Sheehan Settlement Left Much Unsettled

CAPE MAY – Police Capt. Robert Sheehan’s lawsuit against the City of Cape May was one month shy of 3-years-old and one day short of a trial beginning when the Cape May City Council voted unanimously Feb. 6 to settle the case. 
The terms of the settlement provide Sheehan with an $800,000 payment, $440,000 of which will come from the city’s taxpayers and $360,000 from its insurance carrier.
In return, Sheehan agreed to dismiss his lawsuit against the city with prejudice, which means he cannot file another suit on the same claim. Thus, the 3-year-old legal case ends.
The settlement does not require Sheehan to retire or otherwise leave the department where he had followed his father as a police officer and where he rose to the rank of chief of police in 2014.
According to Mayor Clarence “Chuck” Lear, Sheehan intends to stay on as captain.
Council’s Deliberations
As the clerk called the roll for a vote on the settlement resolution, each council member took a moment to explain their thinking on an issue that played a large part in the November 2016 election that saw Lear defeat incumbent mayor Edward Mahaney.
Lear was a central player in the controversy that began with his use of what the city termed compensatory time.
For some, this meant that he should recuse himself from deliberations and votes on anything about the Sheehan case.
Lear disagreed with that sentiment and participated fully in the consideration of the settlement. 
Two of the longer-serving members of the council, Beatrice Pessagno and Roger Furlin explained that they supported the settlement because they could not place the city in jeopardy of an even higher award to Sheehan should the city lose in court.
They both maintained that trial would allow residents to see the full picture behind Sheehan’s removal as chief in 2014, and council’s subsequent refusal to reinstate him even after the County Prosecutor found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in a convoluted controversy surrounding Sheehan’s role in the use of compensatory time involving then-lieutenant Lear.
The other three members of the council each took the position that the city was wrong in its actions against Sheehan, placing the blame on the previous administration headed by Mahaney.
Deputy Mayor Shaine Meier said Sheehan was “wronged” in this process and he regretted the fact that the current council could not reinstate him as chief of police.
Patricia Hendricks criticized “the Mahaney-led council” for removing Sheehan “whose record as police chief was exemplary.”
She also decried the actions of that council when it ignored the pending litigation and moved in the last days of its power as a council to appoint a new chief and then quickly give him a three-year contract.
Lear pushed even harder on the culpability of the previous mayor and council in saddling the city with “a nearly $1-million settlement.”
“You might say,” Lear added, “Rob Sheehan won and the previous city administration lost except the costs of their loss must be borne by all of us.”
Lear, the mayor, and a police department veteran, then raised questions that were aimed directly at the current police chief.
“Why was (Anthony) Marino given only a brief probationary period when Rob Sheehan’s was 12 months?” Lear asked.
Continuing, he asked, “Why, in an inexplicably swift decision by the Mahaney administration, was Marino given a three-year contract, even though the Sheehan litigation and his potential reinstatement were still pending?”
Given the fact that the settlement did nothing to alter the fact that Sheehan and Marino will both continue to play leadership roles in the police department, open questions about the validity of Marino’s appointment resolved little in the police department other than ending the litigation.
The Apology
Following the unanimous vote to settle the litigation, a related resolution was considered that did not win unanimous support, an apology by the city to Sheehan.
Stating that the previous council had taken “abrupt, unexplained and unwarranted action to demote Sheehan to his previous rank as captain,” the resolution cited Sheehan for “selfless and distinguished service.”
It went on to extend the city’s “sincere apologies to Capt. Sheehan and his family for the needless disruption of his career.”
Even key city officials felt that the city’s case was weak and were willing to speak of the city’s earlier actions as “unwarranted” and “needless.”
Both Pessagno and Furlin voted no on the apology resolution with Pessagno expressing outrage that she had not seen this resolution in the period between the closed session that discussed the settlement in the afternoon and the open public session at which this resolution went to a vote.
She was assured that a copy had been sent to her by email, but that did little to soothe her anger at having to vote on an apology she felt was inappropriate.
The apology resolution passed 3-2, enough to formally commit the city to this gesture of regret for a drawn-out episode.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.