By Adam Kramer
Tenant leaders of eastern Queens held a fund-raising rally for City Council candidate Bernice Siegal of Glen Oaks Sunday, the day before the Council's Housing and Building Committee voted to preserve rent control and rent stabilization.
About 100 people attended the fund-raiser at Temple Sholom at 216-10 Union Turnpike in Floral Park to support tenant advocate Siegal in her quest to defeat David Weprin of Holliswood and J.D. Thakral of Fresh Meadows for the 23rd Council District seat held by Sheldon Leffler (D-Hollis).
Leffler, who turned up at the fund-raiser for his legal counsel, cannot seek re-election because of term limits. The district covers Little Neck, Fresh Meadows, Glen Oaks, Bellerose, Queens Village, Hollis and southern Bayside.
“I did not attend the event just to support someone on my staff,” said Leffler, “but out of respect and affection I have for Bernice.”
He said Siegal has the capacity to be a “superior” member of the City Council with an extensive knowledge in many different areas such as women's issues, labor relations, tenant matters, education and children's issues.
Siegal, a champion of tenants rights since 1978 when she organized a rent strike at Glen Oaks Village and one of the organizers in the 1997 fight against the proposed bill to end rent regulation, said the rally was planned to coincide with the Council's Housing and Building Committee vote Monday on rent regulations.
The committee voted 8-1 to renew the city's existing rent control and rent stabilization laws. The entire City Council will vote on the measure at a meeting tentatively set for March 20. If passed by the City Council, the bill would be sent to Mayor Giuliani for approval.
“Bernice will bring tremendous strength and experience to the brand new City Council,” said the organizers of the event, Gail Benzman Florence Fisher, Robert Katz, Penny Laforest, John Lilienthal and Ida Pollack, in a letter.
They said with the election of Siegal to the City Council the people of the five boroughs would be getting a proven champion of decent and affordable housing. According to the group, during Siegal's tenure as counsel to Leffler she has worked on much of the legislation critical to preserving and maintaining rental housing throughout the city.
“Bernice comes out of grassroots organizing,” said Laforest, a teacher at the Bronx House of Corrections and tenant activist who has known Siegal since 1978. “She has an affinity for what goes on in the community such as housing, seniors, youth centers and education.”
Siegal has a grasp of the community issues that affect the parents and residents of eastern Queens and has expertise in community politics, she said.
In addition to Leffler, the rally and fund-raiser drew political, community and housing activists: Chet Szarejko, a Democratic district leader; Henry McCoy, leader of the United for Progress Democratic Club; Honey Miller, a Democratic district leader; Scott Somers, host of “Housing Note Book” on WBAI radio; Tim Collins, former executive director of the Rent Guidelines Board; and leaders of the Fresh Meadows, Glen Oaks, Hollis Court and Kew Gardens tenant associations.
