STONE HARBOR – Police Chief Thomas Schutta will retire after 30 years with the department on Feb. 1, after he came to terms with the borough on a separation accord and agreement not to sue one another.
The dispute between the two sides was hinted at during the Nov. 18 Borough Council meeting when the council went into closed session. When the members returned to public session, to a room empty of any residents, they passed a resolution authorizing a separation agreement and general release from litigation. They did not say whom the agreement was with.
Following two Open Public Records Act requests, the Herald received copies of the resolution and the agreement. The agreement notes that Schutta had filed paperwork for retirement effective Feb. 1, 2025, an action the council had been aware of.
The agreement then states that “disputes have arisen between the borough and employee as to his rights to certain benefits and payouts he is entitled to receive under purported borough policies and employee’s employment agreement, as well as other potential claims he may have against the borough.”
The agreement says that it is in the borough’s and the employee’s best interests to “avoid the cost and uncertainty of litigation” while having the employee’s employment “terminate by way of a retirement.”
The agreement states that Schutta would be on paid leave of absence until his retirement date and then standard retirement provisions would kick in.
The dispute came as the borough is being sued by a former administrator, a former clerk and a current employee. It also came as the position of recreation director is vacant, because Shannon MacPherson is, in the words of Recreation Committee Chair Victor Foschini at the Nov. 19 council meeting, “no longer with us.” No further explanation was given.
When asked for a comment on Schutta’s departure, Mayor Judith Davies-Dunhour said: “Tom Schutta is one of the finest individuals I have ever worked with, a person of great integrity.” Davies-Dunhour said she and Schutta worked together in the Police Department, where she was a 25-year veteran before running for elected office.
She reminisced that she took the oath of office as mayor at about the same time Schutta was made permanent chief of police; he had served a short period as acting chief. She said she could not speak to the issue of his departure.
Schutta came to the department in 1995, was promoted to captain in 2013 and assumed the job of chief in 2017.
He declined to comment.
His departure and MacPherson’s, as well as the litigation against the borough, come as Stone Harbor enters a difficult budget season. The 2024 budget was barely within the limits of the state’s appropriation cap, and that cap is likely to place constraints on the 2025 budget.
On Aug. 20 the council heard a report from Rick Richardella of the state Department of Community Affairs Local Assistance Bureau. The LAB, as it is often referred to, is in Stone Harbor at the request of the borough’s new chief financial officer, Cynthia Lindsey, and the council’s Administrative and Finance Committee to look at ways to make borough operations more efficient and less costly. A big part of that review involves the potential for shared service agreements with other municipalities.
An area of discussion at the Aug. meeting was public safety, broaching the possibility of sharing services in public safety departments like police and fire. Stone Harbor currently shares a municipal court with neighboring Avalon.
Mayor-elect Tim Carney, who will take office in January, has already stated his opposition to shared services in the area of public safety departments. Ironically, Carney as mayor will have no vote on the matter unless a council vote ends in a tie.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
