By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Three Sea Isle City incumbents seeking new terms on City Council are virtually guaranteed re-election even before the first votes are cast.
Council members Mary Tighe, Jack Gibson and J.B. Feeley will face no opposition in the May 11 municipal election.
City Clerk Shannon Romano confirmed that no other candidates had filed petitions by Monday’s deadline, clearing the way for Tighe, Gibson and Feeley to run unchallenged.
“I’d like to think that the community is generally satisfied with the current Council’s efforts on their behalf. We have a good team and are looking forward to working with the administration to continue providing the services that the citizens of Sea Isle deserve and have come to expect,” Feeley said in a statement released on behalf of all three incumbents.
As they did in the 2017 election, all three are running on a unified ticket, even though Feeley is a Democrat and Tighe and Gibson are Republicans.
“That’s never reared its head in the four years I’ve been on Council,” Feeley said of party affiliation. “It never came up. We’ve always worked together.”
In Sea Isle, Council members serve four-year terms and are chosen at-large in a nonpartisan municipal election.
Sea Isle’s elections are usually devoid of any rancor or drama because the incumbents routinely run without opposition. There have been no challengers for any of the Council or mayoral races dating back to at least the 2015 election.
The five-member City Council also includes William Kehner Sr. and Frank Edwardi Jr., who will not be up for re-election until 2023. Mayor Leonard Desiderio heads the city administration. Desiderio, who has served as mayor since 1993, will not be up for re-election until 2023.
Tighe, 52, is one of the five original Council members who were elected when Sea Isle switched from a Commission-style form of government to the Mayor-Council format in 2007. She is the assistant director of nursing for the Cape May County Health Department in her full-time job.
Gibson, 86, who served in the state Assembly for 12 years but lost his seat when seeking re-election 2005, won his first term on Sea Isle Council in 2013. He is semi-retired, but works part-time as an engineer for Dennis Township.
Feeley, 72, ran for Council for the first time in 2017 when former Councilman John Divney decided not to seek re-election. He formerly served in a number of appointed positions over the years, including the Sea Isle Planning Board and as chairman of the Cape May County Board of Elections.
Feeley retired in 2014 from his position as senior project development officer at the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, a state agency that uses Atlantic City casino revenue for housing and economic development projects.
During their current term on Council, Tighe, Gibson and Feeley have been working with Kehner, Edwardi and Desiderio’s administration on a series of flood-mitigation projects to help protect the low-lying island from stormwater.
Another major issue is the proposed redevelopment of the former Sea Isle City Public School into a community recreation center costing an estimated $15 million.
The school closed in 2012 due to Sea Isle’s declining student enrollment. Tighe, Gibson and Feeley all support the idea of demolishing the school site and building a new recreation center.
Council and the mayor are still working with the community on the final details of the project, including its scope and cost, before construction is expected to begin later this year.
