Oakland Gardens nonprofit leader centers senior services in bid for open Council seat
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Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York President and CEO Linda Lee is running for the City Council in District 23. Photo courtesy of Lee’s campaign
By David Brand
An Oakland Gardens nonprofit leader has entered the race to replace Councilmember Barry Grodenchik, motivated by the goal of boosting resources for the city’s Department for the Aging and expanding senior services across the five boroughs.
Linda Lee, the president and CEO of Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York and a Community Board 11 member, is one of eight candidates who have so far filed to run in District 23. Grodenchik announced in October that he would not seek reelection to represent Bellerose, Douglaston, Fresh Meadows, Hollis, Little Neck and other Northeast Queens neighborhoods. .
Lee said she is determined to bring her experience as a nonprofit administrator to bear on municipal decision-making when it comes to social services, funding and the response to COVID-19 in Northeast Queens.
“The way social services are being delivered is not working,” she said. Older adults, particularly immigrants, remain cut off from services — a problem only exacerbated by the pandemic, she said.
“DFTA has the smallest budget of the social service agencies and my fear and worry is that as people continue to live longer, and live in their homes, we’re going to open our eyes and see we have a big issue on our hands with the lack of infrastructure and support for seniors,” she added.
Lee has her master’s degree in social work and has worked in the nonprofit sector for more than 20 years.
As councilmember, she said she would ensure the city expands culturally relevant services for older adults and fund agencies working within immigrant communities. Her organization, known as KCS, provides participants with case management, mental health counseling, food distribution and other services, with a specific focus on Korean immigrants and Korean Americans.
“In District 23 there are a lot of ethnic immigrant seniors and older adults, but few services serving different ethnic communities,” she said. “They want culturally sensitive food, services in their language.”
Lee said she would increase DFTA funding by redistributing money from other city agencies, but she said she “would not want to cut operating funding for the police department.”
“We need to keep our streets safe. I wouldn’t want to cut the number of officers on the streets or what they need to provide services, their basic duties,” she said.
But she said she supports removing NYPD oversight of the city’s shelter security force and limiting how cops engage with people with mental illness.
“We can parcel those portions to social service agencies that have the expertise to do that,” she said.
Lee has two children, including a first-grader enrolled in the city’s blended learning initiative, and said she will focus on school equity. She said she supports maintaining the Specializing High School Admissions Test.
She said she will also work to restructure property taxes for co-op and condo owners, many of whom are older adults on a fixed income. The district is home to a number of condo and co-op buildings, including the 1,844-unit North Shore Towers complex.
“It’s more of an issue now at a time when people are losing their jobs and don’t have health insurance or an income at the same rate,” she said. “My worry is these are hardworking middle-income folks and we don’t want them to get pushed out of their homes.”
Grodenchik has represented District 23 since winning a November 2015 special election. He held the seat in the 2017 general election but said he would not seek reelection to a second full term in 2021.
In addition to Lee, seven candidates have filed to run in the Democratic and Republican primaries to replace Grodenchik.
The others running include Grodenchik staffer Steve Behar; college freshman Seth Breland; Queens Libertarian Party Chair Christopher Padilla-Fuentes; Sanjeev Jindal, an official with the India Association of Long Island; Democratic Socialists of America-backed activist Jaslin Kaur; community board district manager Debra Markell; and Mandeep Sahi.
Only Fuentes-Padilla filed to run before the last campaign finance disclosure deadline on July 15. He raised $364.
