STONE HARBOR – A police union representative reminded the Borough Council at its meeting July 15 that the Police Department has been without a labor contract for 18 months.

Anthony Tirelli, the union representative, spoke even as the borough swore in two new police officers. The department had lost four officers in a span of four months.

Tirelli made the position of his union clear when he said that the No. 1 reason officers are leaving is the “lack of competitive compensation.”

He said the borough has the lowest-paid law enforcement agency in Cape May County. He also said that other departments provide health benefits after retirement, which he said Stone Harbor does not do.

Mayor Tim Carney told the Herald that the borough is working to resolve the contract and has made an counteroffer as part of the negotiation process.

In an interview, Carney said, “We want our police officers to get a reasonable contract. We want them happy to be in law enforcement in Stone Harbor.”

He added that the borough has a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers. Without referring to the contract negotiations, the mayor pointed to the soaring cost of employee health-care premiums, with three years of double-digit increases and predictions of a record hike in costs for 2026.

While Carney could not discuss negotiating positions, the attempt by the police union to seek health-care benefits after retirement may run into affordability issues in a borough that barely brought its budget for 2025 under the state appropriations cap.

The mayor said the task to get a new contract falls to the borough’s labor counsel and the new borough administrator, Joe Clark, who was in his second day on the job at the council meeting.

As it happened, within days of the Stone Harbor meeting, Evan Hallowell, who served for four years with the Stone Harbor Police Department, was sworn in by Mayor John McCorristin on July 23 as a new police officer in neighboring Avalon.

Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.