Before an overflow audience of about 300, candidates for the City Council seat representing the 44^th district (recently vacated by Simcha Felder) participated in a spirited public forum Wednesday evening, February 24.

The Jewish Press hosted the event at the Boro Park Y, with a panel of Jewish Press editors asking questions of each of the candidates. Questions were also submitted by audience members who passed their queries on index cards to the moderator, radio personality Nachum Segal.

 

Nachum Segal

 

The four candidates - David Greenfield, Jonathan Judge, Joe Lazar and Avraham Shlomo Tischler - were vigorous in their presentations, answering a wide-range of questions about such topics as the problems with local services, the lack of affordable housing, keeping taxes down and the blizzard of parking tickets handed out in the district.

(The Board of Elections reportedly determined this week that Tischler did not have enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.)

Greenfield cited his work in the advocacy group Teach NYS, Judge touted his experience on Community Board 14, Lazar spoke about his many years in city government and Tischler emphasized his youth and fresh approach.

 

All four candidates repeatedly referred to the specific needs of the Boro Park community and their dedication to the neighborhood - usually in the context of how they grew up in the district.

Early on, each candidate touted his money-saving-and-finding bona fides. Greenfield said, " we went up to Albany and we advocated for a tax credit and we brought back on behalf of everyone in the community $330 [per child]."

 

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Jewish Press panel (l-r): Associate Editor Shlomo Greenwald,

Senior Editor Jason Maoz, Editorial Staffer Eli Chomsky.

 

"I am a conservative Republican," declared Judge, "who feels very strongly that the first and foremost priority of your next councilman has to be to make the cost of living in the city lower."

Lazar said his experience in government, particularly in serving as director of the New York City office of the state's mental health agency, with a $4-billion-a-year budget, gave him the knowledge "to manage budgets and how to find money that's buried in budgets."

Tischler pointed to his growing up in the community as an asset to knowing its problems.

Judge garnered one of the evening's strongest audience responses when, responding to a question about how a newly elected member could overcome being last in seniority on a City Council containing 51 members, he said, "At least up until last year, we had term limits and, it's a disgrace that they were extended the way that they were. However, we need to bring it back to eight years and in terms of seniority, if you're on a council where the term limits are eight years, you're going to move up very quickly "

Lazar said that nobody "should look right now for new programs ... during this time of economic decline, we have to make sure that the programs that we currently have are going to be there for our community. [We] can't afford to cut existing programs . Anybody that tells you they are going to go ahead and do new programs in this budget is out and out lying to you. And I'm not going to lie to you."

Greenfield said he "couldn't disagree more," declaring that "in the budget process and the budget system we have to come up with innovative ways on how we can actually deliver services to our community."

He also made it a point to correct Lazar on an earlier remark Lazar had made. "Just to correct Joe on a very important fact," he said, "the tax credits we got from Albany were refundable tax credits. So even if you make zero dollars and pay zero taxes, you get $330 per child. And I don't know about you, but from where I come from in Boro Park, if you have ten children, $3,300 is a whole lot of money."

A question about parking tickets seemed to resonate with many in the audience. All four candidates bemoaned the high number of tickets given out in Boro Park.

On the question of how they handle contentious issues like gay rights (inasmuch as it comes before the City Council) and aid to parochial school - whether they would vote their conscience or in accordance with their constituents - Lazar responded, "I think it's the public that puts you into office and it's their wishes that have to be kept. I just happen to be fortunate to be a part of a community that happens to believe the same issues that I believe."

Greenfield said, "My personal view is that we shouldn't sell out for political expediency . I believe in a higher power. I believe in da'as Torah . I am proud of the fact that I have religious views and I will take those views which are the same as my Catholic friends and are the same as the constituents - I will take those views to Albany."

Judge said, "I am a conservative Republican, and you'll never have to worry about me selling out on important issues in our community."

Nachum Segal read an audience member's question about whether the next city council member should be someone new and fresh or "part of the system."

Judge used the question as an opportunity to note that both Lazar and Greenfield were touting their many endorsements from elected officials. "It's funny because both of my colleagues next to me have been endorsed by the very establishment that's left us with a corrupt system," he said.

"At the risk of being redundant," countered Lazar, "I have to say: experience, experience, experience. You cannot fix something that you do not understand. I know government and routed out waste in the agencies I was in. I have a reputation for not following the old methods that were being used and used my experiences to route out the waste that is going on in agencies . I did fix the system."

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