Gerety cites ‘severe disconnect’ between council and Economic Development Advisory Commission’s priorities
SOMERS POINT — City Council is looking to change the mission of its Economic Development Advisory Commission, a 10-member volunteer body that was formed to advise City Council of future and current conditions.
According to the city website, EDAC’s primary purpose is to market the economic strengths of the city to provide stability with existing businesses while encouraging future development.
However, there seems to be a dispute about the board’s exact role. Council President Kirk Gerety, who had requested last year to be a voting member of EDAC, said Jan. 22 “there was a severe disconnect between what EDAC wanted to do and what council thought they were going to do.”
He said he came up with some suggestions and that Councilman Sean McGuigan is going to take those ideas and put them in an ordinance.
Reached last week, Chairman Chuck Westcott told the Sentinel that EDAC was getting no direction from City Council and decided to focus on four areas: parking and traffic, marketing, brownfields and travel and tourism.
McGuigan said there may be a “more efficient or effective way to do economic development.”
He believes the board should be working to attract new businesses and driving commerce into the community.
McGuigan said there is discussion about how to split those two tasks and have different groups work on them — “there’s the economic development portion and then there’s the marketing side of it for events.”
He said at this point everything is being considered.
McGuigan is expected to introduce the ordinance at the next meeting, when members would discuss it and make any changes if necessary.
The next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 12 at City Hall.
“The next meeting when it’s introduced, you’ll have already had it for three weeks and come in with your notes and we’ll hash it out, figure out is it good, is it bad, is it a solution, is it not all of what we need do to change things,” Gerety said.
Councilwoman Janice Johnston suggested talking about it with others involved.
“I would rather discuss it and lay it out and hear from the members of EDAC if they have any other suggestions or additions,” she said.
Gerety said EDAC members could attend the next meeting but that he wanted to move forward so that the board could meet under its new directive in March “if we can get this done at the end of February, and that’s why I’d like to do that.”
Johnston asked whether EDAC could meet to discuss the proposal and was told they could meet only unofficially, since no appointments were made and no meetings scheduled.
Last year the board consisted of Westcott, Vice Chairman Rob Hopkins, John Helbig, Robert Phillips, William Dunfee, Denise Boyd, Levi Fox, Max Slusher, Adam Merilson and Gerety.
The terms of Hopkins, Boyd, Helbig and Fox expired Dec. 31, 2025. However, no new members were added and no existing members were reappointed for 2026 during the reorganization meeting Jan. 2, nor has the meeting schedule been advertised.
Westcott said he had questioned why and was told there was a move to eliminate the board.
He said EDAC was not getting any support from City Council for its recommendations, such as hiring a marketing firm to advertise city events and working to redevelop vacant properties.
“How do you get rid of a group of people who are not paid, operating within the boundaries of their mission?” Westcott said.
Through EDAC’s efforts last year, he said, two underutilized properties on Route 9 — at New York Avenue and Somers Point-Mays Landing Road — may be returned to use.
“We consider this economic development,” he said. “It seemed well within the realm of what this commission would tackle. It cost the city nothing and they want to shut this thing down.”
As far as marketing goes, the city had hired a firm for several years to attract views to its social media pages but did not do so last year.
“Groups like ours, and other individuals in the city, keep pushing for positive change, positive improvement, but it’s tough to do when you don’t have anyone promoting it,” he said, noting nothing has been posted to the city’s pages in a month.
“It’s extremely frustrating to see people make an effort and instead of someone saying, ‘This is not the best way to go but let’s try to solve the problem,’” to get rid of it, Westcott said.
He did say he feels like EDAC will continue in some form, “but we do not know what our role is. If they handcuff us, some may choose not to serve.”
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
