CAPE MAY – Cape May City Council held a special meeting Aug. 15 to appoint a police chief. Sgt. Anthony Marino was promoted to chief and sworn immediately after the council session.
Marino, 48, is a 25-year veteran of the department who began as a Class I officer and was promoted to sergeant in 2002. Marino was one of four candidates interviewed by council members Aug. 12.
The others were Capt. Robert Sheehan, and sergeants John Bobik and Dekan Fashaw.
Marino takes the position while a lawsuit remains open filed by Sheehan against the city after the council refused to confirm his appointment as chief one day before his probationary year ended in March 2015.
One objective of the suit is to have the courts force the city to reappoint Sheehan as chief. The case is in discovery and expected to go to trial early in 2017.
The year and a half since the March 2015 council meeting that moved Sheehan back to the rank of captain has been a period of ongoing controversy.
There have been Civil Service disciplinary hearings involving Sheehan and then Lt. Clarence Lear.
As the controversy swirled, there was the retirement of Lear as part of a settlement agreement with the city; the placement of a monitor in the police department by County Prosecutor Robert Taylor; and suits brought by the city against Taylor.
Throughout that period, and after the retirement of Lear in January, Sheehan has been the only officer above the rank of sergeant in the city police department. Sheehan placed number one in the Civil Service exam that qualified candidates for the city’s consideration.
The city has taken criticism for allowing vacant command positions to go unfilled for so long. However, the Aug. 15 decision to appoint Marino was not without its critics.
Jerry Inderwies, who resigned his seat on the council as a protest over the 2015 demotion of Sheehan, challenged council’s ability to make the appointment.
“I am objecting to council exercising executive powers,” Inderwies said. “The city manager is the sole appointing authority. He is now influenced by a vote of council,” Inderwies continued.
City Solicitor Anthony Monzo explained that the city’s ordinance, passed unanimously in 2004, reserved the authority for appointing the chief of police to the governing body.
Monzo said the action taken was in complete accord with state statutes and the city code.
Middle Township Police Chief Christopher Leusner, speaking as an officer of the New Jersey Association of Chiefs of Police, said he was “shocked that this is where we are a year later,” referring to the period since the March 2015 council meeting. “The system is not working,” he added.
Leusner said that Sheehan in 2014, then in his probationary year as chief of police, had acted correctly to take over an internal affairs investigation into Lear’s use of compensatory time. “That investigation was illegal,” Leusner said.
Leusner said that Sheehan acted properly even under the difficult circumstances of having to tell the governing body that it was acting inappropriately. With the lawsuit still active, Leusner said that the council was “putting Marino in a bad position.”
He predicted that Sheehan would prevail in his legal challenge. “I still believe that Rob will be reinstated,” he concluded.
Robert Boyd, an ex-police chief in Cape May, said, “I am very disappointed in the council’s action today, but I’m not surprised.”
He said council’s action was part of “a long-term scheme.” Boyd added, “Nothing against Marino, but your action does him no favor.” It was Boyd who first hired Marino into the department.
The council voted 4-1 for the new appointment with the only dissent being from Shane Meier. As they explained their votes individually, each member echoed the sentiment that the choice had been a difficult one with “four excellent candidates.”
Only Mayor Edward Mahaney cast his vote with no comment or explanation.
Following the meeting and just before taking his oath, Marino said that the lack of a definitive chief has been difficult for the department. He said uncertainty is not good for the department that he hopes “to move the department forward.”
Marino cited the exploding population of visitors in the summer season as one of the most difficult challenges the department annually faces. He went on to praise the professionalism of the officers in the department as they deal with such a diverse population.
Asked about any expected issues that he has been promoted over Sheehan, his superior for the last several years, Marino said he expects the relationship to be a professional one.
Marino is well aware that the lawsuit remains open but said “not my job to get involved in the suit.”
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
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CAPE MAY – Cape May City Council voted to promote Sgt. Anthony Marino as Cape May chief of police Aug. 15.
City Council promoted Marino as a lawsuit filed by past chief and current Capt. Robert Sheehan makes its way through the courts.
Marino is a 25-year veteran promoted to sergeant in 2002. He was sworn in following the council meeting. Sheehan, who attended the council session, remains captain.
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