Queens Civic Congress honors 3

The Queens Civic Congress, an umbrella group of over 100 Civic Associations, held their 5th biennial luncheon convention at Antun’s in Queens Village on Saturday May 6. The keynote speaker was Christine Quinn, Speaker of the City Council, who again pledged to be a “Five Borough Speaker.”
The more than 200 attendees applauded the Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Congress to former Speaker of the City Council Peter Vallone, Sr. and the presentation of Outstanding Civic Leader Awards to Brixton Doyle, formerly of the Bayside Civic Database, and Joseph Amoroso of the Kissena Park Civic Association.
Amoroso got the biggest laugh of the day while thanking the Congress for his award. In acknowledging recent zoning changes, and how people wanted to know how they were done so quickly, he held up a letter from the Mayor’s Office, pledging help with zoning issues – signed by Mayor Ed Koch.
Quinn took the opportunity to outline the new “Council Stat” initiative, part of the enhanced 311 reporting by the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, as part of her goal to make this Council “the most reliable and most professional.”
Acknowledging the widespread zoning concerns in the Borough, she announced the creation of an oversight task force to improve the operations of the Department of Buildings to make it more responsive to the public. In a bipartisan move, Councilmember James Otto, a Republican, will chair the task force.
The speaker also outlined other major concerns to Queens residents and the City as a whole, including Community Facility reforms, preserving neighborhoods, ending the so-called budget dance, providing universal full-day Pre-K schooling and greater participation in the Food Stamp program by the city’s working poor.