Councilmen File Injunction to Stop Vote on Retirement Payouts

With an emergency vote on the City of Long Beach’s payroll and retirement payouts just hours away, City Council members Len Torres and Michael Fagen filed for a injunction to thwart at least part of this measure at the Nassau County Supreme Court in Mineola Wednesday morning.

The court-ordered injunction aims to prohibit a proposal to provide $2.5 million in payments to three police officials that recently announced their retirements, including a reported $500,000 payment to Commissioner Thomas Sofield Sr.

While their attorneys were seeking the injunction inside the court, Fagen and Torres held a press conference on the steps outside and said the newly elected council, which will gain control in January, is requesting to audit the retirement payouts. 

“Give us the opportunity to review the auditor’s report before we make any more commitment with money,” Torres said, referring to an independent auditor’s report of the city’s finances that is due to be released in December. “And we feel that that includes the fact that we would like to see city workers paid for the Christmas holiday.”

The City Council is scheduled at 5 p.m. Wednesday to vote on a proposal to borrow $4.25 million to pay city employees for December and pick up the costs of the reported unanticipated police retirements. City Comptroller Sandra Clarson notified City Manager Charles Theofan in a Nov. 18 memo that the city faced a $1.3 million deficit at the end of the year, threatening the year-end payroll.

The council will determine whether to authorize borrowing $1.75 million to cover the payroll for December and $2.5 million in payments to three police officials.

“I think that’s an important piece,” Torres said about the payroll funds. “But the payment for people leaving, we need to look at that as a new administration coming in.”  

Fagen said the sitting Republican administration — which includes Sofield Sr.’s son, Council President Thomas Sofield Jr. — is attempting to borrow money to give a lump sum within a 60-day window to Sofield Sr., who turned in his resignation after the Democrats won back the majority on the city council in the Nov. 8 Election.

“This is to prevent this mad dash to take the money and run,” Fagen said about the effort to seek an injunction.

But Council Vice President Mona Goodman told Patch on Tuesday that, as she understands it, the vote to borrow $4.25 million is necessary as a cash-flow fix.

“Eventually everybody has got to be paid,” she said. “It’s also to cover unexpected retirements, their sick time and vacation time. These are very unanticipated expenses. There are three high-ranking police officials who decided, ‘OK, I’m done.’”

Goodman also said that the efforts of Fagen and Torres, both Democrats, to characterize the city’s immediate financial situation as a case of mismanagement are unfounded. 

“I don’t think this in any way reflects fiscal mismanagement,” she said, “but that’s how some people are labeling it.”

* Jeff Lipton contributed to this story.