By ARIELLA MONTI
City Manager Charles Theofan said that, according to a city ordinance that was enacted in the 1960s, they city was supposed to charge 150 percent of the daily rate of pay for the beach gate tenders at these buildings, but that the city has charged 100 percent instead. “Even though that’s what the code said, historically, the city was only billing them 100 percent instead of 150 percent,” Theofan said.
Last summer, the city began billing the buildings at the correct 150 percent rate for the gate tenders that take beach passes at these entrances. The building owners argued that during the 88-day beach season there often were no ticket takers at the entrances. Theofan explained that when shortages occurred at the public entrances to the beach, employees were taken from the private entrances that were then left
unattended.
The Council voted to approve a resolution that will allow the city to bill these 14 affected buildings 100 percent, as was historically charged, for a total cost of about $4,400 per summer. The city will also issue a one-time credit of $1,000 to make up for the staffing problems of last summer.
“I don’t think in this budget, in this economy, we need to be refunding money to the buildings,” said City Councilman Lenny Remo, who voted against the resolution that will cost the city $13,000. “We’re trying to rein in our costs.”
Remo believes this will be a recurring problem for a number of reason, including if gates are inadequately staffed or if there is a particularly rainy summer. He suggested closing access to the entrances completely to avoid any potential problems.
“There’s no real benefit for the city to do this, but to offer a private service to a segment of the community that happens to be geographically able to get this service,” he said.
Council member Mona Goodman, who is a member of the High Rise Association but doesn’t live in a building that is affected by the resolution, said that the city intends to hire more ticket takers, which will alleviate the problem of understaffing at private entrances.
“I personally think, the people who are living in the buildings that do have private access would be terribly upset if the city decided to unanimously close those entrances,” said Goodman of Remo’s suggestion.
“We would be bothered by that,” said Rachel Sherer, who lives with her husband, Jesse, at the Crystal House building on Shore Road. “It’s a luxury of having a place on the beach.”The Sherers, who have lived in their building for nearly three years, said they use the private access every weekend in the summer.
“The first summer that we were here, we didn’t have anyone outside our entrance checking passes,” Sherer said. “Then last summer they randomly put someone there.”
Sherer said after their first summer, they were still unaware that they needed to pay for a seasonal beach pass and assumed it was a perk for living in the building.Sherer said that while there is a public entrance to the beach close to their building, she enjoys the convenience of having easy access to her apartment and knowing that many people at that part of the beach are her neighbors.“People who are here pay a lot of money,” said Sherer about the high cost of living in her building.
“Why bother living in Long Beach and living on the beach, if you can’t get on the beach?” While Council member John McLaughlin voted to approve the resolution, he believes the city should explore the option of closing the building gates to the beach and the residents there should walk to the boardwalk or on the beach like everyone else.
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