Board of Ed rejects deal with iStar

Meeting grows heated as school officials mull support for project

Posted

The Board of Education unanimously voted against signing an agreement with the developer of the Superblock property at a heated special meeting on Tuesday after dozens of residents gathered at Long Beach Middle School and heavily criticized the district’s potential support for the project. The agreement promised the school district additional benefits in exchange for that support.

Schools Superintendent David Weiss said that he and other school officials met with representatives of the developer, iStar Financial, last Friday. It is seeking to build two 15-story luxury apartment towers on the Superblock, and has requested a 20-year, $109 million payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, agreement from the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency.

According to an economic analysis of the project, known as Wayfarer LLC, by consulting firm Camoin Associates in May — which has been criticized by former U.S. Sen. Al D’Amato and many residents — the school district would net an average of $405,242 in new revenue per year over the next 20 years, or $8 million. School officials indicated in a letter to the IDA in May that the annual net benefit in the report was “misleading and inaccurate,” and the IDA subsequently canceled its vote on the project due in part to the district’s opposition.

But a new agreement with iStar last week, which trustees considered on Tuesday, offered other benefits to the district, including the construction of an 8,000-square-foot adult learning center in the development as well as an internship and pre-apprenticeship program for students.

“I think we have shared our thoughts around the financial piece with the IDA in some detail,” Weiss said, “and I think that at this point, what we’re looking at is that there’s something new on the table for the district that goes beyond that financial impact.”

A vote by the school board in favor of the agreement would have required the district to send a letter to the IDA — which was set to vote on the tax break on Thursday in Mineola — stating its support for the 522-unit project. The developer has said it needs a PILOT in order to build it.

School board Trustee Dr. Dennis Ryan said he returned from vacation to attend the meeting, which was scheduled and posted to the district’s website on Monday afternoon. He spoke frankly against voting on the agreement without fellow Trustee Maureen Vrona, who was also on vacation.

“I think it’s irresponsible on the part of the Board of Education to rush to judgment,” Ryan said. “Just because the IDA is in a hurry, that’s no way for us not to sit down and to give it deliberate and thoughtful discussion. To do it on the run, to do it on the fly, doesn’t sit with me.”

Residents blasted what they described as a hastily organized meeting, saying they were given little notice. School board President Stewart Mininsky pledged transparency at the meeting’s start, stating that it was not a “secret meeting” despite the short notice, and that he and the board would not withhold any information.

A number of residents claimed that the district was “selling out” the taxpayers — some held up signs that read “Shame.” Others told the board that the benefits iStar offered in the proposed agreement were outweighed by the millions of dollars in tax revenue the district would lose under a PILOT.

Prior to the board’s vote, former board President Roy Lester called the agreement “Trojan horsing,” expressing suspicion of iStar’s agreement to dedicate 8,000 of the development’s 11,500 square feet of retail space to the adult learning center. He also questioned iStar’s estimates of tax increases and the 16 new students coming to the district.

“By giving your support, you are affecting the decision,” Lester told the board. “Otherwise, iStar wouldn’t have come to you on Friday. You know that!”

The district’s corporation counsel emphasized that the IDA would ultimately make its own decision.

“If we even show support to this kind of partnership, we’re showing that we’re on board with them,” Ryan argued. “To go into legalese about this, a second-grader could make the inference, anybody doing Common Core could make the inference. Let’s leave it at that.”

Long Beach resident Angelo Lomonte, a Republican, accused board Vice President Darlene Tangney — the president of the Independent Democratic Club of Long Beach — of abusing her power, saying that her group supports City Councilman Anthony Eramo, who backs the iStar project, in his run for the State Assembly. Tangney vehemently denied Lomonte’s claim.

John Bendo, president of the West End Neighbors Civic Association, said that based on the IDA’s financial impact analysis, the school district would lose $1.16 million over the first 18 years of the PILOT plan, and the schools would not benefit until the final two years. Bendo also criticized the district for not posting the agreement on its website until shortly before the meeting.

“[I]n effect what you did today was, you basically tried to teach a class, meaning we had an assignment to try to come here as educated students to be able to dialogue with you,” Bendo said, “and you didn’t even give us the textbook we needed to learn the lesson.”

City Councilwoman Anissa Moore was the only member of the council who came to the meeting, and though she did not offer her opinion of the iStar proposal, she said she felt it was important to attend. “The residents understood that whatever decision that was made last night would affect their children,” she told the Herald on Wednesday, “and not only their children, but their children’s children, because this is about taxes and resources.”

After a short executive session, the board returned to the auditorium, where all four trustees voted against the memorandum, a decision that was met with applause.

“The fact that they listened to the residents, they heard our voices, they understood where we were coming from and they stood behind us, that’s all that we could have asked for,” Lomonte said. “This was a huge victory for the citizens of Long Beach and the taxpayers, and I hope on Thursday, we are also victorious with the IDA, and they deny this application.”