NORTH WILDWOOD — After 12 years at the helm of local government in this seaside resort, Mayor Patrick Rosenello announced in a March 26 letter that he will not seek reelection. Instead, the 52-year-old Republican said he will run for a two-year term on the City Council.
Rosenello’s decision not to run again comes while he is perhaps at the height of his popularity as a local politician. Despite a well-earned reputation for being unafraid to speak his mind, the mayor offered just a single word when asked in a recent telephone interview why he has decided to step down now.
“Time,” he responded.
He endorsed longtime City Council President Sal Zampirri Sr. to be North Wildwood’s next mayor. Rosenello and Zampirri will flip-flop ballot positions, with the former running for the latter’s at-large council seat.
“It’s just the next move for me,” Zampirri said in a telephone interview Wednesday, March 26. “I still have the desire to be involved.”
The council president said he was content in his role as council president for as long as Rosenello wished to remain mayor. He said he worked closely with Rosenello as council president all 12 years of his tenure, and he lauded Rosenello’s vision, professionalism, commitment and organizational and observational skills.
“Patrick is the best mayor that the city of North Wildwood has ever had,” Zampirri said. “There is no close second.”
Edward Heuser, a political newcomer, has also filed papers to run for mayor as a Republican, according to the county clerk’s office. Rosenello said he’d never heard of him, and Zampirri said he wouldn’t recognize Heuser if they passed each other walking on the street.
Reached on his cellphone by the Herald on Thursday, March 27, Heuser said he was out of town and not available for comment but agreed to sit with a reporter and discuss his campaign when he returns to North Wildwood next week. Heuser will face off against Zampirri in the Republican primary June 10.
Zampirri said he has the endorsement of the county’s Republican Committee and its chairman, Michael J. Donohue, who is also North Wildwood’s solicitor.
Rosenello said the biggest change in going from mayor to council member will be that he can become more selective on which matters he takes up and not become involved in every city issue.
“The mayor’s job, particularly in the city of North Wildwood … is a 24/7 job. That doesn’t mean you’re working 24/7, but it means that something could happen 24/7. And in my 12 years as mayor, something pretty much has,” he told the Herald. “It’s a big, big commitment of time.”
But since he is just 52 years old and seemingly able to draw on unlimited wells of energy, it’s hard not to wonder what will occupy that newfound free time.
In the letter, Rosenello wrote he looked forward to spending more of it with his wife, Michelle, and their three adult sons, adding that he would remain “a proud member of this community – perhaps enjoying a quieter view of the beach I’ve fought so hard to protect.”
“Instead of retiring fully, I will seek to return to my roots and run for City Council,” he wrote in the letter.
Is he actually making time for a more ambitious second act? Asked by the Herald if he has further political aspirations, Rosenello didn’t say no.
“I wouldn’t rule out further elected office or even maybe non-elected office … if the right challenge presented itself. But I don’t have anything in mind,” he said.
Has he had any discussions around that possibility?
“Not about anything in particular,” he said. “If the time comes in the future that something is available that interests me and I think I can contribute, I’m not going to turn it down, but I don’t have any immediate plans.”
Aside from his obligations to his office, Rosenello is a partner in a group that owns and operates a handful of restaurants and bars. He also serves as executive director for the nonprofit management corporations that oversee certain aspects of the Wildwood boardwalk and downtown area. He’s had these commitments through most of his public tenure.
Before first running for mayor in 2013, Rosenello spent five years on the City Council, serving as president for the second half of the late Bill Henfey’s mayoral tenure. Henfey encouraged Rosenello to become his successor.
Zampirri also cited Henfey as a source of his inspiration, relaying something Henfey once said that stuck with him.
“Never lose the Mayberry in your town,” the council president recalled Henfey telling him, a reference to the idyllic setting and tone of the 1960s sitcom “The Andy Griffith Show.”
After taking the reins in 2014, Rosenello never encountered substantial opposition to his agenda from within the council or from an outside political challenger; he ran for mayor unopposed in three Republican primary elections and was never opposed in a general election either. That fact in and of itself is telling of his success in the eyes of his constituents.
Things weren’t always smooth sailing, however, and it was through his high-profile battles with powerful outside agencies and individuals and, more recently, his willingness to use the courts if he felt it would further the city’s agenda that have offered the most insight into Rosenello as an executive.
Recently, the city settled a web of litigation it had been ensnared in for years with the state Department of Environmental Protection, one of Rosenello’s steady foes. Though North Wildwood scored a major victory in the dispute last spring when Gov. Phil Murphy intervened (crossing party lines to cooperate with Rosenello and have sand pumped onto severely eroded beaches within weeks), terms of a settlement agreement the governor pushed for saw North Wildwood make concessions to the DEP.
Rosenello said not running for mayor again was 100% his decision.
“Nobody forced me not to run,” he said.
“I really just arrived at, I think first and foremost, what’s best for me and my family. And I also think what’s best for the city. When you’ve been doing this for 12 years and a lot of intense moments, with DEP, with other lawsuits, with storms — the list goes on and on. I think it’s good to get a different perspective involved and a different personality involved.”
Zampirri said he learned the 24/7 nature of the job from Rosenello and is ready to embrace it, if elected. He also said his relationship with the outgoing mayor is “very, very good” and looks forward to what he will continue to bring to the table. But he also said he will make his own decisions.
“Of course, I’m going to listen to what Patrick has to say, but the decision is going to be mine as mayor,” he said.
Other Primary Filings
After 28 years on the City Council, Ed Koehler, 82, will not seek reelection. Cheryl Crowe will run unopposed for Koehler’s Second Ward seat. Crowe would be new to elected office.
Rosenello, who endorsed her, said she owns a complex of rental units in town, but is perhaps best known as a Mummer and head of the Duffy String Band.
For the only other North Wildwood spot that’s up for election Peggy Bishop will run unopposed to retain her First Ward seat.
North Wildwood’s mayor serves a four-year term, members of the council representing a ward serve three-year terms, and the at-large seats carry a two-year term.
Contact the reporter, Shay Roddy, at sroddy@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 142.
