BEEP, BCAT BRAWL Borough President Marty Markowitz's perceived meddling with Brooklyn Community Access Television ruffled some feathers at the station. "Everyone at BCAT is grousing about this," one BCAT show producer e-mailed us. "Big negative feeling about Marty from everyone." And that came from one of Marty's fans.

Markowitz wants BCAT to promote Brooklyn. Promoting Brooklyn is Marty's mission, but BCAT's is to provide public access to cable television. It's funded by the cable company, not Markowitz, but the beep has some influence.

The beep's spokesman played down his pull at the station, issuing this statement: "BCAT is ably run by its management, Brooklyn Information & Culture (BRIC), not by Borough Hall. The Borough President does not have the power to appoint full members of the BRIC Board, but does designate a non-voting ex officio member. Marty is interested in encouraging programs made by community producers about Brooklyn's diverse communities that will appeal to Brooklynites. Anyone interested in creating such programming should contact BCAT and get involved."

Later, Markowitz himself e-mailed us that he's just trying to publicize within Brooklyn the availability of BCAT as a resource for the borough. "I do not micro-manage," Markowitz wrote. Responding to the controversy, 15 BCAT staffers then released a letter that claimed, "Initial tension felt between Borough Hall and BCAT staff has since abated…There have been trying times in the past month, but we feel we have turned the corner and our differences with Borough Hall and its influence have been worked out."

Not among the signers were two BCAT executives who resigned in apparent disgust.

DAVIS KILLER'S FINAL WORD The Campaign Finance Board relented and gave us the 2003 Voter Guide information submitted by Othniel Boaz "Aaron" Askew, the wacko who murdered Councilman James Davis in City Hall on July 23. The board had rejected our initial freedom of information request. From Askew's June 13, 2003 submission, it's hard to see why. It's not exactly earth-shattering material, just some résumé enhancements and an odd candidate's statement. In other words, exactly what we expected from the delusional Askew.

He wrote that he attended Pratt Institute, got a B.S. in accounting from LIU, and graduated from the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine. We called the military school, located in Texas, and were told the only graduate named Askew finished in 1993 but didn't have the first name Othniel, Boaz, or Aaron. Askew used several first names, and in 1993 he was 21 years old, so that might have been him in the school records. But we do know he didn't attend Yale Law School, though he liked to tell people he did.

At least he didn't have the gall to list that on his Voter Guide bio. But, under "organizational affiliations," he wrote, "NYC Landmark Commission & Department of Buildings Specialist." Apparently he felt renovating one townhouse at 59 South Elliott Place in Fort Greene, where he lived courtesy of owner Charles Parham, qualified him as a "specialist" and allowed him to put "real estate developer" as his occupation. In the category of bizarre, next to "Prior Public Experience" he wrote in all caps: "WHEN I ASSUMED THE ROLE OF CITIZEN I DID NOT LAY ASIDE THE SOLDIER" GEORGE WASHINGTON 1776.

His two-paragraph, grammatically challenged bio was nearly identical to the one he e-mailed us about a week before, in early June, except that for the Voter Guide he added that he "was awarded the National Defense Service Ribbon." (The ribbon can be purchased on the Internet for 99 cents.) His statement, riddled with sentence fragments and poor constructions that wouldn't get past a remedial English teacher, laid out his "vision" for the 35th Council District: "In our home, there should NOT be one elected leader with one district office, instead a team of one Council Member and four Deputy Council Members, one from each community, with their own district offices, within their respective communities, that will speak as one voice for the people of the district!" Oh, boy.

You can see why we thought the self-described contractor was a few bricks shy of a load when he e-mailed us in June. But that didn't distinguish him from the other weirdos who try to run for office. One thing about Askew's Voter Guide submission we found eerie, though. He had it notarized and turned it in one day after the CFB's June 12 deadline.

One month later, he missed a more important deadline-to submit his petitions to get on the ballot, dashing his dream of winning the election and setting in motion the chain of events that ended with Davis's assassination and Askew's death on July 23.

FIDLER FALLS Councilmen Bill deBlasio and Al Vann were unable to wrest the chairmanship of the Brooklyn Council delegation away from Lew Fidler individually, but they made a deal to combine forces and share the position.

Once they secured a majority of nine votes, they got several fence-sitting Council members to join their mini-coup, which was announced on December 3. Councilmembers who stuck with Fidler were Domenic Recchia, Sara Gonzalez, Diana Reyna, Erik Dilan, Kendall Stewart, and Jim Oddo. The late James Davis would have too, but his successor, Tish James, went with Vann and deBlasio, who helped elect her.

Vann and deBlasio said a change in leadership was necessary for Brooklyn to get its fair share of City Council funding. Excuse us while we barf. This was a political deal and a power game. It always is. Vann and deBlasio won and Fidler lost. It's not like Council Speaker Gifford Miller's going to open up the vault for Vann and deBlasio.

Besides, Fidler said Brooklyn hasn't been shortchanged, despite Council Finance Committee Chairman Herb Berman being forced from office by term limits in 2001. "While I was chairman, Brooklyn lost not one penny of what it had been getting, and in fact increased what it had been getting during a time when the city was [economically] at its worst," Fidler said. He also disputed the suggestion of the Vann-deBlasio camp that central Brooklyn wasn't fairly funded under Fidler.

In fact, Fidler said helped previously underfunded central Brooklyn catch up. Fidler likewise belittled the Vann-deBlasio claim of unity. "I don't personally see how we further unite the Brooklyn delegation by splitting the leadership between two men who have competing interests instead of a third person who might have had more support than either of them," Fidler said. He added that the speaker told him he doesn't even understand why it matters who the delegation chairman is.

Nonetheless, the Vann-deBlasio coup certainly removed a feather from Fidler's cap. "I give them extraordinarily high marks for the political maneuvering with which they accomplished this," Fidler said. "It took two of them, each with less support than I had, to beat me and it will now take two of them to do the job I've been doing for two years…They now have the pleasure of finding out what a difficult job it is to please 17 people with different interests." Nah, he's not bitter.

What remains to be seen is whether Vann and the other black councilmembers will pay deBlasio back by supporting him for Council speaker in 2005. Or perhaps Vann will vie for the speakership, in which case Brooklyn's votes will be further splintered and it will lose the speaker race again.

GAY MARRIAGE ON HOLD With gay marriage on the verge of reality in Massachusetts, you might wonder where New York's Right to Marry bill is. The answer: tucked away in Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein's Judiciary Committee, where it will likely remain until it can survive on its own.

Of concern to Marriage Equality NY, a group lobbying for the bill, is that Weinstein hasn't sponsored it. But Weinstein told us that doesn't mean she opposes it, and its failure to pass her committee doesn't mean she's blocking it. Rather, Weinstein isn't moving the bill because its sponsors haven't requested a vote. Chances are, they won't do so until the bill has a prayer of passing the Senate. Right now, it doesn't, because it's firmly opposed by Governor George Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, Weinstein said.

Regarding her own reluctance to sponsor the bill, Weinstein said, "I don't sponsor a lot of other people's legislation. I tend to sponsor legislation I've had some involvement with." She added, "I would expect that if the bill comes up for a vote, I would support it." Former Park Slope resident Scott Jeffrey, co-chairman of Marriage Equality NY, would like Weinstein to do more. "Weinstein is verbally supportive of the issue but unwilling to act on it," Jeffrey e-mailed us. "When our citizen lobbyists first met with her in the spring, she told them that we should rely on the courts rather than the Legislature."

Weinstein told us, "It was sort of a realistic assessment…They were asking what I thought the chances were of moving forward with the legislation." Given the political climate in the Senate, gay marriage would most likely be approved by Republican leaders only if they were forced by the judiciary, she said.

But Jeffrey still said he's looking for gay couples from Weinstein's district to "help educate her on the issue." "We are still building up friendly pressure on her, so she is not on our list of people to burn," Jeffrey wrote, "at least not yet."

CONNOR DEFENDED The sputtering Web site PoliticsNY.com labeled State Senator Marty Connor "a long-time obstacle to reform in Albany" and said in contrast, Connor's successor as the Senate minority leader, David Paterson, has "a real commitment to shaking things up in the state Legislature." We ran that past a former Connor aide, who replied, "Marty Connor was much more committed to changing the majority in the Senate, and had a better idea of how to do it than the present bunch (an opinion I think [Assemblyman] Jim Brennan and [Village Voice writer] Wayne Barrett both share). And changing the majority was the only way to get reform."

Also, our source said, Paterson has only paid "lip service" to the legal effort Connor had been leading to redraw Senate district lines, which were crafted to ensure a Republican majority. Indeed, Connor told us after his ouster that Paterson had fired a demographer integral to the case.

POLITICAL TIDBITS In his last election, Councilman Domenic Recchia was endorsed by Assemblyman Bill Colton of Bensonhurst. But afterward, Colton reached out to Recchia's vanquished opponent, Tony Eyzenberg, owner of Brighton Meats, to arrange a holiday turkey giveaway. Colton said Eyzenberg was receptive, and they might distribute gobblers to seniors for Christmas…

Not all Russians dislike Brighton Beach Assemblywoman Adele Cohen. The president of the Russian-American Arts Foundation, Marina Kovalyov, helped Cohen organize an event at Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver's office honoring Russian-Americans. Kovalyov previously took part in a Russian heritage celebration at Brooklyn Borough Hall with Borough President Marty Markowitz. Cohen, who has Russian speakers on her staff, has been trying to patch up her relationship with that community since getting on its bad side (undeservedly, she says) a few years ago…

Rep. Vito Fossella had a hand in Republican hatchet-man Tom DeLay's plan to dock a cruise ship in New York Harbor during the party's convention. Fossella circulated a flier to House colleague outlining the idea, according to the Staten Island Advance. "I think it is an intriguing proposal, but beyond that, I have not taken a position on it one way or the other," Fossella told the paper, trying to minimize his involvement as the issue became a PR nightmare for the GOP. Even former Staten Island beep Guy Molinari told the paper he was "puzzled" by Fossella's involvement. DeLay has since backed off the plan…

One of our readers noticed three different ages given for former Councilwoman Mary Pinkett in the newspaper reports of her death December 4. The Post said she was 78, the Daily News 77, and the Times and Newsday 72. "This is what happens when you start skipping birthdays," the observer noted. The Associated Press also had 72. We'll go with that…

Contrary to reports here and in other papers stemming from an out-of-date Republican Party Web site, Oleg Gutnik is no longer a Republican district leader in the 46th Assembly District. He was replaced by Arthur Maresca. The new female co-leader is Lori Maslow. Other new GOP state committeemembers are Jim Sutliff and Jessica Greenwald in the 47th A.D. and Vito Settineri and Angel Panzera in the 49th. Now that we've cleared that up, you may go on with your lives…

The Post reported that Councilman Charles Barron plans to sue the Board of Elections if he's not allowed to run for reelection as well as mayor simultaneously in 2005. If that fails, Barron expressed a willingness to give up his seat for a shot at the mayoralty…

ormer Councilman Steve DiBrienza lent his 2001 campaign for public advocate $50,000 but failed to repay it before the election, so the Campaign Finance Board deemed it a contribution over the $4,500 limit. DiBrienza appeared before the board and noted that his fundraising committee did eventually repay the loan. The board fined his campaign $2,500, less than the CFB staff recommended, but more than the zero DiBrienza sought. We also asked the one-time legislator if he might run for district attorney in 2005. No chance, he said.

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

Borough Politics Archive

2003
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2002
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2001
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2000
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1999
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