Long Beach Facing A Fiscal Crisis

The City of Long Beach is facing a looming financial crisis, which is forcing the city to shut down bus services and could lead to a swath of layoffs of city employees. But in the face of the crisis, local politicians are calling on state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to officially audit the city's finances.

The issue revolves around $2.1 million in separation payments the city has to make to workers. On Tuesday, the city council failed to pass a bond to finances the payments, so the money now how has to come from the city's budget. And that $2.1 million hole is being filled by cuts.

According to the Long Beach Herald, councilmembers John Bendo and Anissa Moore were the dissenting votes on the five-person board (the bond needed at least four votes to pass). Bendo and Moore questioned whether all of the employees on the list, like former City Manager Jack Schnirman, were entiteled to all of the money they were being given. Schnirman got more than $100,000 in a payout after he left his position in January.

In order to fill the budget hole, the city is making swift and deep cuts to the budget. The first thing to be hit is the city's bus line. Service on nights and weekends are being suspended, as are daytime trips to Point Lookout, starting on April 21.

The next measure is layoffs. According to the Herald, the city may lay off all part-time employees, and may seek to change its contracts with the police and fire departments.

In the face of such draconian cuts, local politicians are stepping in. Both Nassau County Legislator Denise Ford and state Assemblywoman Melissa Miller have called on Comptroller DiNapoli to audit the city's finances and find out where things went wrong that created this fiscal problem for the city.

"Your office can shine a light on many of the unanswered questions our residents have regarding the timing and statuatory authority for these payments and whether such payments were made properly, to the proper recipients, in the proper amounts," Ford wrote in a letter to DiNapoli. "Additional attention should also be paid to whether your office has received honest and accurate financial information from former City Manager Jack Schnirman."

In her letter, Ford said the fiscal crisis was due solely to the "financial mismanagement" of Schnirman, who stepped down from his position as city manager in January after being elected Nassau County Comptroller.

Miller also took an accusatory tone in her letter, but directed it at the City Council, rather than Schnirman.

The City Council is still trying to find solutions to the fiscal problem, but it's unclear what those solutions may be.

Photo: Patch