Mayor or Cop? DeMarzo Asks Supreme Court

WILDWOOD — Mayor Gary DeMarzo has asked the court to allow him to postpone his decision between his elected office and his job on the city’s police force until the state Supreme Court decides the matter.
On Feb. 22, a state Appeals Court overturned two lower court decisions that had allowed DeMarzo to perform his mayoral duties while on an unpaid leave of absence from the Wildwood Police Department. The three-judge appellate panel gave the mayor 20 days from that date to make up his mind.
“One cannot make that kind of decision in 20 short days,” DeMarzo said in a statement Monday. “I have been in office for approximately three years and, ironically, the Court alone took three months to come to their own decision. So, with the greatest respect for the Court process, I have requested the Court for a stay of the requirement that a decision be made until after an appeal of the Court’s decision to the Supreme Court.”
DeMarzo said in his statement that the appellate decision awakened “complicated issues that could lead, either way, to extreme consequences to the City that I love…(and) monumental life changes for my family and career.”
In the meantime, DeMarzo has enrolled in Wildwood’s “Voluntary Layoff Program” and “will continue to look for outside employment in Law Enforcement,” he said.
DeMarzo was hired in February 1998 as a full-time police officer. He’s been on unpaid leave since being elected to City Commission in May 2007.
The trial court case decided by Superior Court Judge Joseph Visalli (now retired) and upheld by Judge Valerie Armstrong allowed DeMarzo to remain on unpaid leave as long as he, as a commissioner, recused himself from voting on matters related to the police department on a case-by-case basis.
The judges ordered that Wildwood’s municipal solicitor and clerk should meet prior to every meeting of the governing body in order to review the agenda of the meeting to determine which items constituted a conflict for DeMarzo, and must be voted upon separately by the two remaining commission members.
Before a December recall election which saw the replacement of DeMarzo adversaries (Mayor Ernie Troiano and Commissioner Bill Davenport) with DeMarzo allies (commissioners Al Brannen and Edward Harshaw), the city appealed the trial court’s decision, arguing that the restraints on DeMarzo’s conduct do not adequately address the inherent conflicts arising from the incompatibility of the two offices. Under the current government, the suit would likely have been dropped.
“The (lower) court’s attempts at counteracting the myriad of conflicts arising from such incompatibility by restricting DeMarzo’s conduct as a city commissioner impermissibly limited the statutory authority conferred upon such office by the Legislature under the Walsh Act, and deprived the citizens of Wildwood of an independent City Commissioner capable of managing the municipality’s business unfettered by personal conflicts arising from his position as a police officer,” the appellate decision stated.
The court pointed out that requiring the clerk and solicitor to meet before every board meeting to determine whether any item on the board’s agenda may mandate DeMarzo’s recusal was “utterly unworkable as a practical matter.”
“We thus conclude that the interests of justice will be served by permitting DeMarzo to choose which position he wants to retain. Having said this, we are equally convinced that it is in the best interests of the citizens of Wildwood to have this matter settled expeditiously,” the judgment stated.
The decision has significant financial repercussions for DeMarzo, who, according to city records, earned over $70,000 annually as a police officer and just over $20,000 per year as a commissioner.
DeMarzo said the court’s decision not only affects him, but others as well.
“The issues addressed by the Court regarding the potential incompatibility of a municipal official’s dual roles have become a statewide conversation in recent years. It will affect not only my future, but approximately 700 individuals state-wide who have similar issues,” he said.
“Most importantly, it will affect voters across the state who participate in the countless elections that contribute to our democracy. In Wildwood alone, thousands of residents voted in two separate elections to change their way of life and put their faith in the system and a governing body composed of three majority elected individuals.”
“Again, we must place our faith in the reasonableness of legal process. I am confident that the Courts will listen to our concerns and address these important issues. Based on these forthcoming legal answers, I will continue to decide the best course of action,” DeMarzo concluded.