By: Ariella Haviv

The small Long Island village of Atlantic Beach has been plunged into a stunning political freefall after the abrupt resignation of nearly all its top officials in the wake of an explosive property tax hike and a costly federal legal settlement stemming from a religious discrimination lawsuit. As The New York Post reported on Friday, Mayor George Pappas (R) and Deputy Mayor Charles Hammerman both stepped down Thursday, barely two months after igniting outrage with an 87% increase in local property taxes — a move that now appears tied to the village’s costly, years-long legal battle against a local Jewish organization.

The twin resignations follow the board’s quiet approval earlier this week of a $950,000 settlement with Chabad Lubavitch of the Beaches, which had accused the village of antisemitic obstruction after trying to convert a former Capital One bank into a synagogue and community center.

According to the information provided in The New York Post report, the resignations leave the seaside village of just under 2,000 residents teetering on the brink of administrative collapse, with only one trustee remaining in office after a new slate of board members takes their seats next week.

The turmoil began in May, when homeowners in Atlantic Beach opened their tax bills to find an unprecedented 87% hike in property taxes. Village officials claimed the spike was the result of decades of flawed property assessments, which had led to artificially low tax rates for years.

But that explanation quickly unraveled when Nassau County officials pushed back, telling The New York Post that the blame lay squarely with the village’s own mismanagement. County Assessor Joseph Adamo made clear that the village independently calculates and collects its own taxes and had misclassified commercial properties for years — a bureaucratic failure that finally came home to roost.

“Nassau County is not responsible for the Village of Atlantic Beach budget or tax levy,” Adamo told The Post, adding that the county does not calculate, bill, collect or distribute village taxes.

For residents already reeling from the sudden hike, the news that their municipal government may have bungled assessments for years was a breaking point — but it was only the beginning.

As The New York Post has reported, many residents believe the true motive behind the tax spike was to offset mounting legal costs incurred during the village’s protracted and bitter legal fight with Chabad Lubavitch of the Beaches.

The group purchased the former Capital One bank building in 2021 to create a synagogue and Jewish community center — but village officials swiftly moved to block the plan, launching an eminent domain effort to seize the property for their own use. That prompted a federal lawsuit from the Chabad, alleging religious discrimination and antisemitic targeting.

Over the course of the legal battle, Atlantic Beach racked up over $500,000 in legal fees, according to court records reviewed by The New York Post. The nearly $1 million settlement approved this week appeared to many as a final admission of defeat by village officials — and within 48 hours, both the mayor and his deputy were gone.

“We shouldn’t be footing the bill for their antisemitism,” one outraged resident told The Post. The village board has refused to comment publicly on the matter.

The resignations of Pappas and Hammerman come just days before two newly elected trustees — Joseph B. Pierantoni and Laura Heller — are set to be sworn in. As The New York Post reported, their arrival will leave only one current board member, Barry Frohlinger, still in office.

Trustees Patricia Beaumont and Nathan Etrog, both incumbents, are also set to exit on Monday, effectively decapitating the village’s leadership structure and leaving the community in uncharted governance territory.

Local residents, already incensed by the tax increases and controversy surrounding the Chabad case, are now demanding clarity about the state of municipal leadership and services.

“Who’s running our town?” asked another resident in comments to The New York Post. “We can’t afford to have no one in charge. Garbage still needs to get picked up. Permits still need to be processed.”

For many Atlantic Beach homeowners, the sudden collapse of local leadership is more than a governance crisis — it’s a cautionary tale about small-town politics gone dangerously off the rails.

The attempt to seize the Chabad property, in what multiple legal experts called a questionable use of eminent domain, triggered a court fight the village could neither win nor afford. Now, with a seven-figure legal bill and a massive tax burden, the cost of that miscalculation is falling squarely on the shoulders of residents.

“This was avoidable,” one longtime homeowner told The New York Post. “They tried to bully a religious group out of the neighborhood and now we’re all paying for it — literally.”

With a skeletal board and a public relations crisis, Atlantic Beach now faces critical questions: Who will serve as interim mayor? How will the remaining officials restore public trust? And can the new trustees chart a path forward in a community fractured by accusations of discrimination, fiscal incompetence, and political arrogance?

For now, one thing is clear, as The New York Post report summarized: “Atlantic Beach has gone from a quiet seaside enclave to a case study in how local government can implode almost overnight.” Whether the village can recover — financially, reputationally, and morally — remains to be seen.