Injuries on Sloping Beach Prompt City to Seek Engineers’ Review

CAPE MAY – Beach safety and the on-going controversy regarding the police department dominated the Oct. 6 Cape May City Council work session. An unexpected action regarding drones in city air space also added to the agenda.
Beach Safety
Public concern about the number of serious accidents on city beaches has grown as the number of incidents has increased. Years of beach replenishment and the impacts of Atlantic storms have left the beaches with slopes between the high and low tide lines that many feel are major contributors to injuries sustained.
Beginning in 1990, Cape May entered into a 50-year agreement for federal beach replenishment that has been beneficial to the city but has also left it with much less autonomy over what can be done on its beaches. 
Given jurisdictional and permit issues, the nature of the city’s largely engineered beaches, and the potential, but as yet unknown, costs, city council is seeking a feasibility study to see if there is a solution that would help remedy its safety problems, and, if so, what it would cost.
The firm that has the city’s engineering contract, Hatch Mott MacDonald, will provide a report for council’s consideration prior to its Oct. 20 meeting.
“We need to see if there is a project we can undertake, and, if so, what it is,” Mayor Edward Mahaney said.
“You don’t want to act for the sake of acting,” said city Engineer Thomas Thornton as he emphasized the complexity of the problem and said no solution would be simple.
The engineering firm, using what Mahaney referred to as “its global resources in coast engineering,” will study all the background documents on the historic beach profile as well as various jurisdictional and permit issues as they relate to the Army Corp of Engineers, the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife agency.
Mahaney warned that the city would potentially be taking on more than just cost. “The city has never had liability issues,” he said, “because we have never been anything but financial partners” in beach replenishment projects. With the city now talking about “doing something,” Mahaney wants the feasibility study to carefully adhere to the existing regulatory and permitting environment to protect the city in terms of future liability.
Mahaney and all council members expressed a strong desire to undertake such a project if the feasibility study shows something meaningful can be done.
Mahaney pinpointed the area of chief concern as “the wet sand between high and low tide lines.”
This area is mostly under federal jurisdiction and the city has been holding discussions with the Army Corps of Engineers.  Mahaney says they are supportive of the effort. The goal, if a project is identified and undertaken, is to have the work completed by the start of the 2016 summer season.
Mahaney called this “a cutting edge project,” saying that most “municipalities undertake replenishment for shore line protection and do not involve beach safety.” The Oct. 20 council meeting “will be important,” he said.
Police Department Controversy
Council member Shane Meier introduced another motion to reinstate Robert Sheehan as chief of police. The motion was seconded by Council member Jack Wichterman and lost in a 2-2 vote when Bea Pessagno and Mahaney voted no.  Terri Swain was absent from the meeting at the point of the vote and arrived later. When she did arrive, she expressed support for those who had defeated the motion.
Sheehan was demoted to captain at the March 3 council meeting. The public issue at the time was Sheehan’s possible role in what the city maintains was a violation of contract and policy by the department’s second in command, Lt. Chuck Lear.
The Lear matter, which first surfaced in the summer of 2014 and involved use of paid leave, led to the action against Sheehan.
The city’s releases which attempted to deal with the public concern over the controversy, then led to a struggle with the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office, the imposition of a monitor in the police department, a suit by the city to have the monitor removed, a recent settlement of the suit, and now finally a formal administrative hearing into Lear’s actions.
That hearing will be held beginning Oct. 13 at 9 a.m. in the city municipal court room. 
Lear opted for a public hearing and several residents at the council meeting indicated an intention to attend. The schedule allows four full days for the hearing although it is uncertain how long it will last.
Just prior to making his motion to reinstate Sheehan, Meier said that he felt council members had been “swayed into voting for the action” by innuendo concerning possible criminal activity which has since been disproven.
“Nothing illegal was going on,” he said. Meier went so far as to say he felt the action was the product of “personal grudges” and needed to be undone.
Pessagno disagreed saying she was not swayed. She said that council could not take the action Meier suggested while the lawsuit against the city’s still active.
City Solicitor Anthony Monzo said there had been no word from Sheehan’s attorney suggesting a settlement possibility.  No one indicated that the city had made any overtures regarding a settlement, just that Sheehan’s camp had not done so.
Monzo said nothing was yet scheduled in the case. Discovery was still ongoing and depositions would be the next step. 
No management conference with the judge has yet been held which is where the court may direct the parties to seek alternatives to litigation.
During public comment, Jerry Gaffney, who has frequently spoken on this issue, said “The only thing certain is more legal expense.” He urged council to step up and resolve the issue or tell the public why it cannot be resolved.
Drones
Wichterman raised an unscheduled item when he moved that council direct the solicitor to draft an ordinance banning use of drones within city limits, and as far out to sea as “we are allowed to go.” Wichterman cited safety concerns with the helicopter, small plane, and banner plane traffic that already fills the resort’s sky, especially in summer.
Mahaney seconded the motion with the amendment that the city needed to make sure that any ordinance did not interfere with the commercial drone testing programs at the airport and Coast Guard base.
In August, a Lower Township resident was indicted for using a shotgun to shoot a drone out of the air. As drones become cheaper, regulating their use will be an important public policy issue. 
For Wichterman the unregulated world of drones in Cape May is “a scary thing.”
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.