Friday, July 18, 2025
As Global Forgiveness Day is being celebrated on July 7 for the 31st year, the City of Long Beach will be kicking off an amnesty program for the first time by giving residents a second chance to clear up any quality of life violations.
Councilman Mike Reinhart has recently discovered that more than 3,000 code violations remain outstanding in the Long Beach court system. These violations include infractions such as having open containers of alcohol on the beach or while walking down the block, as well as violations handed out to dog owners or for noise complaints. Oftentimes, when violators receive a summons, they fail to appear in court.
"Here in Long Beach, we are tough on crime, and we take quality of life violations seriously,” Reinhart said. "But we care about our community, and we understand sometimes people need a second chance to make things right. This is that chance. It's fitting that we will launch this program on Global Forgiveness Day."
The goal is to ensure that residents who have incurred these infractions are prevented from being hampered by them in the future. Violators will have the opportunity to pay a flat $150 fine to clear up the outstanding charge. That violation would then be reduced to the lowest possible charge — which amounts to a parking infraction — ensuring that the original charge would not impact them in the future. Alternatively, they could have their day in court.
Even though the violations under consideration for the amnesty program are not criminal charges, they could still come back to bite people, according to the city’s corporation counsel, Frank Dikranis.
“We're going to try and get rid of all of the warrants because it's just something that’s going to inconvenience a lot of people,” Dikranis said. “They don't realize it, but it really could, so we'd like to clean up this mess. It's just something that accumulates, but cleaning it up is a good idea all around. There's no downside for it.”
Beginning on July 7, those with outstanding violations will receive an official letter in the mail alerting them that they have an unresolved charge. A lack of response will result in the ticket being processed by the Long Beach Police Department, and the original charge will remain in effect.
“With these things, they get a summons, they don't pay it, they go away. They forget about it for years,” Dikranis said. “These things have been sitting in limbo in warrant status. They could get stopped somewhere, and they could actually have a warrant, and it could impede being released from the court if they're involved in something else.”
The new amnesty program is seen as a win-win for the city. City manager Dan Creighton believes that, along with helping those with infractions, it can also be beneficial for the city as a whole.
“If we clear a good part of the books on outstanding violations and warrants that are out there, it's a good thing for the courts, a good thing for the city, and it's a good thing for the taxpayers,” Creighton said. “It's a great thing all around.”
Before running with the idea for the amnesty program, Reinhart consulted with the city’s police department and corporation counsel, as well as the New York State Unified Court System. Anyone who has any questions about the new amnesty program may contact the City Court of Long Beach at (516) 442-8544.
