With the primary season in full swing and only a few days remaining for voters to make up their minds, St. John’s University and The Queens Courier hosted a candidates’ forum with four of the five candidates for City Comptroller.
Democratic City Councilmembers John Liu, David Weprin and David Yassky and Republican Joseph Mendola – who is not being challenged in a Republican primary – all squared off in a St. John’s Participate in ‘09 forum trying to make their case for why they should be the next chief fiscal officer for New York City. Democratic Queens City Councilmember Melinda Katz – who is a graduate of St. John’s Law School and one of the main four contenders in the Democratic primary on September 15 – did not attend.
During the September 3 candidates’ night, panelists including a St. John’s professor and students from the school’s College Democrat and College Republican clubs posed questions to the candidates on topics that ranged from pension funds, job creation, economic development and oversight of city agencies.
One of the hot-button topics was the city’s pension fund – where each of the candidates present touted their own financial experience and background – as being the most qualified to handle the situation.
“I would use my experience in pension funds to shore up what has been decimated over the past year – pensions that have gone from $120 billion to about $80-85 billion,” said Liu, who has represented Queens in the City Council for the past eight years serving as the chair of its Transportation Committee.
Weprin, who is also a Queens Councilmember and chair of the Finance Committee, said he would make sure that the pension process is more open to the public.
“We really need to encourage transparency in government,” Weprin said. “We have to put the investments online and we also have to put the asset allocation online.”
A recent poll showed the Democratic primary in virtually a dead heat between Liu, Yassky and Katz with Weprin still in striking distance as many voters are still undecided.
Meanwhile, when asked about what city agency they would like to look at more closely first if elected, most of the candidates mentioned the city’s Department of Education (DOE) – which the Comptroller did not have oversight of before the State made changes to the School Governance or Mayoral Control law in August. Yassky, a Councilmember from Brooklyn, talked about the DOE in terms of spending, but he said he would target another city agency about results.
“There’s a lot of places to look, but I’d start with the Department of Small Business Services,” Yassky said. “Small businesses are getting killed out there and this city is just not doing nearly enough to help small businesses – particularly store fronts and bodegas – get through this desperately difficult recession.”
One area where some of the candidates differed was on the use of discretionary funds for City Councilmembers, something Mendola – the only candidate who is not a current City Councilmember – thinks is a bad idea in light of the recent slush fund scandal.
“There’s no legitimate reason why there needs to be discretionary funds that are doled out by Councilmembers in a non-open, clandestine way,” Mendola said. “That’s a recipe for disaster. That’s a recipe for corruption. We’ve seen it before; we’ll see it again. We have to get rid of the whole thing.”
On Thursday, September 10, St. John’s University and The Queens Courier will host the second candidates’ forum in Participate in ’09 with those candidates running for the City Public Advocate expected to attend. The forum will take place in Belson Moot Courtroom inside the St. John’s Law School building and is open to the public.
