WILDWOOD CREST – Nine candidates are seeking election in November to three seats on the Board of Commissioners, including all of the incumbents.

Mayor Don Cabrera, Deputy Mayor Joseph Franco Jr. and Joseph Schiff have all filed to run for reelection.

Board of Education President Toni Fuscellaro is joining Cabrera and Franco on a ticket.

Also running are Michael Marino, Joseph Bond, David Thompson, David Bannon and Robert Bethel.

There are three commission seats on the nonpartisan governing body, with four-year terms. The mayor is chosen by the commissioners, for a four-year term.

Don Cabrera

Cabrera has served as mayor for eight years and has confirmed this would be his final term, if reelected. He and his team are stressing maintaining fiscal stability while advancing major infrastructure, public safety and community projects by maximizing grant opportunities.

As a team, over the next four years, the candidates vow to keep taxes stable, protect beaches – specifically in opposing the U.S. Army Corps/Department of Environmental Protection plans to borrow beach sand – help maintain the volunteer fire company, mitigate stormwater street flooding, promote road reconstruction, make parking improvements, revitalize the New Jersey Avenue business district, upgrade municipal facilities such as borough hall, extend bike paths and enforce e-bike/scooter safety rules.

Cabrera has been mayor since 2018, serving as commissioner of Public Works and Parks and Recreation, overseeing numerous municipal projects.

He has also served on the Planning Board and the Recreation and Tourism Commission, is a past president of the Greater Wildwood Chamber of Commerce, is a member of the Wildwoods Urban Enterprise Zone Board, is the Cape May County League of Municipalities president and is a New Jersey Mayors Council board member.

He is CEO of Cabrera Companies Inc., a regional real estate and property management firm. An avid runner, he leads the Mayor’s Wellness Campaign, which has earned statewide recognition.

Cabrera has owned property in Wildwood Crest for 29 years. He and his wife Jeanine have one son, Adam.

Joseph Franco

Franco has served as deputy mayor and commissioner of Revenue and Finance since 2021. During his tenure, he said, the borough’s credit rating has improved, operations have been modernized and technology upgraded, and he has helped secure more than $125,000 in grants for infrastructure and departmental improvements. Franco said he has been instrumental in reaching shared service agreements that reduced taxpayer costs while increasing efficiency.

He was appointed to the State Land Use, Environment and Community Development Committee in 2022, bringing state-level perspective to local governance. He has served on the Wildwood Crest Board of Education, the Zoning Board, the Green Team, the Tourism Development Committee and the Creative Arts Council.

He is a third-generation Crest resident and a graduate of Crest Memorial School and Wildwood Catholic High School. He has a B.A. in criminal justice from La Salle University and is a small business owner in both Wildwood Crest and Wildwood. His wife Kelly is an administrator in the Wildwood School District.

Toni Fuscellaro

Fuscellaro, who has maintained a successful legal career, has served on the Wildwood Crest Board of Education since 2016 and is currently president. She has been a member of the Recreation Commission since 2010 and has volunteered in athletics and civic organizations. She is also a member of Women of Wildwood and an active supporter of the American Red Cross.

As an attorney she is licensed in New Jersey and works alongside her husband at the law office of Seth A. Fuscellaro, PA. She also helps manage family-owned Sam’s Pizza Palace and the Shore Plaza Beach Resort.

She was raised in the Wildwoods, attending St. Ann School and Wildwood Catholic before earning her B.A. in political science from Loyola University, Maryland, and her law degree from Seton Hall University School of Law.

She and her husband are the parents of three sons, Ryder, Madden and Crew.

Joseph Schiff

Over the past four years, Schiff has overseen Public Safety, including the Police Department, EMS, Fire Department, traffic safety and Beach Patrol. He believes each of these services has exceeded expectations.

Schiff said he and the Board of Commissioners have maintained a strong focus on public safety and carefully managed budgets to ensure proper resources for these departments. He said during his term the Police Department has introduced a K-9 unit and a drone team, enhanced enforcement of drug-related laws and provided greater security at borough events.

He said the drone unit has assisted in numerous missing persons searches, monitored swimmer safety and assisted in rescue operations. He said combined efforts have reduced crime and drug activity, while enhancing safety throughout the borough.

Schiff credited the EMS team with providing timely, professional responses to emergencies, improving response times and ensuring the highest quality of care. He said the lifeguard staff and transport team’s efforts have resulted in a significant decline in water- and beach-related incidents.

He said he was continuing his effort to get a 2.5-ton truck to use as a high-water vehicle when flooding occurs.

Michael Marino

Marino grew up in northeast Philadelphia, and has lived in the Crest for 17 years. He retired from the Air Force after 20 years, including four years in special ops. He said he was a combat controller working in “very forward areas,” noting that the unit had an 85% washout rate.

After his four years of active duty he entered the reserves and business world, earning a degree in computer science from Rutgers University, He worked as a software developer for several years and also in a corporate IT role.

All told he spent 35-plus years in regional and global financial services, including 23 years with Willis Towers Watson, a $6-billion-a-year company with 35,000 employees. Marino said it was common for him to work 65 hours a week, but after 23 years, at age 60, he retired.

He said he has managed a lot of budgets, and sees problems with the way towns manage their projects.

“Some of these smaller towns build something, and when the project goes over budget they say it’s OK. They just go behind closed doors and approve things,” Marino said.

Marino said the three commissioners vote on things and spend money, but nothing is ever defined in a business plan.

“The discipline is not there,” he said.

Marino said creating a clear business plan is one of the planks in his platform. He said the community is growing and tax revenue is increasing, but more slowly, and the borough maintains a lot of debt. He said he would like to pay off the debt earlier.

He would like to address problems related to parking, both for the short term and long term. He would also seek to address what he sees as a speeding problem in the borough; a problem he believes is not being adequately handled. He wants to see more local regulations to address e-bikes and e-scooters.

Marino said his plan is to walk the borough and talk to residents, and he vowed to be transparent in office.

Joseph Bond

Bond retired as Wildwood Crest’s superintendent of public works in April. He is originally from Vineland, where he graduated from Sacred Heart High School in 1976. He was previously the director of public works in Vineland. He was hired in the Crest in 2010, and he and his wife bought a house there in 2012.

He said he has nearly 25 years of experience in municipal government, including in budgeting, purchasing, personnel, working with capital budgets and other areas.

“I still have a lot to offer,” he said.

Bond addressed the controversy over the Corps’ proposed dune project, saying there are other issues related to the beach and dune, such as the stormwater outfall pipes, the ends of which might be covered in four to five feet of sand. He said if the sand is not moved under the joint state/federal project, Wildwood Crest will have to pay to extend the outfall pipes.

He favors moving the shoreline back to where it was 15 years ago. He said as it is now, people have 600 to 800 feet of sand behind them when they sit on the beach.

Bond said there are also areas of town that are susceptible to flooding, naming Cresse and Lake Road as one of the lowest, along with Seaview and Washington, and Washington and New Jersey.

“If anyone thinks they are going to stop flooding in any island community they are wrong,” he said, “You are not going to stop it.” He said the borough can reinforce and raise bulkheads, but when a hurricane hits, people had better evacuate.

Bond said Crest’s property value has gone from $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion in five years and the borough is due for a revaluation.

He supports the New Jersey Avenue Redevelopment Area, also known as Crest Station. He said he favors an anchor restaurant, but it might take the voters’ approving a referendum question for alcohol sales, which he does not see happening.

David Thompson

Thompson has been in the Wildwoods since 1968 and served as a Wildwood Crest commissioner from 2018 to 2021. He said he has been involved in many aspects of the community, including nine years of coaching and umpiring Little League.

He also is a former Crest fire chief and spent 38 years in the volunteer fire company, four years as vice president and 24 years as president. He said he was also president of the firemen’s convention for 24 years.

Thompson served as the commissioner of public safety for four years.

Asked why he wanted to return to the commission, he said there is still unfinished business in the Crest, and he enjoyed doing the work. He said he takes a common-sense approach to governance, and definitely doesn’t like to overspend.

He said he had to fight to save the old library building, which was rehabbed to become the Crest Arts Pavilion. He said originally the borough considered selling the property for private development or make it a parking lot.

Thompson said he was also a proponent of joining county centralized 911 dispatch. He said joining early allowed the Crest dispatchers to have a job with the county. The move, he said, saved the borough $1.5 million to $2 million.

He said he moved to Wildwood Crest in 1975, and he owned Thompson’s Hardware at Astor and New Jersey. He sees the New Jersey Avenue Redevelopment Project as “a big thing” and would like to see either rehabilitation or reconstruction of all the buildings in the project area with a uniform appearance, saying nothing now is matching.

In terms of a restaurant locating in the project area, he said it will be sorely needed, because the Crest is losing its restaurants. Thompson said a liquor license would be warranted, and it has already been determined that the single license available, if approved, would go to a restaurant.

Thompson said he was also a part of the dredging committee that got the state to move the state channel to run behind the houses on Park Boulevard and Lake Road.

The two other candidates for the commission, Bethel and Bannon, did not respond to requests for information by deadline.

Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or call 609-886-8600, ext. 128.