Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday set the date for a special election to fill Rory Lancman’s City Council seat. The election is set for Feb. 2, 2021.
“This date, within the window allowed by the City Charter, will facilitate maximum voter participation,” de Blasio said on Nov. 6. “I encourage all eligible Queens residents to vote early, in person or by absentee ballot in the upcoming special election.”
Lancman, who’s represented his native Council District 24 since 2014, vacated his seat on Nov. 4 to take on the new position of statewide Special Counsel for Ratepayer Protection.
In his new role, Lancman, who was term-limited, will represent the interests of residential and commercial customers of New York’s regulated electric, gas, water and telecom companies. He will participate as a party in Public Service Commission proceedings, conduct hearings and investigations, undertake discovery to compel documents and testimony, and otherwise marshal the resources of the Department of Public Service to safeguard the interests of ratepayers and hold accountable those utilities and telecoms which fail to meet their contractual and regulatory obligations to their customers.
The 24th Council District covers eastern Queens neighborhoods, including Kew Gardens Hills and Fresh Meadows.
Moumita Ahmed, Stanley N. Arden, James F. Gennaro, Neeta Jain, Dilip Nath, Deepti Sharma, Soma Syed, Mohammed S. Uddin and Sandra Ung have already filed to run for Lancman’s seat, according to the New York City Campaign Finance Board.
Gennaro previously served as a councilman in Queens from 2002 to 2013 before he joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration as Deputy Commissioner for New York City Sustainability and Resiliency at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
