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By Gina Martinez

TimesLedger Newspapers

A new report has determined that former Queens Museum director Laura Raicovich and deputy director David Strauss used poor judgement and knowingly misled the board when they cancelled a historic recreation of the 1947 vote that established the state of Israel last August.

Raicovich resigned as the museum’s director on Jan. 26 after having served in that capacity for three years. In that time, she generated some controversy by being politically outspoken.

Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Flushing) and Assemblyman Mike Simanowitz (D-Flushing) called for her resignation after the museum announced it was canceling a re-enactment of the vote to partition Palestine to form Israel on the 70th anniversary of the State of Israel.

The legislators called on the NYC Human Rights Commission to investigate Raicovich’s decision as a violation of Title 8 of the city’s Administrative Code, also known as the City Human Rights Law.

Lancman claimed that the decision by the museum, a public accommodation, had represented a discriminatory refusal to provide full and equal enjoyment of its services based on religion and national origin, both protected classes under the law, as well as an unlawful boycott.

A few hours later, Queens Museum said the event was back on and in November the museum hosted the event, which UN ambassadors, Jewish leaders and Vice President Mike Pence attended.

Law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman issued a report of its findings after a three-month investigation following the cancellation.

The report said Raicovich “showed immediate hostility to hosting the event at the museum” and felt that Vice President Mike Pence’s involvement was “problematic for the museum.”

The report also noted that Raicovich never disclosed her involvement as an editor of the 2017 book ”Assuming Boycott,” even though the book prominently identifies her as director of the museum and includes a foreword she co-wrote that states the goals discussed in the book are “complemented by programs, exhibitions and educational initiatives” at the museum. The book supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, or BDS, a controversial movement that calls for a boycott of Israel.

The report went on to say that Raicovich and Strauss “misled” the board and “otherwise failed to comport themselves with the standards consistent with their positions.”

The director and deputy director were both offered the opportunity to resign. Raicovich resigned and Strauss was terminated by the board, according to the report.

The report concluded that because the museum had inadequate written policies and procedures, the board was reliant on the information it received from Raicovich and Strauss in making its decision regarding the event.

“Based on the findings of this investigation, we have recommended that the Board review and improve its policies and procedures in an effort to avoid similar distractions in the future, so that the museum can focus on its mission and the community,” the report said.

Reach Gina Martinez by e-mail at gmartinez@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4566.

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By Rory I. Lancman

TimesLedger Newspapers

There are many ways that Queens gets the short end of the stick when it comes to city funding, and the allocation of resources to the Queens District Attorney’s Office is no exception.

The Queens DA’s office is home to just over 300 assistant district attorneys, or ADAs — significantly fewer than Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, which each employ more than 500 ADAs. In this year’s budget process, the City Council’s Committee on the Justice System, which I chair and oversees the district attorneys, will be asking the city to fairly fund the Queens District Attorney’s Office.

If the disparity was due to lower crime rates or number of cases, that would be one thing, but there is no public safety rationale to explain why Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx all have far more prosecutors than Queens. In fact, an analysis of total arrests by borough shows that in 2017 Queens had nearly as many felony arrests as Manhattan and the Bronx, and that there were more than 36,000 misdemeanor arrests in Queens alone. Prosecutors have a vital job in our community. They help keep us safe, while ensuring that the justice system is fair and equitable for all.

This discrepancy leaves Queens ADAs overstretched, overworked, and maintaining caseloads far larger than their counterparts in other DA’s offices. In 2017, the average ADA in Queens was handling 179 total cases, far exceeding the combined average caseload of 131 cases for ADAs in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. With staff stretched so thin, it makes it more difficult to invest time in resource intensive investigations or quickly respond to emerging threats, like the opioid epidemic. An office as successful as the Queens DA’s Human Trafficking Unit should be staffed by more than one prosecutor.

Overloaded ADAs can have real consequences in the courtroom. Burdened by massive caseloads, prosecutors can struggle to put the appropriate preparation and time into each case. Simply put, there is not enough time in the day for each ADA to manage so many cases. Fewer cases could allow prosecutors more time to think creatively about the best ways to seek justice for victims and prevent defendants from reoffending. It is not about locking more people up. An overwhelmed prosecutor has less time to listen, less time to consider and less time to seek out effective alternatives.

The solution to the headcount disparity is obvious — the Queens DA needs greater city funding to close the gap and staff up appropriately. If we ask our prosecutors to do too much with too little, we may not like the result.

This guest editorial was written by Council Member Rory I. Lancman (Hillcrest)

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By Bill Parry

TimesLedger Newspapers

Travelers heading to LaGuardia Airport can ride the Q70 bus for free until Thursday, Feb. 20, the Port Authority announced.

The free service is being offered in partnership with the MTA to alleviate roadway congestion during the President’s Day weekend.

The LaGuardia Link provides non-stop service linking the main terminals of the airport with subway and Long Island Rail Road hubs in Jackson Heights and Woodside. The Port Authority is expecting more than 370,000 passengers between now and Monday and is encouraging travelers who arrive by car to park in the new Terminal B Garage, which contains more than 2,400 parking spots.

All travelers are advised to check with their carriers in advance to ensure flights are departing on schedule, and allow an extra 90 minutes to get to the airport.

Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4538.

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By Bill Parry

TimesLedger Newspapers

One Queens lawmaker and a group of straphangers are urging the MTA to perform an immediate survey and review of the 7 train viaduct in Sunnyside after a chunk of concrete loosened and fell to the ground at 41st Street and Queens Boulevard last Friday.

Although no one was hurt, state Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan (D-Long Island City) fired off a letter to MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota, calling the incident an alarming situation as many residents of her community walk and drive near the vicinity of the viaduct.

“This structure was rebuilt in the early 1990s using capital funds; our community has been repeatedly assured that the structure would last over 50 years,” Nolan wrote. “This failure, after only a few decades, is shocking.”

Access Queens, a coalition of infrastructure advocates and riders of the beleaguered No. 7 subway line, released a statement saying this could have been a tragic event.

“Incidents like this are unacceptable,” they wrote. “We are calling on the MTA to determine the structural integrity along the entirety of the viaduct to ensure the public’s safety and provide the public with a thorough and transparent report that outlines what occurred and any safety measures that will be put into place. The MTA must ensure that an incident like this does not happen again.”

The MTA explained that water caused a one-foot-square section of concrete to dislodge from the underside of the steel-reinforced viaduct and the material serves as protection for the steel having no structural impact if lost. The agency declared the 7 train viaduct is structurally sound and that New York City Transit personnel responded to the scene immediately to check the structure.

“Safety is our number one priority — the area of the incident was tested immediately and the viaduct is safe,” MTA Spokesman Shams Tarek said. “We’re also conducting a comprehensive inspection of the viaduct this year.”

New York City Transit personnel conducted an annual visual inspection of the structure last month.

Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4538.

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By Kendall Christiansen and Thomas Grech

TimesLedger Newspapers

Every day, it’s no small miracle that the 12,000 tons of waste, recyclables, and organics generated by the city’s businesses and industries are managed by a small, efficient, and resourceful cadre of companies.

But in August 2016, the de Blasio administration proposed converting the city’s successful, open-market commercial-waste pickup system — which was last reformed 20 years ago — into a system of geographic “zones,” each served by a single company.

A similar system is now being implemented in Los Angeles, and like other “West Coast” ideas, it needs a closer look. The plan is a disaster: tens of thousands of service disruptions and prices to customers doubling, tripling, and quadrupling, along with myriad other charges. On top of that, complaints there are now directed to city bureaucrats instead of service representatives eager to keep your business.

This week, the Los Angeles City Council is demanding answers from city officials about what went wrong. Angry businesses have initiated a ballot referendum to repeal the new system. The Los Angeles Times editorial board called it a “trash monopoly that’s gouging customers” and said that city officials “need to fix it.”

Fortunately, New York can watch and learn before making the same mistake.

But so far, Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia continues to work behind closed doors towards a zone-based plan that would harm small businesses, threaten good jobs for local residents, and accomplish virtually nothing that couldn’t be achieved sooner, better, and cheaper by working together with local companies.

Even the data used to justify the decision is flawed, incomplete, and inaccurate — ask how many licensed companies currently provide waste-related services and you’ll hear answers ranging from 70 to 110. (The answer: closer to 70, with 20 providing more than 80% of the total service.) And local companies, already heavily regulated and skilled at implementing the city’s commercial-recycling rules, have every incentive to operate efficiently.

Now is the time for real public discussion before lurching down the path of no return.

Los Angeles’ new system debuted last July and seven companies now control waste and recyclables in 11 zones. Businesses — including apartment buildings — in those zones have new haulers assigned to them without regard to their service requirements or cost. Imagine such a transition in New York. The results would be disastrous.

Armed with a team of consultants and an $8-million taxpayer-funded budget, the de Blasio administration is committed to proving that it’s smarter than a well-regulated open market. It is already drawing lines on maps, deciding what constitutes good customer service, and determining what arbitrary recycling goals should be enforced. It created an advisory board, but denied a request to open the meetings to the public, and debate has been limited to how to design a zoned system — not whether it even makes sense.

To be clear: Every complex system, which waste services are, can benefit from continuous improvement, even in the face of collapsing global markets for recyclables, over-heated industrial real estate, and relentless NIMBYism. The commercial-waste system already is undergoing significant and positive transformation with renewed focus on safety, clean trucks, zero waste, and managing organics as a resource. While the elements are in place to move the industry forward into the 21st century, the city’s dispiriting message instead is: Get ready to shut down your companies and let the monopolies take over.

For the business community, the question is: will Mayor Bill de Blasio learn from Los Angeles and change course? Or will that realization not come until it is too late?

Kendall Christiansen is the executive director of New Yorkers for Responsible Waste Management. Thomas Grech is the president and CEO of the Queens Chamber of Commerce

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By Tammy Scileppi

TimesLedger Newspapers

The future looks brighter than ever for Bayside actress Elyse Price, who says 2018 “started off strong!”

Price is making her debut on the silver screen after catching director Usher Morgan’s eye to play the lead in his new movie. “Pickings” premieres March 1 in Whitestone at the College Point Multiplex (2855 Ulmer St.) at 7:30 p.m. It opens at select theaters across the country March 2.

This intriguing neo-noir about a feud that develops between a crime family and an actual family has been described at festivals as “visually stunning” with “gut-punching” performances. The film centers around Price’s character, Jo Lee-Haywood, a single mother of three who starts a new life in a new city and is trying to protect her children from her violent past.

“She is just a really fierce woman and, as Usher describes her, a lioness who will stop at nothing to protect her cubs,” Price says. “It is stylistically unique, mixing film noir with spaghetti western, with a definite nod to Quentin Tarantino.”

The budding star had no inkling that one day she’d be starring in a feature movie.

“I got a notification from Backstage.com about a trailer to promote an upcoming feature film. I submitted and was called in for an audition, booked the role for the trailer but was not guaranteed the role in the film. After shooting the trailer, it was obvious that Usher and I loved working together, and he offered me the role,” Price recalled.

Since there’s so much that goes into embracing a character, from where does an actor draw to become that person?

“There might be a word or phrase that encapsulates the identity of the character or the story. Or a poem. Or even a single gesture,” says Price. “A song that inspires you can be a great place from which to take your point of departure. What’s important is to find the thing that speaks to you.

“I have played Shakespearean princesses, southern belles, Irish country girls, war widows, turn-of-the-century prigs, prostitutes on the streets of NYC. I love this art form, because you can draw from every moment of life that you experience and figure out how it fits into a particular story. I feel like I’ve been doing that my whole life anyway.”

As fate would have it, her boyfriend Joel Bernard (also a Bayside resident) got a leading role in the film as well.

“He plays my younger brother Boone. Joel was still in California finishing up grad school at [American Conservatory Theater] when Usher was casting the film. I still remember him describing the character of Boone. I said ‘just wait until you meet Joel, he’s exactly what you’re looking for.’ They met a few weeks later and the rest is history.” Price said.

The Bayside lovebirds met at Queens College, where Price graduated in 2010, and it seems as if they were destined to be together.

“I remember seeing him in a show and thinking he was insanely talented. When I got involved in the theater department, we were constantly cast opposite one other and became very close,” Price said.

After her mentor and acting teacher, Claudia Feldstein, cast them as George and Emily in “Our Town,” they really fell for each other and have been together ever since.

The actress recently returned to QC to perform with other alums, including Feldstein, in a fundraiser for the Drama, Theatre and Dance Department — a staged reading of “The Kitchen Plays” (three short plays written by QC alumni). Price said one of her proudest moments was bowing afterwards with some of her oldest and dearest friends.

She recently started teaching an acting class at QC, and she’s also collaborating with Feldstein and Bernard to create their Equity Alumni Theater Company.

When they were drama majors at Queens College, Price and Bernard started an independent theater collective called Benefit of the Doubt Theatre Company, dedicated to keeping theatre a fearless, imaginative and entertaining art form.

“We try to offer as many opportunities as possible, and in the last ten years we have collaborated with over fifty performers,” Price said.

Most recently, they produced the American premiere of “Phantom Pains” by Vasily Sigarev at Under St. Marks Theater. The actors were all alumni from American Conservatory Theater and it was directed by Matt Raines of Studio 6 of the Moscow Art Theatre.

“BotD brings people together across borders and boundaries to create the opportunity to grow personally and professionally in and through the arts,” says Price, who hopes to expand what BotD has started in the form of the Queens College theater company. “The idea was inspired by our collective appreciation for our beginnings at the school and general love for the arts and culture alive in Queens. A huge goal is to be able to make theater as accessible as possible in our Queens community, to be able to provide quality entertainment and opportunities to artists wishing to work onstage, backstage, in the writer’s room or as an audience member.”

Several projects are in the works, according to Price, including a full-length play.

“What I truly believe is there is nothing stronger than building up the people around you. There is nothing more bulletproof than authenticity.”

When she’s not acting, teaching or working at a local Carvel , where she had scooped for 16-plus years, the family-oriented 20-something loves spending quality time with her parents.

“My family is really tight knit — we’re really supportive of each other. My mom and dad have always inspired me because it seems like they can do anything,” Price says.

Her father, now retired, held several important positions including as a first responder at Ground Zero for the American Red Cross after the 9/11 attacks.

“Basically, they taught me that I could do anything I wanted, as long as I pursued it with passion and commitment and integrity,” she said.

A few years ago, Price moved across the country to attend the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, to pursue her MFA in acting.

“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, to leave my family, friends and my boyfriend for the first time in my life and miss all the holiday dinners, the birthdays … But it was one of the most important experiences of my life,”

But fate again conspired to being her and Bernard together.

“Miraculously, my boyfriend was accepted to the same program the following year — even though only ten applicants are accepted into the program. It seemed like a sign.”

Fast forward, and now they have both graduated and moved back to Bayside, reunited with their families and friends — and Price has finished shooting another film.

“We both grew up in Bayside, attended Queens College, spent years all over the place — California, Canada, Ireland, Moscow — and after all these years,” Price said, “we have the privilege of returning to our hometown. Talk about full circle. It is surreal.”

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By Zach Gewelb

TimesLedger Newspapers

The St. John’s men’s basketball team continued its surprising turnaround, defeating Marquette, 86-78 Saturday after shocking No. 1 Villanova, 79-75 just three days earlier. The impressive victories come after the Red Storm defeated then-No. 4 Duke to snap an 11-game losing streak and bumped up their record to 13-13 (2-11 in conference) on the season.

Shamorie Ponds has been the spark the Johnnies needed, recording 70 total points in the back-to-back wins, including 44 against Marquette. That came after he willed the Red Storm to victory against top-ranked Villanova. The win marked the first time St. John’s defeated the nation’s top-ranked team in 33 years.

Despite being a massive underdog, St. John’s showed it wasn’t intimidated and went toe-to-toe with ‘Nova, taking a 39-34 advantage into intermission.

“I never walk into a game thinking that we have no chance,” head coach Chris Mullin said.

The Johnnies worked hard to maintain their lead in the second half. Nova’ tied the game at 41-41 early in the stanza, but St. John’s reclaimed the lead and never looked back, staying a step ahead of the Wildcats for the remainder of the game.

Ponds led the way with 26 points and Justin Simon recorded a double-double, scoring 16 points and grabbing 10 boards, while adding seven assists to his ledger. Marvin Clark II added an efficient 15 points and Bashir Ahmed scored 10.

The victory over ‘Nova marked the first time St. John’s defeated two programs ranked in the top five in back-to-back games.

“It’s big for the university, and it’s also big for us,” Ponds said. “I feel like it will give us the little spark that we need going into the rest of the season. Two-huge wins. We’ve never lost the confidence, but no one wants to go through the losing. I feel like we stayed together, but we weren’t getting the outcomes that we wanted. If we stayed together, it would eventually fall through.”

The wins gave St. John’s momentum heading into its showdown with Marquette, and the Johnnies didn’t disappoint on their home court, earning their third consecutive victory.

Ponds and his 44 points were the game’s biggest story, but Justin Simon also had a nice game, chipping in 16 points and 11 rebounds.

The score remained tight throughout the first half, with the Red Storm taking a slim 34-32 advantage into the second half. From there, Ponds took over the game for the Johnnies. He went 9-of-12 from the field and scored 27 points in the second half alone. He finished the night shooting 16-of-23 — including 4-of-7 from three-point range. His 44 total points are the most scored in the 57-year history of Carnesecca Arena, which left Mullin impressed.

“I think its self-explanatory. Historic. He broke the building record, so that speaks for itself,” Mullin said. “Just an incredible performance, he’s played really well since he’s been here. Looks like he’s got more pop and more energy… I was glad to see that. It was a legendary, historic performance… no comparisons.”

“I mean it is a blessing,” Ponds said of his historic night. “All the great players who came through this university, for my name to be up there, it’s a dream come true.”

“It felt good to see the ball go in, trying to mix it up,” he added. “Going to the rack, free throws, mid-range, three point, it felt good out there… Just to see one go in from the beginning of the game. I was confident the entire game. I just try to keep the foot on the gas.”

St. John’s took care of business in the second half, outscoring Marquette by six to secure the victory.

Armed with renewed confidence, St. John’s will look to continue its hot streak and end the season on a high note before the Big East Tournament in March.

“It’s about time we turned it around. Coach [Mullin] has said all we need is one,” Simon said. “We’ve lost every way we could, and now we learn from our mistakes. We limit them. We play hard and play together.”

Reach reporter Zach Gewelb by e-mail at zgewelb@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4539.

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