In October 2025, The Long Beach Chamber of Commerce interviewed the candidates running in our upcoming local elections for City Council
The Chamber has no political affiliation. Our goal with these videos is to inform our Long Beach business owners and other community members on who is running to be our elected representatives. We hope, through this process, you will get to know more about the candidates from both parties and this, in turn, will help you make informed decisions on Election Day.
The candidates were each asked the same set of questions. Click the images below to watch each candidate's video interview, the actual questions we posed are at the bottom of this page.
Long Beach City Council Candidates
Peggy Butts
Tracey Johnson
Roy Lester
Michael Reinhart
Lillian Mosley
George Ennis
Chamber of Commerce “Meet the Candidates” Questions 2025
Long Beach City Council Candidate Questions
About you and your intentions.
Why are you running for a seat on the City Council?
What makes you uniquely suited to be successful in the position?
What, in your opinion, are the top 3 areas of greatest concern facing the City of Long Beach?
What will you do to address them if elected?
About local businesses.
What role should the business community have with relation to the City’s government?
What steps could the City take to attract new businesses to our area?
What supports could be put in place to ensure the success of new and existing businesses? (Incumbent current council: During your tenure, what have you done to communicate with the business community?)
About Taxes.
Businesses pay a disproportionate share of taxes. Can you explain how the commercial tax rates are determined?
Should input from the business community be considered with regards to how these tax rates are determined and how tax revenues are spent?
About Finances.
Being able to afford to live and work in Long Beach is a major concern for the local community, especially for children growing up and wanting to stay in their home town. In the past there have been complaints about City departments going way over budget, City personnel overtime costs, Employment contracts for upper city management.
If elected, how would you handle current and future situations highlighted above, reduce future spending, and ensure oversight and control of city departments and the budget?
About revenue for the City.
City of Long Beach “assets” include our beaches, boardwalk, shopping and restaurants.For the last 2 years, there was no budget ear-marked for the purposes of promoting the Beach Park season or for supporting fairs or various community activities. Over those same 2 years the Chamber of Commerce has dedicated a budget of $20,000 each year into promotional advertising aimed at bringing people to Long Beach.
What ideas do you have for raising additional revenue and supporting year-round marketing and promotion of the City’s assets and businesses?
About Traffic
Would you support a new road traffic plan to limit thru traffic to make our city more pedestrian, biking and walking friendly?
About Parking
A recent poll generated by the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce indicates that the City’s proposed Parking Meter plan is one that’s not supported by the majority of business owners. Other communities on Long Island feature well-planned, and less costly, app-based systems that are actually helpful to the business community and taxpayers. Would you support proposals/ideas from other Parking Meter companies and, if warranted, the issuance of a new RFP to ensure that the bidding is open, competitive and in our best interest?
About Short term rentals.
Air B&B’s, and short-term rentals throughout the City of Long Beach have become the norm, however, the city laws make them illegal.
What are the challenges in policing and enforcing the short-term rental laws?
How does this impact the community?
Would you support the creation of a fee/tax and registration for these rentals, and what would the management of such a program look like?
Would you earmark a percentage to support arts and cultural programs and year round marketing of businesses, similar to those in many coastal communities, and support/grants generated by Nassau County’s Hotel/Motel tax revenue?