Public Advocate Gotbaum Addresses Sunnyside Chamber
BY THOMAS COGAN

Dolores Rizzotto (l.), retiring district manager of Community Board 2, stands with Betsy Gotbaum, New York City Public Advocate (r.), and Joseph Conley, chairman of Community Board 2, at the June luncheon of the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce, held at Dazies Restaurant on Queens Boulevard.

At a Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce luncheon in May 2002, Vincent Reilly, White Castle regional manager, announced that the second "Night of the Castle" party, complete with king and queen, would be held in September at the White Castle on Queens Boulevard and 43rd Street, and that Betsy Gotbaum, public advocate of the city of New York, would be queen to Congressmember Joe Crowley's king. Gotbaum recalled the occasion fondly at the chamber's June 2006 luncheon, though she also recalled that the royal raiment was rather warm in the late summer weather. Nostalgia aside, Gotbaum went over a few matters that have engaged her office since then. The luncheon, the last before the summer break, also featured another tribute to Dolores Rizzotto, the retiring district manager of Community Board 2, and a report from Detective Glenn Yule of the 108th Police Precinct.

Gotbaum was elected public advocate in 2001 and in 2005 won reelection by gathering 89 percent of the vote. (Such lopsided support, she said, did not entirely allay the sting of her opponents' critical remarks.) Her run for office came after years of participation in the life of the city, in both public and private capacities. She served on the staff of Mayor John V. Lindsay prior to 1974, then worked at the New York Police Foundation, where she advocated provision by the Police Department of bulletproof vests for all officers, since the department did not issue them at the time. In Mayor David Dinkins' administration, 1990-1994, she was commissioner of the Parks and Recreation Department. Following that, she was head of the New-York Historical Society, the institution on Central Park West that she said she had to save from financial collapse. In 2001, the public advocate's office was open, incumbent Mark Green being a candidate for mayor, and she decided to make her first attempt for elective office, with the encouragement of her husband, Victor Gotbaum, former head of District Council 37, the city's largest municipal labor union.

Among her current concerns, she said, is B r o o k l y n Healthworks, which she is, well, advocating; this is the insurance plan of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce for companies having 50 or fewer workers. Another topic of advocacy is Food Stamps, which, she said, have been discouraged from use by, or otherwise hidden away from, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. She said that when one man complained that he was being denied Food Stamps he believed he was entitled to and the case was settled in his favor, similar situations involving those many thousands of city residents were revealed. Gotbaum said Food Stamps are used by many of the working poor and that they are healthy for the city's economy. The problem lay with the lengthy forms that had to be filled out. She said that with the help of United Way her office helped 50,000 persons eligible for food stamps to get them. Then there is Meals on Wheels, which she described as "my baby". She has taken on the program as it is run in The Bronx. She said that the old program that entailed delivery of hot meals to elderly shut-ins was replaced by one where frozen food was delivered, under the assumption that the recipients had microwave ovens. She said she personally looked into the situations of many quite old and enfeebled persons who were forced to try heating the frozen foods on gas or electric ranges; she said she saw "disgusting" sights. She has since managed to stem the spread of the frozen meal program to the other boroughs, though it is still in practice in The Bronx.

"You have made the community better." Thus did Joe Conley pay valedictory tribute to Dolores Rizzotto on the occasion of her retirement as Community Board 2 district manager. As examples of betterment, he cited her aid to a former Community Board 2 member who had become old, feeble and badly in need of help and her effort to brighten the lives of children trapped with their parents in welfare residency at a motel on Queens Boulevard. That was in addition to her work as district manager at CB 2, where, as Conley has said repeatedly, "I had the title but she really ran the place." At the most recent Board 2 meeting, Congressmember Carolyn Maloney had presented Rizzotto with an American flag that had been flown over the Capitol in Washington before being delivered to her by the congressmember's aide, George Napolitano. At the Sunnyside luncheon, Napolitano gave Rizzotto the authentication certificate that was supposed to accompany the flag but which had somehow gone missing.

Yule of the 108th Precinct had a Fourth of July warning about possessing firecrackers, saying that there even might be stopping and searching of vehicles suspected of smuggling them. He said the recent vehicle identification number (VIN) etching session at La Guardia Community College had been popular and successful. As for the crime rate, he said it has declined 10 percent in the precinct during 2006. Finally, he announced that National Night Out Against Crime will be held Tuesday, August 1.