an impressive work ethic and shown great interest in monitoring the financial condition of the city. His experience overseeing the MTA’s books and trying to decipher that agency’s Byzantine accounting system qualify him to serve as a fair and objective auditor of the city’s agencies. In another plus, prior to his city service Liu worked for a major accounting firm as an actuary.

This was not an easy call. Katz and Weprin have served their constituents well and have done impressive work on the committees to which they have been assigned. But Liu’s background makes him uniquely prepared for this important office. TimesLedger endorses Liu for the office of city comptroller in the primary for the Democratic Party.

City public advocate candidates Mark Green (l. to r.), Eric Gioia, Bill de Blasio and Norman Siegel pause for photographers before taking part in a televised debate for the Community Newspaper Group. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Paper

Hundred-watt personalities clashed under the studio lights as the city’s four Democratic public advocate candidates faced off at a televised debate last week.

The debate, sponsored by the Community Newspaper Group, the parent company of TimesLedger Newspapers, was held in Brooklyn at the BRIC Arts TV studios and included City Councilmen Bill de Blasio (D-Brooklyn) and Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside), former public advocate Mark Green and civil rights attorney Norman Siegel.

It will air online at BoroPolitics.com, CNG’s new political news site, and on Brooklyn Community Access Television Aug. 20 at 9 p.m.

The most heated rhetoric came when the candidates differed on the issue of the massive Willets Point redevelopment and the use of eminent domain, the process by which a government can seize privately owned land for the public good.

De Blasio said he supported eminent domain in “very certain circumstances,” including the Queens project.

“I think it is valid if it creates a substantial number of new jobs and affordable housing, and I think Willets Point does that,” he said.

Gioia called the practice “absolutely wrong.”

“The very presence of it changes the terms of the bargain,” he said, comparing a municipality with eminent domain power to a gun-wielding Al Capone.

Green openly supported the Willets Point redevelopment.

“If it comes to eminent domain, the city should go out of its way to relocate those small businesses within the community, to the extent it can,” he said.

Siegel decried eminent domain abuse and called Willets Point “unconstitutional.”

“The city did not provide services to the businesses out there,” he said.

Sparks flew as the candidates spent some time squabbling over the finer points of the Supreme Court decision that enabled public-private redevelopments via eminent domain.

“I think Eric Gioia should be given a chance to retract his comparison of the mayor and Council to Al Capone with a gun,” Green said.

Gioia did not.

“Come on, stop it, Mark,” Gioia said. “You’ve been doing this for three decades, now you’re doing it with a new generation. Grow up.”

During less contentious portions of the debate, each candidate emphasized the importance of the public advocate’s office even as its budget has been slashed and Councilman Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn) has put forward a bill to eliminate the public advocate’s office entirely.

De Blasio called for the office to be independently budgeted to eliminate improper influence from the mayor and Council, noting he had introduced such legislation to the Council.

Siegel suggested setting up a nonprofit organization that would secure grants to help fund the public advocate’s work. De Blasio emphasized the importance of checks and balances in municipal government.

Gioia emphasized his work with tenants during his tenure in the Council and suggested he would bring the same perspective to the new office. “People in this city need at least one person at the highest levels of city government who sees things the way they see them,” he said.

Green was confident he could pick up where he left off at the end of his previous term as public advocate.

“I know firsthand how much you can get done,” Green said. “I can understand how powerful people in City Hall like the mayor and speaker don’t want an independent voice in city government.”

The topic also turned to the reports of the skyrocketing number of summonses issued by police for minor violations.

“We’ve got to stop the revenue approach,” de Blasio said, noting how the upturn in tickets has hurt businesses in his district.

Gioia also said he would move to stop ticket quotas among the city’s law enforcement agencies.

Green suggested a progressive income tax as a better way than increased ticketing to fill the holes in the budget.

Siegel accused the mayor of “getting more revenue off the backs of the working people” and proposed shaming the city agencies into behaving by publishing a “worst fine” example every month.

De Blasio on Wednesday presented the plan that he said aims to increase public participation in elections, improve access to government institutions for the press and the public, and create independent performance evaluations to judge the performance of city government.

“The last time I endorsed Bill was when he was a candidate for City Council in 2001,” Cuomo said. “I was right then and I’m right now. Bill de Blasio has a proven record of making government more responsive and responsible. He will continue in that effort with his Reform NYC Five-Point Plan that will use the powers of the public advocate to increase democracy, transparency and accountability in our city government.”

De Blasio said he was “incredibly honored to have the support of Mario Cuomo, one of the greatest governors in New York’s history.”

“Governor Cuomo has always had an unprecedented commitment to raising the level of public discourse and creating a vibrant democratic debate around key issues,” de Blasio said. “I believe the fundamental responsibility of the public advocate is to make city government more democratic, transparent, and accountable, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

Eric Gioia

City Councilman Eric Gioia’s (D-Sunnyside) campaign for public advocate announced he received the backing of a coalition of Teamsters union locals representing more than 120,000 members citywide.

“Eric has demonstrated that he gets results for working people,” said Teamsters Joint Council 16 President George Miranda. “He’s someone who is focused on solving problems, and making a difference in the lives of everyday New Yorkers — from his work protecting tenants and creating affordable housing for the middle-class, to standing with workers who are being taken advantage of or fighting for immigrant workers who were being intimidated.”

Gioia said he was “incredibly honored” to receive the council’s endorsement.

“As public advocate, I will continue to stand side by side with the working men and women who make our City strong – to make sure that there’s someone at City Hall who is listening to them, who understands, and who will get results.”

Also in the running for public advocate are former Public Advocate Mark Green, City Councilman Bill de Blasio (D-Brooklyn), civil liberties attorney Norman Siegel – all Democrats – and Republican Alex Zablocki, an aide to state Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island).

Bill de BlasioWhat Councilman Bill de Blasio’s (D-Brooklyn) camp is calling a typo got him booted off the ballot for public advocate, a de Blasio spokeswoman said Friday.

A City Board of Elections official confirmed elections commissioners ruled to remove de Blasio, a Democrat, from the ballot after he submitted a cover sheet that incorrectly stated the number of petition volumes the councilman submitted.

De Blasio originally wrote on his cover sheet that he submitted 135 volumes of petitions to the Board of Elections when in reality he had 132. When asked to correct the cover sheet, the Board of Elections official said he entered 131 instead of 132.

Candidates receive one chance to correct cover sheet mistakes, the Board of Elections official said.

“We are entirely confident we can resolve this matter working with the Board of Elections,” said Jillian Waldman, campaign manager for de Blasio. “We don’t believe the law was intended to prevent a candidate with over 125,000 signatures from getting on the ballot because of a typo.”

De Blasio officials would not say Friday if they plan to bring the board to court, though the Board of Elections spokeswoman said she expects a legal challenge from de Blasio.

“He should be receiving the official notification of the board’s decision on Monday,” the board spokeswoman said. “He has three days after receiving notification to begin judicial proceedings to challenge the board’s decision. This will end up in court.”

De Blasio is running against Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside), civil liberties attorney Norman Siegel, former Public Advocate Mark Green, and Staten Island Republican Alex Zablocki, an aide to state Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island).

“If he met all the requirements, he should be put back on the ballot,” Zoe Epstein, a spokeswoman for Gioia, said of de Blasio. “Our campaign will continue to move ahead at full speed, speaking with voters and letting them know about Eric Gioia’s record of solving problems for regular New Yorkers, regardless of what the courts decide.”

De Blasio has raised almost $1.3 million and recently landed a high-profile endorsement from the Rev. Al Sharpton.

The political club of lesbian, gay, bisexual and two-spirit people of color endorsed both Mel Gagarin and Lynn Schulman for the 29th Council District and John Choe for Council District 20.

The group also supported Bill Thompson for mayor, Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) for comptroller, and Bill de Blasio for public advocate.

“By endorsing Bill Thompson, OutPOCPAC has chosen a true champion on LGBT issues,” said Doug Robinson, co-president of the club. “But Thompson also has a consistently strong record on social justice and housing, and is concerned about the welfare of all New Yorkers.”

Robinson criticized Mayor Michael Bloomberg, saying he has attempted to “buy this election.”

Robinson said Bloomberg “has usurped the rights of New York residents by pushing the City Council to extend the term limits law in order to seek a third term, a move voters have twice opposed.”

COBA is the largest municipal jail union in the country and the second largest law-enforcement union in New York City.

From the press release:

“We’re proud to endorse Eric Gioia for Public Advocate. Eric understands the challenges facing working people and has demonstrated that he can get results for them. In these challenging economic times we need a Public Advocate who will fight for us,” said union president Norman Seabrook, who was elected as president of COBA in 1995 and reelected in 1999, 2004 and 2008, and who also serves as an Executive Board Member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) where he has been a consistent and outspoken voice for the rights of straphangers. “Eric has shown that he’s got his fingers on the pulse of working men and women and will serve as a leading voice for them as public advocate.”

Gioia, whose brother-in-law is a correction officer at Riker’s Island, stated, “It’s an honor to have the support of New York’s boldest. Correction officers work incredibly hard, under often difficult conditions, doing essential but unglamorous work. I pledge to be a voice and an advocate for working people who too often feel invisible to City Hall.”

The Correction Officers have a history of picking electoral winners, including Seabrook’s 2007 endorsement of Barack Obama, which was the first by a union leader outside of Illinois. This is the Correction Officers’ first citywide endorsement in the 2009 election cycle.

Gioia, who sits on the City Council’s Fire and Criminal Justice Committee, has also been endorsed by the Lieutenants Benevolent Association, the Sergeants Benevolent Association and the Captains Endowment Association.