By Sarina Trangle
A state Senate hopeful was the lone candidate to accept the Howard Beach-Lindenwood Civic’s invitation to its meeting last week.
Michael Conigliaro, who is running against state Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) Jr. on the Republican and Conservative lines, spoke for about 10 minutes before the packed cafeteria in St. Helen Academy Tuesday night.
Addabbo said he had planned to attend the civic meeting after a Kew Gardens Hills community gathering, but the second event ended earlier than anticipated and he missed it.
Conigliaro introduced himself as a Rego Park resident with relatives in Howard Beach and as a real estate legal firm manager by day with a side gig teaching at Our Lady of Mercy in Forest Hills.
“There’s a lot of things that I do and I’ve done in my life in a volunteer capacity and now I would like to do something in a capacity where I can represent people and make change,” said Conigliaro, who is president of the Queensborough Community College Alumni Association. “I have nothing bad to say about Sen. Addabbo as a personal individual but… the way I would do things is a hell of a lot different than the way he’s been doing things.”
After the meeting, Addabbo responded to Conigliaro’s criticism by saying he did not seem familiar with how Albany works.
“You have got to know state government and the process in order to know the facts,” he said.
The two are vying for the 15th state Senate District, which encompasses much of the Rockaways, Howard Beach, Ozone Park, Woodhaven, and parts of Ridgewood, Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens.
Former City Councilman Thomas Ognibene previously considered running against Addabbo and said his decision hinged on how much money Senate Republicans would give him, but he ultimately ducked out of the race.
When asked how he came to acquire Ognibene’s place, Conigliaro directed the question to City Councilman Eric Ulrich’s chief of staff, who said he was aware of Conigliaro’s interest in seeking office and suggested the Ozone Park legislator meet with him.
Conigliaro’s campaign had not filed financial disclosures as of Wednesday, but he said Senate Republicans were bolstering his war chest.
While making his pitch, Conigliaro said he believed Republicans would seize control of the chamber this November, which would allow him to use “discretionary funding” for hiring more cops in the area and bolstering the Howard Beach Civilian Patrol.
When asked after his speech about discretionary funding, which the governor has not authorized in years, Conigliaro said the particulars were part of what he would need to learn in Albany, but he would “look to see if he could come up with money.”
He also railed against reforms to the NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk while describing trends of break-ins and car thefts in southwest Queens.
Addabbo said he did not believe the changes to stop-and-frisk were necessary, but noted that the state cannot control how the city uses money to staff police precincts.
Conigliaro also chastised Addabbo for not orchestrating Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts in a way where constituents had one designated caseworker.
“Every time you made a call with Build it Back you had to deal with a different individual and start over from square one,” Conigliaro said.
Addabbo disagreed with his opponent’s description, saying the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency and other government agencies were posted in his district shortly after the 2012 natural disaster.
The two also disagreed on Conigliaro’s call for a high school in the Howard Beach-Lindenwood area to serve local students, with Addabbo saying it would be difficult to find space for such a facility.
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle at 718-260-4546 or by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com.
