Manhattan Beach to Defend Itself from Itself redux

The election results are in and: Ron Biondo 48, Ira Zalcman 110. Ira Zalcman is the new president of the MBCG. Congratulations.

I’m not going to give a run down about the meeting. I will let Gene Berardelli from SBPB Civc give you the run down below this post.

There is some new “Only in Manhattan Beach” news to report. Everyone was served! Ron Biondo, Al Smaldone and another community member are plaintiffs in a suit against Ira Zalcman, Francene Olk, Shari Thalier. Although im not sure what for, because if its about the election, it might not matter. The votes that they were arguing about in the past wouldn’t have toped Ira’s 110 votes tonight.

Also, I am sorry to say that this isn’t over for Manhattan Beach. There is word that members of the group that have lost these elections might be starting be starting a new group, to continue their agenda. I had a whole bunch of jokes planed for this new group, like slogans and group names but I don’t want to be named in a suit. Who’s going to volunteer in the community anymore, if when there is a disagreement they are served with a lawsuit.

To the Manhattan Beach residents, im not going to mention again this lawsuit again, unless it grows legs and starts attacking the city. This is now a personal matter between multiple parties.

To everyone else including Gerritsen Beach and surrounding areas, I know this manhattan beach stuff was/is a bit much but I promise im going to lay off the Manhattan Beach news for awhile, unless of course a monster starts attacking them.

In other news there were people that thanked me and others for helping to bring attention to their local politics and there were some that probably wanted to tell me off but didn’t, so to both sides thank you.

Heres to no monster attacks!

Here is a photo gallery from the meeting.

By Gene Berardelli via SBPBCivc Forum

Just got back from MBCG’s meeting – I gotta be honest, I saw the best of Manhattan Beach tonight.

The short version: Ron 48, Ira 110. Ira Zalcman is the new president of the MBCG.

But the theme of the night was one of healing a community.

First off, the turnout was huge – I would say 300 people in total. 158 voting families.

The meeting started with Dr. Ron Biondo welcoming everyone, and introducing the Chair of the Nominating Committee, Dr. Oliver Klapper. Dr. Klapper read off the names of all the uncontested seats on the B of D, and the Executive Board and ordered the Secretary to cast one ballot for those seats. Albert Hasson asked for clarification regarding the first VP Position, which I assume will be appointed sometime in the offing. The New B of D and Executive were congratulated, or in the words of Dr. Klapper “I don’t know whether to congratulate you or not!”

There was then a pause to allow latecomers to the meeting to enter and settle in and receive their ballot. The ballot counters were introduced – they were neither members of the B of D nor were they up for any position. They collected all the ballots and locked them in the ballot box. The polls were declared closed, and then the counters left the room to count.

In the meanwhile, Capt. Stella introduced Officer Simons, the officer assaulted outside of KCC some months ago, and the CUNY Security officers who assisted the assaulted officer. All were given awards. Howard Prusack, the Group’s liaision to the police department, then gave Capt. Stella an award.

Capt. Stella words to the community were very upbeat – “the turnout is an example that this is a vibrant community.” He noted that there were probably more in attendance here than there were in the General Election! His advice to whoever won the election was to “just move ahead.” HE also offered congratulations to Ron.

An interesting note – back in June during the “cut day” meeting we all remember, Capt. Stella knew of the shooting on the train while in MB. A pretty ironic sidebar.

Marilyn Chernin then gave out the Dana Borell Community Service Awards to Emmanuel Kahn, and Susan Klapper.

There were reports on their Treasury, the Beachside Neighborhood Patrol, and an abbreviated President’s report, where Ronthanked the committee chairs.

Dr. Klapper then took over the meeting again, and noted before the ballots were counted that all in attendance cared about their community “even though we all have different ideas.” “We should be one community, as opposed to a divided one.”

The counters announced the results, all took oaths of office, and Ira Zalcman gave a short unprepared speech stating that all “need to move on” and “we need to sit down and include everyone in this community.”

Perhaps a sign of compromise? I sincerely hope so.

The Meeting was adjourned. No rowdiness, no one was out of order. No electioneering. No bad feelings. People walked out of the meeting room civilly. It was a quiet night where everyone played by the rules, and respected their community and their group.

While sitting there I thought “Finally! Something good is hopefully coming out of this!” Like I said when the rumors started, let a group find its own way, and hopefully this group has (albeit more publicly than most!)

Now all can move on and work towards making our corner of South Brooklyn even better.