By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

Not so long ago, I wrote in this column that Southeast Queens Assemblymember Barbara Clark was one of the only Queens elected officials I had not met.
So Barbara called me and I invited her to the office for breakfast. Friday morning was my introduction to what I expect to be a lively, enjoyable friendship.
Barbara Clark is real — very real.
Unlike most elected officials she is not afraid to speak her mind even if it means criticizing neighboring officeholders. Of every elected official in Queens, Barbara seems to be the least political, and that, my friends, is as fine a compliment one could pay to those who choose public service as a career.

Sure she’s a loyal Democrat. But first she is loyal to the people, with honesty and integrity. She is prepared to battle friends, foes, colleagues, or the devil himself in order to improve our schools. This truly independent crusader used the word “hate” in describing her feeling towards elected officials who put politics before the needs of citizens.

She told Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver recently, “When I leave the Legislature, I want my ability to sleep at night and my ability to look in the mirror.” Clark, unlike many of her Queens colleagues who not so long ago opposed Silver, has not received any of the desireable Albany perks he hands out because she continues to maintain her independence. 

The West Virginian coal miner’s daughter moved to New York with her family when coal mining was mechanized and “everybody’s fathers were losing jobs.” 
She worked as an administrative assistant for the Transit Police, as a school safety security supervisor, and finally in 1984, she became a youth coordinator for the city. In 1986 she was elected to the Assembly as a community activist. She says, “I was the PTA lady.”

Quality public education continues to be the mission of the mother of four kids, all who graduated from Andrew Jackson High School. Clark credits both home and school for the successes of her kids, but notes that the high school today isn’t as good as it used to be.

The 17-year Assembly vet told us “I went to the legislature to fight for schools.” And she hasn’t stopped fighting. Whenever given a chance, Clark’s topic continually came back to education. She emoted about recent visits to schools and smiled broadly when speaking about children and school successes. 

Clark testified in favor of school board dismantling at the State Legislature’s hearing on the topic at Borough Hall. This independent Democrat was quick to praise the Bloomberg administration’s efforts in the schools: “I like it. I can’t say it’s gonna work, but it’s a move. It’s a change. I wanted to see some change.”
Her positive tone changes when focusing on the schools of Southeast Queens.
“It’s a terrible picture,” Clark explained. Decrying, hers is a solidly middle class neighborhood and has a large college-educated population, “To have children failing as our children are failing, is terrible.”

“Everyone is looking for why District 29 is failing the way it is. District 29 shouldn’t be failing like it is,” Clark continued. 

Searching for answers, she suggested, “The schools got darker. When there were more white students in the school system, the school system was better because more people paid attention to them.”

But to see her energy and hear her commitment, you know Barbara Clark is not giving up. When in the district, she visits schools, attends forums and writes letters all to push the school towards improvement. 

“That’s my number-one priority because that’s the number one priority in the city,” she said of education.

Although seemingly a single issue legislator, Clark rattled off her list of other concerns for her community: illegal conversion of single-family homes to multi-family, proposed live poultry stores near residential or retail businesses, flooding, transportation, and notes that “Southern Queens is the capital of predatory lending.”

Our non-politician learned politics the hard way in Albany. She acknowledged that being a legislator in New York State is “hard.” She talked of the conflicts between upstate and the City and bemoans the lack of effectiveness of the process.

Unlike many of her colleagues Clark stood against Assembly leadership when they traded off the City’s commuter tax in a political deal. She admits her independence, but said it “makes my life very difficult for me up there [in Albany].”

She quickly offered that allowing political party county leaders to be part of the legislature is a huge problem, explaining that four of the five NYC County Democratic Chairs serve in the state legislature and further politicize the body to the detriment of the people.
On the local level, when asked if she likes Queens politics, she laughed out loud and said, “Yes and no!”

She prides herself on leading the selection of Queens’ first black woman judge Patricia Satterfield, but bemoans the fact that candidates selected by those who are more loyal to the party surpassed Satterfield for the Supreme Court.
“Yeah, the whole thing stinks,” Clark said of the politicized judiciary selection process, “but [to change it] you need a whole body of people who are willing to work on it.”

Clark told us with a smile, “I’m a bit different, I guess. And I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.” 
Barbara, it’s a real good thing!
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Column contributor: Shams Tarek 

Act Like A One-Term Mayor,
If You Want To Serve Two

There were many reasons for the defeat of Mayor Bloomberg’s ballot proposal for nonpartisan elections. 

For one thing, practically everyone who took a public position on the issue opposed it. Self-interest, peer pressure, lack of historic memory, instinctive suspicion, party loyalty and high principle all combined to support one side: negative.

The result is predictably being distorted into a referendum on the Mayor, because Democratic spinners are determined to discredit him, eager to recapture City Hall in 2005.  Years without city patronage — jobs or contracts — seem longer when one is in the wilderness, relying only on manna that falls from the courts.

Nonetheless, the vote is a setback for the administration and, to some extent, weakens its position in dealing with other power centers. However, the defeat may have a salutary effect, if it results in a sea-change in the admin-istration’s thinking.

First, the Mayor should recognize that his election in 2001 was a political anomaly.  He was an outsider, with no defined image other than that of a businessman.   He defeated an unpopular Democrat, who won a primary by a narrow margin over a Latino rival, using tactics that alienated segments of his party. 

Second, he should consider himself to be, and act as if he were, a one-term mayor.  In addition to merit-based decisions being better for the city, that strategy will give him a decent chance for a second term.  He should not try to play politics, avoiding bilingual education or other issues, or seek to ingratiate himself with particular interest groups.  They may or may not remember what he did, but the groups whom he did not pamper certainly will.  Our mayor is not, by nature or nurture, an untruthful person.  He simply cannot do the razzle-dazzle that more gifted and less scrupulous politicians perform so nimbly, convincing rivals that they are the best friend of each conflicting interest.

Third, he should be really careful when he speaks.  There is a certain looseness in oral expression, and practically all of us have said things from time to time that we regret.  Above all, avoid comparisons that may appear heartless or ungrateful.  When fleeting or careless thoughts are printed in cold type, and magnified and recirculated by rivals and enemies, trouble follows.

Fourth, he should remember that he is a good mayor, honest, unobligated to contributors and favor-seekers, free to choose on the merits as he sees them (although that vision may occasionally be impaired by delegation of responsibilities to disinterested ideologues).  He should realize that less educated people may have sounder values and wiser views on public issues than more educated people, and that good judgment need not be a function of IQ, wealth or social position.

Fifth, he should believe that the charter revision vote was not a referendum on him personally. Mayor Giuliani lost a similar vote in 1999 and came back strongly. He should not try to calculate which policies will bring greater public favor, because no one knows for sure what will work, or whether it will be appreciated or resented. 

Adherence to principle should be his standard, because in that area his consensus-seeking rivals cannot compete effectively, as they outdo each other with inconsistent promises, impossible to fulfill.

During the fifteen years I was Parks Commissioner, when difficult issues or pressures faced me, I was guided by the simple concept of "always doing what was right, to the best of my ability." That is what I did, and I am proud of it. 

That is what I urge Mayor Bloomberg to do.  He and the city will be better off for it.

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