Long Beach candidates address public at forum

City Council candidate John Bendo, who once publicly sparred with iStar Executive Vice President Karl Frey and criticized the developer’s attempts to secure large tax breaks to build luxury apartments on the Superblock, attempted to distinguish himself at a candidates forum on Monday by shooting down criticism from a Republican for running on a ticket with Democratic incumbents Scott Mandel and Chumi Diamond.

Bendo, one of the most vocal critics of the current administration and a fixture at council meetings, is running as an independent, and emphasized that while he might be on the Democratic ballot with the two incumbents, he was not beholden to any political party.

About 200 people attended the forum, which was organized by local civic associations. Bendo, president of the West End Neighbors Civic Association, was one of seven candidates who agreed that it is time for changes at City Hall — Republicans Chris Jones and William Haas and their running mate Leah Tozer, a Democrat; Green Party candidates Allison Blanchette and Joey Naham; and write-in candidate Runnie Myles. Mandel and Diamond did not attend.

Among the many issues discussed was iStar, which twice requested payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, programs, for $129 million and $109 million, from the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, both of which were rejected. Bendo, who has been outspoken in his criticism of the proposed deal, blasted the developer’s threat to sue the city for $105 million, saying, “Screw iStar! I say we fight.”

Jones — whose slate filed a lawsuit against iStar and the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals in August, seeking to overturn a variance and permits that the ZBA granted the developer in 2014 to build two 15-story buildings — questioned why Bendo put his name on the ballot with

Mandel and Diamond, who he said “are most closely associated with iStar.” The comment elicited boos from some in the audience, and Bendo quickly shot back.

“Anybody that was following the iStar PILOT issue knows what I did,” Bendo said. “I held public meetings, information sessions. I had a head-on debate with Karl Frey … at a public forum in a full room like this about why this was a bad deal. I beat back iStar twice on this PILOT. Even if iStar comes back for a third try, which they’re going to, and let’s say they get $80 million [in tax incentives], this city will have $50 million more in its tax coffers because me and the people who fought with me stood up to iStar. Other people in this room were nowhere to be seen when that happened.”

Bendo, a nuclear engineer and U.S. Navy veteran who organizes the popular beach movie nights, pledged to bring more transparency to City Hall. He said that if he were elected, his top priorities would include opening the city’s financial books and implementing greater financial controls, overhauling the contract process to disclose any political contributions, revamping the city’s Freedom of Information Law process and reviving the Ethics Committee, which has been inactive. He proposed generating more revenue through “smart development” and implementing a real estate transfer tax if a property is sold to out-of-town buyers, to fund infrastructure improvements.

“I’m doing this because we need a City Council of people who are up there thinking as individuals and thinking in the best interests of the residents,” Bendo said. “Not thinking in the interests of a political party.”

Republican slate makes its case

All of the candidates seemed to agree that the administration has doubled the city’s debt over the past five years and put political interests first.

They called for more transparency, and said they would not seek higher office. They pledged to address issues ranging from parking to overdevelopment to a proposed comprehensive plan that they said could help boost economic development and generate revenue. All expressed concern about a potential $50 million judgment the city may have to pay to the developer Sinclair Haberman, South Nassau Communities Hospital’s plans for the former Long Beach Medical Center campus, which was shuttered after Hurricane Sandy, and the city’s aging infrastructure.

“I decided to run with my two running mates on the Republican line because I saw a lot of mishegas that was going on with the Democratic Party,” said Tozer, a real estate broker who sits on the Chamber of Commerce’s executive board. “We need a governing majority to make these decisions to happen for us and our future.”

Tozer added that environmental issues, such as protecting the Lloyd Aquifer, are being overlooked, and that storm protection was a priority.

“Our slate … wants to hold the line on taxes, stopping overdevelopment and bringing good government back to City Hall,” said Haas, a retired lieutenant commander in the Navy and a local operations manager for Verizon.

“Over the course of the summer, I knocked on thousands of doors, and in only one instance did the resident say that they felt City Hall was operating in an aboveboard manner. That’s unacceptable.”

The Republican slate said that the current administration has raised taxes and fees, and pledged to freeze taxes for two years; implement greater financial controls and ease the burden on taxpayers; and create a bipartisan ethics board, among other proposals.

“We need change,” said Jones, a lifelong resident, a former lifeguard and a sheet metal worker with Local 28, who pledged to put an end to “corruption and cronyism.”

“It’s time that we, the taxpayers, should have their voices heard, and I mean the voices of all of Long Beach,” he said. “We will gladly listen to all your concerns.”

Green Party, write-in candidates weigh in at forum

Myles — who received the Long Beach Democratic Committee’s nomination at the party’s convention in May, but dropped out of a Democratic primary in August after Scott Mandel and Chumi Diamond filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of hundreds of petition signatures gathered by Myles and his running mates — said at Monday’s forum that people are being priced out of the city.

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, also called for more transparency at City Hall, and claimed that the city has doled out patronage jobs.

“I was robbed of an opportunity to be on the Democratic line,” Myles said. “With that being said, I’ve always been an independent thinker, I’ve always had my own opinions and I’ve always considered others. I can say with surety that I’m confident that I can do this job effectively and best represent you to the best of my ability.”

Blanchette, executive director of Long Island Streets, a nonprofit that advocates for bicycle and pedestrian safety, said she wants Long Beach to be a destination for walking and biking, and supports a Vision Zero plan for the city to eliminate fatalities and injuries.

“I’m running because we all deserve to have a local government that works for the people,” she said. “I think we all deserve to be treated with respect and as collaborators. I just think that we need honest representation when we step into City Hall.”

Blanchette, who has a background in public policy and planning, said the city could increase revenue by utilizing existing properties and creating mixed-use development in the downtown areas to make Long Beach more affordable.

“One of the things I would work on is making sure that any new money that’s coming in isn’t going to go to political appointees and salaries, bloated upper-level government,” she said. “It’s going to take creative solutions to bring in revenue.”

Joseph Naham, a lifelong resident and vice president of sustainability at the Shelter Island Sustainable Oyster Corp., said he does not support a tax increase and is against overdevelopment, and plans to address environmental, quality-of-life and financial issues.

“Our burdens cannot be kicked down the road,” he said. “Problems such as the threatening of our Lloyd Aquifer, the $50 million and $100 million lawsuits, parking, sanitation and an all-too-common community disconnect remain major burdens for our communities.”

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story mistakenly referred to Naham as a senior auditor at EmPower Solar. We regret the error.