Split Won’t Quit

CAPE MAY – Members of the public have repeatedly urged Cape May City Council to find ways to work together to benefit the city. Some have suggested a team-building retreat.
The public comment period at meetings has been used at times to plead, scold or exhort council members to show more respect for each other. 
Throughout it, all the bickering continued. One might argue that it is not unusual for government legislative bodies to have voting blocs and differences of perspective.
Yet, in Cape May, the differences seem less ideological, less the result of a desire for opposing outcomes, as it seems an inability to find common ground when the participants say they are seeking the same outcome.
The New Normal
On votes that do not deal with routine business, the vote is frequently split 3-2, with the same two members of council losing each time.
Council meetings, even ones with seemingly uncontroversial agendas, routinely run on for three or more hours with barbs traded back and forth among council members, often with the mayor silent for long stretches, unable or unwilling to bring order and cooperation to the governing body.
Toward the end of the mayoralty of Edward Mahaney, council meetings sometimes took on a rancorous tone, as members of the public, who opposed what they saw as Mahaney’s ubiquitous involvement in all aspects of city business, claimed he was playing the role of a strong mayor in a form of government that did not give him that power.
With the 2016 election campaign, in which Mahaney lost for the first time in his political career, Clarence “Chuck” Lear took the mayor’s seat seeming to hold out the promise of a transparent and harmonious city administration.
Deja Vu
Almost from the start, a split developed on the governing body that mushroomed as the first years of Lear’s administration passed.
Lear and Patricia Hendricks were the new members of the five-member council. Beatrice Pessagno, Roger Furlin, and Shaine Meier were the holdovers.
As the new council’s term went on, Pessagno and Furlin frequently complained about being left out of key discussions. They voiced concerns about not having a say on appointments and committee assignments.
What started slowly grew to the point where Pessagno openly challenged Lear’s running of the council, stating more than once that she believed him to be in violation of the Faulkner Act, the state law that sets parameters for various forms of municipal government.
The 3-2 split votes started to become commonplace during those years. When it occurred, Furlin and Pessagno were always in the minority.
Split Votes
In a partisan form of government, such a split might not be unusual, especially in an era where party lines seem to stand for world views. However, Cape May’s form of government is non-partisan. The issues giving rise to split votes did not run along normal party fault lines.
For some, especially those who supported Lear’s candidacy as a way to end Mahaney’s grip on city government, Pessagno and Furlin could be seen as holdovers from the old guard, not part of the reform movement initiated with Lear’s election.
Meier had been isolated from the old guard on the previous council when he took stands different from the majority concerning the lawsuit of former police chief and then Capt. Robert Sheehan.
It is important to remember that many of the split votes during those first two Lear years, the source of numerous comments regarding mayoral overreach, centered on appointments and removal of individuals to city commissions and council committees.
In-Camera Sessions?
The argument Pessagno often presented was that actions would be taken and names would appear on agendas without all council members having equal knowledge.
The council would have the ultimate responsibility to decide, but the three votes necessary were consistently available. 
Neither Furlin nor Pessagno stood for reelection. The 2018 campaign produced two new members of the council, Zack Mullock and Stacey Sheehan, along with a reelected Shaine Meier.
Rumors Wrong
At the time, many voiced the opinion that Lear gained a fourth sure vote, given the close ties between him and the Sheehan family. Stacey Sheehan is the sister of Robert Sheehan, with whom Lear worked for years in the police department, and with whom Lear was inextricably linked in the compensatory time controversy that roiled city politics from March 2015, when Sheehan was removed from his position as chief of police one day before the end of his probationary period ended.
The surprise was that the division on the council continued, with the two new members frequently on the losing end of 3-2 votes.
Not One Success
No resolution either of the two has proposed since being elected, on any issue, has carried and no resolution the two have opposed in a split vote has lost.
Ironically, the issue that drove the wedge on the new council was the same as that which produced rancor on the previous council, appointments, and removals from committees and commissions.
A signature characteristic of the Lear administration has been the significant increase in citizen advisory committees, a move to increase citizen involvement and overall transparency in municipal government. Yet, who is appointed and how has become one frequent source of council discord.
Attempts by Mullock and Sheehan to formalize the process by which appointments are made were defeated.
A push by the two to have all, and then just some key, advisory committee meetings either livestreamed or video recorded was defeated, with some committee members objecting to having their deliberations videotaped.  Opposition by the two appointments, which they claimed they had no knowledge of until the council agendas were released, were overridden.
Public Safety Building
Calls by the two to have council manage key projects like the proposed Public Safety Building (PSB) did not carry.
While the PSB advisory committee was continued by the council, the project itself has slowed. New design concepts have been developed to better fit the project into the city’s projected capital budget, but no action has been taken in weeks.
Yet, for six months, career firefighters have turned the firehouse common room into living quarters because of mold infestation in the official living quarters.
A divide exists over the best approach to the PSB, yet, resolution of that divide appears on hold at times.
The 3-2 vote will not be sufficient to pass the necessary bond issues, so some resolution will be required.
Left to Voters
With no visible attempt to find a way for council to compromise on key issues, the divide on the body appears to be headed for resolution by the voters in future elections.
A Dec. 17 council meeting led to another prolonged period of in-fighting on the council over the appointment of an individual to the Planning Board.
The resolution of appointment was brought up for addition to the agenda at the meeting itself, and had not been part of the agenda released to the public before the meeting.
The first half-hour of the meeting was devoted to a back-and-forth on the potential appointment. Mullock, speaking for himself and Sheehan, stated “no one we select will even be considered.”
Chagrined
In the end, Mullock expressed disappointment, “We cannot compromise on a single process or issue. I see no attempt at compromise on this council.”
Sheehan tried again to have a new vote on a resolution she had proposed in March. It would establish a formal protocol for committee appointments.
The mayor introduced a motion to postpone the vote on Sheehan’s motion. It was continued until the Jan. 7 meeting.
 The struggle for common ground continues.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com