BRING YOUR TEDDY HOME
As our State Senators continue to arrogantly ignore their sworn duty to their constituents, another embarrassing residency challenge has been uncovered. No, this one does not involve State Senator Pedro Espada from the Bronx who is again being scrutinized by the Bronx District Attorney over his residency.
Bayside’s very own Assemblymember, Ann Margaret Carrozza, has been caught in an arrogant move of her own. She has moved with her husband and two sons into a $1.8 million brick mansion they own in Glen Head, Long Island.
That is 15 miles from her northeast Queens Assembly District 26. She had lived in Bayside up until February when she started renting out that property.
Carrozza and her husband own four properties in Bayside – two offices, a house where her mother lives and another residence – now rented – where the lawmaker is registered to vote.
So the question is, when is a residence your primary home? According to at least one judge, it is “where you keep your teddy bearTeddy Bear.”
Carrozza tries to explain away the move to the mansion as a real estate deal gone wrong. She wants us to believe that she was forced to make the move to the posh digs out of the goodness of her heart and for the benefit of the people who had already rented her primary residence.
Her husband, William Duke, may not be a lawyer, however Carrozza is, so, when they signed the mortgage papers in June of 2008 she must have read the clause that said “I will occupy the property and the property as my principal residence within 60 days . . . will continue to occupy the property and to use the property as my principal residence for at least one year.”
Carrozza has claimed that “It was not my intention to permanently occupy the home . . . We thought we would stay here temporarily.”
The law is the law and if you value the law, you must live by it.
You are supposed to live in a permanent residence within the district that you represent. You have all of Bayside, Whitestone, Douglaston, East Flushing, Little Neck, Auburndale and Malba from which to choose a home.
Oh yes – be sure to bring your teddy bearTeddy Bear back to Queens too.
