Paul Vallone a no show at preservation debate

At #CD19 forum in Bay Terrace. Told @PaulVallone will not be in attendance. Tonight's topics: overdevelopment and preservation.

— Phil Corso (@philcorso) August 19, 2013

Henry Euler says @PaulVallone missed forum because a client of his passed away, he is helping with funeral arrangements. #CD19

— Phil Corso (@philcorso) August 19, 2013

It was very convenient for Mr. Vallone's client to expire right before he was scheduled to participate in a debate about preservation and development. Interestingly, he had been seen an hour before the debate campaigning at Bay Terrace. This is the second personal conflict that Mr. Vallone has had after agreeing to attend a candidates' night.

Should he be elected, he'll probably end up on this list.

Helen takes a lot of time off

From the Daily News:

As she wraps up her third term, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall seems to be preparing for retirement early — taking more than 40 days off last year.

Marshall took at least 41 personal or vacation days in 2012, according to a review of her public schedules obtained by the Daily News under the Freedom of Information Law.

The Queens pol, who gets a $160,000-a-year salary from taxpayers, was off duty for much of the summer, taking off most of August as well as nine days in June and July.

That’s on top of a five-day weekend for Memorial Day, and a number of Mondays and Fridays throughout the year.

The count does not include weekends or holidays — including an assortment of minor holidays like Presidents’ Day and Columbus Day — or days when she was listed as working but had no events scheduled.

A spokesman for the borough president said the huge gaps in her schedule were due to a combination of regular vacation time and time spent caring for her ailing husband, who had serious back surgery last summer.

Paul Vallone's non-voting record

February 13th CB7 Parks Committee meeting

As many of you know, City Council District 19 Democratic candidate Paul Vallone sits on Community Board 7 and the Vice Chair of CB7, Chuck Apelian, was Vallone's campaign manager for his 2009 failed run for office and is intimately involved in his current race. What you may not realize is that Mr. Vallone is a member of the Parks Committee of CB7.

CB7 recently took up the topic of the USTA expansion in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. There were 3 meetings concerning this issue.

On February 13th, there was a Parks Committee meeting where the USTA was unprepared to answer questions. That meeting was rescheduled for March 4th to allow the USTA to come back with answers, and the Parks Committee ultimately voted that night. The full board meeting and vote then took place March 11th.

So how did Paul Vallone vote?

He didn't.

Paul Vallone was absent for the February 13th meeting. He was present for attendance but left the March 4th meeting before the vote. After conferring with Chuck Apelian on March 11th, Paul was present for attendance but left before the full board meeting and vote (this was the night of his brother's Borough President campaign kickoff).

Based on Paul Vallone's lack of voting - and phony CB7 attendance - on one of the most important Queens-wide issues in recent memory, one must wonder how Vallone would vote in the City Council were he to be elected to public office.

(It's interesting to note that when Joe Franco's rezoning for the White House came before CB7, Paul made sure to stay long enough to vote "yes".)

Do CD19 residents want a representative that walks into a hearing room for 5 minutes, just long enough to be recorded as "present," and then runs off to be interviewed for TV, talk on the phone, meet with lobbyists, attend parties, etc? In fact, the current CD19 council member is well known for doing this but stops just long enough to post photos on Facebook to show his constituents that he was there. Which usually leads to comments like, "You're so busy looking out for us!" "You're the hardest working member of the council!" "We're so lucky to have you representing us!" and other vomit-inducing, ass-kissing platitudes.

The Willets Point project will soon be the topic du jour at CB7.  Let's see how Paul gets out of voting on this one.

Marshall is M.I.A.

From the NY Post:

Life’s a beach if you’re Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, who spends more time in the Hamptons than the halls of government, sources told The Post.

Marshall, 82, has been AWOL since June, claim Borough Hall insiders.

The three-term lame-duck Democrat is “just blowing it off,” observed a shocked source who said Marshall summers in Sag Harbor, where she keeps a tidy one-story home.

“She won’t be back to work until September 15th!” the source gasped.
And insiders say her absenteeism has hurt Queens.

“She is supposed to be the ambassador of the borough,” said one political source. “All that she’s really done is some ribbon-cutting. It’s actually pathetic.”

Marshall rakes in $160,000 a year. She doesn’t receive a specified set of vacation days, according to the City Charter.

“Her reputation is she’s very MIA,” charged one Queens pol. “She’s a very low-maintenance borough president — that’s been her whole career, but now that she’s getting older and her term is coming to an end, that might be even more the case.”

When confronted with the claims, Marshall grew fiery, at first denying them and then claiming she’s been working from her East Elmhurst home.

Weprin wimps out of debate

From the Gotham Gazette:

Democratic congressional candidate and State Assemblymember David Weprin has withdrawn from tonight’s scheduled debate with his GOP rival, Bob Turner. The two men are locked in a tough contest to succeed Anthony Weiner in the Ninth Congressional District in Brooklyn and Queens.

Robert Holden president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, cosponsor of the debate, said he checked in with Weprin’s campaign earlier today and was told “logistics” would make it impossible for Weprin to appear in Middle Village tonight.

“The hurricane caused major logistical and scheduling problems for the campaign and thus David is not able to make the debate this evening,” Weprin campaign spokesperson, Liz Kerr said in an emailed statement.

Holden, though, was not accepting the hurricane as a reason for Weprin’s change in plans. “This stinks to high heaven,” Holden said.

He said the candidate’s people had been voicing concern about the debate for the past week, expressing fear it could get disorderly and pressing for a forum instead of an actual debate. Holden said he had promised that the debate would be well run – no placards allowed and some police on hand – but he added, “I can’t guarantee you’re not going to get tough questions.”

The cancellation “is going to backfire for Weprin big time, “Holden said. “Anybody who would do this would not be a straight shooter in Congress.”

From the NY Post:

Maureen Walthers, publisher of the Queens weekly, called Weprin a “coward” and a “worm” for being a no-show.

“What is he afraid of?” she asked. “Stand up and answer the questions!”

“I hope Weprin doesn’t win,” she said. “Shame on him. He’s making Weiner look good.”