Special Counsel Hired for City Manager’s Defense

CAPE MAY – Cape May City Council held two meetings July 21. The first, at 6 p.m., was a brief gathering to approve a resolution for a closed session which the agenda listed as being for “a contract settlement with West Cape May” on an on-going dispute over water loss and, more ominously for the attending public, “Cape May County Prosecutor Investigation.”
No further details were provided on the closed session and no action was taken when the council returned to close the special meeting.
The regularly scheduled 7 p.m. meeting of the council followed.
Council moved through a series of resolutions, some of which might have provoked public comment in the past, and then went into extended public comment on the police controversy that has dominated municipal council meetings since the March 3 rescinding of Robert Sheehan’s appointment as police chief.
Sheehan was returned to his previous rank as captain and continues to command operations of the police department.
The routine is almost always the same: outrage expressed by a politically-active group of citizens; little if any specific information on the controversy supplied by the council; a motion made and seconded by the two council members who support Sheehan’s reinstatement; a vote in which that motion fails to carry, and more public comment on the matter.
What breaks the routine is some item that extends the controversy in a new direction. Sheehan’s suit against the city in March, the city’s suit against the County Prosecutor in April, the County Prosecutor’s report to the city in May; arguments before Superior Court Judge J. Christopher Gibson at the end of May; Gibson’s ruling against the city’s request for an injunction against the prosecutor in July, and now Resolution 185. 
That resolution was for the “City of Cape May for Legal Defense of City Manager Bruce MacLeod.”
A number of residents requested clarification of the need for the item. They were told that the matter could not be discussed because it related to an on-going investigation.
Jerry Gaffney asked if the city manager had been served with a subpoena by the County Prosecutor’s Office which was what many in the audience had heard. City Solicitor Anthony Monzo could not confirm or deny the potential issue of a subpoena related to the city’s handling of the police controversy.  What the public found out was that an outside attorney would be used to represent MacLeod, that the cost would be $150 per hour, and that there was no cap placed on the expense at this point.
Monzo said no indemnification for potential wrongdoing was involved.
When council was asked why an outside counsel was required rather than having the city solicitor serving as MacLeod’s council, the response was that Monzo might have a conflict of interest serving in that role.
An item not on the agenda but added at the meeting also provided for legal representation for City Clerk Louise Cummiskey, sparking comments from the public that she may also have been served with a subpoena related to data  requested by the prosecutor. 
Again no confirmation was possible from council.
Several members of the public asked council why it did not reinstate Sheehan. 
Council member Shaine Meier made a motion to do so. Jack Wichterman offered a second, as it was at the last council meeting.  The motion failed 3-2 with Beatrice Pessagno, Terri Swain, and Mayor Edward Mahaney voting against it. The vote sparked Gaffney, who served as mayor, to again ask the question he posed in the past. “What do you know that we don’t know?” As at past meetings, the question received no direct response.
Jerry Inderwies, Jr., ex-council member who resigned over the Sheehan controversy, asked council why it seemed satisfied with Sheehan running the department as captain, with a captain’s pay, but did not feel they could reinstate him as chief.
The discussion provoked a heated exchange with Mahaney who, in comparing himself to Inderwies, said “I’m not a quitter,” an obvious reference to Inderwies’ resignation. 
Inderwies had just called on the mayor to step down saying “You caused this problem because you think you have to be in charge of everything.”
The expressions of public displeasure from those in attendance continued with Patricia Hendricks saying that the “City of Cape May has turned into a political ATM machine.”
Robert Boyd, an ex-police chief, asked if the wording of the resolution meant that MacLeod had been charged with an offense.
“Is the city hiring a lawyer to defend Bruce or to advise him? There is a difference.” Monzo confirmed that the outside counsel would advise MacLeod.
Jerry Inderwies, Sr., also a past mayor, had a heated exchange with Mahaney saying “The town is so divided; I have never seen anything like it.”
Charles Hendricks called the payment of legal fees for MacLeod “hush money” and called MacLeod the “fall guy” in the controversy, language more often used in TV police dramas rather than municipal council meetings.
Hendricks also asked why there was no resolution to strip MacLeod of his position given the fact that he was now part of an ongoing investigation by the County Prosecutor’s Office as Sheehan had been.
An embattled council saw the two situations as different. Monzo also pointed to a resolution adopted at a previous meeting giving legal representation to city employees called before the County Prosecutor.
The new routine continued and council finally adjourned with no sign of any imminent resolution. Inderwies Jr. and Mahaney even had a heated exchange in the hallway outside the meeting room as council members filed out.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.