New Long Beach City Council sworn in, holds first meeting

People across the world celebrate New Year’s Eve with parties, friends, food and drinks — and many sleep in the next day to recover.

In Long Beach, however, community members and elected officials woke up on Monday, put on nice clothes and filled the City Council chamber on the sixth floor of City Hall at noon to watch the swearing-in of newly elected council members.

Brendan Finn, Chris Fiumara and Mike Reinhart were victorious in their campaigns for the council in November, defeating Democrats James Hodge, Tina Posterli and Liz Treston. Outgoing council member Karen McInnis did not seek re-election.

Finn, Fiumara and Reinhart had to wait nearly two months to get started, before being sworn in and holding their first council “meeting.”

“I’d like to acknowledge and thank our outgoing council members, Karen McInnis, Liz Treston and Tina Posterli, for their public service these past years,” said Jim Moriarty, chairman of the Long Beach Republican Committee, who led the ceremony. “Today is a momentous day, the induction of three outstanding new council members. Just eight months ago, these three new councilmen were strangers not only to me, but to each other, and had never given a thought to running for public office. But their common goal of making Long Beach a better place for all residents is what brought us here today.”

Finn moved to Long Beach with his family in 1961, when he was 3, from Manhattan. He attended Long Beach Catholic Regional School, and went on to earn a master’s degree in history from Queens College. He taught as an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and worked as a private investigator as well as with the New York City Police Department, taking guns off the streets of the city.

Finn, who became the unofficial face of the challengers’ campaign last fall, was sworn in first, by Moriarty.

“You only get one chance to make it happen in this life, and it’s so much more than trying to survive,” Finn said afterward. “We’re going to thrive in this city. We’re going to really have a great, great time in the city. It’s going to be great.”

Finn said that Long Beach has four gems — the beach, the bay, the boardwalk and the people. “The fourth gem is the people of Long Beach,” he said. “That’s the gem that we need to polish, we need to sustain, we need to protect, and if we can protect the fourth gem — the people — and help them and work with them, we’re going to make the other three gems even more beautiful. I think that’s what Long Beach is about.”

Fiumara has lived in Long Beach for about 25 years, but spent many childhood summers before he moved here on the city’s beaches. He is the president of the West End Restaurant and Business Association of Long Beach, and the founder and owner of the West End bar and restaurant Jetty.

Fiumara was sworn in by City Court Judge Corey Klein.

“I think today should be more about celebrating the future,” Fiumara said. “We all remember Long Beach as we knew it. I think we can all look right now and say what we remember is going to be the future. That’s our promise to everybody here. Everybody is going to have a voice and an open door to our administration.”

Reinhart grew up in Queens, but spent lots of time in Long Beach, playing in beach volleyball leagues and tournaments. He eventually decided he wanted to live here, and moved to the city 25 years ago. He graduated from SUNY Cortland, and is a former marketing executive in the fashion industry.

Reinhart was sworn in by City Court Judge William Miller.

“Brendan, Chris and I became a team very early on,” Reinhart said. “Brendan, Chris and I won as a team, and we’re taking office as a team, but now the team is bigger. We have two more members. We look forward to working and achieving our goals with Councilman (John) Bendo and Councilman (Roy) Lester. Every decision that is made by the City Council will take an account of how it affects the Long Beach residents, and that’s what we want to do.”

After the three new members’ swearing-in, the council held the briefest of meeting to elect a new vice president and president. Fiumara was unanimously voted in as vice president. Finn was elected president, with all members saying ‘yes’ except Lester, who abstained.

“I’ve known Brendan Finn a long time, some 45 years, and have the utmost respect for him,” Lester said. “But on the other hand, I’ve been an elected official since 1997, with five terms (on the) school board and now City Council. I have never voted for a freshman to come in as president. Now, I can’t vote against him, because I have that much respect for him. So I’m going to have to abstain in this particular matter, but that in no way is a reflection on Brendan Finn. That’s a reflection on my personal beliefs.”

New city manager named

Long Beach resident Dan Creighton was elected the new permanent city manager during Tuesday’s first regularly scheduled council meeting. The three new members voted yes, with Lester abstaining. Bendo did not attend.

Police Commissioner Ron Walsh had served as acting city manager for the past 11 months.

Creighton ran for City Council in 2021, but was not elected. He previously served on the district Board of Education, and was a member of Community Board 5 in Queens. He also served as a commissioner of the Long Beach Zoning Board of Appeals.

Creighton’s appointment did not go unquestioned by Lester as well as some residents.

“Unfortunately, I have not been able to interview him for this position or see his resume,” Lester said of Creighton. “To my knowledge, Dan has never had a political position or dealt with a municipality in the position we now want to place him in. This is not to say he’s not capable, but the procedure seems to be indicative of a pure partisan decision-making process.”

Finn explained that the new council members did not see any resumés until a month after the Nov. 7 election.

“It took a very long time to get nothing done,” Finn said. “You say Dan Creighton had never been a city manager. I had never been a city councilperson. We don’t want an administrative state. We want regular citizens being elected to these positions so they can make decisions that are based on opinions and ideas and experiences of being a citizen.”

Resident Eileen Hession welcomed the three new council members, but said she was “disappointed” that they hired a permanent city manager in their first day on the job, without an extensive interviewing process.

“I have not seen Mr. Creighton at a council meeting since 2021, when he ran for the council and lost,” Hession said. “He lives in Westholme, but I’ve never seen him at a Westholme Civic meeting. In your campaign you promised transparency, which means an open and honest government. Have you already forgotten this promise?”

“We have gone 11 months and 28 days with an acting city manager,” Finn responded. “You made some good points, and I agree with some of them. It was imperative to try and do this right away. When we saw Dan’s resumé, we were very, very impressed. I think he’s ideally suited for this role. His energy has already come through in our speaking with him.”