City of Glen Cove Mayor race heats up

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Incumbent City of Glen Cove Mayor Tim Tenke is seeking a third term in the office he’s held since January 2018, while challenger Pam Panzenbeck, a former member of the Glen Cove City Council who lost her bid for re-election in 2019, is hoping to unseat him in the Nov. 2 election. The Herald posed several questions to each candidate to give readers an idea of where they stand on some of the issues.

 

Glen Cove Herald: What are some revenue opportunities you would explore and what costs could be cut within the city? 

 

Tim Tenke: As the City of Glen Cove is a municipality, and service-oriented, opportunities for cuts within the city are limited. However, we do seek areas where we can reduce expenses, similarly to how we consolidated the Recreation Department with Youth Services department, and the parks department into the Department of Public Works in 2021. We look to make services more efficient without any impact to services by bringing more work in-house and reorganizing departments to remove redundancies. Expenses within the city are also expecting a decrease in 2022 due to organic attrition of employees, which will allow the city to realize when we fill those positions with employees who have less seniority. We thoroughly explore opportunities for recurring revenue streams that have little to no impact on residents. For example, we enacted the mortgage foreclosure registry and we are exploring the possibility of installing cameras on school busses to protect our children.

 

Pam Panzenbeck: The best way to increase revenue is to attract new businesses to Glen Cove. I feel optimistic that proper economic revival policies can help pull us out of the pandemic. We must also ensure that we do not burden our taxpayers with unnecessary fees. The tremendous costs of the use of outside law firms, which is the result of expensive lawsuits caused by actions of the current administration, will be something that we will make every effort to avoid. We need to treat employees and vendors fairly and appropriately to prevent these situations. Adherence to proper Request For Proposal practices will be a part of my administration.

 

Herald: What would you do to attract new businesses to Glen Cove?

 

Tenke: As part of our zoning code review, we are exploring the idea of expanding our downtown and using zoning changes to attract new businesses that are desirable in the city. In addition, mixed-use developments in the downtown are already making our downtown more vibrant. We will also work on beautification with new pedestrian walkways, curb cuts, landscaping, pergolas, and benches in our open air spaces in the recently renovated Village Square. We have been and are very responsive to the parking needs of our businesses. We believe a vehicle connection to the Brewster Street garage from School Street would allow easier access to the businesses and encourage people to visit them.

 

Panzenbeck: I would like to bring a family friendly recreational business or businesses to Glen Cove. I will do an inventory of properties available and reach out to business people on Long Island availing them of the opportunity to open a business here.

Our once-loved Glen Cove village has been greatly neglected. There are many empty storefronts and the facades are dull and dreary. It is time to put some effort into improving that which we already have, and energizing our downtown area. As methods of shopping have changed, people still have the desire to wander around, browse, and shop in their own hometown. Glen Cove offers nothing to these people or our visitors. The sidewalks are dirty and areas are strewn with litter, making it difficult for existing businesses to attract new customers.

We must make Glen Cove friendly to those wishing to become part of our downtown business family and streamline the process to open a new business. Red tape should not be a deterrent. When I am the mayor, I will welcome prospective businesses with the statement, “Welcome to Glen Cove, how can we help you?”

 

Herald: Why should people vote for you?

 

Tenke: People should vote for me because I have the experience needed to run the city. My administration is moving Glen Cove forward. We have taken on the task of remediating decades of neglect of city assets; at the parks, beaches, ballfields, and water infrastructure, to name a few. We have stabilized the city’s finances, through prudent budgeting, consolidation of certain departments to remove redundant functions, and making services more accessible and efficient. We have strengthened our infrastructure by, for example, bringing two water wells back into service at Duck Pond Road and completely rebuilding the water well at Seaman Road. A full structural rebuild of Pryibil’s pier is also underway. The tidal gates at East Island have been renovated. My administration has also made services more efficient and easily accessible to our residents, by adding a drop box outside City Hall for payments, adding an online payment functionality for school taxes when only city and county were online previously, creating a new city website with integration of TEXTMYGOV to report issues and get forms, as well as streamlining building permits online.

 

Panzenbeck: I love Glen Cove; I am a passionate, dedicated citizen who desires to return to elected public service. Having served three terms on the Glen Cove City Council, I am aware of the issues of the city and the needs of our residents. My greatest concern regarding Glen Cove is the financial status of our city. Mayor Tenke inherited a surplus when he took office and at the close of business in 2021 was running a large deficit. When the majority of Mayor Tenke’s administration voted to pierce the tax cap and then raise property taxes 7.32 percent, I realized Glen Cove is in trouble.

Constituents have never been given a straight answer about Crescent Beach or what the $100,000 grant received in the end of 2019 was used for. After asking during the spring of 2021, I was told Helixes would be used and later in the summer I was told that plants would be purchased and used to clear bacteria. Still the mayor says he is working on this.

The golf course is in poor condition. The driving range is in a state of collapse. Many golfers are unhappy with these conditions and speak to me regularly about this.

The Pryibil Beach Pier is always being closed for safety reasons and repaired temporarily. Let us choose one project and complete it once and for all.