STONE HARBOR – Two council seats and the mayor’s chair are open in the Nov. 5 general election; the council seats are uncontested, but two candidates are competing for the mayoralty.
Council member Tim Carney and local businessman Robert Ross are battling for the mayor’s post. The borough has a form of government in which the six-member council manages both legislative and administrative affairs. The mayor presides at council meetings but only votes to break a tie.
The mayor’s position is open because its current occupant, Judith Davies-Dunhour, announced in February that she would not seek another term. Davies-Dunhour had been a member of the Borough Council when she was first elected mayor in 2016.
That year she bested long-serving Mayor Suzanne Walters in a Republican primary in which a hot topic of public concern was the borough’s inability to prevent Atlantic City Electric from installing large steel transmission poles as part of its upgrading of electric infrastructure on Seven Mile Island. Davies-Dunhour was unopposed when reelected in 2020.
The two members of the council whose terms end in 2024 are Bernadette “Bunny” Parzych and the current council president, Frank Dallahan. Both are seeking reelection and are running unopposed. Although there have ben numerous times when members of the public have used meetings to express frustrations with council decisions, no other candidates filed for the election.
Visible tension between the council and the mayor has been a recurring topic during public comment at council meetings. Davies-Dunhour was censored by the council in August 2023 over remarks she made about the decision to make Manny Parada’s appointment as borough administrator permanent.
Ross used the public comment period of the June 4 council meeting to announce that he had filed the paperwork to run as an independent for the mayor’s position. He has positioned himself as alternative to Carney and has the support of Davies-Dunhour.
Carney, one of the newest members of the council, took his seat in January. He won the Republican nomination when he ran unopposed in the June primary. Carney is also a first responder with the Stone Harbor Fire Company. He is promising that he will not support any move of the Public Safety Department into a shared service arrangement with other municipalities.
If Carney wins his bid for the mayor’s office, Stone Harbor’s regular Republican committee would recommend a temporary replacement for him on the council until the next general election in November 2025. The full council would make any final appointment.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
