Photo: Jimmy Van Bramer (Twitter)
Jan. 29, 2014: FROM the DAILY NEWS
City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer blew up at council colleagues who questioned his integrity at a closed-door meeting of the Queens delegation Wednesday morning.
Fellow councilmembers asked the newly anointed majority leader whether his ties to the Queens Library, where he worked for 11 years, would compromise his ability to conduct a hearing on the system’s questionable finances.
“Who are you to question my integrity?” Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) shouted at City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) after she voiced her concerns at a meeting in Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz’s Forest Hills office, sources at the meeting told the Daily News afterwards.
“How dare you? You’re out of place and out of order.”
For the full story and the Daily News investigative series on the Queens Library, please click the following links:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/queens-library-president-390g-shedding-130-jobs-article-1.1592194
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35 Comments
Jimmy worked for the library for 11 years.
Jimmy was chair of the library committee since he entered the council in 2009.
Jimmy regularly shmoozes with these people.
But Jimmy didn’t know a thing about what was going on until the Daily News story?
Wanna buy a bridge in Brooklyn? You’ll make a fortune on the tolls, honest.
I present you Jimmy Van Bramer at Queens Library Fundraising event:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28175983@N06/10592565283/in/photostream/
You political machine suckups who support Jimmy can go scatter like roaches, now.
My experience & the experiences of my legal clients in the community is that our councilman’s office is always very responsive to questions & concerns. That’s important.
The primacy of interest of an elected official are those they represent, and Jimmy’s office does that very well.
John Michael O’Leary, Esq.
Due to his prior relationship with Galante, Van Bramer should do the right thing and recuse himself from this hearing.
It appears that Mr. Van Bramer is on a major power trip.
He should know better.
Not good for Woodsede / Sunnyside.
I find this disappointing.
I had high expecatations for this guy.
Crowley takes the committee allowances, Jimmy donates them.
Just as a judge has to recuse himself from a case if he has had any previous relationship with the parties involved, JVB should do the same.
Perhaps JVB will be perfectly impartial in this matter but he has to also give the appearance of impartiality. He certainly isn’t impartial when re-naming local streets.
Let’s face it, if the hearing turns out in the library’s favor, even if it’s the right decision, there will always be a cloud of doubt over it.
Whatever you might think of Crowley, she’s right about this.
Maybe the detectives from the 115 should still be asking questions….
He used to work for Galante and has been chair of the council’s library committee since he was elected in 2009. It would seem strange if he did not know about abuse at the library until it was reported this week. I think that Crowley’s question was pretty reasonable.
He was always Quinn’s bitch. She hated Crowley, and cut funding to her district. He’s just going along with that show. That being said, Crowley is slime.
The guy who keeps posting as JVB and doing the Seinfeld thing here is hilarious
The Daily News is a FAR LEFT tabloid – I am surprised that they would go after Jimmy considering his far left record – and I mean, far left!
@ Dorothy Moorhead: agreed re: compensation for executives in public offices. I teach at CUNY and the new chancellor, who has no prior experience at CUNY, is rumored to be getting a $670k salary, which is almost $200k per year more than the previous chancellor received, and at the time THAT was a record high. This is too much for public sector service, especially considering that the “executives” rarely do any front line work like teaching or checking books out etc.
Al of this said, as for Jimmy, I think he is fundamentally decent man who works hard for this district. Yes, he has ambitions but this is the city of ambition, so you can’t single him out for that. It’s a systemic issue. And as a previous poster said, how do we know he actually “exploded”? Should we believe a rag like the Daily News on this? Things like this happen from time to time in competitive professional situations. It doesn’t necessarily mean that there is some nefarious Mr. Hyde lurking in his soul.
Matters like these should always be decided by an ethics committee. Crowley is a do nothing seat warmer from queens.
I have always known Jimmy to have the highest ethics. He worked on Clean Money, Clean Elections long before he ever ran for office. While I agree that the salary and benefits are excessive, especially in this era of austerity, I certainly do not think that Jimmy is incapable of investigating the organization for which he once worked. He of all people would want the Queens Library succeed and flourish.
This is how dictators and narcissists behave.
It seems the power has really gone to Van Bramer’s head.
If you make more than six figures, you should be able to answer how you make that money.
Seriously, this is NOT news. 1. How is what JVB said an explosion? Politicians can’t argue in a closed meeting? 2. Who the hell does Crowley think she is? She is the least notable politician in Queens. 3. The Daily News is a tabloid that has it out for JVB. Next there is going to be some silly Sunnyside Post back and forth like there was with the Pronto guy. I’m done reading this BS! Time to start the Sunnyside Times.
It was a fair question.
His reaction to it makes me wonder if it was closer to the truth than he would like. I’m tired of politicians who think they’re above scrutiny.
did jimmy whip out his foldable podium before he shouted “How Dare You?!”
The fact that they used such a huge, unflattering picture makes it clear as day the Daily News’ intent is to do a hatchet job on Van Bramer.
Not saying Van Bramer’s a saint but the Daily News is a republican-leaning paper and not exactly an objective source of information.
when is the owner of pronto car service going to make a statement?
i thougth we’d be hearing more from the guy….
Wow – politicians are human beings but this kind of reaction strikes me as either, “Me thinks thou doth protest too much,” or coming from someone who can’t deal with questions very well. Even if you feel insulted, why not address your critic firmly and professionally? For JVB to ask, “How dare you?” to what is quite frankly a valid question seems a bit of an overreaction (IMHO.)
It should be noted that Councilmember Van Bramer worked at the Queens Library but has not for almost 5 years. We may not agree on the scale or scope of government or other issues like abortion, per se, but from my knowledge of him, he is honest about who he is and what he supports and in his dealings in government at this level of government I think his personal integrity is duly noted.
I am confident he will run a fair committee, not just because he has been fair with me, but that it is appropriate to ask about that level of salary. Incidentally, it may also be true that custodians could make more than $15.00 per hour, but I did imagine $35.00 appears to be just a little high for the responsibilities and duties of that position. But I will leave that to the establishment to sort out.
Good for him.
All democrats are dishonest good for nothing crooks and jimmy is defiantly one, him and Christine Quinn have been misnuseing the tax payers funds fr their own personal use, all of these broke free loading sunnysiders would support him because all they are looking for is a handout
Van Bramer is the one calling for an oversight hearing, so I would imagine that his former professional ties with Galante will not affect his judgement.
But I can also understand why someone would have doubts.
JVB is my MVP
Hey Beavis, Van Bramer is gonna explode…he was probably looking at your picture… huhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuh!
No way Butt-head, he was looking at you! yeah yeah fire fire fire!
Jimmy is an honest man, at least so far. But if he worked at the library, wouldn’t he know that this stuff was going on? Or, does he rally know that this whole story is nothing more than a witch hunt against a library system that has changed peoples lives for the better. I am hoping he wants to lead the investigation because he knows in his heart that mr Galante is also honest and did nothing wrong
Boy… just don’t raise any questions about his past dealings and you’ll be fine. He’s on his way to top, don’t get in his way!!!
Jimmy, next time your in the Library read up on the company you are keeping, Di Blasio and Mark-Viverito are Anti American Communists.
It seems when you reach higher peaks in your career it just makes it easier for people to take aim at you, even if they have to throw mud on your friends in order to splash it on you.
Jealousy and revenge are ugly things.
Sounds like we need another beer crawl organized a.s.a.p
Was he a librarian? It gets so much better…
Jimmy’s gonna get you, Crowley! Jimmy holds grudges!
I’d like to point out that Mr. Van Bramer has been noted for his honesty. I’ve been to his office, there are no teak floors.
Good thing the power that goes with his new position not gone to his head.