City Citizen Creates Facebook Page for Election Season

Gary Pollakusky noticed that most Long Beach-oriented Facebook pages are marketing groups that gather friends and fans but too often have no substance.

“I’ve seen some groups have up to 8,000 friends and I thought ‘what the heck is going on there,’” said Pollakusky, who owns a social media-based company, Media Barrel.

So with a City Council election coming in November, Pollakusky and his company decided to create a Facebook page called Citizens For Long Beach, NY, which launched three weeks ago. He describes it as a non-partisan tool that fellow city residents can use to obtain general information on the candidates, who in turn can engage the public in conversation on important issues.

As the page states: “Democrats, Republicans, Independents and those constituents In-between - feel free to voice your thoughts or concerns and most importantly offer suggestions to our elected City Council leaders AND candidates for City Council. Registered candidates from both parties are invited to participate.”

Earlier this week, users posted on its wall everything from a recording of the City Council’s Oct. 4. meeting, to Long Beach-related YouTube videos, to articles and commentary from local media and blogs. Others posted questions.

“I have 3 friends who moved here within the past few years and want to register here to vote,” one user wrote on the page's wall. “Where do they get the forms to register in time for this election?”

Another user, Marie Polemeni, said she came across Citizens For Long Beach, NY while on Facebook and she was intrigued.

“There is no place I'd would want to live but right here," Polemeni said about why she participates on the page. "But some of the politics really drive me crazy, and when I saw that page I just felt like ‘well here's my chance to say what is on my mind.’"

Jeanine Vanek, a new resident unfamiliar with the city’s political landscape, finds the page has a lot of useful information.  

“From what I see online, it seems pretty thick with rhetoric,” Vanek said. “I see this site as a way to get information about the candidates and party platforms, check on latest news from the Patch widget, and participate in the conversation on the Wall.”

Pollakusky said he contacted all elected City Council officials and registered candidates to engage in dialogue on his page. Some of them, such as Democratic candidates Len Torres, an incumbent, and Fran Adelson, are regular commenters.

Pollakusky believes that, in general, the candidates who are absent from the conversation on social media ultimately lose. “It’s just as bad as making a ridiculous comment,” he said.

While he wants users to share ideas, he doesn’t want them to hit each other over the head. As the moderator, he uses the delete key for foul language and any comments he deems to be hearsay or worse. “Other than that, it’s free discourse on issues,” he added.

Now he hopes to springboard from the election and build a larger platform for his page, one that is a potential gateway between elected officials and their constituents. If user engagement takes off, then he plans to take his idea and run elsewhere with it.

“Depending on the success of this one,” he said, “we will likely build a number of these for different cities and towns in the area.”