It was billed as a 13th City Council Forum with candidates Democrat Mark Gjonaj, Republican John Cerini, and Independent Alex Gomez to answer questions from the VNNA. While candidates John Doyle (Liberal Party line) and Marjorie Velazquez (Working Families line) were not listed as showing Democrat Mark Gjonaj was at the CB 11 public hearing for the North Pelham Parkway reconstruction project. In Gjonaj's place was VNNA board member Robert Nolan who gave an opening speech, answered one question, and gave a closing speech for Democratic candidate Mark Gjonaj.
The three candidates are in the middle of three executive board members of the VNNA. The candidates were Republican John Cerini, Independent Alex Gomez, and stand in Democrat Bob Nolan.
It appeared that Republican candidate John Cerini was opposed to Mr. Nolan (a VNNA board member) sitting in for Democratic candidate Mark Gjonaj, but as the evening went on there was little more opposition to Mr. Nolan who gave an opening speech, answered one question, and gave a closing speech for Democratic candidate Mark Gjonaj.
Independent candidate Alex Gomez who had to go through the petition process a second time after being thrown off the ballot by a Marjorie Velazquez supporter Ms. Rebecca Chant, also gave comments that Democrat Mark Gjonaj should not be allowed to have a stand in for him if Gjonaj was unable to make the forum.
After candidates John Cerini and Alex Gomez gave their closing statements, Mr. Bob Nolan gave a closing statement for Democratic candidate Mark Gjonaj.
Republican candidate John Cerini stressed his work with the Throggs Neck Business district, Community, and his knowledge in the fields of accounting, insurance, and small business. Mr. Cerini was also in favor of creating a Throggs Neck Business Improvement District which would be funded by the landlords and businesses of the proposed BID, with a director in charge of the BID. These directors of BIDS generally are politically connected, and backed by local elected officials.
Independent candidate Alex Gomez stressed his work in the non-profit area, saying that he would rather see school boards brought back over what is no real community representation in Mayoral Control of the public schools.
In all this was a very quiet candidates forum compared to those that led up to the Democratic primary, where the candidates were more vocal about each other, especially since the leader in this race chose to be somewhere else.
No comments:
Post a Comment