Children, Heed This Local Civics Lesson

As this column is written, Dec. 29, the freeholders’ reappointment of Cape May County Administrator Stephen O’Connor is fresh in my mind. It took place the prior evening.
What was displayed in that meeting room, where citizens spoke against O’Connor’s five-year reappointment, was a civics lesson every boy and girl should study. In their tender minds, where ideas form for the future, they would have seen exactly what politics is about, for better or worse, richer or poorer.
To set the stage, let me refer to O’Connor as Steve. We have known each other longer than either would admit, because his association with Cape May County government stretches back nearly 20 years, according to testimony given at the freeholders’ meeting. It would be so much easier to frame this column about what transpired if Steve dressed all in black, like in the old Westerns where villains were attired in that evil color and the “good guys” always wore white.
But Steve is a hard working guy who has the job few would want, even at what seems an awesome salary of about $133,000 a year. Professionally, at times, Steve has had to wear a black hat. To county employees, many look upon him with disdain, like when the freeholders orchestrated the slicing of the youth shelter to save money by privatizing the operation. Steve took the hits.
When the guys in the motor pool, or whatever it was called, were shifted into Fare Free Transportation with frozen salaries, again, Steve was the heavy.
He was, and still is, the county’s negotiator with its bargaining units. Like an errand runner going to the store with a $10 bill, Steve saw the need to jockey salaries of employees to somehow squeeze more work out of the same buck. No easy feat and certainly no way to win friends and influence people, but that was part of Steve’s job.
Although Steve is an avowed Republican, I imagine tucked safely out of sight, somewhere in his desk is Harry Truman’s slogan, “The Buck Stops Here.” Of course, he won’t admit it, but that goes with the turf.
So, back to the story.
Let’s just leave it at this: Freeholder Gerald Thornton and Steve tolerate each other professionally, but that’s where it stops. Avoiding ugly, sticky details, Thornton and his running mate Susan Sheppard, who joined the board yesterday, Jan. 4, were not about to buy into reappointing Steve for a five-year term.
After a certain degree of arm-twisting, and a pitch for (Republican) party unity, as well as a willingness to bury the primary election hatchet (which pitted the rest of the freeholders against Thornton and Sheppard), Thornton offered a three-year contract with 90-day escape clause.
There you have it, same guy, same job, same pay, but for three years, not five. Who knows if we’ll live to see tomorrow? Still, three guys wanted Steve reappointed to a five-year term at the last meeting of the year. Thornton, like Rebel soldiers in Pickett’s charge against Union forces on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, knew he was going to be slaughtered, but charged fearlessly into the jaws of hell.
Out in the vast meeting room sat about 40, mostly ordinary citizens, many of them cast votes for Thornton and Sheppard in June and November, and expected to see their voices heard from the voting machine. Sorry about that!
Some rose to voice displeasure at what was about to take place. Others reminded the board that voters had spoken, and, if the November 2010 election had not been an alarm clock to the “old boys” up on the dais, there would be future elections that would sweep them away, and usher in fresh faces who would remember who put them into those revered seats.
Amid all the debate, not one person criticized Steve. Not once did anyone say they wanted him gone because of some bungling or misdeed.
To a person, they wanted Sheppard installed with Thornton, and the reappointment vote simply postponed until January. That’s all they wanted. The numbers would still be against Thornton and Sheppard. Thornton, by the way, made a motion to table the reappointment until January. His motion, not surprisingly, died for lack of a second. Obviously, he did not expect one from his mates up front.
However curious it may seem, Freeholder Ralph Bakley, who departed after eight years on the board following hugs, handshakes and photographs, whose seat was taken by Sheppard, abstained from the vote of reappointment.
Director Daniel Beyel, Vice Director Ralph Sheets Jr., and Leonard Desiderio, mayor of Steve’s hometown, cast the votes that guaranteed his job for the next five years.
If voters felt slapped in the face, oh well.
Boys and girls, just because of this strange but true story of county government, do not shrug off our system of governing. The way things are is not the way they have to be when you grow up. Each of you might find yourself in a similar situation in 10 or 20 years. You can look at what happened on Dec. 28, 2010, and say, “No, we want our freeholders, our government, to listen to the votes we cast. We are not invisible faces. We are tax paying voters who demand our voices be heard and obeyed.”
That is the way government ought to be, children. But sometimes those in the majority take advantage of their superiority simply to prove they can. When that happens, it hurts everyone.
Through all the verbal barrage, Steve remained reserved. That was a credit to the man whose job was being bandied about like a cork in a typhoon. That of itself spoke volumes of Steve’s mettle. The stage was set for Act 2.
And that’s the way it is in Cape May County as we begin 2011.