Transferable, Commercial Beach Tags OK’d

CAPE MAY – Cape May City Council adopted a beach tag ordinance Nov. 18 that creates a new class of commercial beach tag, intended for hotels and bed-and-breakfast inns (B&B) that want to provide tags for their guests.
A last-minute amendment placed the mercantile license of an establishment at risk if caught using the non-commercial tags inappropriately.
The solicitor ruled that the amendment, which had not been part of the published ordinance following introduction, did not constitute a “substantial altering of the substance of the ordinance,” even though no penalties had been part of the ordinance, as first introduced. 
The ruling allowed continued consideration of the ordinance as amended rather than forcing the ordinance through the process of reintroduction.
A push to get the ordinance adopted was driven by the traditional beginning of beach tag sales in the first week of December.
The city has been wrestling with a problem of lost beach-tag revenue due to the use of its non-transferable seasonal tags by hotels, motels and B&B owners in violation of the regulations.
Citizens have repeatedly used the comment period at council meetings to urge the city to do something about accommodation establishments that rotate the same seasonal tag among successive customers throughout the summer, violating the rules that state the tag is non-transferable.
Beach tags represent the single largest revenue source for the city’s Beach Utility, a self-liquidating budget entity that is used to cover many of the costs of maintaining the beaches and paying for guards and taggers.
The city has not been able to find an effective way to enforce the non-transferability regulations. The new commercial tag was an attempt at a solution. The new ordinance set a $50 per season price on the commercial tag, and removed the rules about transferability from all beach tags.
The problem that arose prior to a final adoption of the ordinance involved a concern raised by members of the public that a hotel or other accommodations establishment could elect to defeat the higher cost of the commercial tag and rely on the normal seasonal tags, priced at $30, which no longer carry a regulation forbidding transferability, a sizable loophole in an ordinance that contains no penalty provisions.
Essentially, the amendment stated that an establishment in violation of the intent of the commercial beach tag could face “possible suspension of its mercantile license,” a significant penalty for essentially engaging in behavior that has gone unenforced for years.
The ordinance was adopted.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.