Cape May Council Makes ‘Coast Guard Community Week’ Official

CAPE MAY – Following an announcement and resolution at a freeholders’ meeting in March, resolutions have been passed across the county’s municipalities in honor of the county’s designation as a Coast Guard Community. The designation, only the second such in the nation, is in recognition of the special relationship between Cape May County and the Coast Guard. Cape May, the home of the Coast Guard training facility, took up the matter at its council business meeting April 21.
Captain G. Todd Prestidge, commanding officer of Coast Guard Training Center, was present as council passed its resolution designating the first full week of May each year as “Coast Guard Community Week” and establishing the 2015 “Coast Guard Community Festival.”
Prestidge announced that for the festival, May 8 – 10, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft, would be making his first official visit to the city since assuming the post in 2014. Plans also call for six previous commanding officers of the training facility to attend the official ceremonies.
Prestidge spoke of Cape May as the “Coast Guard home town.” He joined with Mayor Edward Mahaney in speaking about the very special relationship that exists between the Coast Guard and the City of Cape May, which he called “one of the finest communities in America.”
Fire Department
When the 2015 budget was introduced in January, it contained a reduction of $70,000 in salaries and wages appropriation comparing 2014 to 2015. While he was a member of council, Jerry Inderwies, Jr. tried unsuccessfully to have the money restored to the budget. Faced with increasing public comment on the issue of budget support for the department, council previously promised a study of the resource needs of the department along with all areas of public safety.
Residents have since raised the issue of budget for the department in ways that go well beyond the $70,000 figure. Citing National Fire Protection Association standards, supporters of increased spending claim that the city is significantly undermanned in the department. Suzanne Taylor passed out a document in which she claimed that the standards call for four firefighters per engine “with the first due on the scene with four minutes of dispatch and the second due on the scene within eight minutes.”
Adding two more firefighters for the ambulance, Taylor said the standards require “ten firefighters per shift” and that the Cape May Fire Department has four on duty per shift.
A number of residents questioned council on a timeline for the study, but no firm timeline was offered. Council member Beatrice Gauvry-Pessagno said that she was committed to getting a response on this issue “as quickly as possible.” With the coming of summer, residents expressed concern that the population in the town was about to grow substantially and that action was needed.
Inderwies sparred with City Manager Bruce MacLeod saying that as a former fire chief he made requests for more manpower. Charles Hendricks, reading an email by Ben Miller, cited NFPA guidelines to claim that the staffing requirement for a fire is 15 personnel. The email added, “Under the city manager’s plan, only four of the mandated 15 firefighters arriving at a fire in the City of Cape May, would be from the CMFD.”
Miller added that the city manager failed to share with council “a report he had, that made it clear the city was violating the NFPA standard on every fire call, creating the potential for a massive lawsuit against the city.”
MacLeod said that he is in a dialogue with the present fire chief, Alexander Coulter, concerning what should be the full time personnel level for the department. He also added that the city has added one individual to each shift with the summer season about to start.
Online Streaming of Council Meetings and Transparency
A year ago, Cape May initiated a significant improvement in local government outreach to the public when it started streaming all council meetings. At points in the year when topics of interest appeared on council agendas, statistics showed hundreds of views accessing meetings via the streaming service. With the videos posted following the meetings, the capability was in place for viewers to watch council meetings on their own schedule.
Now residents are asking council to go further. Inderwies introduced a proposal during the public comment period calling on council to “have published on the city’s website, all resolutions in their entirety, to be voted upon at all city council meetings.”
Patricia Hendricks also pressed council to be more transparent on the issues they are voting on and offered the compromise position that would have resolutions read out at the meetings prior to any actions.
Solicitor Anthony Monzo cited reasons why resolutions, until acted upon, were not public documents and others on council spoke to the issue of confidentiality of bidding information. Inderwies pointed out that other municipalities do make the resolutions public before acting using as one example Middle Township.
Mahaney said, “If we go back to reading the resolutions at meetings, I’m OK with that.” No formal decision was made, but council seemed ready to move in the direction of greater access to the resolutions and their content in the future.
Council also introduced on first reading three bond ordinances for various improvements totalling almost $2.6 million with $1.4 million in city capital improvements, $994,000 in utility improvements for water and sewer projects, and $198,000 in various beach utility projects. The ordinances will come up for possible adoption in May.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.