City Sets Stage For New Council

CAPE MAY – Dec. 20 marked the last meeting of the year for the Cape May City Council. It also marked a changing of the guard in one of the nation’s premiere resorts. 
When long-time Mayor Edward Mahaney lost his bid for reelection in November, it was followed by a number of retirements that will lead to significant change in the city administration.
Amid all of that impending change, the council elected to vote for a contract for Police Chief Anthony Marino, who was appointed to the position Aug. 15.
The contract sets the terms of employment for Marino and runs through Dec. 31, 2019. What made council’s actions controversial was that it took action while a lawsuit remains active in Superior Court seeking, as one of its remedies, the reinstatement of the previous Chief Robert Sheehan.
In its last two meetings the council indemnified itself and city officials to cover individuals who might personally be named in the Sheehan suit. With its vote at this meeting, the governing body put in place Marino’s contract even though the oversight authority for the Police Department will be the new city manager, not the one who just concluded negotiation of the terms two weeks before leaving office.
Leaving the Scene
City Manager Bruce MacLeod has filed for retirement as of Dec. 31.
City Clerk Louise Cummiskey and City Solicitor Anthony Monzo will also step down.
Mahaney and Council member Terri Swain, who did not seek reelection, will be leaving the council. This level of change gives the incoming administration led by Mayor-elect Clarence Lear an opportunity to set up a team of city officials to carry the city into the next decade.
On what has probably been the most controversial issue for the last two years, the exiting administration has made sure that the new administration has little if any flexibility. At least that is how many members of the public saw it.
New Mayor Entering
Lear comes to the mayor’s chair following a long career in the police department. He retired in January 2016, at the center of a controversy over the use of paid leave.
What many at the time thought was an administrative issue that should have been handled quietly by MacLeod, turned into one that rocked the city, led to Sheehan’s removal as chief, produced a long conflict with the County Prosecutor’s Office and even led to an attempted recall of the mayor.
Lear’s candidacy in November set up an opportunity for the voters to speak on the issue since they were being asked to vote for the man whom city officials had forced out of the police department. Lear won an overwhelming victory. 
When Marino was appointed in August, it started a 90-day probationary period. When Sheehan was appointed in March 2014, his probationary period was set at one year. 
He was removed from the chief’s position one day before that probationary period ended. The difference had to do with how the appointments were made and the Civil Service rules that applied. Members of the public who talked after this week’s council meeting said they had no idea the probationary period for Marino was different. It was never an issue discussed at council meetings.
The effect of that change is that Marino is in his position as a permanent chief. Monzo explained at the meeting that Marino cannot now be removed for anything but cause or a court order resulting from the Sheehan lawsuit.
With the terms of his employment settled by the three-and-a-half-year contract as well, the current council has given the new administration little wiggle room if those sworn in at the January reorganization meeting wish to settle the Sheehan suit. Unless Sheehan is willing to settle without being reappointed to his old position as Chief, the only remedy is to let the case play out in court, an expensive option that keeps the whole issue alive in a city that would very much like it settled.
In a Rush?
Jerry Gaffney rose during the meeting to ask “Why this rush to settle this contract? Why not leave it for 2017?”
In an unusual display of emotion, MacLeod raised his voice saying, “Those are your words, Jerry.  There is no rush.  This has been negotiated for months.”
Others in the audience joined Gaffney in seeing the move as a last attempt by the current council to put its stamp on the police department issue.
“We have moved on,” said Mahaney, using a phrase he used about the same issue during the election campaign.
An “escape clause” was added to the contract just hours before the council voted. Many on council saw the new language only at the council table that evening. The clause was added, Macleod said, to satisfy concerns raised by Lear.
Calling it an “11th-hour” concern, MacLeod said that a clause was negotiated with Marino that would be invoked only in response to a court order reappointing Sheehan. 
Chief’s Options If…
In that case, Marino would have the option of returning to his position and rank as sergeant or taking retirement at the level of pay he was receiving as chief.
Since the retirement regulations for the chief’s position set the final year of salary as the amount that governs in the retirement benefit calculation, this represents an opportunity for Marino, if Sheehan is reappointed, to take retirement several levels above the pay grade he was in prior to Aug. 15 when he served as a sergeant. 
As the terms were explained, whatever salary Marino has if a court orders Sheehan’s reappointment would be used as the final full-year salary for computing his retirement.
For Marino, who once again could only sit silently while the meeting played out, the retirement option is the potential reward for his willingness to take on the task of leading the department amid the risks imposed by the court case.
Most of the members of the public who spoke on the issue before council made a special point of divorcing their remarks from any implied criticism of Marino’s current leadership, yet the very existence of the controversy cannot help but make the job more difficult.
Of interest was the fact that the “months of negotiation” earlier described by MacLeod obviously never took into consideration any clause in the contract that might protect the city from the possible court order to reinstate Sheehan while having an almost four-year contract in place for Marino at a Chief’s salary grade. For some, it was hard to see why this was an “11th-hour” issue.
Although the need for the clause was said to be in response to concerns Lear raised, the escape clause inserted is very different from the position sought by Lear.
In an email writing to Swain, Lear raised the issue, but he also said in that correspondence that he believed “the best choice is no contract at this time.”
Sheehan was removed from his position as chief in March 2015. When the new council takes its seats in 2017, the controversy, having been on-going for almost two years, will still be on the city’s agenda.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.