SOMERS POINT — Neither the voters nor City Council got to choose the newest addition to the seven-member governing body. Instead, the Somers Point Republican Club’s County Committee did so.
Club President Jack Shields, who also serves on the Planning Board and Mainland Regional High School Board of Education, ignored requests for comment about the club’s actions.
City Council approved a resolution Sept. 12 appointing Kirk Gerety to the at-large seat recently vacated by Joe McCarrie. The one-term councilman submitted his letter of resignation Aug. 12.
The date is significant, since state statute requires the governing body to fill a vacant position within 30 days. Since the meeting was 31 days after McCarrie’s premature resignation, the committee — made up of Gerety, his wife Marjorie Gerety, Mayor Dennis Tapp, Councilman Howard Dill, Councilman Mike Owen, Ann Marie Lucchesi, Betty Koliba, Jayne Meischker, Liz Lawler and Robert Phillips — decided Gerety was the best candidate.
Economic Development Advisory Commission Vice Chairman and Farm Market organizer Rob Hopkins and former restaurateur Pat Pierson were the other options, but City Council never got the chance to vote.
“I screwed up,” City solicitor Tom Smith said when asked about how the situation came about.
Over the summer, council meets just once a month so there was no meeting in August after McCarrie had resigned.
Gerety said no one was aware of the problem until Pierson withdrew her name and the county committee had to determine whether it needed to submit a third name for consideration.
At that time, according to Gerety, Smith realized the meeting was going to be 31 days after the resignation.
He said council considered holding a special meeting but did not have enough time to advertise it 48 hours in advance.
Hopkins said he was “frustrated by the lack of communication and transparency of the process.”
“It’s all just bad optics. We need to put the city over our own egos,” he said. “With the history of so many appointments and resignations, I would think the process would be well known by council at this point.”
Somers Point City Council has a pattern of resignations and appointments dating back many years. Council President Janice Johnston was appointed to a Ward I seat in July 2019 after former councilman Ron Meischker resigned from the position.
Councilman Richard DePamphilis, a longtime former mayor of Linwood, was appointed Feb. 24, 2022, to fill the seat left vacant when former councilwoman Stacy Ferreri resigned the previous month, one year into her term.
City Council had unanimously appointed Ken Adams to take her place. However, Adams was forced to resign a week later because it was revealed that his felony conviction in 2004 for theft and misconduct while chief of the Northfield Police Department barred him from serving.
Last week, Gerety took the seat immediately, pulling out his name plaque from his previous stints on City Council and was on the dais when the meeting began, even before the resolution was approved naming him to the position.
The at-large seat, a four-year term, expires at the end of the year and the election is scheduled for Nov. 5. Gerety will serve until Dec. 31 unless he wins the election, in which he faces a challenge from Democrat Ann Marie Gibbs.
He is president of the Somers Point Historical Society, was a trustee for the Atlantic County Historical Society and has done a lot of other volunteering.
Gerety began serving on City Council — by appointment — in 1995 to the at-large seat. Gerety then ran successfully to serve the one-year remainder of the term. He won re-election in 1996, 2000 and 2004 before resigning his seat at the end of 2005. He then won in 2014 to return to council.
Gerety is a retired cement mason who was a member of the Bricklayers and Allied Craft Workers Local 2. He was president and business manager from 2010 to 2014, serving in the union for 45 years.
“I would like to welcome Mr. Gerety to the council. He’s been here before and I’m glad to have him back,” Councilman Sean McGuigan said.
“Your immense amount of years of experience will add to this council,” Dill said. “I appreciate what you have done for the city in the past and what you will continue to do for the city in the future.”
“I look forward to working with you again,” Johnston said.
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff