Democratic City Council slate blasts party leader

Convention nominees say they’re the official candidates in race for three seats

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Three candidates for City Council who received the Long Beach Democratic Committee’s nomination at the county’s convention last month blasted party leader Jay Jacobs at a news conference on Friday for backing two incumbents, saying that they are the party’s official candidates running in a September primary.

Candidates Runnie Myles, retired FDNY firefighter Joe Miccio and Beach to Bay Civic Association President Barbara Bernardino were nominated unanimously by members of the local committee at the party’s convention at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on May 31.

Nassau County Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs, however, and other Democrats subsequently chose to support incumbent City Council members Scott Mandel and Chumi Diamond, as well as newcomer John Bendo, the president of the West End Neighbors Civic Association.

At a news conference in front of City Hall, Bernardino, Miccio and Myles presented themselves as the official candidates in this year’s race for three council seats, and said that Jacobs did not object to the nomination at the convention. Like Mandel and Diamond, they said they were interviewed and vetted by the committee as candidates. They expressed confidence that they would gather enough signatures to get on a primary ballot.

“Our whole campaign is about putting residents first,” said Bernardino, a longtime resident whose group has advocated for the reopening of a full-service hospital after Hurricane Sandy shuttered the Long Beach Medical Center — and is suing the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “We are the legitimate party who went through every single step that we needed to go through,” she said. “We went to the convention, our names were handed to the Democratic leader, he read them off, and there was no objection in the room. It was recorded. So go figure, because we can’t figure it out.”

As the Herald reported last week, Jacobs said he agreed to support Mandel, Diamond and Bendo after members of the Long Beach committee — part of the county committee’s Long Beach zone — and the Independent Democratic Club of Long Beach, two groups that had been at odds for several years, agreed earlier this month to back the slate.

Jacobs could not be reached for comment. He told the Herald earlier this month that Miccio, Bernardino and Myles were floated by what he described as a small “radical element” of local Democrats with personal grievances. He added that he believes Bendo, Diamond and Mandel are the stronger candidates. Jacobs also lauded the administration's recovery efforts after Hurricane Sandy and its turnaround of the city's finances after the city was on the brink of bankruptcy in 2012, when the Democrats inherited a $14.7 million deficit.

Like the Independent Democratic Club, political insiders said that Jacobs had pushed for Mandel and Diamond before the convention, but that the two Democratic organizations could not agree on a slate.

But at least one insider said that not all of the local committee members had agreed on Bernardino, Myles and Miccio. “Some people sitting there were shocked,” said one person with knowledge of the convention, who declined to be identified. “We weren’t happy with the slate.”

Denis Kelly, a member of the local committee’s executive board, said that committee members were all in agreement.

“Clearly, the county has strong-armed a small minority of the Long Beach Democratic Committee to back a ticket who doesn’t represent the interests of the City of Long Beach,” Kelly said. “There was no division there was no objection and there was no one on the committee who said, ‘No, we can’t run these three.’ I believe that a small fraction of the committee is backing the Mandel and Diamond ticket because they want to be affiliated with the county.”

At odds with the party leader

At the news conference, Kelly accused Jacobs of attempting to “usurp” the ticket.

“The last thing we want to hear…is that somebody from outside the city is going to control what’s happening in this city,” he said. “I fear that in the future, that the candidates that have been selected by the [leadership] are going to be pawns used to control what happens here in our city.”

Jacobs told the Herald earlier this month that he had committed to remove alleged party influence from City Hall when he and members of the council, including Mandel, called on former Long Beach Democratic Committee Chairman Mike Zapson to step down as party leader in 2015.

“I’m not going to allow my efforts to change the leadership to be hijacked by people who have other interests and different agendas,” Jacobs said. “I’m trying to extricate the county party from the machinations from the local party as best I can, but I don’t want to leave it in turmoil.”

Miccio, Myles and Bernardino accused the incumbents of putting political interests above residents, and criticized the city over its settlement agreement with the developer iStar, which included the city’s support for tax breaks to build two luxury apartment towers on the Superblock property, as well as overdevelopment and the lack of a full-service hospital.

“I feel that a lot of special-interest groups have come in and decided what they feel ought to be best for the residents of Long Beach,” said Myles, a teaching assistant in the Long Beach School District, vice chairman of the Concerned Citizens of North Park and a former president of the Long Beach chapter of the NAACP. “And because this is your city, you should also have a voice at the table who’s representing the thoughts and interests of the community.”

Miccio said that Bendo, a frequent critic of the administration and one of the most vocal opponents of iStar’s request for tax breaks, is being used by the party.

“Though John Bendo may be on their ticket, John Bendo is not one of them,” Miccio said.

Bendo, who is not affiliated with a political party, could not immediately be reached for comment. On Facebook, he said he’s not driven by party affiliation or ideology.

“While I support both [Mandel’s and Diamond’s] candidacies, and look forward to working with them on the council, rest assured that my one and only allegiance will be with the residents of Long Beach,” he said.

Miccio, a former recording secretary of the New York City firefighters’ labor union, a former New York Police Department sergeant, and a co-founder and former vice president of the September 11 Families Association, said that the city’s proposed comprehensive plan would open the door to big developers and special interests.

“Big bucks and real estate developers — we’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said.

City officials have said that the comprehensive plan, which has yet to be approved, is aimed at limiting overdevelopment. For his part, Mandel said that he opposed a developer’s plan to build condominiums on the former Hebrew Academy of Long Beach property.

"Since joining the council in January 2012, this administration has guided the city through both fiscal and physical crises, and I think our record of success speaks for itself,” Mandel said. “I look forward to debating the issues and letting the voters decide who they feel best represents them and protecting the progress we've made to keep Long Beach moving forward."

Both he and Diamond said that they have the support from the county and members of the two Democratic organizations in town.

“Whether there is a primary or just a general election, I'll be proud to get my name out there and speak with voters about my accomplishments in the short time I've been on the council, and my plans to continue delivering for the people of Long Beach,” Diamond said.