From the Queens Chronicle:
The race to replace outbound and embattled Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) heated up Tuesday night at a forum held by the Auburndale Improvement Association at St. Kevin’s Church, as candidates tried to balance staying on message while answering a battery of specific questions presented by the civic.
The group devised a strict format for the evening, allotting 15 total minutes to every candidate. The first three minutes were dedicated to introductory statements. The remaining 12 were meant to address a list of questions handed to them ahead of time, covering topics such as overdevelopment, real estate taxes and the Federal Aviation Administration’s new and disruptive flight patterns to LaGuardia. There would then be three audience-submitted questions.
The rules dictated the candidates would speak on a first-come, first-serve basis. The race’s two Pauls — Graziano and Community Board 7 member and political scion Paul Vallone — arrived two minutes apart with Vallone coming in second.
A perturbed Vallone opened his remarks by noting Graziano refused to acquiesce his opening speaking slot despite the former’s prior commitments to his daughter’s soccer team, calling it an embodiment of some of his opponent’s character, without actually naming who he was talking about.
In some cases, blatant dodges or outright lies were spoken. When asked about the source of his contributions — specifically if any of them came from lobbyists or developers — Vallone launched into a big wet kiss for the Campaign Finance Board’s work, and voters’ ability to check out his campaign funding sources themselves.
In addition to the above, Vallone also referred to a local civic organization as "the damn Broadway-Flushing Homeowners" [at 1:54 on this video]. This ridiculous lapse in judgment speaks volumes about Mr. Vallone's character as well as the Queens County Democrats that chose him as their candidate.
He also embarrassingly chided the timekeeper when the timer went off at 3:10. He demanded equal time as the previous candidate (Graziano) who he claimed was up there "for about a half hour", but apparently was ignorant of the fact that the timer went off simply to let him know that he should wrap up his opening statement. (The truth be known, each candidate was given more than 15 minutes and just about the same amount of time, as the times on these videos show.)
And then at 10:35, listen to what Vallone says about the Dilluvio decision. The Dilluvio decision, in a nutshell, is about a homeowner in the Broadway-Flushing area who erected a wall on his property. Under Rickert-Finlay restrictive covenant rules, walls are not allowed in the front yard. The Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association sued, the court ruled in their favor and Dilluvio appealed several times. The final appeal resulted in a win for Broadway-Flushing. The attorney representing Broadway-Flushing is former assemblyman Vincent Nicolosi, not Paul Vallone. So what does Vallone mean when he says, "We won"? He said himself that he is not currently a "damn" Broadway-Flushing homeowner, and he was not involved in the case. In fact, the candidate consulting for Broadway-Flushing on deed restriction cases is actually Paul Graziano. And Nicolosi donated to him.
And below is a photo of the Dilluvio home. See anything strange here?
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| Click photo for larger version |
Well, Paul V. sure didn't say much about why he deserves to be a council member or what he would do to help the district during his time at Auburndale Improvement Association Candidates' Night. But we can always just visit his website to learn his positions on the important issues that have been brought to his attention. Astounding amount of info there.
