West Wildwood Borough Hall/ Photo by Lauren Suit

WEST WILDWOOD — Ballots for three new commissioners in this borough’s election were cast six months ago, but instead of working together in the following months, it seems the division in the town has only grown wider.

The divide among the elected officials and their supporters was the focus of another standing-room-only crowd at a Tuesday, Oct. 14 afternoon meeting.

Mayor Herbert C. Frederick began borough business by telling the crowd that the original meeting for Oct. 3 was canceled due to “possible safety issues.”

The mayor had said a resident received threats, on a public blog, that if the meeting were to continue as planned, there would be an intentional disruption of the public assembly and more tires would be slashed. Police officers were present during today's meeting, both inside and outside the hall, to maintain order.

The borough had two ordinances on the agenda for final reading, public hearing and possible adoption. One of the ordinances, regarding the creation of a position of the Director of Public Safety, drew particularly heated comments from a number of residents.

Chris Fox, former mayor of the borough, said he believed that there are qualified people in the borough’s police department who could do the job without having to hire an outside person.

Resident Maureen Smith asked about the longevity of the position and questioned why Frederick, as head of the Department of Public Safety, couldn’t do the job.

Frederick said because the borough’s chief of police was on medical leave, they needed someone in the interim to oversee the day-to-day operations of the department. Frederick added that the position was temporary “until such time that we can make a resolution with the present chief of police.”

Frederick said he couldn’t comment any further due to matters of personnel.

Attorney Ron Stagliano told commissioners that if they moved forward with any ordinance during this meeting, that they would be “invalid.”

Stagliano said the date of publication regarding the ordinances had been advertised for the Oct. 3 meeting and no additional publication had been made when the meeting had been rescheduled.

“Final hearing can’t be held unless a publication in a newspaper with the date and time is made. The fact that you canceled a meeting does not change that law,” he said.

Frederick, and Commissioner Gerald McNamara voted to approve the ordinance. Commissioner Scott Golden voted “no.”

For more on this story, continue to check the Herald’s Web site and the Oct. 22 print edition.

Contact Suit at: (609) 886-8600 ext. 25 or lsuit@cmcherald.com