Nicole Malliotakis Staten Island Empty Chair Town Hall • Radio Free Bay Ridge

Listen to our recording of the Town Hall by clicking the audio player above.

On a rainy day of national #HandsOff protests, hundreds of Staten Islanders (and a clutch of folks from Brooklyn) took to All Saints Episcopal Church’s meeting room for an empty chair town hall. With an absent Congressmember (Nicole Malliotakis, NY-11, R), it fell to local organizer (and former Congressional candidate) Mike DeCillis to put together an event where Malliotakis’ constituents could hear from experts and one another, if not their elected representative. Although he made sure to invite our Congressmember to the event via official government channels (with social media reminders), she failed to show up.

The crowd first began to assemble around 45 minutes early, and from that point on the room filled steadily until it was packed beyond capacity, with attendees spilling into hallways and the outdoors.

Together, attendees chanted “Hands off! Hands off!” – a rallying cry referring to Malliotakis’ – and the national Republican party’s – proposed cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, CHIP, WIC, and more. As the shouts died down, DeCillis got the event rolling. He opened with a thank-you to the group for showing up and a brief introduction, then gave the room some history on how the town hall came to be:

Just days after Nicole’s budget resolution vote, he had called for a rally outside her office. Given the short timeline, turnout at that event was impressive, with at least a hundred people showing up to demand Malliotakis explain her vote. That event led to this one.

After pointing out that a cardboard cutout of Malliotakis had seen more of the district than the real one in the past two weeks, DeCillis took a selfie video of the crowd asking Nicole: “Where are YOU?” He encouraged people to post photos and videos using the hashtags #NY11 and #HandsOff before letting the crowd know the goal of the event was to talk to Malliotakis’ constituents, listen to their concerns, and talk about what was going on in Washington – because our Congressmember refuses to do so.

Before starting the program, DeCillis confirmed that nobody in the room was getting a check from George Soros (one of Malliotakis’ favorite “paid actor” accusations).. He then started the conversation with a quote from the Staten Island Advance’s editor Brian Laline, where Laline said since we wouldn’t learn anything new or change the Congresswoman’s mind, there was no point trying to hold Malliotakis accountable. Shouts from the room made it clear that the audience disagreed. (Malliotakis’ representatives later used pull quotes from Laline’s piece to justify their avoidance of Saturday’s town hall, so we wonder who he was really serving with his rebuke. To paraphrase DeCillis, it’s the people with power who are telling us to shut up.)

The event’s discussions were far-ranging and pulled from the Google form where guests had RSVP’d. Topics included cuts on Veterans’ issues, Immigration, Ukraine, Education, the 9/11 victims’ compensation fund, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Throughout the event, attendees put to rest any claim that a town hall must result in profanity and incivility. The worst our Representative was asked to face – and she did not – was a room full of folks booing her effigy. And if Malliotakis is going to gut funding for our district when it comes to health care, social security, veterans’ benefits, legal immigration, catching wealthy tax evaders and more, then she should have the courage to face up to a few “boos” and defend her actions.

Except that her positions, which will result in hardship and potentially death for her most vulnerable constituents, are indefensible.