By Kevin J. Kelley
As Atlantic Beach works to untangle its finances and accept the arrival of Chabad of the Beaches, residents have an opportunity — indeed, a duty — to consider what went wrong, and to demand accountability from those responsible.
This reflection should take the form of a long look in the mirror.
Atlantic Beach’s 1,700 full-time residents are not individually to blame for the village’s wasted expenditure of $2 million-plus on the misbegotten attempt to prevent Chabad from opening an outreach center. Nor are they the direct instigators of the avoidable 87 percent local property tax increase imposed in June. That astronomical rate rise resulted primarily from a decade-long failure by local officials to correctly implement Nassau County’s apportionment of tax liability.
Several homeowners have recently expressed their anger and chagrin over both of these costly bungles. The monthly meetings of the village’s five-member board of trustees have been comparatively well attended this year, with a few vocal locals sharply criticizing those in power. Similarly, turnout was exceptionally high for the June 17 village election in which an incumbent trustee was soundly defeated and two avowed reformers were swept to victory.
These dramatic displays of participatory democracy stand in damning contrast, however, to the political quiescence and acquiescence that characterized public affairs in Atlantic Beach in previous years. Village elections had generally gone uncontested since George Pappas defeated longtime incumbent Mayor Stephen Mahler in 2014. Pappas drew a challenger in only one of his five subsequent bids for re-election, including last year, in the midst of the Chabad embarrassment. Contests for the other four trustee seats likewise resulted in most instances in the automatic re-election of unchallenged incumbents.
In most of the 10 years in which I have lived in Atlantic Beach, it was not unusual for the monthly trustee meetings to be attended by fewer than 40 residents, and for the adjournment to take place less than 45 minutes after recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Apathy had been the prevailing attitude in the village until the Chabad controversy erupted in 2021. Even then, 90 percent of village residents didn’t bother to show up at trustee meetings.
It’s not true that Pappas and his allies on the board — which is to say, all four other members — deliberately set out to dishevel the village’s ledgers and to dirty its reputation.
It’s rather the case, with very few exceptions, that they lacked the capacity to handle complex budgetary issues. And why should unvetted volunteers be expected to act as experts on fiscal matters, or any other topic?
A couple of trustees did make antisemitic comments in response to Chabad’s effort to take control of property it had purchased. But there’s no basis for presuming that the former mayor and most of his trusty trustees are religious bigots.
At the same time, these public officials must not be absolved of blame for the disasters that befell the village during their tenures. Pappas and his board generally acted in a cliquish, opaque and arrogant manner. They made little or no effort to involve residents in the village’s affairs. The new mayor, Barry Frohlinger, has demonstrated during his first month in office how a public servant ought to operate — that is, with openness, inclusiveness and a degree of humility.
But it will be essential to hold Frohlinger and each of the other new trustees to account. Democracy doesn’t work well when those in power do not have to answer regularly to well-informed constituents. And the governed have an obligation to take part in their government — not necessarily as candidates for office (although that would be a laudable initiative), but definitely as active agents in local affairs.
This is a prescription that should be filled by residents in all of Nassau County’s political jurisdictions, not just Atlantic Beach. Costly fiascos can — and often will — erupt anywhere that citizens fail to exercise due vigilance.
Kevin J. Kelley, a retired journalist and journalism professor, ran unsuccessfully for the Atlantic Beach board of trustees in 2019.
