QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, November 16, 2023 Page 18
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Alan Hevesi, 83, storied, scarred pol
Former assemblyman, city and state comptroller, brought down by scandal by Michael Gannon Senior News Editor
Alan Hevesi scaled great political heights in city and state government before being brought down in corruption scandals. PHOTO BY MICHAEL O’KANE / FILE
Alan Hevesi, the longtime Democratic Queens assemblyman and city and state comptroller whose career would end in disgrace and a prison term, died Thursday after what a statement from his family said was a long illness. He was 83. Hevesi was the father of state Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) and former state Sen. Dan Hevesi. The funeral service took place on Sunday, Nov. 12. Hevesi’s parents were Jewish Hungarian immigrants who f led Nazi persecution in 1938. Born in Manhattan, he graduated from Queens College in 1962. He received his Ph.D. in public law and government from Columbia University in 1971. Hevesi represented Queens in the state Assembly from 1971 to 1993; was city comptroller from 1994 to 2001; and was state comptroller from 2002 to 2006. He also served as a political science professor at Queens College for over 30 years. The family is requesting that in lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Hevesi’s name to support the UJA Federation’s Israel Emergency Fund. In December 2006, just over a month after being reelected as state comptroller, Hevesi
FAITH TALK Stephen Roser is the pastor of Howard Beach Assembly of God Church “Would you do me a favor? Change the to come out of ‘please’ to ‘thank you,’” the pastor requested his tomb. of the woman who had been repeatedly saying “please Jesus” while kneeling at the While none of us is likely perform a miracle anytime front of the church. soon, we can be sure that God loves it Unless we say “thank you” when we pray, when we expect Him to keep His promises we limit prayer to petition when gratitude as given in the Bible, even though we is actually one of its most important presently see no physical evidence that components. The Thanksgiving season they are being fulfilled. Even when God gives us a much-needed reminder to seems to refuse to grant us a favor which tell God that we are grateful for all He we have asked of Him and we cannot has provided. understand why, we must remember that Thank you also expresses faith for what the denial in combination with everything we expect God to do in the future because else in our life works for our good if we faith makes us certain of the things that keep trusting Him. we hope for. Our Lord Jesus Christ, for example, just before performing the miracle All of this underscores the truth that the of raising his friend Lazarus from the dead, giving of thanks is the highest expression looked heavenward and prayed, “Father, I of faith. So remember when you pray thank You that You have heard Me,” and during this season or any other, after you with that assurance ordered the deceased say “please,” say “thank you.”
HOWARD BEACH ASSEMBLY OF GOD 158-31 99th Street, Howard Beach • 718-641-6785 www.HowardBeachAssemblyofGod.com
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Pastor Stephen Roser
resigned from office as part of a plea deal with Albany County prosecutors for using state employees to chauffeur his unwell wife. He received a $5,000 fine and was banned from ever seeking office again. Less than four years later he pleaded guilty in state court to receiving nearly $1 million in gifts, including travel, for steering $250 million in city pension funds to a group called Markstone Capital Partners during his time as city comptroller. He was sentenced to one to four years, and was released after 20 months. Then-state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a candidate for governor at the time, secured more than a half-dozen guilty pleas in connection with the case. Published reports state that among his accomplishments in the Assembly, Hevesi wrote the law making it a crime for hospitals to turn away emergency patients; and others that led to nursing home reform regulations; and to investigations of corruption in Long Island school districts. Hevesi won a special election to the Assembly in 1971 to fill the vacancy created when Emanuel Gold resigned to launch a successful bid for the state Senate. He lost a 1989 Democratic primary for city comptroller to former Congresswoman and Brook ly n Dist r ict At tor ney Elizabeth
Holtzman, but won the rematch in 1993. He then defeated former Congressman Herman Badillo, running on the Republican and Liberal party lines, in the general election. While in office, Hevesi leveraged the might of the city’s considerable financial investments to force Swiss banks into paying massive financial reparations to Holocaust survivors and heirs of victims from then still-existing Nazi-era bank accounts. He eventually secured the same in countries such as Germany and Austria. Wikipedia quotes historian and author Norman Finkelstein as calling Hevesi “the godfather of Holocaust restitution sanctions.” In 2001 he lost the Democratic primary for mayor to Mark Green, who eventually lost to Mike Bloomberg, who ran as a Republican. In 2002, facing term limits in the city, Hevesi ran for state comptroller, defeating Republican John Faso. Though dogged by the investigation regarding use of state employees, he won reelection on Nov. 7, 2006, defeating Republican candidate Chris Callaghan. On Dec. 23, about six weeks later, Hevesi resigned as part of a felony plea agreement with Albany County, The subsequent investigation by Cuomo’s office also would ensnare a handful of Hevesi’s Q friends and political associates.
