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2 CITY COUNCIL
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CITY OF NEW YORK
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THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE MINUTES
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of the
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STATED COUNCIL MEETING
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December 15, 2003
11 Start: 1:10 p.m.
Recess: 3:50 p.m.
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City Hall
13 Council Chambers
New York, New York
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15 B E F O R E:
16 BETSY GOTBAUM
Public Advocate
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18 COUNCIL MEMBERS: Joseph Addabbo
Tony Avella
19 Maria Baez
Charles Barron
20 Tracy Boyland
Gale Brewer
21 Yvette Clarke
Leroy Comrie
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24 LEGAL-EASE COURT REPORTING SERVICES, INC.
17 Battery Place - Suite 1308
25 New York, New York 10004
800-756-3410
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2 A P P E A R A N C E S (CONTINUED)
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COUNCIL MEMBERS:
4 Bill DeBlasio
Erik Martin-Dilan
5 Simcha Felder
Lewis Fidler
6 Helen Foster
Dennis Gallagher
7 James Gennaro
Vincent Gentile
8 Alan Gerson
Eric Gioia
9 Sarah Gonzalez
Robert Jackson
10 Letitia James
Allan Jennings
11 Melinda Katz
G. Oliver Koppell
12 Andrew Lanza
John Liu
13 Margarita Lopez
Miguel Martinez
14 Michael McMahon
A. Gifford Miller
15 Hiram Monserrate
Eva Moskowitz
16 Michael Nelson
James Oddo
17 Bill Perkins
Madeline Provenzano
18 Christine Quinn
Domenic Recchia
19 Philip Reed
Diana Reyna
20 Joel Rivera
James Sanders
21 Larry Seabrook
Helen Sears
22 Jose Serrano
Kendall Stewart
23 Peter Vallone, Jr.
Albert Vann
24 David Weprin
David Yassky
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2 A P P E A R A N C E S (CONTINUED)
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STAFF: Victor Robles
4 City Clerk
5 Claude Cherry,
Council Clerk
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2 CITY CLERK ROBLES: The Council, City
3 of New York, Proclamation.
4 Whereas: The Council of the City of
5 New York is pleased and proud to honor Russell Bomar
6 for his dedicated service to the Flatlands Community
7 of Brooklyn through his development of a basketball
8 program for local youth; and
9 Whereas: Russell Bomar was born in
10 Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1947 where he
11 attended local grammar school and Carver High
12 School, playing three sports basketball, football
13 and baseball, all at a very high level; and
14 Whereas: In 1967, Russell made his
15 way to New York City to attend college, having been
16 accepted by New York University but unfortunately,
17 as a result of unexpected expenses, was unable to
18 actually attend NYU; and
19 Whereas: While owning and operating
20 his own clothing business, Russell married Doris
21 Jones and had two sons, Christopher and Ngol and he
22 also has another son from a previous union, Russell
23 Jr.; and
24 Whereas: While his sons were growing
25 up, Russell spent much time with them teaching them
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2 how to play sports, which resulted in both Chris and
3 Ngol making the varsity team in basketball at
4 Xaverian High School and having his sons either in
5 college or a graduate thereof; and
6 Whereas: Because of the success of
7 his sons in sports, Russell started coaching
8 basketball teams in the community, which eventually
9 developed into starting a not-for-profit corporation
10 to manage an eight basketball team league and that
11 sends teams to tournaments all over the City, and
12 which also provides encouragement and assistance to
13 participants to attend college to further their
14 education, giving them a better chance to have
15 productive lives; and
16 Whereas: Through this basketball
17 league many of the neighborhood youth have a place
18 to enjoy sports, learn to respect each other and
19 work together as part of a team, look forward to
20 attending college and obtaining a good job, all
21 while avoiding drugs, gangs and violence; now,
22 therefore,
23 Be It Known: That the Council of the
24 City of New York honors RUSSELL BOMAR for his
25 exceptional service to the well being of the City in
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2 general and the youth of the Flatlands community in
3 particular.
4 Signed this 6th day of November in
5 the year Two Thousand and Three, Gifford Miller,
6 Speaker for the Entire Council; Kendall Stewart,
7 Council Member, 45th District.
8 MR. BOMAR: I have Russell, Jr., I
9 have Neal and I have Chris. I have my, this is Jean
10 Joseph, very helpful to me. She's another lady that,
11 she's the greatest, Dr. Jean Charles, okay? I have
12 my daughter-in-law to be. She is right there. I'm
13 sorry, I'm kind of tongue-tied. That is Cathy
14 Enriques. This is my Goddaughter, Nilda Nuese. Great
15 young lady. She's a scholar. She's also a teacher.
16 She does speech therapy, she does everything.
17 This is my grand baby. My first.
18 Thank you all very much. I'm so
19 honored to be in this historic site, accepting this.
20 And thank you, Speaker.
21 SPEAKER MILLER: Thank you, Mr. Bomar.
22 Thank you so much. Thank you, all, for being here.
23 Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you.
24 Council Member Christine Quinn.
25 Council Member Quinn has brought a special guest.
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2 Council Member Quinn, would you like to introduce
3 your special guest?
4 COUNCIL MEMBER QUINN: Sure.
5 SPEAKER MILLER: Sure. Here she is.
6 COUNCIL MEMBER QUINN: Our special
7 guest is David Lehman of the American Cancer
8 Society, and I'm sure many of us recognize David
9 because he's been a little bit of a fixture around
10 City Hall over the past few years advocating for
11 important legislation and funding priorities to help
12 deal with lung cancer and breast cancer, childhood
13 obesity and other health-related issues, and David
14 is retiring, believe it or not, and we at the
15 Council wanted to make sure we said we're going to
16 miss you, but mostly to thank you for all your great
17 work and helping guide us and move us forward to
18 make sure we're doing everything we can on the
19 Council to address the really horrible crisis of
20 cancer and health-related concerns in this City.
21 So, thank you, and you have a great
22 retirement.
23 SPEAKER MILLER: If the clerk could
24 read the proclamation.
25 CITY CLERK ROBLES: Council, City of
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2 New York, Proclamation.
3 Whereas: The Council of the City of
4 New York is pleased and proud to honor David Lehmann
5 for his distinguished service to the City and the
6 community; and
7 Whereas: WE are a City made strong by
8 the efforts of individuals and organizations who
9 give exemplary service to the community, whether
10 through participation in volunteer programs, through
11 unique personal achievement in their professional or
12 other endeavors, or through a lifetime of good
13 citizenry; and
14 Whereas: David Lehmann is one such
15 individual and exemplified all that is best in
16 people: abundant generosity and compassion; selfless
17 dedications; the development of one's intellect,
18 spirit and talents to help nurture and educate
19 others; and a commitment to the values and issues
20 that most forcefully strengthen community bonds; and
21 Whereas: David Lehmann is retiring
22 from a distinguished and highly worthwhile career
23 with the American Cancer Society; he joined the
24 organization's National Office in 1984 as a news
25 editor four years later he left this position to
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2 become the director of public relations in the
3 Society's New York City office; and
4 Whereas: In 1991, David moved on to
5 serve as director of the American Cancer Society's
6 education department, where one of his finest
7 contributions to the organization was the
8 development of an advocacy department; and
9 Whereas: During his tenure as
10 regional advocacy director, David worked to increase
11 funding for breast, colon, and prostate cancer
12 programs, and programs to help New Yorkers quit
13 smoking; and
14 Whereas: The proudest moment of
15 David's rich career was the passage of New York
16 City's Smoke-Free Workplace Act of 2002, a piece of
17 legislation that he helped develop; and
18 Whereas: David Lehmann's dedication
19 to and concern for the community has been both
20 admirable and instructive; he has truly enriched us
21 with his presence and it is with the deepest
22 gratitude of this legislative body that we honor him
23 today; now, therefore
24 Be It Known: That the Council of the
25 City of New York most gratefully honors DAVID
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2 LEHMANN for his distinguished service to the City
3 and the community.
4 Signed this 15th day of December in
5 the year Two Thousand and Three, Gifford Miller,
6 Speaker for the Entire Council; Christine Quinn,
7 Council Member, 3rd District, Manhattan.
8 SPEAKER MILLER: Thank you, Mr. Clerk.
9 We're very honored to have you here
10 with us. We thank you for all your work on behalf of
11 the City of New York. We'd love it if you would say
12 a few words.
13 MR. LEHMANN: I will keep this short
14 but sweet. I've always been a behind the scenes sort
15 of guy, and I just want to say it has been such a
16 privilege and an honor to work with the Speaker,
17 Council Member Quinn. She is an amazing advocate for
18 cancer control, and actually if you go back to the
19 Health Committee Chairmanship of Victor Robles, so I
20 just want to thank the Council for their support of
21 cancer control.
22 The American Cancer Society has not
23 had advocacy in their mission statement for all that
24 long. I actually go back much further than the
25 advocacy, it was put in the mission statement of our
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2 organization, and I'm proud now to say that I'm a
3 lobbyist for special interest, and I'm a lobbyist
4 for cancer control, and all of you have been such
5 remarkable partners in that process, and I thank
6 each and every one of you. It's just a privilege to
7 be here today. Thank you so much.
8 SPEAKER MILLER: Thank you. And
9 congratulations and best of luck to you.
10 Council Member Dennis Gallagher, and
11 also Council Member Melinda Katz.
12 Council Member Gallagher.
13 COUNCIL MEMBER GALLAGHER: Thank you,
14 Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Council Member Katz.
15 Today we're very pleased to be joined
16 by two folks that represent the communities that
17 Melinda and I share and one is Henry Lippe, the
18 other one is Pat Toro. Both are Vietnam veterans,
19 were very active and involved in community service
20 and we ask you to please come forward.
21 Both these individuals give a
22 tremendous amount of their time and energy
23 throughout the community performing countless hours
24 of community service, whether it be through the
25 Vietnam Veterans Chapter 132 or also from the
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2 American Legion where Henry has served as President.
3 He's been a drug and alcohol counselor for 33 years,
4 both have really done tremendous amounts for the
5 City of New York.
6 I'd like to ask my colleague Council
7 Member Katz to say a few words.
8 COUNCIL MEMBER KATZ: Just on behalf
9 of the Queens Delegation, the entire New York City
10 Council, and, of course, the Speaker, who brought
11 the Proclamation as well, Dennis and I just want to
12 congratulate both of you for the hard work you do.
13 These guys are in the trenches making
14 sure that Veterans, Vietnam Veterans and all
15 Veterans get the services that they deserve for
16 fighting for our country and this is just a very,
17 very small token of our gratitude that we can bestow
18 upon you today on behalf of the Council. Thank you
19 for your work.
20 SPEAKER MILLER: Thank you. If the
21 clerk could read the proclamation.
22 CITY CLERK ROBLES: The Council, City
23 of New York, Proclamation.
24 Whereas: Every citizen of the United
25 States owes respect to those who have showed the
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2 courage and selflessness at times when our nation
3 was fighting to advance the democratic freedoms that
4 we now enjoy; and
5 Whereas: Much of our success as a
6 nation - much of the peace and prosperity we take
7 for granted - is due in large measure to the
8 hard-fought success of our fighting forces, men of
9 remarkable strength and character whose tremendous
10 sacrifices helped shape the modern world,
11 individuals whose legacy has ensured the safety,
12 progress and prosperity of our country for
13 generations to come; and
14 Whereas: Henry Lippe has served two
15 tours in Vietnam as an advisor and then with the
16 12th Marines, 3rd Marine Division, and 3rd Marine
17 Amphibious Force; and
18 Whereas: Thereafter, Henry has served
19 33 years as a Veterans Drug and Alcohol Advisor,
20 Commander or American Legion Post 1815, Chairman of
21 Allied Veterans of Ridgewood and Glendale and
22 Commander of the 7th Division Kings County American
23 Legion; and
24 Whereas: As a nation, we owe a
25 tremendous debt of gratitude to Henry Lippe and to
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2 all veterans who have fought so valiantly to
3 preserve democratic principles of freedom the world
4 over; now, therefore
5 Be It Known: That the Council of the
6 City of New York honors and commends HENRY LIPPE for
7 his exceptional service to our nation during the
8 Vietnam conflict.
9 Signed this 15th day of December in
10 the year Two Thousand and Three, Dennis Gallagher,
11 Minority Whip, Council Member 30th District; Melinda
12 Katz, Council Member, 29th District, Queens; and
13 Gifford Miller, Speaker for the Entire Council.
14 Proclamation.
15 Whereas: The Council of the City of
16 New York is pleased and proud to honor Pastor Toro,
17 Jr. for the exceptional service and sacrifice he has
18 provided to our country during the war in Vietnam;
19 and
20 Whereas: Much of our success as a
21 nation - much