Page 234 - Demo

Blood Feud Spawns Quiet RaceBY PETER HALEYThe 1976 Assembly Democratic primary race in the Park SlopeBorough Park 51st Assembly District was a stormy campaign with a bad blood feud between reformers and regulars. It ended with reformer Assemblyman Joseph Ferris beating District School Board 15 chairman Philip Kaplan by 800 votes.A deal to trade %u201chands-off%u201d races for regular district leaders and a reform assemblyman in that 1976 campaign went awry after Democratic District Leaders Anthony Carraciolo and Louise Finney were elected in an April primary. By that August, %u201c independent%u201d Kaplan was campaigning against Ferris. A Ferris lieutenant made a public announcement that Kaplan was one of %u201ctheirs\regulars were acting in bad faith. Finney and Caracciolo demanded a retraction, which never came. In retaliation%u2014or so the story goes%u2014 they did campaign for Kaplan.This time around, it%u2019s clearer who%u2019s who, because reformer Ferris is running against regular Beatrice DeSapio. Also, this time around, Ferris says the campaign has been %u201c pretty quiet%u2019%u2019 with %u201cnon-headline problems%u201d being the principal issues in the district. His opponent, Assembly aide Beatrice DeSapio, of course feelsotherwise. She is campaigning for the restoration of the death penalty and promoting herself and District Leaders Louise Finney and Anthony Carraciolo as an independent %u201c action, not promises%u201d team to challenge %u201c Ferris%u2019 ineffectiveness%u201d in the district.%u201cTHERE ARE NO OVERRIDING NEIGHBORHOOD ISSUES,%u201dsaid Ferris, who was calling from a phone booth on the campaign trail. %u201c We%u2019re doing our basic homework and relying on constituent concerns for the campaign.%u201dFerris indicated that one of these concerns is the development of a senior citizen home in Park Slope on 17th Street between 8th and 9thAvenue. A legislative concern that related directly to constituents and a sample of what the two-term assemblyman has done in Albany, according to Ferris, are his positions against Con Ed utility rate increases and against appointments (rather than elections) to the Public Service Commission, which governs Con Ed and other utilities.DeSapio charges that Ferris%u2019 lack of a crime program and legislative opposition to the death penalty reflect his failure to serve community concerns.%u201c Crime is definitely an issue,%u201d said DeSapio. %u201c I%u2019ve been campaigning in Kensington, Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, and BoroughPark and people are afraid of crime and would like to see the death penalty on the books. %u2019 %u2019Along with the death penalty, DeSapio intended to campaign on Ferris%u2019 %u201c ineffectiveness%u201d as both a legislator and community leader.%u201c None of Ferris%u2019 bills have been enacted into a law and Joe hasn%u2019t kept us informed,%u201d said DeSapio, who blamed Ferris for community opposition to a state-run adult home for the mentally retarded in Windsor Terrace%u2019s Sherman Street being %u2018 %u2018blown out of proportion. %u2019 %u2019\learned of it when the state notified officials last June,%u201d said DeSapio. %u201cIf he or his district office had properly informed the community, this probably wouldn%u2019t have occurred.%u201dDeSAPIO%u2019S %u201c I CAN DO ITBETTER%u201d platform is enhanced by her supposed ties to the regulars who %u201cget things done%u201d and by Ferris%u2019 independent stance as one of Brooklyn%u2019s liberal assemblymen. Democratic insiders in the regular camp will reportedly be satisfied with keeping the seat Democratic and are not particularly happy with DeSapio. Ferris, however, is disliked because he doesn%u2019t try hard enough to be liked.A Democratic insider explained the gap between Ferris and the regulars.%u201c Joe doesn%u2019t do the necessary ball-playing you need to do to get things accomplished in the Assembly. And being a liberal independent, his bills get blocked right in committee and never %u2018see%u2019 the floor.%u201dFerris ridiculed the %u201c action, not promises%u201d regular team and disputed DeSapio%u2019s contention that he is an ineffective legislator.%u201c Sure, they are an %u2018action%u2019 team if what you mean by action is an employment agency for friends. Between the three of them they%u2019ve got $85,000 worth of patronage,%u201d said Ferris, referring to Carraciolo%u2019s City Council position, Finney%u2019s state labor post, and DeSapio%u2019s Assembly aide position. Ferris maintained that he is involved in city concerns, such as sealing up buildings, because of the ineffective nature of the local district leaders.Ferris included the fight to restore $4 Million to Brooklyn%u2019s Lutheran, Methodist, and Maimonides Hospitals, which he claimed the state intended to use to meet operating deficits.A legislator%u2019s role in blocking bad legislation was overlooked by his opponent, Ferris said, and he counted the proposed 18% second mortgage interest and the checking account proposal for commercial banks among the fights he couldn%u2019thave made if he was %u201c part of the club%u201d and not an independent.Ferris%u2019 campaign staffer Frances Bernick said that the DeSapio camp%u2019s boast that they%u2019ll deliver is backed by the %u201cthreat%u201d that the regular organization will continue not to work with Ferris. But, Bernick noted, DeSapio and they can%u2019t %u201c get it from both ends.%u201dDeSapio disputed the Ferris team %u2019s assertion that the Assemblyman helped prevent Two Freddy%u2019s Car Wrecking Yard from setting up shop in Kensington.Instead, she said %u201cour actionpromises team%u201d was there with District Leader Caracciolo, going with the Dahill Neighborhood Association to court to fight the zoning change.Ferris defeated then two-term Assemblyman Vince Riccio in 1974 on his first trip to Albany and some critics say he rode in on Governor Hugh Carey%u2019s election coattails. This time the Carey pull is more like an anchor, and so it%u2019s Ferris and his Central Brooklyn Independent Democrat Club team versus the regular Democratic team again.And again, Ferris will probably be on the long end of the 7,000 odd votes that will be cast%u2014unless DeSapio starts making a lot ofnoise.Oh, Those Ancient Water PipesContinuedhad to be called back a second time%u201d to pump out the onrushing waters. %u201cThey pumped out a hell of a lot of water and it was still coming in,%u201d she said.Work, which normally begins at 6:30 a.m. and involves giving dialysis treatment to patients, had to be delayed until 10:30 that morning. Twenty patients were kept waiting, but because the delay was not the Center%u2019s fault, Altman said %u201cthe patients understood.%u201d Dialysis treatment usually takes 19 hours.Since the break, though, Altman claims that water pressure drops on hot days, often low enough to shut the dialysis machines for a halfhour at a time. The machines depend on water pressure to keep functioning, and when the psi (pounds per square inch) drops below forty, they sound an alarm and automatically shut off. Altman has not, however, notified the city of the problem.%u201c There could be something a d d itio n a lly w ro n g ,%u2019 %u2019acknowledged Garcia, %u201c but until we get the complaint, we don%u2019t know. This kind of problem could also be due to other things, such as fire hydrant openings which reduce the pressure all over. Because this is a gravity system, this could happen.%u201dA gravity system relies on no mechanical pumps to keep the water flowing. Rather, by sloping the pipes and letting gravity take over, the water runs through.ALMOST ALL OF THE CITY%u2019SWATER comes from the New York. State Catskill region, via th e 1 Catskill Aqueduct. More than t>UU million gailon:> ui wolci flow through this tremendous pipe daily. The Aqueduct is 92 miles long and varies in diameter from 13 feet 9 in. to 17 feet 6 in., depending on the contour of the countryside it is under. Where the Aqueduct crosses the Hudson River by Storm King Mountain above Dutchess County, the pipe is 1,114 feet belowsea level.Once by the city, the Aqueduct feeds into two tunnels, appropriately named City Tunnel No. 1 and City Tunnel No. 2. No. 1 is almost 100 years old and runs 18 miles, sometimes at a depth of 365 feet below sea level.Its sister, No. 2, is 20 miles long and plummets as much as 500 feet below sea level. A third tunnel is currently being worked on but there is no completion date yet.By the time the water has reached your faucet, it has gushed through a maze of pipes, each one a cutoff from a larger pipe. The final pipe is %u00bb service line, which goes into individual buildings and for which the individual owners and landlords are responsible. The system includes about 800,000 service lines.Despite%u2014or perhaps, because of%u2014the immensity of the system, the DEA, which overseas its operation, receives its shares ofcriticism. Immediately following the Flatbush Avenue break, Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden commented that there was %u201c an unconscionable lapse in the maintenance and service...a delay of almost three hours in repairing the water main break.%u201dAlthough it may have taken that long, Garcia says it wasn%u2019t a %u201c delay,%u201d since %u201cmost any water main break requires a shut-down minimum of two hours.%u201d The %u201c shut-down%u201d necessitates excavation, locating valves and closing them.Golden also mentioned the %u201cblizzard %u00ab f nanprwnrk%u201d th at floodvictims have to go through. But Raymond Silverman of the Bureau of Law and Adjustment, which is in charge of handling claims, disagrees with that statement. %u201c Each person has to call for the appropriate forms,%u201d he said. %u201c We mail four forms and then send a city inspector down.%u201d While there maybe no blizzard, he said, money from claims could take a few months to materialize. And the simple fact is that if a person does not file a claim, the city has no way of knowing he has suffered damage.Garcia also mentioned that some of the problems people think are water main breaks are actually sewer related, such as repeated flooding after it rains. Although that problem comes under the jurisdiction of the DEA, it would be handled by a bureau other than the Bureau of Water Supply.Because there are so many miles of pipes which would be impossible tn rep lace all at once, the DEA approach is to replace pipes as they break, according to Garcia. Although pipes do get changed during construction and roadway repairs, a large number remain untouched, continually aging with each passing year. As long as this situation remains, there will continue to be water main breaks.Page 4, THE PHOENIX, September 1,1978Court StallsBerger%u2019sCampaignYesterday%u2019s Court of Appeals decision not to h e a r. Democratic comptroller candidate Stephen Berger%u2019s appeal to be restored to the September primary ballot means his lawyers will be in federal court today, fighting the constitutionality of the %u00abJaws that disqualified hin),The former executiye director for the city%u2019s Ejnergengy Financial Control Board was thrown off the ballot for failure to obtain the required 20,000 signatures of registered Democrats necessary to fun for the state post. Berger and his lawyers in federal court will dispute the technical pro visions of the electoral law that whittled an estimated original 32,000 signatures doWn to 17,500.Berger%u2019s argument, according to a spokeswoman, is with the technical manner in which 20,000 signatures were documented. The spokeswoman charged that Election Board decisions upheld by state courts %u201c disenfranchised%u201d thousands of voters who wanted Berger on the ballot.The Appeals Court refusal was based on an unanimous decision by the state%u2019s Appellate Division to deny Bergfef%u2019s appeal. According to law, in cases of unanimity the higher Appeals court is not required to hear -a %u2018further appeal and ift~--Berger%u2019s case it chose to suppbrt theiower court.Tlie defects in filling out electoral and assembly district numbers, the lack of the required initials alongside written alterations and errors tn witness statements are the three categories of signature disqualifications that will be argued by Berger%u2019s attorneys in federal court. Errors in part negate an entire signature and witness errors negate an entire page of signatures according to election law.