City Council Approves Three Appointees

The Long Beach City Council Tuesday re-appointed Rick Hoffman and Angelo Lomonte to the Zoning Board of Appeals and appointed Denis Kelly to the Civil Service Commission, but not without objections that reflected the council’s divided 3-2 vote.

While Republicans President Thomas Sofield Jr., Vice President Mona Goodman and John McLaughlin approved each appointee, Democrats Michael Fagen and Len Torres gave them a thumbs down on what was the final council meeting for the outgoing GOP administration.

Calling them “twelfth-hour appointments,” Fagen said: “I guess the living legacy of this administration is going to have to be mediocrity, malfeasance and mismanagement. Being stuck with people like this as opposed to allowing the new administration to move the city forward and offer excellence has been blocked here.”

The terms of both Hoffman and Lomonte, both appointed in 2008, were to expire on Dec. 21, and both will serve another three-year term on the five-member zoning board. Kelly, a Long Beach attorney and former councilman, will join the three-member commission after commissioner Leary Wade last year plead guilty to renting illegal apartments and a State Supreme Court justice and Nassau County administrative judge in June ruled to remove him from office.

While Theofan said Hoffman and Lomonte “have served with distinction,” Hoffman was the main target of the opposition. Resident Karen Adamo opposed Hoffman’s re-appointment on that grounds that, as president of the West End Neighbors Civic Association, he spearheaded a petition to block Dunkin' Donuts from opening a shop on West Beech Street.

“It’s definitely a conflict of interest,” Adamo said. “... It doesn’t set a good precedent for other businesses that want to come into … anywhere in town that someone from the zoning board is publicly advocating against a new business.”

Torres, a former Long Beach zoning board trustee, said he always recused himself from voting on proposals that he thought involved a conflict of interest. “That’s a standard that I hold myself to, and this is the standard I would hold everyone else,” Torres said. “I have to vote ‘no’ because I can’t believe others don’t hold themselves to that standard.”

Theofan said that, while Hoffman should recuse himself from voting on the Dunkin' Donuts proposal, he didn’t think it justified opposing his re-appointment.

Hoffman told Patch he doesn't believe his position as president of West End Neighbors conflicted with his duties as a zoning board trustee.

“I feel I can be fair in every situation and I have been fair in the previous three years,” Hoffman said. “And, contrary to what Mrs. Adamo said, I have recused myself in previous cased where I felt I had personally had a problem with it.”

Hoffman also noted that the Dunkin' Donuts proposal is not a zoning board issue, since the coffee shop has no variance requirements for the commercial property it wants to purchase.

Lomonte supported Hoffman’s positions and said he looks forward to serving three more years on the zoning board. “I’m very happy and excited to serve as a public servant,” he said.

Meanwhile, McLaughlin called Fagen’s characterizations of the appointees a “personal attack.” “They do it for public service, so to make a statement like ‘stuck with people like this’ is unfair and uncalled for,” he said.

Before Fagen’s pre-vote comments, Theofan called Kelly’s appointment one that “absolutely, positively transcends all political agendas and arguments.

“This is a good man, a very bright man, and we’re very honored that he’s going to perform more public service to the City of Long Beach,” he continued.

Kelly will join Chairman William Miller and Susan Mackston-Solomon on the commission. His term expires on May 31, 2012.

He said his goal on the commission is to continue to bring it into compliance with state civil service laws. “I think once that hard work is done, the city will be in a good place,” he said.