James Molinaro

James Molinaro, b. March 11, 1931, is the current Borough President of Staten Island. He was born in the Lower East Side of Manhattan of Italian immigrants. He was one of six children, four brothers and two sisters.

He is a widower since 1990 when his wife of 28 years, Carol, died of complications relating to scleroderma. The couple had two sons, Peter and Steven, and lived in the neighborhood of Fort Wadsworth since 1964.

Career

Molinaro was elected against his Democratic opponent Jerome X. O'Donovan, with 50 percent of the vote to 43 percent on November 6, 2001. He was helped by the similarity of his last name to that of former Borough President Guy V. Molinari, and former Congresswomen Susan Molinari. He took office on January 1, 2002. Molinaro won re-election for a second and last term on November 8, 2005, with 45,979 votes (59 percent) to 32,617 (41 percent) for his Democratic challenger, John Luisi.

His political career began when, in 1964, he joined the New York State Conservative Party. In 1974, he was elected as Chairman of the Richmond County Conservative Party and subsequently as Vice Chair of the State Party. In 1989, he was elected Executive Vice Chair of the New York State Conservative Party, a post he still holds today.

Prior to becoming Borough President, Molinaro served for 12 years as Deputy Borough President to former Borough President Guy V. Molinari. He also served as Chief of Staff to Congressman Guy V. Molinari, representing New York's 14th Congressional District. Molinaro has had two Deputy Borough Presidents while in office. His first was Daniel M. Donovan, Jr., who left to become the Richmond County (Staten Island) District Attorney in January 2004 after winning election to that office the previous November. The Deputy post was left vacant until November 2006. After much speculation Molinaro named Ed Burke to the Deputy position. Ed Burke had been Executive Assistant to Guy V. Molinari for twelve years and to Molinaro for nearly five.

Over a 20-year period, he has served on the Board of Directors for the Veterans Memorial Sports Complex, Staten Island Community Television, New York State Regional Organ Transplant and Bayley Seton Hospital. He was also the Chairman of the St. Elizabeth Ann's Health and Rehabilitation Center which he helped to create.

In 1989, Molinaro also helped to establish Staten Island’s first AIDS day care center and AIDS medical care facility.

Currently, Molinaro serves on the board of the Heart Institute of Staten Island, a modern cardiac care facility. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Sisters of Charity Health Care Corporation. In 1991, in the memory of his late wife, Mr. Molinaro helped dedicate a local dialysis unit in her name. In 2000 St. Elizabeth Ann's Health and rehabilitation Center opened the James P. and Carol E. Molinaro Health Care and Rehabilitation Center Atrium.

Accomplishments

Overdevelopment

Reacting to the development pressure threatening the character of Staten Island, Mr. Molinaro spearheaded the largest down zoning on Staten Island in more than 40 years. It affected more than 41,459 individual properties on 4,554 acres. Ultimately, this down zoning has reduced by 25% the total number of potential new dwelling units on Staten Island.

Parks

Since entering Borough Hall, Molinaro has aided in the allotment of nearly 100 million dollars to Park acquisition and maintenance. The renaissance of the South Beach Boardwalk, new recreational fields, an expansion of the Blue Belt and a quarter mile long fishing pier are just some of the parks related actives that have benefited from his capital funding. Currently, 25 percent of Staten Island is protected Parkland, a higher percentage than any other borough.

Economic Development

Molinaro was instrumental in bringing VISY paper to Staten Island; this is the first manufacturing firm to come to New York City in 50 years creating hundreds of new jobs. Currently, VISY is planning an expansion of this project that will further create new jobs and increase employment of Staten Island. Mr. Molinaro was also involved in the recreation of a freight rail service linking Staten Island to the rest of the Nation for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Education

Molinaro has allotted $500,000 from his capital budget to purchase wireless laptop computers for all of Staten Island’s Intermediate schools as well as many elementary schools. He has also worked closely with Mayor Michael Bloomberg to bring additional schools to Staten Island including P.S. 58 (opened in 2003) and I.S. (scheduled to open in 2007)

Molinaro has also allocated $1,000,000 from Staten Island's capital budget for "electronic" blackboards for each public school on Staten Island.

References