Provided/Lifeguard stands stored in John Amodeo’s backyard must be removed, a neighbor said.
MARGATE – The May 14 non-partisan election is less than two weeks away and campaigns are starting to heat up, especially on social media sites. Tempers flared at the Margate City Commissioners meeting Thursday, May 2, with one resident loudly complaining about several issues concerning one of the candidates.
The incumbents, Mayor Michael Becker and Commissioners Maury Blumberg and John Amodeo are seeking re-election as a team, and newcomer Calvin Tesler is challenging them.
Often called “silly season” by seasoned politicians seeking re-election, this year’s Margate general election is no different. Although only Tesler has stepped up to challenge the incumbents, community members and bloggers are calling for write-ins and bullet voting to sway the election away from incumbents.
Although some residents are supporting the idea, longtime resident Chuck Cavanaugh, who advocated against the dune project, denied he is mounting a write-in campaign.
“I am not mounting that campaign,” Cavanaugh said in a Facebook message to a Downbeach.com reporter. “I am aware that there is a sort of grassroots movement and it has gained some steam…but I am not sponsoring nor endorsing it.”
A graphic posted on several private Facebook pages Wednesday, May 1 called for residents to write-in Cavanuagh’s name and vote only for Tesler.
Cavanaugh said he believed it is “highly unlikely” that the incumbents would be defeated.
“However, if it were to happen, I would accept,” he said.
A blog post published by local radio personality Mel Taylor suggested that bullet voting could get Tesler to unseat one of the candidates. Taylor also referred to the incumbents as “The Three Amigos” and has altered a campaign photograph showing the incumbents wearing sombreros.
Tesler shared a link to the blog post on his Calvin D. Tesler for Margate Commissioner Facebook page.
Commissioner John Amodeo said although some might view Taylor’s reference as sarcastic and negative commentary with an ethnic connotation, he views the three amigos reference as a compliment.
“I respect all nationalities, and it’s wrong, but personally I look at it as a positive. The term three amigos shows that we are able to put our differences aside and do our best to work together to do the best thing for Margate. Despite our political differences, there is no infighting that would stop progress, that’s why people invest in our town,” Amodeo said.
Bullet voting is when you vote for just one candidate, decreasing the number of votes the other candidates receive and increasing the chances a challenger could be elected.
When asked about the technique, which is not illegal, Tesler simply said, “I was told it works.”
“This is a democracy and people can vote for who they want. We live in America,” Amodeo said.
The animosity has ramped up after the incumbents failed to agree to a date for a candidates’ forum being planned by the Margate Homeowners Association. Only Tesler agreed to attend the forum, which would have been moderated by the League of Women Voters and allowed residents to submit questions in advance. The incumbents said they were not available on the date selected by the MHA.
At the commissioners meeting on Thursday, resident Bill Phillips, who lives on Amherst Avenue a few doors from Amodeo, confronted the commissioners during the public comment session about several issues, including the lack of paving of a depression in the roadway in front of his home, a lack of police enforcement for speeding and running stop signs in his neighborhood, and the storage of city-owned lifeguard stands at the rear of Amodeo’s property, which backs up to the Sigmund Rimm Recreation Complex.
Phillips said he has been in contact with Amodeo several times regarding the depression in the road, which was caused by a South Jersey Gas company project two years ago. When trucks pass, it causes a loud noise and his house shakes, he said.
Phillips questioned the city’s priorities, because he noticed that a section of parking lot at the Rimm complex, which is also used for basketball during summer, was being resurfaced.
“It’s amazing across from John Amodeo’s house there was a similar dip and that was repaired pretty quickly,” he said.
Amodeo acknowledged in a telephone interview Friday morning that there was a dip in the road in front of his house, but it was not from the gas company installation, but rather from the installation of new water and sewer connections to two houses he had built for his children on his subdivided lot.
“I paid the city $7,100 for each of two street opening permits for water and sewer to my curb,” he said, which pays for the cost of patching the street.
The paving was done years ago, Amodeo said.
He explained that the work at the Rimm complex was paid for with leftover funds from another capital project.
The parking lot for the League baseball field, which is used for youth basketball in summer, was milled and paved because it was damaged when the city used it as a staging area following Hurricane Sandy.
“There were depressions and cracks and it became unsafe for the kids to play there,” Amodeo said.
Amodeo also said the city was recently granted a $371,000 federal Safe Routes to Schools grant, which would be matched with $125,000 from the city’s capital bond ordinance, to reconfigure three, five-point intersections near the city schools to make them safer for children to cross, including the intersection at the corner of Amherst and Huntington avenues where Phillips lives.
“Why would we spend $100,000 to tear up his intersection when we knew we would be conducting a $500,000 project in the fall?” Amodeo said.
The work would include installing roundabouts at the intersections, go out to bid in July, and the work would likely start in the fall and take about three months to complete, Amodeo said.
Phillips also accused Police Chief David Wolfson of not upholding his responsibility to keep the community safe by ticketing speeders and those running stop signs.
“This is a ridiculous situation, and someone is going to get hurt. It doesn’t seem that anyone cares about the safety of citizens,” he said.
Phillips protested loudly from his seat when Commissioner Maury Blumberg thanked Wolfson and the Police Department for all they do for the city.
Phillips also said that Amodeo should remove 13 lifeguard stands that have been stored on a lot at the rear of his property, because it is a residential area and “they don’t belong there.”
Amodeo said he is saving the city money on the cost of storing the stands, which are new and lighter than the older stands that female lifeguards find difficult to move when the tides change.
“We got a $36,000 grant to invest in purchasing the new protocol lifeguard stands which weigh about 175 pounds as compared to the old ones that weigh between 250-300 pounds,” Amodeo said.
The stands were manufactured in Cape May and when it came time for delivery, the city had nowhere to store them, so he offered to store them on his lot until they can be detailed and moved to the beach in about two or three weeks, he said. At the end of the season they will be stored at Public Works.
“I was saving the city on the cost of storing them,” Amodeo said.
Amodeo said most of the older stands would be crushed and recycled, but four or five in the best condition will be saved to decorate and block street ends during the city’s annual Fall Funfest.
Phillips said Amodeo called Tesler a “carpetbagger” in a text message Amodeo sent him and that he, Tesler and the citizen were owed an apology for his “outlandish comments.”
Amodeo said he has received many text messages from Phillips on his private cell phone over the past year complaining about various issues, to which Amodeo replied that he should address his concerns to all three commissioners at a public meeting.
“I thought we always had a neighborly relationship and even friendship. For him to be so dismayed is shocking to me,” Amodeo said. “If he didn’t get so upset, I would have answers for all of his accusations.”
He even challenged Phillips to throw his hat in the ring and run with Tesler.
