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Carrozza deserves criticism for deceiving district, poor attendance

The headline to reader Frank Skala’s July 30 Bayside Times letter reads “Why is Ann-Margaret Carrozza being targeted?” If he would read your July 23 Bayside Times editorial “Time for Carrozza to Say Goodbye” or your July 23 Bayside Times article “Carrozza defiant on re-election bid” with an objective eye, he might find answers.

The fact is state Assemblywoman Ann-Margaret Carrozza (D-Bayside) bought a Nassau County mansion in June 2008 and moved out of Bayside. Nassau is where she and her family live. A neighbor confirmed in a television interview she sends her children to Nassau schools. She indicated in her mortgage documents the Glen Head, L.I., property was to be her permanent residence. She is now telling her constituents she is moving into a small co-op apartment on 205th Street while her husband maintains his legal residence in Glen Head. If Skala believes that, I have a bridge to sell him.

Skala seems to believe the standard for re-election should be that an elected official has not yet been convicted of a felony. I have always believed we had a higher standard in northeast Queens.

Perhaps if Carrozza had been an exemplary representative by representing our community’s interests well over the years, Skala’s naivete could be understood. But she has an admittedly terrible record of attending to her duties in Albany, and when she does attend, she has a record of hewing to the party line of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) rather than the interests of her district.

A recent example is her co-sponsorship of Silver’s bill that would continue mayoral control of education virtually unchanged. She did this despite our community telling her there needed to be substantial changes. She was told in resolutions of Community Board 11, Community Education Council District 26 and Skala’s East Bayside Homeowners Association.

I attended a parent education forum on the subject not long ago. Carrozza came to the forum and said she was there to listen to the parents, as she did not know much about the topic. She heard nothing there that would lead her to vote for the bill, much less become its co-sponsor.

In contrast, Assemblyman Mark Weprin (D-Little Neck), who always votes for his community and knows the topic well because he has children in our schools, voted against the bill. Carrozza voted against the interests of our District 25 and 26 children. But since her own children attend schools in Nassau County, her co-sponsorship and vote does not diminish their education.

Finally, Skala’s letter makes it appear he is writing on behalf of the civic organization he heads. That is false. Neither that organization’s membership nor its board of directors was consulted before this letter — on its letterhead — was dispatched. Skala notes Carrozza was given one of those meaningless EBHA public relations awards he has given to every civic activist, politician, editor, reporter and personal friend — including me.

If the EBHA were to be asked to give Carrozza that award today, I doubt she would get it.

Melvyn Meer

Bayside