By Benedict Moran

In what was the most negative of many debates between candidates for District 25’s council seat, Danny Dromm, the populist community activist, confronted incumbent Helen Sears on Thursday night by repeatedly calling into question her two previous terms in office.

“She talks about what needs to be done, and what needs to happen,” said Dromm, answering a question about rezoning areas to protect against commercial development.   “She’s been in the City Council for six or seven years now and has not made that happen.”

“We can’t accept excuses any longer,” he said.

Dozens of septuagenarians – including Dromm’s smiling elderly mother – attended the debate in the basement of the Community Methodist Church in Jackson Heights.  A third candidate, Stanley Kalathara, also took part but much of the heat was between Sears and Dromm, who is considered the front-runner in the upcoming election.

Sears, in a following question about the use of eminent domain to create park space, tried to clear her record.

“I know it sounds like I’m trying to educate you, but when you hear misinformation, it really needs to be corrected,” she said, detailing her role in initiating ongoing efforts to develop parks in District 25.

Dromm also accused Sears of a “failure of leadership” by failing to preserve the Elmhurst Carnegie Library, a 1906 building that is slated to be razed and replaced with a modern facility.

Near the end of the hour-long discussion, an anonymous question submitted by the audience sought the candidates’ thoughts on school overcrowding.

Dromm, a veteran teacher with 25 years of experience in public schools, charged that Sears had not brought one new seat to the school district during her seven and a half years in office.

Sears disagreed.  “In the years that I have been in office, 5,000 new seats in the School Construction Authority’s own numbers have been brought into this district,” she said.  “That is a fact.”

By comparison, lawyer Kalathara, an Indian immigrant, presented a calmer demeanor and repeatedly assured the audience that he had the hands-on experience as a restaurateur, real estate broker and entrepreneur to serve community needs.

But even he was rattled when Dromm accused him of being a “Bush Democrat” who contributed to the former president’s re-election campaign. (Federal Election Commission records show Kalathara donated $2,000 to Bush’s 2004 campaign.) “You are 25 years as a teacher in the third grade,” Kalathara retorted. “How can you tell you will make progress to the people of this community, when you didn’t progress yourself?

“If I were in your position, I would have been a professor in one of the colleges, in St. John’s, by now,” he continued, as the crowd booed in disapproval.

Erik Joerss, the campaign manager for Sears, was upbeat about Tuesday’s upcoming vote, despite the beating Sears took during the debate.

“When you have nothing to run on, campaigns sometimes get negative and I think that’s what we’re looking at here,” he said. “We’re very confident that we’ll be successful on Tuesday.”