On more than one occasion, Cape May officials have expressed a weary sigh at the thought of having to respond again to questions regarding the inappropriate use of $100,000 of affordable housing trust fund monies for bonus checks to six city employees in December 2020. They are no more weary than those of us calling for action, including the 1,000-member organization of the Cape May Taxpayers Association (TPA).
We have heard repeatedly from those city officials that a previous administration left them with this problem. We have been told that when the new city administration (new as of January 2021) discovered that trust fund checks had been distributed as bonus payments, they put a stop to it and initiated action to recover the funds.
The story told ad nauseam is that the city turned first to Trenton only to have the state inform the city that “any proposed remediation of this issue falls under the jurisdictional control of the City Administrator and/or Governing Body.” This was June 2021.
Not yet ready to accept the responsibility for resolving this issue, the city next turned to the County Prosecutor’s Office. That office took its time with whatever investigation it did and replied to the city in October 2021 that “it is the opinion of the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office that no criminal charges will be forthcoming.”
This put the issue squarely in the city’s lap. The prosecutor was not going to push criminal charges. The state said clearly that jurisdiction rested with the city. City officials said more than once that the use of the funds violated city rules. The city vowed to make the trust fund whole. Admittedly they never said when.
At this point, the great silence descended on the issue. The city has never voluntarily provided the public with a status report on the process of clawing back the funds. The public is told this issue is difficult and it takes time. The city solicitor, always with a pained expression, “takes issue” with a characterization that the city is not doing all that it can do on the matter. The public is assured that the issue has not dropped into the abyss. Mayor Zack Mullock gives no details but says in January that all problems cannot always be fully resolved.
Christmas has come and gone twice since this money was distributed. We recently celebrated the third Easter holiday since this money was distributed. The current City Council now has only three of its five members who were even on council when the process to reclaim the funds began. Half of the individuals who received the bonus checks no longer work for the city. Property owners on their way back from winter months in Florida have made that trip three times since that money was distributed.
Now, the city’s property owners association has formally called for “no more delays or excuses,” only to get the same weary looks and the same general assurances that the city is working on it. The TPA is not only demanding that the money be returned but that it be returned with interest. A totally unlikely outcome but one which appropriately shows the public frustration.
The city went through a formal resolution to allow one employee to return his bonus money through a deduction from earned hours that the city would otherwise have cashed out. This public agreement was necessary since the employee had been promoted after receiving the bonus checks to deputy city manager, second in command of the office that is supposed to be leading the effort to regain the funds. Has this process actually been completed? Have the hours been monetized and the trust fund repaid?
We were told that another of the six employees who received bonus payments, again a high-level official who served as the city’s chief financial officer, guardian of the proper use of public funds, left the city’s employ to go to Middle Township. His accumulated unused leave was to be withheld from cash out in order to recover his bonus payments. Did he have enough hours to cover the debt? Has that money been deposited in the fund?
As we approach our third summer season since this money was dispersed, the taxpayers of Cape May can continue to pay legal fees in a seemingly never-ending quest to recover funds that should never have been used. They can also continue to be exasperated when they ask questions of city officials who are working so hard to resolve the issue.
It is time someone on the council steps up and forces this issue to a conclusion or tells the public why the years flow by. Lawyers advise but the governing body of the city decides policy.
