Captain Not Reinstated as Chief Despite Outcry at Council Meeting

CAPE MAY – Council ignited a controversy March 3 that is threatening to morph into a full-fledged rebellion. At that meeting, Council rescinded the appointment of Robert Sheehan as chief of police, an act that placed him back in his position as captain but still left him in charge of the police department as its senior officer.
The reason for the council’s action was an open investigation which council could not discuss at the time and which the public was led to believe implicated Sheehan in some way. Innuendo was rampant, as a sentence was read from a County Prosecutor’s Office memorandum and then referenced frequently without full explanation. The public was not told what the investigation was about or in what way it involved Sheehan.
Jerry Inderwies Jr., one of the newly-elected members of council, was so outraged that he angrily resigned his seat in the public meeting saying that council was engaged in a “witch hunt.” In a matter of two hours, the city lost its police chief and the top vote getter among its three new council members, and the reasons were anything but clear.
Since that meeting March 3, the city issued two press releases, one with over 20 pages of supporting documentation, held a press conference that was closed to the public, and moved its next council meeting, held March 24, from the intimate surroundings of the old school auditorium at city hall to the much larger venue at Convention Hall.
None of the moves, press releases included, dampened the controversy. Council met and received a public scolding as Sheehan supporters used the public comment period to castigate the three council members who had voted to demote him.
A crowd of over 300 filled the hall with twice that number watching the live video streaming of the meeting on Cape May City’s website.
The 7 p.m. meeting had its share of drama right at the start as over 30 police chiefs from across the state entered the hall together at 6:59.
Suddenly the hall had the feel of a police convention with numerous captains, sergeants and other law enforcement officers lining the walls while the chiefs took reserved seats. County Prosecutor Robert Taylor was also present along with Sheriff Gary Schaffer. One could spot a number of council members and administrators from other county municipalities.
The room exploded into applause when Sheehan entered and walked alone to a seat with the chiefs. The feeling was more of a sports match than a municipal meeting. The sentiments of the crowd were not in doubt as they applauded Sheehan and echoed boos and hoots in response to actions that did not support their goal of having Sheehan reappointed police chief.
The logistics of the room placed Council on a stage looking down on the public. Five individuals on that stage were the focal point of the crowd’s displeasure: the three council members, Mayor Edward Mahaney, Deputy Mayor Terri Swain, and Council Member Bea Pessagno, all of whom voted to demote Sheehan and have consistently maintained that the decision made March 3 was the right one, along with City Manager Bruce Macleod and City Solicitor Anthony Monzo.
Council member Shaine Meier, who became a crowd favorite, introduced a motion to reinstate Sheehan at the very start of the meeting, but the motion received no second from any of the remaining three members.
Meier, throughout the meeting and public comment period, showed himself to be council’s maverick, opposing the majority on Sheehan’s appointment and the 2015 budget. It was a role played briefly by Inderwies before he resigned after just two months on council.
The lengthy public discussion was a formidable display of support for Sheehan, but it came after the close of the agenda and resulted in no action on the issue of Sheehan’s appointment.
“Maybe when this investigation is over, if Robert Sheehan is exonerated, we might reopen this discussion,” said Mahaney.
Charles Hendricks, who ran unsuccessfully for council in November, said, “Council is hoping this will end tonight, but it will not end tonight.”
Seventeen individuals walked to a bare microphone in an open area below the stage to speak out. The agenda notified potential speakers that they would be limited to five minutes, but many went over that limit.
Speakers included chiefs of police from other jurisdictions, ex-mayors of the city including Jerry Inderwies, father of the councilman who resigned, followed later by Inderwies Jr., recently retired council member William Murray, and a number of Cape May residents, all of whom in one way or another seemed to echo the sentiments of one who asked, “Where’s the common sense?”
The city’s position, a phrase that must be used for the position of those in the majority on city council, is a relatively straightforward one, which has been presented repeatedly in press releases.
Stated briefly, council found itself coming down to the wire on the one-year probationary contract given to Sheehan after he was appointed chief March 4, 2014. The March 3 council meeting of this year was held with one day left in that probationary period. A disturbing investigation had been ongoing with ebbs and flows along with shifts in jurisdiction since July of 2014.
The investigation involved a practice by one of the department’s officers, Lt. Chuck Lear, to accumulate compensatory time for long hours on the job and to use that banked time for paid leave at points in the year. The city has maintained that this practice is a violation of city policy and specifically disallowed by Lear’s contract. The amount in question, the amount of paid leave that Lear took as compensation for the compensatory time, was $11,000.
The administrative practice, whether allowed or not by policy, was long standing and existed under previous chief of police Diane Sorantino. Sheehan inherited the practice and had been chief for about four months when he was confronted by city officials about it, notably his superior in the city administrative structure, MacLeod.
Certainly Sheehan, as captain before being promoted to chief, was aware of the questioned practice even when it was sanctioned under Sorantino.
From that point, what might on the surface seem like an administrative procedure subject to administrative evaluation and potential action, mushroomed into a labyrinth of investigations passed back and forth between the city and the County Prosecutor’s Office with no real resolution after months of on-again, off-again activity. All of this the city tried to outline in its extended second press release just before the recent council meeting.
From the city’s perspective, this ongoing investigation with the added impact of the oft quoted March 2 letter from the Prosecutor’s Office which contained the unfortunate wording referring to a “criminal investigation,” along with the fact that council maintained it was unable to reach the author of the letter during its closed session March 3, left the council with no options. The Prosecutor’s Office has confirmed that there is no criminal investigation.
As council majority saw it, the investigation was on going, the March 2 letter was disturbing and unable to be questioned in time, and one day remained on the probationary period. They took the step to rescind the appointment and place Sheehan back in his position as captain.
At the start of the public comment period, Mahaney asked the crowd to consider, “What would you do if you were in our seats?”
The rest of the evening was devoted to individuals giving council a response to that question.
Jerry Gaffney, who served 16 years on the council including four as mayor, said, “You are tarnishing the reputation of a fine police officer. You are tarnishing Cape May’s reputation.”
William Murray, who served on the council that appointed Sheehan, called on members to “correct this unfortunate mistake.” Speaker after speaker challenged the council but the three members who voted to demote Sheehan held firm in reply. Mahaney went so far as to say, “I am not worried about being reelected; I have done what was right.”
Therein may lay the crux of the tragedy for the city. The council members feel that under the circumstances they acted properly and in accordance with their fiduciary responsibility for oversight of taxpayer dollars.
The public, at least the large majority who took part in the council meeting, support a police officer who came up through the ranks, had the highest score on the Civil Service exam for chief in the state when he took it, and who inherited the practice that is at the heart of the dispute.
To date a focus has been on what should have been done on March 3, leaving council members to defend their actions. Many of the questions asked at the council meeting in Convention Hall took the discussion from the past to the present.
For many in the audience, the public support for Sheehan demonstrated a wellness by the residents to take their chances on a man they trust even if the full investigation is not complete. That is why so many comments came down to an echo of Murray when he said, “Reinstate Chief Sheehan immediately.”
Without the ticking clock and the unknowns they say drove them on March 3, council now needs to decide how to proceed in the face of strong opposition to the current arrangement.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.