Bidding For an End to Party Politics

Story by Jeff Lipton

Asserting that they will take an independent and non-partisan approach to politics, three residents have announced that they will run for City Council in a bid to remedy Long Beach’s financial woes. 

Michael Franceschini, Janna Jachniewicz and Damian Walsh will run in the November elections as independent candidates who have sought and earned the Republican Party endorsement. All three are entering the political arena for the first time.

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The three candidates tout their extensive financial and business experience, which they said will help get the city back on the right fiscal track.

Franceschini said he decided to run to help business owners and residents get back on their feet after Hurricane Sandy. He agrees with those who believe the city can do more to help them.

“A lot of people have been displaced from their homes and can’t get back into them,” he said. “There has been a lot of fear and disbelief and we’re going to try to relieve them of that.”

He said one of his priorities would be to hold the line on taxes so that the storm’s victims would not be further burdened with a tax increase.

In addition, to save the city money he would propose rolling back the raises of exempt managerial employees.

During the election, the three candidates hope to target Long Beach’s youngest voters in the 18 to 25 age range.

“There’s been a very poor turnout in voting among young people,” Franceschini said. “We want them to take an active part in it.”

Franceschini works as a forensic accountant and investigator who is also a retired special agent of the U.S. Treasury Department in the Criminal Investigations Division. Franceschini said he is now able to run for office because he retired from his federal post in December.

Jachniewicz is an attorney and a senior contract oversight and development manager, and Walsh is a businessman and an elementary school teacher whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy and is working through the red tape to rebuild.

“One of the top reasons I’m running is that there is a big disconnect between the current administration and the people and the businesses,” said Walsh, a former officer with the West End Neighbors Civic Association. “There’s no dialogue at the City Council meetings. They don’t give any answers.”

Also running along the same line will be Theodore Hommel, a candidate for City Court Judge. A practicing attorney with more than 35 years of legal experience, Hommel has served as deputy Nassau County attorney and Long Beach’s assistant corporation counsel.

Franceschini, Jachniewicz and Walsh said they are tired of the council playing party politics and Democrats and Republicans blaming each other for ill-advised decision-making of past and present administrations while the city continues to flounder financially. As a result, they said the city’s reputation has taken a severe hit.

If elected, they said they will focus on the city’s finances and budgets, investigate fraud and waste, generate revenue and cut costs.

Their other priorities include keeping taxes in check, assisting homeowners to rebuild and businesses to revitalize, protecting the oceanfront from storms and renovating the city’s infrastructure.

The election for City Council is Nov. 5. 

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