William Lewis
Iannece proving his worth for next year's Council race
On Nov. 11, 2004, the Gotham Gazette referred to Jerry Iannece as “a good example of the kind of person who can get things moving in New York City.” That was a reference to Iannece's work on the Oakland Lake Ravine Project in northeast Queens.
This project was geared toward eliminating major flooding in Bayside. He has been working on this with the city Department of Environmental Protection. One of the major aspects of this project was that the DEP will be building storage tanks to receive water during lake flooding. Overflowing water will then go to a wastewater treatment plant for processing.
Regarding this effort, Iannece has given credit to former Borough President Claire Shulman and state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose).
Iannece has lately been working in conjunction with Community Board 11 and local civic associations on efforts to enlarge the Little Neck library. Iannece, as an attorney, had in the last year been working on drafting, establishing, organizing and filing as nonprofit tax exempt organizations, including the Little Neck Senior Center, Friends of Fort Totten Parks and the Bay Terrace Community Alliance Foundation.
During the last several years, he has assisted in helping to establish the Federation of Italian-American Organizations of Queens and the Western Queens Civic Association. Iannece, as an attorney, worked on these matters pro bono.
He has emerged as a major Democratic candidate for the City Council next year in the 19th City Council District in northeast Queens. Iannece has indicated that if elected, he will give priority to seeing to it that his district gets its fair share of city government-allocated resources.
He also wants to stop over-development and improve zoning procedures. He has spoken about the possibility of establishing another police precinct to improve response times.
During the last two to three months, Iannece has received endorsements from local civic leaders in his quest to be elected to the Council next year.
Some civic leaders who have endorsed him include Bernard Haber, former Community Board 11 chairman; Robert Nobile, the Little Neck Pines Civic Association president; Warren Schreiber, the Bay Terrace Community Alliance president; Philip Konigsberg, the Community Board 7 vice chairman; James Colasante, the Bayside Gables Civic Association president; Michael Feiner, the Bayside Hills Civic Association president; Judy Limpert, the Bayside Business Association president; and Rea O'Gorman, president of the Station Road Civic Association in Auburndale.
Iannece, a 19th Council District resident for over 20 years, served as Community Board 11 chairman for five years and has been the Bayside Hills Civic Association president.
Although the citywide races for the Council are a year away, prospective candidates have already begun their campaigns, especially in fund-raising. In all, the political process is now moving forward at an accelerated rate.
In other races, Republican Elizabeth Berney has ended her petition legal challenges in the Fifth Congressional District against U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside). When these two candidates meet during organizational candidates nights, they are expected to have some excellent debates.
In the campaign for the 16th State Senate District, Republican Peter Koo had been restored to the ballot by the State Appellate Court after being removed from the ballot by the State Supreme Court regarding questions of residency.
Koo has three party endorsements — Republican, Conservative and Independence — as he faces incumbent state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Whitestone), who has the Working Families Party endorsement.
Stavisky, however, faces a Democratic primary from challenger Robert Schwartz. She has to win that primary to be able to face Koo in the fall election.
