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Carol Gresser: For All The People

By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

It’s real hard to remain objective when the courage, vision and dedication of the person you’re interviewing captured you long before she became a candidate. It’s not easy to interview a string of competent candidates when one has been a frequent lunch companion for a number of years.

When you’ve laughed at and with someone, suffered with their personal struggles and sat, perhaps monthly, at the corner table by the window at Caffé on The Green, it’s tough to put your head down and charge. But that’s the job.

They say I’m not a gentle interviewer. And I knew it could be no different with Carol Gresser just because she was my friend and I, hers.

Does the obligation to the reader change when a candidate you’re interviewing has won you over — before she was a candidate?

The obligation is clear to this writer. Disclose your friendship to the reader and ask the tough questions. Then, call ‘em like you see ‘em.

Basically, Carol Gresser got the same questions and opportunity as her two Democratic opponents for Borough President. No more, no less.

I opened: “What’s your relationship with Claire Shulman?”

“She’s distant and cool towards me,” Carol replied. “I’d like to be able to call her but she won’t really talk to me,” Carol lamented over her run-in with the Beep who appointed her to the Board of Education. Carol served with distinction — five years as president — and the admiration of the borough and the borough president until she took issue with Rudy Giuliani’s choice for chancellor. Then the Mayor took after Carol and Claire Shulman turned her back on her former friend.

When Carol, was not reappointed by Claire, she sought to broaden the dialogue on the City in order to improve public education. Becoming director of the Institute for School Board Leadership at Columbia’s Teacher’s College and an adjunct professor at St. John’s, Carol continued to build a career of public service.

Although I’ve never asked her age, it seems to this writer that she sees the borough presidency as the culmination of a career of public service.

Term limits, she says, is a “breath of fresh air that will inure to the benefit of the City.” With prior credentials as a civic leader (she served on the Boards of Visiting Nurse Service, Queens Child Guidance Center, Walk the Walk, Citizens Union, FIT) she is excited by the prospect of participating in the new and energized City government.

While it is clear that her public break with Giuliani and Shulman was a pivotal moment in a career, she is philosophical about its effect on her.

“I have a great deal of respect from the voters because I stood up to Rudy Giuliani,” Carol says, explaining her broad base support.

However, when asked if Rudy was a good mayor, she smiles, pauses and says thoughtfully, “He demonstrated that New York City was manageable.”

Of Shulman, Carol reflects, “Claire became borough president in a terrible time in Queens history and brought everyone together.”

While she is saddened by what happened between her and the Beep, her integrity is her strength and she was making no apologies.

While she dismisses race as consideration in voting, she pledges, “I will have a Borough Hall that reflects the diversity of the borough.”

She surprised me when she said without hesitation that her years on the Board of Education crystallized her “decision that the Board of Education should be abolished.”

Carol has, like many others, mildly embraced five borough boards and says, “I would like to think they’re manageable.” She demands a viable pre-K program as the first step in fixing what is broken in the schools.

As expected, this former teacher and PTA president places education atop her list of priorities which also includes public safety and affordable housing.

Her compassion causes her to search out creative solutions for the borough’s housing crises, involving community board input to modify zoning to insure safety, while the long range problem of building affordable housing is addressed.

Likewise, the borough’s resources must be distributed to provide for the neediest first.

Carol Gresser is a consensus builder. However, she willingly accepts the tough tasks and asserts, “I will stand up for what is right, even if it means I’m a one-term borough president.”

“I know how to listen. I know how to make a decision,” Carol spoke of her management style.

Our lively exchange brought out her creative side, and she related a Borough Hall Hotline would be established to empower the “little” people and make government service accessible to all.

We must build, she said, “a user-friendly government.”

Carol Gresser has a new vision for a new Queens — a borough that is all-inclusive, one that respects and embraces diversity and most importantly one that works for all the people.

It’s real hard to remain objective when the courage, vision and dedication of the person you’re interviewing captured you long before she became a candidate.

The hour and a half Carol spent answering my questions, responding to my challenges and sharing her vision for our borough brought me right back to where I started.

It’s clear to this writer why I was smitten with Carol Gresser.

If you give her the chance, she’ll do it to you.

Betsy Gotbaum:
A Thoughtful Prospective
To Delivering City Services

I’m not sure where to start.

I hate to be repetitive but . . .

The quality of the candidates that stop by the Tribune office on their campaign quest for the job of Public Advocate is just (to borrow my kid’s favorite word) awesome!

I say with great comfort and assurance to my readers, that the class of candidates attracted to the electoral process in our city is a tribute to those that created the process — in this case, the people.

Term limits and public finance will, in the long run, go down as the most refreshing and effective change to come to government since the town hall meeting came to Athens.

Overstated?

Maybe, a mite.

The groups of public advocate, comptroller and Council candidates, with real chances of winning, are impressive commentaries that things are working in our city and our system.

Betsy Gotbaum was the fifth candidate for public advocate to sit down with me and share their vision, respond to my challenges and just chat about the city — past and future.

The worst of the five is good; no, make that very good.

Betsy was better than that.

The former David Dinkins Park’s commissioner and head of the New York Historical Society is seeking elective office for the first time even though she has been on the periphery of the City’s institutional government for years.

She has the collective knowledge of the experiences with her husband, former labor leader Victor, as part of the Dinkins administration, and working with the multitude of agencies and groups leading the NY Historical Society’s impressive program.

Although, she still seems to love the parks and wants to set aside one percent of the City budget for them, she is ready to tackle the tough jobs.

Surprisingly knowledgeable about and well-versed in the affordable housing struggle in the City, she offered statistics and suggestions with informed concern. She cited 10,000 city lots, tax credits, building subsidies and an office to expedite the process as the beginning of the long-term solution. In the short term, she would prioritize safety and emergency complaints and utilize a public advocate’s satellite office in each borough to deliver necessary service and monitoring.

Education, delivery of City services and health joined housing on Betsy’s list of priorities.

She reacted with outrage to the $2.8 billion dollar overrun at the School Construction Authority.

She declared, without reserve, “Any elected official that uses public money for campaign purposes is wrong.” She refused to name names, explaining that her objective was to get elected, but assured us that she would be there shouting from her bully pulpit pointing out wrongs once elected.

“I’m an outsider,” she insisted.

“Term limit every office,” she responded to my question about the repeal of the commuter tax. That act (the loss of $400-plus million annually) she said, “ reached a level of damage,” warranting people to punish elected officials. Betsy wants the commuter tax restored.

“We’re going to be much better off with the new Council,” she said, relishing the opportunity to participate in the City’s new governance.

Betsy gracefully walked the fine line when asked to explain the incredible care and funding afforded to Central Park while Flushing Meadows doesn’t do nearly as well and some neighborhood parks are shameful. She addressed raising private funds for the outer-boroughs but defended the right of the wealthy contributors of the Central Park Conservancy to contribute to their neighborhood park while poorer communities couldn’t.

Betsy is the rare politician who claims to enjoy raising money. She leads the public advocate field, did it effectively for the Historical Society and will bring her skill to the public sector.

Ed Koch, who has endorsed her, was an example of effective City management, but she noted it was his second term that stands out. He didn’t perform as well in his third, she says in support of term limits.

Labor has been very good for this City, says Betsy who supports the Taylor law but has no backing from organized labor in spite (or because) of her family pedigree.

“Government doesn’t work for the people,” asserts Betsy pointing to the biggest challenge to her management expertise. Utilizing skills and contacts gained from both outside and inside the system, she intends to seek solutions by involving people and business in government.

Betsy would prefer to work in partnership with the new Mayor to insure delivery of service to the people, but she assured us that she also knows how to yell.

She also knows how to think, study, build consensus, manage and provide for the needs of the people of this City.

Not4Publication.com by Dom Nunziato

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Michael Schenkler can be reached at: MSchenkler@QueensTribune.com

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