Deputy Mayor’s County Job Draws Mayoral Blast

CREST HAVEN – Despite a hiring freeze in Cape May County government, freeholders unanimously passed a resolution Tue., Jan. 24 that included the hiring Lower Township Deputy Mayor Kevin Lare for a part-time position in the Purchasing Department.
Lare’s job is listed as “Replacement/Training” at $25.55 per hour for 32 hours a week, or 64 hours in a two-week period. He is listed as a confidential assistant, and is a non-union employee, according to County Administrator Stephen O’Connor.
The hiring of Lare drew the disdain of Lower Township Mayor Michael Beck, who originally ran with Lare in 2008 for a seat on that municipal government. Lare was formerly a West Cape May borough commissioner before relocating to Lower Township.
“Unfortunately it comes down to putting food on the table,” said Lare in a telephone interview Mon., Jan. 30. “It’s a part-time position, and there are incredibly petty people in the Township of Lower who will use this story for their own political advantage,” he added.
Beck termed Lare and others who apparently benefit from political positions, as “the new Pharisees.”
“They eat at the banquet table,” said Beck, “As those they serve are going through foreclosures and reverse mortgages to make ends meet, they bounce from political job to political job like frogs on a lily pad. I feel so bad for the people taking a beating,” he added.
“I was a leader in Vietnam in the jungle, and (in the police department) on the streets in Philadelphia, and a true leader eats last. His people eat first. It is a shame,” said Beck.
He noted that, in 1998 when he first sought office, “I ran on the platform that I would make a promise never to take a government job. Fourteen years later, I still have never touched one,” said Beck.
O’Connor told the Herald, “Although the county is trying to maintain a rigid hiring freeze, there are retirements in key positions that are making it difficult,” said O’Connor.
He cited the retirement of a long-term employee from the Administration Office. While assigned to Administration, he said that person’s job was “predominantly focused on contracts and other Purchasing Department tasks.”
Those duties, O’Connor noted, “cannot be effectively reassigned to other employees that we are doing in most other vacant positions.”
Before hiring anyone from outside county government, O’Connor said officials “look for other employees within county government that we could transfer without having to back-fill the relocated position. There simply wasn’t any other employee that could transfer without having to replace their position,” he added.
O’Connor stated that Lare is a former county employee “who left in good standing for another job.” He had sought return to county government for the last two years, but the hiring freeze prevented him from having the opportunity.”
As administrator, O’Connor noted that he had advised freeholders that certain “key positions” that became vacant and needed to be filled, and there was no ability to transfer from within to take up the slack from the retiring employee.
“I have recommended that, when necessary, we make an exception to the hiring freeze and hire from outside county government for part-time employees,” O’Connor said.
As such, an employee can work a maximum 34 hours. That is an hour less than the threshold when a part-timer would be entitled to health benefits, a costly add-on to salary.
However, part-time employees are entitled to enroll in the New Jersey Public Employee Pension System (PERS).
“Since this position had to be filled, I recommended Kevin Lare to be rehired by the county at 32 hours per week,” said O’Connor.
He stressed that he took that action since Lare left the county in “good standing and is qualified for the position.”
Lare’s health benefits will be assumed under his wife’s, a teacher, insurance, O’Connor said.
Lare confirmed what O’Connor stated about his prior county employment.
“I am eminently qualified for the job,” said Lare, “I will say humbly, I am over qualified. I have extensive management experience in the public and private sector. I have to put food on my table for myself and my family.”
Lare said he had combined over 12 years of government experience dealing with contracts, bids, requests for proposals and contract administration when he previously worked for the county in the Department of Human Services.
He also held posts on the Boardwalk Special Improvement District in Wildwood and worked with contracts in Wildwood and North Wildwood.
“I have a strong frame of reference what the job entails. I have extensive private sector experience.
“It’s the truth. It’s a needle in a haystack. It’s not about qualifications, this is about politics. This is a way, in his (Beck’s) eyes, to enhance his position,” said Lare.
“The job came open, I applied the same process as everyone else,” he added.
He added it was “very important that this is a story that is clear that people want to use my livelihood for their political advantage.”
Referring to Beck’s wife, “when she got a job at Crest Haven Nursing Home, I didn’t like talking about that,” Lare said.
Lare cited the parting of ways between Beck and himself at an Aug. 17, 2009 council meeting over an MUA appointment.
“He (Beck) made very inflammatory comments about teachers which caused me to lose support (for Beck’s choice.)
“The mayor approached me and said, ‘If you are not supporting this person, we are done. That’s it,” said Lare.
Another factor when the two disagreed was when Beck wanted to purchase an electronic sign outside Township Hall on Bayshore Road, Villas.
“I told him I could not support it. I said ‘My position is, I can’t support this when we are not filling positions in the police department and they are short staffed,” said Lare.
“In my opinion, that was the beginning of the end. He never forgave me,” he added.
At the same meeting Jan. 24, freeholders appointed former Lower Township councilman and deputy mayor Arthur “Stig” Blomkvest, also a Republican, to fill the unexpired term of William Henfey, North Wildwood mayor, on the three-member Cape May County Bridge Commission.
The appointment will continue until May 1, 2012.
O’Connor, who is also executive director of the Bridge Commission which operates Ocean Drive toll bridges, said the appointment is a “political one” to the three-member board, one that must be filled by a member of the majority party, which is Republican. A Democrat must fill the third seat.
Blomkvest is the son of Arthur Blomkvest, former Cape May mayor.
His resume states that he was a committeeman in Cape May from 1989-1990, served on Lower Township Committee from 1992-94 and 1996-2000, during which time he served as deputy mayor.
From 2001-2007 he served as Ward 3 councilman in Lower Township.