Initially blocked by then Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani,[2] he was eventually elected as the Council Minority Leader and served in that position from 1994 until 2001.
He took over as Minority Leader because Giuliani endorsed Cuomo against Pataki, where Ognibene gave the new mayor a certificate from "Dupe University".
Later changing to the Republican Party, he successfully ran for Council and then in a rebuff to Giuliani, he helped to engineer the 1995 controversial takeover of the Queens County Republican Party and have his favored candidate elected as Chairman, because Pataki demanded the former chair be removed for backing Herb London (at Cuomo's behest) against Pataki.
He secured a spot on the November ballot on the Taxpayers Party line only to be removed later to avoid a split ticket, and he petitioned his way onto the Republican primary for Lieutenant Governor where he ran against the party's designee, Greg Edwards, the County Executive in Chautauqua County, in western New York.
He was a resident of Queens and was married for 48 years to his wife Margaret who survives him, a former New York City junior high school teacher.