CITY COUNCIL 6/12/2025

Uh I'm very intimidated. So uh
this is only this is the start of a very
bright future for you. Congratulations.
Congratulations. Thank you.
And and it was very nice for all these
people just to come out here tonight to
see you.
Mayor Tab, you can definitely pack a
room, pal. That's all I got to say. No,
listen. I want to say congratulations.
Also, uh I was there in your garage when
you were showing that leadership uh
showing everybody uh the younger members
of the troop how to build the uh batous.
I was there when you were out there
installing the batous. It was a
privilege for me to be there. I thank
you for inviting me. Uh the one thing
that is great about doing Eagle Scout
projects in the city of Summers Point is
that we benefit by having these projects
in the city of Summers Point. So, thank
you very much. Congratulations. So, so
you're graduating from ACIT, right?
Yeah. What's next on your agenda? I'm
moving to Georgia. Firefighting.
Firefighting.
Noble career. Yes. Very nice. All right.
I I did know that. Um,
congratulations, pal.
Congratulations.
Uh, I have a son and also a grandson of
the Eagle Regal Scouts and I know how
much work and dedication it takes not
only for yourself but also for your
parents. So, congratulations.
Any other comments? Not hearing any
other comments. All in favor? I. Any
opposed? Not hearing anyone opposed.
Resolution number 153 is approved.
Sure.
Pull up guys.
Chase
lift 650
squad over 500
signed by
myself. Congratulating you and
venture firefighter.
Thank you. Want to get a picture?
Thanks, Greg.
All right, before we move on, I am told
we are live on YouTube. Thank you,
Allison. I do want to make one
announcement. Um, before we move on to
communications, I'd like to congratulate
Madame Deputy Clerk on passing the exam
for the New Jersey Registered Municipal
Clerk's Test. Now, that's not an easy
feat. Thank you very much.
And the mayor's mad at me because I
jumped his spot, but that's okay. Um, do
we have any communications? Number
five's off the list. No communications.
Mayor's report. All right. Uh just a
couple things. Uh
a couple uh Mondays ago, we had the
Memorial Day parade, and I just want to
take an opportunity to thank everyone
that showed up and took part in that
parade. It was one of the best parades
that we ever had. I want to thank uh Guy
Martin. I want to thank uh Steve Hordick
with public works, our Summers Point
Volunteer Fire Company. I want to thank
our Summers Point Police. And uh I was
remiss on the day when I was speaking to
thank the Legion riders. So I want to
make that up. And the Legion riders are
always there for the veterans. They're
there for every ceremony. And I just
want to give my heartfelt thank you for
having them uh take part in this. That's
number one. Number two, as we know, we
don't have bumps anymore coming off a
nice street bridge going up Shore Road.
They finally paved that, which is great.
Pat, you're going to be happy. I know.
So, and as you see, uh,
so the north the southbound lane of
Shore Road was closed in front of Josie
Kelly's and Gregory's. They're doing
pedestrian safety work there. They're
going to be periodically doing that all
down Shore Road. They'll probably go
down and hit the next corner next week.
They'll be working 410s instead of 58s.
So, that way the Fridays figure we're
summer season now. The Fridays will make
it a lot less congested. So, there will
be some little bit of detours, but
they're looking to make uh pedestrian
safety top priority. And of course, you
know, it's the countyy's doing that. And
of course, the county picks the summer
to do it, but that's what we got. Uh N
Street Bridge, have you I don't know if
you noticed that usually they have one
lane closed. Usually, it's coming into
Summer's Point. Reason being is that
they are fixing the lights underneath
the bridge. They got hit by lightning.
Everything rotted out. All the LED
lights. uh they were supposed to have
been done, but of course uh they weren't
able to get done. We're going to be
having to deal with that for another 2
months. Uh hopefully, you know, they get
off the bridge by 3:00. I think their
schedule will probably change in the
summer to accommodate all the extra
traffic that's there. But just to give
you an update with that, uh myself and
uh Jason Frost, we had a meeting with
the uh state DOT on the Route 9 and
Groveland intersection over by where the
uh Aldis is going to go. Uh, I know it
was a stipulation the council had put to
have all these there. They would have to
make that intersection a full
interchange, arrows, turn lanes, the
whole nine yards. They had the permits.
We had our first meeting with the DOT.
They're going to probably they they
probably they were not going to start
the Route 9 work until September.
Imagine that. They're going to wait till
summer's over, but they're going to
start that. But that's going to be a big
plus going alleviate a lot of the
traffic problems that's over there on uh
on Groveland. Once again, Allison,
congratulations. That was my number
five. Um, and then lastly, what
happened, uh, President Council Aborn
and myself had the opportunity to meet
with, uh, Bob Robertson and we met with
Dr. Galler and we took a tour of Shore
Medical and all of the upgrades and
improvements that they're making. Uh,
and actually, we did uh, a little couple
rounds with Dr. Galler, you know, that
the uh, patient said it was okay for us
to come in and meet them. Uh the
improvements there are to make your stay
that much more pleasant. Uh they did a
lot of the upgrades was will help out
the nursing staff and they are spending
a tremendous amount of money in there
and uh I felt so you know not that I
wasn't comfortable. I was always
comfortable going to the hospital. It's
my first choice if I'm going to go
anywhere to have anything done. Believe
it or not I am going there. It's my
neighborhood hospital. I love the place
and I think the fact that they're
concerned with the well-being of
everyone and making their stay as
pleasant as possible is is a big uh big
commitment to the city and I want to
thank him very much. And that is all I
have to say. Before moving on to the
next report, I wanted to thank uh Mayor
Tap uh for his uh comments at the
Memorial Day. He shared some uh letters
that were written u that were pretty
moving. So uh thank you Dennis for
sharing that. It was a It was an added
part of the day. Thanks. The
administrator's report. Jason, nothing
to report this evening. Uh Mr. Smith,
unfortunately, I have a few things to
comment on. Um
just reminder to everyone, executive
session is private. Uh we've had uh
executive sessions, it seems like
forever anymore, but they deal with
negotiations, they deal with contracts
uh with personnel
in the building. um they seem to be
getting out on the street. Um and
you can't talk about them with your
spouse, can't talk about them with your
friends, can't reference anything. And I
would just appreciate if everyone would
uh be a little more careful uh so that
we don't have that problem again. Uh
second thing was uh people get up public
session. We always ask them to identify
themselves and their uh primary
residence and we've had an incident uh
in the not so past uh that uh where an
individual refused to do that doesn't
want to do that. The only exception to
that really is is Daniel's law, which is
the law enacted to protect police in the
judiciary. Got a judge's son gets shot
in the state. And so we enacted that.
But uh people don't want to provide
their name and and address. Uh we don't
have to really allow them to speak. Uh
it's been the procedure here to allow uh
people to get up and give that
information. The whole purpose of that
is based upon the open public meetings
act which is always we're transparent
and if someone's going to get up and and
complain about something they need to be
transparent who they are so that we have
an understanding why they may be
complaining why any substance to the
complaint. So, I just wanted to point
that out that I did take a look at that
uh for council. And then, uh the beach
coster series, we have at least
eight of the contracts in. I already
told everyone. We got the bond, we got
the insurance, we've got one vendor who
should be authorized tomorrow when he
produces insurance for the clerk. Uh
we're just missing a few
contracts in their entirety and some of
them are not
complete and so I expect to have those
in the next uh 3 days. But the good news
is June 13, June 20 are solid dates and
I have no problem with those dates. So
I'm working with uh Mr. and Mrs. Marada
to get that information together for
everyone.
Thank you, Mr. Smith. Mr. Schneider, uh
just two quick items. The um New Jersey
Avenue repaving and the 2025 road
program are now out to bid and we'll be
receiving bids next Friday and uh plan
to award or reject bids at the next
council meeting. Thank you, Mr. Snider.
Um committee reports. We do have the
EDAC um economic development advisory
commission um report. Mr. Hopkins, would
you like to come up and do that report,
please?
Well, Mr. Hopkins is doing that. Um I
don't know if you folks noticed, but we
do have a cyber security presentation
that'll happen here in uh on June 23rd
at uh 10:00 a.m. and it's going to be
right here in council chambers. I think
it'll be very informative. As part of
that will be county and state people
presenting. So if you can make it great.
Talk to your neighbors.
Thank you
m Mr. Hopkins. The floor is yours
whenever you'd like. Good evening.
I'll start by expressing how proud we
are the group that's been assembled with
a strong committee. Each member bringing
a unique professional background and
perspective to the table. We started to
build some real momentum in a short
period of time that I've been chair. Uh
one of our first actions was to formally
establish some subcommittees to better
focus our work and ensure progress
across multiple areas. We have a
marketing master plan, heritage,
tourism, parking and traffic and ground
sites committees each with its own
representatives each doing its own work
each weekend.
Um, in terms of recent activity, we've
been working to support and promote
events that bring economic energy to the
city. A notable example would be the
upcoming boat race on June 29th at JFK
Park. Uh, this type of event not only
brings visitors into town, but provides
valuable exposure to our local
businesses and community. Uh, as Mr.
Barry mentioned before, it brings some
people from a different area of New
Jersey that don't normally come to
Summers Point to Summers Point for a
certain vote curve that follows.
So, we hope to bring that back in the in
the year and maybe larger next year.
Um, on the planning front, we have
collaborated closely with Triad to help
our city planner, Jim Mortal,
incorporate the economic development
priorities into the master plan
re-examination.
Um, we're pleased to share Triad has
delivered a draft of their final report
and we they've delivered that to Jim
Retella. Um, we've seen pieces of it,
but we're going to finalize it together
at our June EDAC meeting. Um, we're
especially grateful for Jim and the
planning committee have all been
receptive to the topics and goals that
triad and eat are think that's important
to the economic future of the city.
Um, we've been taking a close look at
past agendas and minutes surfacing
valuable projects that were previously
started but never completed. Um, a big
one is the transient marina and focus on
getting dredging completed and
everything at the transient marina
finished so we can be able to get on an
app on your phone that will highlight
our marina as a transient marina on the
inter coastal waterway once we have
everything in place for that. That'll be
very good for economic and transit
growth.
Um, at our last EAC meeting, we also did
have a vote pertaining to ordinance 13
2025, which proposes the minimum length
requirement for short-term rentals.
After a thoughtful discussion in a
two-hour meeting, we did vote to
recommend that no changes were made to
the existing ordinance. We excuse me
resolution by council. I do
digital and
sure we believe the proposed change
would negatively affect a variety of
businesses throughout the town and would
run counter to our broader goals of
economic growth. It's also worth noting
that the existing ordinance was
developed through an edac subcommittee
in coordination with the police
department and code enforcement
officials Mr. Dill and Mr. our own were
both involved in those fundamental
discussions that got us to the green
minimal that was established.
Additionally, we recently issued a
marketing RFP with help of Jason's
office and the girls downstairs. We
received eight responses from firms
across the country as far as Ohio, North
Carolina, and interest as far as Canada.
After careful review, we selected Suion
Communications Group as our recommended
marketing partner for the city. Our
recommendation is based on Suan's long
strong local ties, deep understanding of
our community and a shared vision for a
more actionable results oriented
marketing strategy.
Suan's approach emphasizes creative
content and development and active
social media engagement, a needed shift
for summers from simply tracking
metrics. We believe Suan's ability to
ramp up quickly brings great value and
this partnership can help us regain
momentum and establish a lasting
strategy and promote economic
engagement. I provided everyone with a
copy of Su's proposal and one via email
last week. In closing, I would like to
thank everyone for your continued
support and partnership as EDAC is
energized, focused, and committed to
playing a meaningful role in Summers
Point's economic growth and look forward
to keeping you updated as EDA's work
continues.
And I will get that over to you shortly,
Mr. Smith.
Any questions from Mr. Hopkins?
[Music]
Rob, thank you very much. Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Do we have any other committee reports
at this time? Uh I
would actually like to just um
go over a committee report that was done
about two years ago just to remind
everyone what we did. Mr. Hopkins did
kind of just give a little bit of an
outline, but um
two years ago under my leadership, we
formed a committee of residents,
business owners, and council members to
research extensively the issue of
short-term rentals. We took the issue to
EDAC, and that board did extensive
research of their own uh in conjunction
with the police department and the
construction office and had several
extensive discussions with council. We
sought the advice of city professionals,
a redevelopment attorney, Mr. Franklin,
our administrator, our city engineer on
what re what the research to do and to
discuss. We had several public
discussions before any decisions were
made. Everyone had a voice. At that
time, we had no rules for short-term
rentals, so there were issues. Since we
made the changes based on facts, not
personal opinion, there have been little
to no issues. The fact is the city has
benefited financially on inspection
fees, mercantile fees, and a 3% tax.
Businesses have directly benefited
financially from these rentals. The
estimates is that this industry has
brought over $600,000 last year in
revenue to our business. This is
substantial. After these rules were
initiated, not only did we have very few
issues, we did not face any lawsuits.
Short-term rentals have always been here
in Summers Point. We just didn't have a
name for them. The reason I am here and
live in Summers Point is because I was a
short-term rental with my family back in
the 70s. Again, we just didn't call them
that. We just came down to the shore,
rented a shack, and here you are. Um,
the city is surrounded by water on three
sides and serves both as a shore
community and a town with full-time
residents. All of our businesses depend
both on residents and visitors. I would
urge council to please make the right
decision tonight. Thank you. Thank you.
Any other committee reports?
Yeah, Mr. Chairman, I have one. Go
ahead, Mr. Gertie. On a lighter note, uh
the mayor and I attended a county tax
assessment versus municipal tax
assessment uh seminar yesterday, which
was very interesting. the mayor got a
chance to see firsthand what uh tax
assessing is all about. And this is
something that's going to be coming up
in our future. Usually every 10 years we
do a reval of the city. Uh there's only
two companies out there now, I believe,
that do this. It's very costly. Uh I
don't even know whether you can bond for
it. I think the last time you can bond
for it. Uh the property values in
Atlantic County are probably at what
they say, Dennis 60. We're at 66.3.
Yeah. 66.3. And this is very important
as far as when we have properties that
pay taxes as to the ratios of what the
county tax gets and everything else. So
somewhere down the line in the near
future, we are probably going to be uh
ordered along with all the other
municipalities to do a revail. Uh my
suggestion is that maybe we start
looking at this and get out ahead of it
on how we're going to proceed. I believe
the last two that we did we did inhouse
with personnel that we had. We do not
have a full-time tax assessor anymore.
So I mean we ought to start planning for
the future. I'm just guesstimating and
saying maybe two years from now. So,
anybody that's planning on or going to
be here on council in two years, this is
probably going to be an issue for us.
So, just a little FYI on this uh thing.
And the mayor sent out uh a copy of the
seminar. It's a good thing to review
when you have three hours of spare time.
Yeah. So, but uh please take a look at
it and uh those of you that don't
understand assessment and Tom Smith is
an expert on assessment. So, he's be
great for comment on what you just
addressed if you would like. Okay,
that'd be fine, Mr. Smith.
Maybe about two months ago, we had a
meeting with the county tax board. Yeah.
Uh they brought down two individuals of
the division of the taxation. Um
there are five companies in the state of
New Jersey who license to do rebounds.
There are only three who are active. The
two hold licenses but don't do any of
the work. There's only one that does the
work below Mercer and Mama. So the
likelihood of getting a rebal even if it
is ordered getting it done in two years,
you need to get your uh maps done and
you have to do inspections
and
Margate I believe is approved to have
their uh rebal started. The inspections
and that would take about two years for
them to get their rebound on the books.
So, what the board decided because they
initially sent out a letter that said
everyone's going to get ordered a reval
and what occurred next was the reality
set in that you can't ask everybody in
this county to do a rebound. Um, and the
board is supposed to be sending out uh a
list of towns which you would like to
commence on first. And you need the
approval of the tax board to do your
rebal in the first place. And the the
issue, the difference between a reval
and a reassessment is a reassessment's
been internal. And that's what we have
done the last two times. You didn't need
to get your tax maps done. We saved a
lot of money. Um the inspection process
is is is not as ownorous. You have to
knock twice. You don't have to knock the
third time at the house to do the
inspection. Um and people do not need to
be uh licensed inspectors to do a
reassessment. And what we have done the
last two times in this uh municipality
is with our uh with our assessor who
oversees the reassessment. We've hired
uh other assessors from uh out of county
uh to do the inspections and and to
assist. We used uh Brian Conover who was
a
certified licensed appraiser to do all
of our commercial properties. And that's
how did may recall we actually had our
assessor bid against the rebal companies
to ensure that uh we were being
transparent as to why we were keeping it
in house. And well, so it uh I don't see
anything happening here for about 5
years. Okay. I mean, that's just the
reality. Cape May County is uh we work
in Cape May County on this also. Cape
May County was uh thinking about
starting this and then uh they've sort
of pulled the plug on that uh
one which I represent had requested last
year to be able to do a rebal uh because
they're down around 50% their ratio. So
most of the towns here are between say
65 and 70 which is not where you want to
be right but uh
there was a a significant plummet over a
three-year period which is driven by the
uh the increase in prices on residential
housing. That's it. Okay. So that's the
effect and and if this
calms down a little bit, you could
expect the ratios to go back up. So
that's my uh okay two cents. Do you
think you're when you're saying five
years that would be to try to schedule
something for a reval? I don't I don't
see a reval getting put on in five
years. I mean, it would have to if
there's only one reassessment evaluation
company, excuse me, it's going to come
down here and they're already doing work
up in Mercer Mama and they just uh
we're authorized to do Margate. I don't
see uh how how you're going to do right.
So, definitely a reassessment in house
would be the best way to go, right?
Well, it is the way to go. It's and and
I mean the state's already talking about
trying to do away with reassessments
theoretically by by making it so that
you have to redo your tax maps. And you
got to remember so
our uh local engineer Mr. Schneider has
to redo our tax maps for us and then we
send them to Trenton and and like
anything else in Trenton, we're not
number one and we may not get our tax
maps back for six to eight months and
then there'll be all kinds of suggested
modifications and then Mr. Schneider's
got to redo them and we set them up
again and and then again you have to do
the whole inspection process to all
right in the appeals process. Sorry. The
appeal process after that that comes
afterwards, right? That's why you hope
that that the market doesn't bottom out
after after you do it. Yeah.
Reassessment or rebound, which has been
uh the side effect here in this town at
least twice now.
All right. So, we'll have to keep our
ear to the ground and stay on that one.
Maybe we'll set up a small subcommittee
at some point here to to keep on top of
it. Any other uh committee reports?
All right, let's not hearing any other
committee reports. Um the regular
minutes for May 22nd, 2025 and executive
session meeting minutes for May 22nd,
2025. I need a motion and a second to
approve for content only. I'll make that
motion. Second. Any comments? Not
hearing any comments. All in favor? I.
Any opposed? of hearing any opposed. The
abovementioned meeting minutes are
approved. As I had mentioned earlier,
number ordinance number 11 is pulled.
So, we move on to ordinance number 12.
Ordinance number 12 of 2025, an
ordinance authorizing the lease of real
property owned by the city of Summers
Point to the Summers Point Police
Athletic Activities Lake, Inc., a New
Jersey 501c3 nonprofit corporation. This
is a second reading, so I need a motion
to open for public comment. I'll make
that motion. May I have a second?
Second. All right, Mr. President, if I
may, just do that. I need to recuse
myself from consideration on this as I
am a board member of the organization.
Thank you, Mr. McCord. Okay, we are open
for public comment on uh ordinance
number 12.
I have a motion to close. Motion to
close public portion on ordinance 12.
May I have a second? Second. All in
favor? I. Any opposed? Not hearing any
opposed. We are now uh closed for public
session on ordinance number 12. May I
have a motion to adopt?
I'll make that motion. May I have a
second? Second. Any comments?
All in favor? I. Any opposed? Ordinance
number 12 is adopted. Uh ordinance
number 13. Ordinance number 13 of 2025,
an ordinance amending article 5,
registration and inspection of certain
rental units, apartment units, and
dwelling units, chapter 169-47,
sub paragraph G of the municipal code of
the city of Summers Point to revise the
minimum duration for short-term rentals.
May I have a motion to open for public
comment? Mr. President, if I may. Yes,
Mr. McGregor. Uh, I would like to make a
motion to amend this ordinance. And that
amendment would be that this ordinance
would not if if this ordinance were to
pass would not take effect until
December 31st of this year.
So, I may make that motion. I'll second
amend. Have a second on that, please.
Yes. Uh, any comments? Uh, not hearing
any comments. All in favor? I. Any
opposed?
Not hearing any opposed. Um that
ordinance is now amended. Um with what
Mr. Mcwigan had put on the floor.
Okay. All right. So it's if if I again
may take the floor before you open to
the Sure. public. I just want to address
a few things and uh uh Mrs. Johnston uh
mentioned some stuff in her committee
report there. I just want to note that I
I was given a a uh a the title of this
document says short-term rental meeting
uh November 1st of 22. Uh this was not
shared at the time with the full
council. And uh what I'm looking at is
the different recommendations and this
was a meeting for uh the professionals,
the police, emergency management and uh
the construction office. And there's
several recommendations on here. Uh, one
being the occuency number, it' be two
persons per bedroom plus two persons. So
therefore, threebedroom would be eight
people. Uh, there's some stuff on here
from the police department. Uh,
complaints versus summons
initiates strikes, which three strikes,
it'd be triggered to lose their license.
Uh but the the thing here it says from
the uh zoning and code enforcement uh
recommendation terms of dur duration and
I'm reading directly zoning code
enforcement recommmitment no shorter
than 7 days to 180 days construction
office agreed. Uh there's also a note
that says it's harder to track. So uh
that's that's what I have in regards to
that. I'd just like to speak before uh
we open to the public with regards to uh
as you had said uh at the last meeting
that I had asked you to put this on the
agenda and for us to consider this and I
just want to address that uh what we're
faced with tonight the decision tonight
is as everyone knows is to go from a
three-ight minimum to a seven night
minimum and uh you're asking why why are
we doing that or or why is that being
considered now and ever since this This
whole discussion of short-term rentals h
has uh been a topic, you know, three or
four or five years ago whenever we
started this. Uh I continue to get input
from my neighbors and and citizens
throughout the city, you know, as I as I
uh travel around to different things and
go to different places. Uh and there's
always that uh input that um you know, I
I I want to preserve the neighborhood.
Now, my wife and I, we moved into our
home 36 years ago, raised our three
children, raised them here, and uh you
know, I can't describe how great an
experience that was. And to me, the
neighborhoods are the backbone of
Summers Point. And uh to me and and all
the input I get is to try to preserve
those neighborhoods for future
generations. you know, there are young
families in this community with small
children and I want them to have the
same experience and same positive uh you
know, uh raising of their children that
that we were able to experience and uh
you know the the uh the three night
minimum and a seven night minimum is the
seven night minimum perfect? No. But it
will uh reduce that rolling uh change of
uh new faces in the neighborhood. And if
you know I've spoken to widows that look
out and you know they they they have
that uneasiness if there's another set
of uh visitors every week and and that's
not a complaint they can make to the
police department or even to the code
enforcement. So uh and then there's the
the the younger families that you know
maybe they hesitate letting their
children play out aside if there's a you
know if there's another set of visitors
to our community. go, you know, you guys
have your chance. So, uh, you know, this
is the input I'm getting. So,
you know, they all have your chance. So,
uh, you know, I just that's that's was
my motivation here. So, uh, and that's
what the decision is tonight. So, thank
you, Mr. President. You're welcome. I
have a motion to open for public
comment. So, moved. May I have a second?
Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Not
hearing any opposed. We are now open for
public comment on ordinance number 13.
Reminder, three minutes.
Dan Meyers, 429 Shore Road. Uh I had my
wife and I ran an Airbnb in town for 5
years and you can contact our neighbors
if you want and there was never ever a
complaint. Um,
so our experience has been fantastic. We
met people from all over the world. We
contributed greatly to the economy of
Summers Point by bringing in people that
spent tons of money because we you don't
provide food when you have an Airbnb.
They go out and eat. So
I think three days with penalties that
you guys have written into the law is
perfect.
I think it's a perfect compromise. Um,
it it's a lot more stringent than most
towns who allow Airbnb. So, that's my
two cents. Thank you, Mr. Myers. I am
not in favor of planting it at 7 days.
Thank you, Mr. Myers.
You want to come up?
You don't have to raise your hand when
the person's done. If you want to come
up, just mention your, you know, your
name and address. Thank you. Hi, good
evening. Uh, my name is Tim Schwarz. I
own Summer's Breathe, which is 58 Hickey
Avenue. Our home is a stone throw from
Gateway Playhouse. Your current address,
sir? You indicated what you just tell us
where you please. Well, I have a house
in Ocean City and a house in Mike. Okay,
that's fine. Just tell us your personal
address. Well, it would be u
you just told us close enough. Okay. the
whole purpose of this and this wasn't
directed at this meeting. My my speech
on that we've already had another issue
and uh required to address it
unfortunately. Well, we do say something
else. Glad to hear that. Thank you. Um
so we use Airbnb to book our rentals
with Airbnb. Every ren, no matter where
the guests are from in the US or in the
world, which is true, the other
gentleman mentioned, we've had people
from all over Europe come and stay and
enjoy Summer's Point
have been raided. The people have been
raided by the homeowners
and the homeowners have been raided by
the guests and we get to see those
ratings. There are age requirements and
history to accept or reject any
requested rental for your home. So this
creates a scenario for mutual respect
between the homeowner and the renter.
If they have less than a fivestar
rating, which is a top rating, we do not
rent to them.
One council member kindly responded me
to one of my emails. He talked about a
problem with parking.
We have a driveway that park you can
park three large cars in. I respectfully
conclude that three or four days of
parking is less than seven days of
parking. Also, when someone buys a house
in Summer's Point,
it's most likely expected that they will
have one or probably two cars when they
move in. So I don't really think
see where three-day rentals will affect
parking and certainly seven days of
parking is more than three.
Another council member suggested that
Airbnbs should not be in the residential
zone.
If you look at the zoning map of
Summer's Point, when I did, you will
find most of it is residential all
around the waterfront everywhere. It's
water uh residential.
So, let's be honest, the restaurant and
bars are right in the middle of the
residential zones.
We have entertainment in the summertime
every Friday night on the beach. Right
in the middle of the residential zones,
we have block parties and street events.
Right in the middle of our residential
zones, all of these are enjoyed by
residents and visitors alike.
It's not Airbnbs that cause parking
problems.
Airbnbs are an important part of econ
the economic fabric of our residential
zones. Many of us purchased the property
with the knowledge that Summers Point
had a three-day minimum stay like other
towns that I am familiar with. Three
minutes up. It is obvious to me that the
council members that want to change the
rule to seven days do not have a good
reason to do so. To change the playing
field without a solid reason is
unresponsible.
If the goal is to put Airbnb operators
out of business in Summers Point, that
could lead to legal action and unwanted
costs for everyone.
We feel that the 7-day minimum is
unnecessary and unwarranted. I urge you
to vote no to the change to the
ordinance of 7 days. In in addition,
there may be a solution. Sir, we do have
the three minute um
Okay, fine. Thank you. Solution to all
this. I would like to suggest possibly
forming a committee that t that is
tasked to set up a reasonable rules for
rentals with a system of controls for
hosts that may have repeatedly breached
the rules. Now, it was mentioned tonight
by Janet that there are rules. We've had
a license for three years. Um, no one's
put the rules in front of me. I I didn't
realize you had rules. Okay. So, but you
gave me a license and we have had zero
problems except somebody cleaning the
fish. Okay. Sir, I I do have to ask you
because I want to make sure everybody
gets a chance. Our neighbors.
Great. Thank you. Just a reminder, you
get three three minutes.
Just a reminder, it is three minutes
because we want everybody to have an
opportunity. Thank you.
Hi, my name is Anna Lazos. Uh, I live in
a carpet township, but I do own five
houses in summer school. For the record,
they're all all year round rentals. Uh,
however, um, I would not like um the
council to change it from a 3 days to
7-day minimum. And here are the reasons.
Uh first of all, I believe that um this
is unethical to control the private
property owners and uh this might be
overturned in federal courts one day and
this will be requiring more resources
from summer's point and um I don't think
that anybody would like stuff like that
happening and there were precedents like
this in the other states. Um I believe
that short-term uh rentals bring
community up invalued due to the higher
standards. The owners of the short-term
rentals, they take care of their
properties better. They power wash. They
hire landscapers, professional
landscapers,
they hire cleaners, uh they provide jobs
for other people, not only make money
for themselves.
And then also the community, the the
houses actually look nicer.
Um,
so, um, I know that some people were
mentioning like online there was like a
big government about this because the
the noise violation or people drinking
and trash all over the place. Well,
I believe that if the people decide to
yell for 3 days, they'll they'll decide
to yell for seven days. So, there's no
reason for them to for this change.
Um,
so trash point like you know they put
trash all over the place. Those
short-term rentals. This is invalid. We
own like I said we we have seven doors
seven doors in here in some response. We
have two duplexes and three um you know
single family houses. And we did have
problems with the actually with the
yearly renters who put trash all over
the the place especially when they
leave. So that like the trash uh point
is invalid. Um
and um
people there's a lot of people who were
buying those houses to with knowing that
they will be able to make this money and
um I don't think that there's a reason
to take this away from them. And then I
know that the the member of the city
council mentioned that they you know he
raised the family here and um I don't
see the reason how like what's the ch
difference 3 days 7 days like why not
you see those uh those faces those
different faces they spend money here
they actually uh bring the businesses up
uh people make money and the parents of
those uh people who uh raise um who who
who are raised here. They actually work
in those places. Why why can't we make
like allow them to make that money? And
then also I have a question. Uh somebody
asked me to ask a question. What are the
rules about if the host the actual host
like if it's my own house and I'm trying
to like Airbnb my like a room in my
house? Is there rules about that? Am I
allowed to do that or no?
Ma'am, your three minutes are up. Can
you answer the question? Yes.
Yes, there are rules. And what are the
rules? No, you're allowed to do that.
You're not.
[Music]
Okay. This is why I I would suggest we
don't get into
be here all night, right? No point.
Talk about the talk about the ordinance,
aren't we? Yeah, we're supposed to be
talking about the ordinance. Okay. Next.
I would just uh advise council that uh
I previously sent back when we worked on
this back in 2022 and uh and resent it I
believe again uh the threat of the
litigation in in the federal court. the
uh case of uh Ecrol the uh city of
Jersey City went up to the uh third
circuit and the third circuit court of
appeals is one step below the US Supreme
Court and they ruled it's uh you can you
can change the days you can modify that
time. So, I mean, I I don't want
council, anyone at council to think that
I'm sitting here silently and we're
we're going to engage in some illegal
conduct. We're not. Okay. Uh, hello. My
name is Michael Geon. I live at 19
Cornell Road in Summers Point. Been
there for 27 years. Um, for once, I'm
actually going to agree with somebody on
the stage.
You made sense for once. Um, this is a
family oriented town. We have blue
collar here. This woman who was just up
here just literally said she had five
houses. That's five families were taking
away homes for like how does this make
sense to you guys? They're not sure.
Like we're talking about profit for
this. Everybody gets their chance. Okay.
Go ahead. Sorry to upset the out of 10.
It's okay. Go ahead. Um, however, you
know, there's families in this town that
are looking for homes for year- round
rentals to buy a home and they can't
because there's nothing there because
it's being absorbed by the Airbnbs. It
should have never been on the table,
period. That's all I have to say. Thank
you.
[Applause]
All striki, 753rd Street, Summers Point.
Uh, mayor, uh, President Habacorn,
members, city council. Um, I'm a little
bit taken back by some of the comments
from certain councilmen. We have since
2012, we did the master plan review. And
when we did the master plan review, we
had 19 separate meetings. And it kept on
setting around how Summers Point was a
tourist town and we were a waterfront
community and we had these amenities and
people wanted to come and stay in
Summers Point. Okay, we're doing the
master plan review again and no one from
city council ever spoke up about this
rental situation. We've had five
meetings so far like a bunch of church
mice. No one said a word about it. Are
you appearing Sorry to I'm appearing as
a citizen. Okay, let's leave let's leave
the planning board out. It's public
meeting. It was a public meeting, so I'm
allowed to comment. I'm gonna advise
council president that you're in
conflict if you continue on addressing
it in that fashion. Okay? You have the
right to as a public citizen. Okay? So,
let's not talk about the board. You're
not authorized to be here speaking about
stuff from the planning board. Okay?
Okay. I've addressed this with other
people in the past. You get treated the
same way. Okay. Okay. Thank you very
much. Thank uh on the top of your
agenda, what does that logo say?
What's it say? The shore starts here.
So, as Miss Johnson said, the shore
starts here. We all came down to the
shore at one time of another for a
vacation.
And some of us, some of us couldn't
afford to be here for a week, a month,
or the season. We came down on the
weekend. We stayed three days, went back
home, come back again. We came down in
1981, lived in Brigantine, then came and
been in Summers Point since 1982.
So, we never had a problem with with uh
people that had people come down and
stay. There's a couple people in our
block. They come down, the kids welcome
all the kids. They can play. I have a
vacant lot. They play in the lot. So,
the shore starts here is is our uh logo.
and we spend thousands of dollars
marketing to bring tourists here and now
you want to say you can come but you
have to stay seven days.
I think that's that's uncalled for. Uh
I've personally I tried to build homes
in Summers Point and could not build the
homes I wanted to build because of
saying that we didn't have enough land
to build them on. That's okay. I'll deal
with that in a separate issue. But we
try to build homes to have people come
and move to Summers Point. I have
clients I just built for four. One is
using their property to rent it out
part-time because they're not here all
the time. I don't see anything wrong
with that. Thank you very much. Thank
you.
[Applause]
My name is Joe. I live on Dos Avenue,
Summers Point.
Brisetti. Good evening, council members.
My name is Joe and I'm speaking on
behalf of the Summers Point Hosts and
Residents Coalition, a group of local
homeowners, residents, and business
supporters committed to preserving
responsible short-term rentals in our
community. I'm going to cut you off real
quick. I don't mean to be rude, but we
identify who you're speaking on behalf
of
the next is it Yeah, we're registered
with the Summers Point Business
Association, but it's not registered
with the state of New Jersey. No. Would
you identify who's in the group so that
you're speaking? It's myself and all
these parties right here.
Don't introduce themselves as they
speak, but I mean they're here. Jason,
Nick, Lindsay, Catherine, Mike, people
are going to get off. Please identify
yourself as part of this. Yeah, I
question. That's fine. Thank you, sir.
Yep. So, my three minutes will restart,
right? Sure. Thank you. We We call it
restarts if we can do that. We'll do
that. I'm shocked that awesome. We're
good. We're good. Tonight, I
respectfully urge you to table Ordinance
132025
or at least vote no. This ordinance goes
beyond reasonable regulation, it
effectively shuts the door on a large
portion of visitors and homeowners.
According to polling from our coalition
and national data comparable from
coastal towns, approximately 80% of
short-term bookings are under seven
nights. that reflects how people travel
today. Weekend getaways, family visits,
quick escapes, coming back to Summers
Point that retired to Florida. Not
everyone has the time or budget for a
full week stay. And I understand the
concerns around transient occupancy. But
respectfully, that is not a challenge
created by short-term rentals alone.
That is part of a broader post-pandemic
shift. Remote work, second home
ownership, and flexible travel habits
have changed who comes to Summers Point,
why, and how they engage with our
community. These trends are not well
only well documented nationally, but
they're echoed by our own committees who
affirmed our town's evolution into a
coastal destination.
Targeting the length of stay won't
reverse those trends. It will only
discourage tourism and reduce the very
revenue that supports our marinas,
restaurants, and small businesses, the
backbone of our local economy. We are
not asking to be exempt from regulation.
We are asking to be part of a solution.
Our coalition is developing a
responsible hosting framework based on
industry best practices and we are
working alongside the SPA to ensure that
local business voices are also
represented. I'll be at that board
meeting tomorrow, by the way. We are
eager to collaborate with city leaders
to create smart policy that addresses
real concerns like trash, noise,
property maintenance while still
supporting responsible hosts and valued
guests. And finally, I want to address
this process. This ordinance has felt
rushed, limited notice, limited
outreach, and no collaboration with the
people that it impacts the most. When
transparency and inclusion are
sacrificed for public speed, that
erodess trust. That is not how you build
a better Summers Point. Thank you. Thank
you.
Hello, my name is uh Nicholas Rusco
Stab. I'm a part of the coalition that
Joe just mentioned. Um uh we have a home
508 West New Jersey Avenue. Um we're
residents of 31 Stockton Street in
Bloomfield, New Jersey. Um good evening,
council members, citizens of Summers
Point. Um, I'm a Mainland graduate, um,
Summers Point homeowner,
um, and a part of the group that, uh,
Joe just mentioned. Uh, I grew up in
this area. My family's all in this area,
and I had to go get a job away from here
because there's not that much industry
for me or my wife here. So, the only way
we can um, make this work is is by going
this route through the supplemental
income of short-term rentals. We love
this area. We're at the Memorial Day
parade. We're at Summer's Cafe all the
time. like we're this is our community
as well. We're just a different vibe uh
from you all. Um okay, so I'll make my
comment simple. Uh if this proposal is
adopted, it will undoubtedly have a
negative impact uh economically and
force homeowners to sell their homes,
including us. Uh I'm against it, but
what I've heard, I talked to a lot of
different council members, and what I've
heard from you is the the goal is to
protect the community, right? Preserve
the community or the uniqueness of
Summers Point. Um, I also want to
protect the community, okay? I love
being here. I get to be near my family,
walk the peaceful streets with my wife
and son, which is hard to do. It's not
so peaceful up in North Jersey. Um, and
take rides on the bike path, right? I
got a seven-month-old and he gets to
enjoy this um this place that I grew up
in.
I urge you to work together with our
coalition on a solution. There's no need
to rush the vote. Let's take appropriate
time to consider this amendment.
consider new ideas and come to a
balanced solution that addresses
everyone's concern. And right now I can
share some alternative ideas that maybe
you haven't thought of, maybe you have,
but I would love to open it up to like
citizens if you have issues like we want
to work with you, right? Like let's make
it good. Um let's make it work for
everybody. Um okay, let's consider
maintaining a three-ight minimum but
limit bookings to only one per 7-day
period. Right? same impact, but it
doesn't impact us negatively, right? We
get the same amount of bookings, which
is like all of us, if you talk to us, we
get one booking a week, and it's either
for three, five nights, something like
that. But yeah, we don't want to do
backtobacks, and no one's getting that.
So, let's let's we could do three night
minimum, but limit to one per 7-day
period. Um, or if you don't want more
people to do short-term rentals, how
about you grandfather certain a certain
amount of whatever it's 60 or something
like that, grandfather those in or turn
them into to like a liquor license where
you can transfer it, right? Like a
liquor license, you can get taxes off of
the transfer each time someone wants to
transfer it. You get additional revenue,
but you don't increase the capacity of
short-term rentals, right? I I don't
know what your goals are, but we would
love to be a part of them and help you,
help us, and help all the citizens.
Like, we want to work together. Um, how
about the three night minimum uh in a
certain period of time? Uh, but outside
of that period, we extend it or shorten
it, whatever, you know, something like
that. Um, strengthen the enforcement,
like knock the people out that you don't
want. That's that's cool with us. We
like enforcement. Um,
like that's that's what I got on this
paper, but I'm sure there's a lot more
variation that we can talk about. Um, so
so what I'm saying is let's work
together to figure it out. Um, what the
key issues are, what do we want to fix,
and let's work together to fix them. Um,
and and your role as a council is to act
on behalf of all the citizens, right?
Long-term rentals, short-term rentals,
business owners, marina developers,
everybody in this town. Why am I keeping
one? And that's that's the end of my
time. I don't know. Yep. Your time's up.
Thank you.
Howard, you got to tell me. I can't
hear.
You got to yell at me. He can't hear.
Good evening. Good evening, mayor and
members of the city council. My name is
Katherine Powers. Um I reside in Soul
and Summers Point. Um, as many of you
know, um, I've been a short-term
rental host and a property owner in
Summers Point. I'm also a member of the
Summers Point Hosts and Residents
Coalition. While I fully understand the
concerns about our neighborhood
disruption, I believe our existing
three-ight minimum already strikes a
thoughtful balance. Discouraging party
houses while accommodating responsible
guests like military families in
transition, health care workers, trades
people, and vacationing families. I
myself worked at Shore Memorial for 12
years and know Dr. Galley very well. The
city has already implemented a robust
enforcement system including fines for
sustained complaints, license revocation
for repeat offenders. However, public
data shows no clear pattern of repeat
complaints or enforcement actions
against the STRs in Summers Point. Let's
focus on enforcing the tools already in
place rather than penalizing responsible
property owners and visitors. According
to the STR data, about as uh Joe said,
3% or so bookings were for seven nights
or longer. Ordinance 1325 would
eliminate 80% of current stays, gutting
local bookings, slashing occupancy tax
revenues, $600,000,
and reducing spending at restaurants,
shops, seasonal businesses that rely
heavily on tourism. And this just
doesn't affect us as hosts. It affects
employees, service providers, and the
very businesses that sponsor our local
youth sports teams, and community
events. Overly broad restrictions like
this have already been challenged in New
York courts. Municipalities are required
to support such decisions with real
evidence, not assumptions or personal
opinions. This ordinance also raises
question of economic fairness. It
disproportion disproportionately, excuse
me, harms single income and
working-class fl families like myself
who rely on short-term rental income to
make ends meet. And this is also
referred to as economic discrimination.
Furthermore, the process behind this
proposal has lacked transparency. There
were only three weeks between
introduction and the vote, no direct
notification to host, no public survey,
no documented violations, and no trial
period. That is not how inclusive
policym should work. I've been operating
my STI legally and responsible for six
years since before regulations even
existed. I have had conversations with
Mr. Mcwigan dating back to 2019 when he
clearly stated that his intent is to
eliminate STRs in Summers Point. Despite
efforts by myself and other hosts to
work collaboratively with the city back
then, our proposals were dismissed. It
was only through the broader council's
leadership that we achieved today's
responsible compromise. Three night
minimums, merchant licenses,
inspections, and penalties for
violations. So why are we revisiting
this now just as the busy season begins?
If this ordinance is motivated by a
private grievance rather than a public
interest, it sets a dangerous precedent.
Furthermore,
if further adjustments are needed, our
coalition stands ready to collaborate
with the city and the residents of
Summers Point on solutions. There are
three driven one more sentence. Thank
you. I respectfully urge you to vote no
on ordinance 13 2025 or at the very
least table it for further public input,
transparency, and evidencebased data.
Thank you for your time and your
service. Thank you.
[Music]
Yeah, maybe that's a better picture.
Mr. Mr. Smith. Hi, my name is Mike
Halpern. I own with my wife 825 Bay
Avenue. We're from Upper Township. So,
what I wanted to do was what all retired
engineers do is bore the snot out of
everybody with some numbers, right?
Because that's kind of what we do. And
I'll give you the same advice my wife
gives everyone. If you don't like what
I'm saying, don't listen to me. But I
generally do in fact know what I'm
saying. So, to let you know, our we've
had a short-term rental, nice location,
uh, great neighborhood. For the last 15
months, we've had 187 nights, which is
32.7% occupancy. So, we're not that
busy. We'd like to be a little busier,
obviously. Works out to about 337 a
night. And we have a total revenue of
$63,000 in that 15 months. Sounds
wonderful, right? $63,000. Who wouldn't
want it? Well, by the time we're done
paying fees, etc., it's a chunk. And I
and a lot of the chunk is about $10,000
in taxes contributed by our guests to
the community. So you have uh 3% hotel
tax about 1,900 bucks. You have a 5%
state occupancy tax, another 3,200. So
about 5,000 in occupancy taxes, 6% well
more, 6.625 in sales tax, another 4,000.
And there's 10,000 pretty quickly gone
off the top. We have fees. My manager is
here tonight. You know, he does well,
he's supposed to, etc. And so that's
what um you know I I I have to tell you
that if we really do have 60 units uh
doing this that you know I did the math
and we've heard it before we're looking
at about a $553 to $600,000 gap in
taxes. This is money that was I think
kind of donated by our guest. Where will
it come from? It's going to have to come
out of the tax base. You you I know your
budget. I've looked at it. You've spent
this money. You have it earmarked and
it's not going to be there. That's going
to be an issue. All right. So, you know,
that's the tax situation, but you know,
there the lost opportunity cost.
Engineers say stuff like that, right? Is
that um you know, you got to have the
ancillary revenue, which everyone has
talked about. So, I did a little math.
Sorry. And we we're going to assume that
we have four guests per day. We have
more, but let's say we have four. And
let's make the assumption that each one
of those four of those guests are going
to eat one meal out. Now, you're going
to love this part. I I do a lot of data
collection. All of our appliances tell
me what's going on. You know, I've got
all sorts of stuff and I know we're not
cooking in the house. I know that uh
because I uh I deal with the uh delivery
services, what's getting delivered, etc.
Lots and lots of money is going out. So,
I'm almost there and you won't have to
throw me out. And the uh so, you know,
and again, there's very little trash,
too. So, if you have 187 days, that's
748 takeout, go out, bring in meals. We
just had dinner at my wife and I at the
anchorage. Wonderful. $30 a person, even
better. And I know you could spend a lot
more if you drink. But it's one of the
reasons we know our our guests love the
walking district. We get tons of reviews
that say we love the restaurant. So,
let's do the math. Just for our
property, that could be as much as about
$22,000 in lost restaurant revenue. That
doesn't count. Uh, you know, gas, booze,
incidentals, pretzels from Waw Wa. Can I
get you to wrap it up a little bit? I
can. So, thank you very much. So, you
know, I think that if you if you kick
that out 60 day to 60 properties, it's
like $1.35 million lost per year. You
know, a million here and a million
there, and you you're going to lose
money. It adds up. All right. Point
being is that I think there's some room
here. I think we need to sit back, take
a a breath, and see if we can't figure
out how to save this money because
you're going to have to go looking for
it, and only the taxpayers will cover
it. Thank you. Thank you.
Me first. Me first.
Uh, good evening, council. Uh, Jason
Brusso, uh, 214 Pennsylvania Avenue. Um,
you know, I've owned my property since
2019, and you know, everybody's come up
here and I am part of the co coalition,
by the way. Uh, everybody's come up here
and dazzle you with numbers and I wanted
to kind of make it a little more
personal. Um, I've own my property since
2019. Originally, I bought it for my
daughter to live in when she went to
Stockton. Um, once she graduated, uh, my
wife and I used it in the summertime and
we rented it to Stockton students in the
winter time, September through through
May. Um, last year we decided to try
Airbnb to fill the days that we couldn't
couldn't come down here and enjoy
Summer's Point. Uh, my boat's down here,
my family's down here. Um,
I wanted to to tell you about some of
the guests that come and visit my my
property and why they come. Uh, one
person is coming down um to go to a
retirement party. Uh, another person is
coming down uh with her sister, husband
and daughter um to visit Ocean City, one
of their favorite vacation places. Um,
another one is, um, my husband and I are
along with another couple are heading
down to the shore of some sightseeing,
looking forward to the stay. Uh, this
goes on and on and on and on. People are
coming here because they love Ocean
City, they love Summers Point, they love
the restaurants, and and they just love
coming here. Um, and I think, you know,
going from 3 days to 7 days is is just
doesn't make any sense. Um, somebody
that's going to party for 3 days is
going to party for 7 days. Um, and then,
you know, respectfully, Councilman
McGwigan, um, somebody that's afraid of
somebody that's staying in their house
to look out the window is just I'm
sorry, that's just ridiculous. Um, it
doesn't make any sense. Last, uh, last
weekend I had somebody in for 4 days and
they had a little child with them and
they played in the yard. They had a
great time. Nobody's afraid of our
runners. So, please vote no. Um, we
don't need to go to seven days. Thank
you very much. Thank you.
Hi, Lisa Bender 1304 Atkinson Avenue. Um
I my husband and I are double tax owner
double taxpayers. We own two properties
in Summers Point. The one mentioned also
up here on um 7th Street. Um
unfortunately for us, we decided very
recently to do a short-term rental.
literally finished the night of May 22nd
when Mr. McGwigan decided he was very
nervous about potentially people having
Airbnb near him or anywhere in the
neighborhood. Supposedly, he's helping
other people. But anyway, we had spent
blood, sweat, and tears for 4 months
improving our property. Nothing major,
didn't any renovations, but we
refinished it. We did our own. It was
DIY. We did tons of work on this
property with originally the intention
of selling it. If I told you that I was
coming here to sell his property, you
all would yell at me anyway to say, "Oh,
someone from Pennsylvania is going to
buy it." You cannot limit who buys
properties, and you really shouldn't
limit what people can do with them.
That's my perspective. I am a real
estate agent as well. Anyway, we were
going to sell it, but then we were
talking to our neighbors, and we were
improving it. They were so happy we were
improving it. They then would mention to
us, which I thought was interesting. Um,
first of all, let me preface this with
we did provide a home to people for 18
years. We moved out of that house into
our new house and had it as a long-term
rental for 18 years. So, we did
contribute to that housing stock for
many, many years. Um, none of those
people I don't even think anyone was
staying in Silver Point um after that.
So, it's not like we're necessarily
bringing people in and all of a sudden
we have our schools full and school
children are here and and everything
like that. So anyway, we um so we
provided a home for 18 years and our
neighbors saw us working and we were
talking to a lot of them and they were
like, "Oh gosh, I hope you get good
tenants." Like, you know, the utility
were nervous about it. And then we kind
of started talking. We're like, "Gosh,
you know, we're spending more money.
Like, maybe we will consider doing
Airbnb and let people come. It seems
like a great thing. People love Summers
Point. They want to come down and stay.
We'll provide a great home." It turned
out great. It's really cute. And they
were so excited. Our neighbors were like
our immediate neighbors. I can't say
that people outside of our immediate
block, but the immediate neighbors were
very very excited that we were doing
Airbnb. Um, and it made sense because
basically
if you have a bad tenant and they live
next to them, we don't. They live there
near them for years and years and years
and years and years and they're not
leaving. So for them, they're like, "Oh,
great. They have someone coming for 3
days. Even if they're annoying, they're
gone in 3 days." And then we started
talking to other people uh just friends
and stuff when we started considering
this more seriously and other people
said, "Yeah, my neighbors my neighbors
are in the Airbnb." It's great because
they're here 3 days and there's no one
else here a lot of times the rest of the
week. So why extend this as other people
said to 7 days cuz then if you have a
partier as you guys are claiming that
everyone's parters, they're going to
party for seven days instead of three.
So literally logically makes no sense.
Um, unless you're just which the mission
seems to be just trying to put
everything out of business, which is
against economic prosperity. Um, which
it seems like this council is pro. They
are sounds like you guys are against
economic prosperity is what I'm saying.
Um, because you are trying to shut down
a very lucrative um, business thing and
you're also preventing people from
coming here. If someone's coming for 7
days, they're going to Ocean City. I
mean, let's face it, people come here to
go to Ocean City. So, we have the
benefit of people actually coming here
and staying here and seeing our
community and not staying at a hotel in
a busy business district, but actually
staying in a neighborhood and maybe
those people will decide, hey, I want to
move here. I want to live here. Yes. And
I do want to say to Mr. McGrigan um as
well, he's so concerned about the
neighborhoods, but like again, this
council approves warehouses next to
residential things. And I know migan
like in off Maryland Avenue um down that
area. um they're right near residents
and also I know for sure Mine
Entertained moving an entire street for
a single business moving a total
literally changing the way the street is
disrupting an entire neighborhood more
forcefully to please wrap it up. Yes.
But it's just upsetting to me that
supposedly we're just saving certain
neighborhoods or just saving, you know,
preventing other businesses but
supporting, you know, preventing us and
people that are homeowners to be able to
keep their homes. and my husband and I,
we want to be able to keep this home so
we could eventually move back into it
and stay in Summers Point instead of
having to move out.
[Applause]
Hi everyone, my name is Lindsay Resco. I
live at 508 West New Jersey and I am
also part of the coalition here. But for
me, buying a home in Summers Point truly
was a dream realized for me and for my
family who are lifelong residents of
Atlantic County. And after a lot of
thoughtful planning and consideration,
my family invested our life savings into
our home. So, I just want you to know
your proposal, it's not a simple policy
change. It's not just a number on a
piece of paper. It does impact the
economic future of Summers Point.
$600,000
worth. But it also impacts the
livelihood of small business owners.
Because please make no mistake about it,
short-term rental owners. We are small
business owners. We're not big
corporations. I'm not a venture
capitalist. I'm your neighbor. We are
families. The young families in this
neighborhood that you're talking about.
I'm a new mother with a seven-month old
son. I can't wait for him to be able to
play out in our neighborhoods.
Councilman McGwigan. We are families,
individuals, local entrepreneurs who
have invested into this town, not just
with our money, but with our time, our
energy, and our passion. We create jobs.
We support local businesses, and we
bring visitors who spend money into this
town. The proposed seven night minimum
is not regulation. It is elimination.
Our research has found that up to 80% if
not more of visitors are booking for 7
days or less than 7 days. This proposed
amendment would result in loss of
revenue that will put the majority of us
completely out of business. This is an
income stream for me. It will also
impact other local businesses. Fewer
guests equals fewer dollars spent on
restaurants, shops, entertainment, and
all the things that make Summers Point
so vibrant. Many of us have made the
decision to invest in short-term rentals
after really thoughtful research and
planning, analyzing markets, a assessing
the needs of visitors and residents, and
building our businesses based on the
expectations that you all set in place.
I took time, I took thoughtfulness to do
that, and I'm asking that you do the
same in return. Please make this
decision with thoughtfulness, with
consideration, not only for me and my
fellow short-term renter home owners,
but also for the citizens in this
community who live here year round. This
should be a community conversation about
what happens next, not something that
happens as a knee-jerk reaction over the
course of 3 weeks. I welcome you to
bring us to the table. Let's all sit
down together and have conversations.
Thank you. Thank you.
[Music]
Robert Gabriel, EHT, A Cardin Drive. I
have family that's lived here for 50
years and still do. Um, I'm just going
to give you a little history lesson.
Should take me 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
Five years ago, and I'm not with the
coalition, but I'm in a relationship
with uh someone in the coalition. Five
years ago, Mr. McGregor brought this
issue up when he was president of
council. At that time, he stated his
personal opinion on them and he wanted
to ban them. He was sadly soundly
defeated by counselor. Now, this is not
the second time. And the first time it
was only me and C Katherine Powers that
came to the meeting. Now this is not the
second time but the third time in as
many years.
In past statements made by him, we will
show a pattern of continued attacks
on these hardworking taxpayers first
responders. He's a operating nurse for
30 years. has a son in the Air Force
protecting
us from attack on land and we're getting
attacked here or they are. She saves
lives and you're going to do this to her
military families and citizens. We're
those citizens.
Uh his intention is to eliminate your
right to eliminate these owners of
Airbnbs. We have seen now that he will
continue to use his elected position for
his own personal gain and belief. He
believes he does now he has tried to
convince others to go along with them go
along with this issue. He will continue
to bring his bring personal hardship to
these citizens and to break them and
they'll give up. This has now become
harassment, discrimination,
intimidation, and using threats of
violence penalties and taxes. This got
to stop. In March of 2025, the federal
court rule said that this action
proposed here violates the US
Constitution Dant clause which gr which
grants them legal action.
[Music]
council just can't make a broad
statement with no data whatsoever to
back it up. At our first meeting at that
time on record, Mr. McGriggan came out
and just called these houses flop
houses. Then he stated that someone died
in one in Ohio. Then he doesn't want to
see people on his street or in his town.
In the second meeting,
what came out was that
Airbnb owners are the cause of other
issues. Parking issues, noise issue,
trash issue, people blowing in the wind
down the street, a police issue, and
then the places of homes.
They also tried to say if a police came
to one of your guys' homes, they could
take it away. But counselor didn't go
for that.
Well, counselor liquid I need your love.
Liquid stores kill and bars create all
those issues that you just said, you
know, and alcohol kills people. But are
you going to try to ban them?
Okay. Yeah.
The only thing I got to say is council,
stand up, vote no or you can you can
vote yes tonight, but you can go home,
look at your spouse in the face and your
kids, call your grandkids and say that
you did a wonderful thing today. You
took people's freedoms away. That men
and women died in Memorial Day for
freedom so people could live free
from doing what they want. Appreciate
it.
[Applause]
My name is Bob Bender, 1304 Atinson
Avenue. Also, uh own 7577 Street,
Summers Point. Uh that house I bought in
2001. So, I've been a resident here
since 2001. Uh me and my wife uh moved
to our other house and then we've been
renting that property since 2006 year
round. We've had good tenants, bad
tenants, year- round tenants. Uh we've
had neighbors across the street that
were horrible. We had neighbors across
the street that were fantastic. I mean,
people are people. You're going to do
that. So, uh now we decided uh try this
Airbnb uh and uh if anyone drove by the
house the last three months have seen uh
me and my wife uh put all our sweat and
tears into this house. So, and it's
something we want to make successful.
And uh I just don't think the seven days
I mean in summer's point here we want
people to come to the good old days. We
want people to come to uh Bay Fest. We
want people to come to the car show.
You got to rent for a week. No, you want
to rent for a couple days. You stay the
weekend. You spend your money in town.
That's that's what this should be. So
we're trying to do our best. Uh we have
14 um people since we've uh started
this, which was only a couple weeks ago.
only one is seven days. Every other one
is less than seven days, mostly three or
four. And every person, they're coming
for reunions in Summers Point, family
reunions. They're coming they're coming
to, you know, to see that they've heard
about Summers Point. I I just think it's
uh it's not fair to the people who are
investing in this. Uh as far as the
neighborhood, I mean, these houses I've
I've driven around to all these Airbnbs
that I've seen. I they're all in perfect
shape. They're all they keep them up.
So, I mean, there's a lot of other
people residents and in town whose
houses and have trash in front of their
houses and stuff like that. You have
rules now. Enforce the rules. Don't
Don't take it away from the people here.
So, thank you.
[Applause]
Evening.
My name is Jim Oswald. I live at 500
Pennsylvania Avenue. You know, and one
of the things I'm hearing, you know, the
difference between a lot of what a lot
of people are saying and myself is I'm
not looking at economics. I'm looking at
quality of life. I live here year round.
I support all the local businesses
during the not the the the the slow
season. I am not against Airbnbs as long
as they are properly managed, regulated,
and clear plans for enforcement. I
bought my home in 19 in 2015 in a
resident residential district, not
hospitality. I live here and vote here.
And I think that's key. There's people
that said I know this young lady said
she lives at 508. I don't think your hus
or your your your partner said you don't
live here. You live here. No, there's
no, but she said I live here. But in any
event, I vote I live here and I do vote
here um
and support everything. Three night
minimum equates and and forgive me on
the numbers. Three night minimum equates
the potential for 10 turns a month and
anywhere from 4 to eight occupants per
stay per stay. Just simply average six
guests per stay equals 60 new neighbors
per month. Even our local hotels and
people are saying they the two or three
night men. Hotels have a two or three
night minimum. I called Pier 4 today.
They have a two night minimum right now
as we speak. Geez, that's a hotel and
we're talking about three nights. I
don't I don't see any problem with seven
nights. Um you um and and by the way,
hotels are in a district which is
permitted by right as hospitality.
Multiply that number by six because I
know there's six air known Airbnbs in my
immediate neighborhood. That could be
300 new neighbors per month. That's a
lot. Know your neighbors is a central
theme in our community and we all look
out for one another. Summer po summers
Point remains a mature market and while
we always welcome new residents and
guests, but the potential for even 50
new neighbors per unit per month is
little bit overwhelming.
Summers Point has an outstanding
position on see something, say something
last March 15th of 2024
is a great example. I saw car park at
fifth on Fifth Street in Pennsylvania at
4:30 in the morning. I called the
non-emergency number and within 20
minutes we learned that car was actually
stolen vacated right in front of my
home. Had I not a reason I called I I
told my wife I don't recognize that call
car I called. You know what we had 20
people living coming in I wouldn't
recognize the car and I would have never
made that call. Short-term rentals also
put quite a bit of stress on
infrastructure police and public works.
nun season. During the nun season, our
trash is normally removed by 9:45 in the
morning. Nowadays, it's pushing 12:00. I
don't normally answer from seeing the
trash generated, but it seems clear it's
due to the tonnage. Many of our
neighbors, both north and south, are
regulating short-term rentals. Ocean
City, Maryland, has have recently
adopted a five night minimums in certain
districts in 2025 and 26 to increase it
31 nights in 2027. Why do you think that
is? You know, obviously it needs to be
regulated. I also believe two of our
council members reside in communities
that prohibit rentals less than a year.
What's good for those residents should
be good for everyone? You agree? Sure.
Would you, if this were amendment to
your bylaws, if you go from 12 months,
would you agree to go three three days?
I'm fine with You don't have to answer
that. I know what the answer is.
Short-term rentals benefit the investors
and realtors. Some retailers might
welcome the increased traffic and others
may not. We are we all recently read
about the increased shoplifting that
that even Kate May is experiencing even
with the merantial tax which I which is
3%.
And assuming an investor is 100%
occupied June through September with an
ADR average daily rate of 350 per night.
The tax collected during that time frame
results in total to total sur revenue of
$1,260. I don't know where people are
coming up with half a million dollars.
that doesn't exist unless you have four
or 500 uh short-term rentals in this
area. Multiply it $500,000 by 03, you're
talking $20 million annual revenue
coming in. Doesn't happen. I think it's
more probably like 40 or $50,000 in
total from every Airbnb.
Please consider what I've stated and
please adopt the seven night minimum. I
think it's very important. I vote here
and it's it's it's a quality of life
issue. It's not economics. Thank you,
sir.
Harry Kent, 55 Village Drive, South
Village Drive. Uh, I just want to say
that I moved here to live in a
neighborhood and have my neighbors next
door to, you know, grow up. Uh, my
grandkids see the same people all the
time. I don't agree with the Airbnb, but
that's not my decision. I think if the
longer they stay, the better off you
are. You say that, you know, if you had
someone live there, it was all year
round. You know, they're going to go to
the bars, they're going to spend the
money. So, you kind of equate it like no
one's living in the house. But I don't
want to see empty houses and they have
an Airbnb at the end of Village Drive
and all they have is trash all the time
cuz it's shortterm. The trash isn't
picked up. So, it sits there. It goes
all over the street and the parking is
crazy. But, I see it. I just wouldn't
want it next to me. And I'm speaking
like if everybody moved here to have a
neighborhood and neighbors to live next
to, but you know, you got to do what you
got to do. But, uh, I just don't agree
with it. It's a business decision for
all these and I understand that. I'm not
trying to take the business, but if they
sold their house, there's a lot of
people to want to be in Summers Point,
which they all say is a great place to
stay. People want to retire. people want
their kids, their grandkids to grow up
here and be uh a nice neighborhood. So,
uh that's all I got to say. It's
personal opinion. Thank you.
[Laughter]
Levi, did you set your timer? I've got
to try button. Thank you. Uh my name is
Levi Fox. I live at 90 Broadway.
Uh it would be so so easy for me to come
out strongly in favor of keeping the
current rules because some folks in the
audience might know uh I am likely to be
running against Mr. McGgoyan this fall
so that at least these issues will
continue to be raised. Having said that,
do I need what? I'm actually about to
talk about Airbnb. As I talk about that,
I was going to say that I find it
particularly interesting how the normal
political dynamics are shifted when you
get to something local and when you get
to an issue like Airbnbs where right now
I have very active members of both the
local Republican and Democratic
organizations that have spoken strongly
on one side of this issue and we've had
other members of the community who have
spoken I think very equally strongly on
another side of the issue. I have said
to many people about this that I do not
have strong feelings. But what I do want
to do is reflect what I think is perhaps
a reasonable compromise and a blueprint
for continued uh working together
through challenges. I really liked I
don't know your name and I'm not allowed
to talk to you but the tall dude who
said he went to mainland. I thought that
some of the suggestions that you made
were very interesting but had hadn't
thought of them yet. And I love the idea
of a public forum where new ideas can be
shared. So let me do that right now. Um
100% I think that the uh very smart
decision to amend the resolution so that
in the event that it were to be passed,
it wouldn't take effect till next year
is a great idea. I think that provides
an opportunity to have a commission
study this issue over the course of the
rest of this year before determining
whether a seven night minimum would be
appropriate, whether, as I might suggest
here, perhaps a four or five night
compromise. And that's why again I
really appreciate the information coming
in from people. And as I sit on the
historic preservation commission, I will
offer only that it's potentially
possible that we might explore looking
at the impact of this on different
neighborhoods differently. For example,
I can absolutely see and speak to the
fact that there have been homes in the
historic district that were uh in rough
shape that have been rehabilitated
because they were going to be turned
into Airbnbs. And when we look at it
from a balanced perspective, when we
look at all of these issues, I do think
maybe there is I hope that there is some
place for compromise. I still have 30
seconds. Um so I would urge the council
to look at the opportunity if you know
we have two two studies, we have the
community interest, we have the chance
to continue to talk about this in many
different venues. Uh maybe the press
will even cover it like they're writing
it down right now. So I hope that this
can just be the beginning of the
conversation and not the end of it and
that we can come out of this in a
compromise not an acrimonious fashion.
Thank you. Thank you, Leon.
All right. Need a motion. Motion. We got
one more here coming up. Always last.
Nick Wagner, 625 Pennsylvania Avenue. I
was kind of hoping they closed it before
I can get up here so I didn't have to
speak. And I am going to just mention
that I'm here as a resident, not with
the many of hats that I hold in town,
although I will touch on a few of them.
I really think the question is what type
of city or community do we want do we
want to be? What is the direction we
want to go? Do we want to be more like
our neighbors of Lynwood, Northfield,
Egar Township, Ocean City, or excuse me,
EHT? Or do we want to be more like Ocean
City? We're not Ocean City. Um, but I do
recognize that that is the tourist
destination that everybody um, desires
to come to and I think that is helping a
lot of the things that some of the
owners um, you know are doing and I
think that's what's driving this. So,
let's talk about some of the things that
weren't discussed. Uh, school enrollment
has shrunk at Jordan Road and Dolls
Avenue. I think short-term rentals have
contributed to that. Uh we have low
enrollment in Summers Point School
District. Because of that, the state aid
is getting cut, a lot of state aid, and
I know specifically Charlie knows that
firsthand. Uh because Summers Point is a
regional district to Mainland along with
Luna and Northfield, Mainland's
enrollment is also declining, which is
costing the taxpayers money as well
because Mainland additionally is losing
state aid. uh is becoming more difficult
to field sports teams in Summers Point.
I'm a lifelong resident. I'm a um a
proud coach of Summers Point teams. I'm
coming right from coaching Summers
Point. I'm coaching a 10U district team.
Summers Point has a girls softball
league for the second year
after bringing it back for not having it
for 12 years. We're in real trouble of
our sports programs and the kids uh of
holding the integrity of the um the
program. Summers Point Sharks, street
hockey, Summers Point Little League,
baseball and softball.
They all they all have declining
numbers. I know it's tough for some of
you guys to keep up with what I'm
talking about because you're not you're
not from here and I'm not knocking you
for that. Our agenda is allowed to be
different. I do think there's some type
of compromise.
Um, we do need to preserve the
neighborhoods of Summers Point. All of
our neighborhoods are different. All of
them. Should there be Airbnbs in some of
them? I I I would say probably. There is
there are people who come for boating,
for fishing, for the restaurants. The
west side of New Road, which is almost
100% residential, should have zero
Airbnbs.
when I bought my house in 200
uh 20. Well, I had been here forever. I
moved. But when I moved, I did apply for
an Airbnb. I did see some problems and
it was my personal decision to not rent
it out as an Airbnb. I'm not mad at
anybody for making money off of it, but
like I said, I think we all have
different ideas and agendas, and there's
reasons why you guys think it's a great
idea, and I think it's okay why
residents are they oppose it. I don't
always, matter of fact, Sean and I
disagree on a lot of things. Um, but I
will say this, he has a large friend
group of of full-time residents and I
can guarantee you that all of them for
the most part oppose it. It's hard to
get pe people to come out here and speak
because like I said, I'm coming from the
sports programs. I have talked to the
people of those organizations and
they're not in favor of it. And Mr.
I'm going to I'm going to comply with
your request. Thank you, Mr.
Yes. Good evening. Uh John Hellbig, 106
East Daw Avenue. Um my wife and I have
lived in Summers Point for about 30
years now. Uh we've owned our home on
Dawze Avenue for about four years. Um I
have to tell from a I'm also a licensed
professional planner in New Jersey. So I
do land use issues as part of my
profession. Um Airbnbs, here's a simple
equation. Airbnbs dramatically change a
community. Um, we go from a community of
residents, a community of residents to
short-term rental properties,
essentially accommodating tourists. That
is a big change. And I think what Nick
said is correct. We have to decide what
kind of community we want to have. You
know, if that's what we're about, um,
you know, then we have to accommodate
that. And I'm not saying there can't be
a compromise. I think we need a cap on
the number of Airbnbs in this community
if we're going to continue to allow
them. I think as Nick indicated, certain
neighborhoods here are more
accommodating, if you will, to Airbnbs,
but there are certainly certain
neighborhoods that should not have
Airbnbs. Um, don't have the parking,
they don't have the infrastructure. Um,
so that's I I'd like to be a part of
that discussion if I could. Thank you.
Thank you.
[Applause]
All right. Unfortunately, I didn't get a
chance to write a lot of stuff down and
I was going to go ahead and introduce
myself. Anyway, my name is Richard
Joseph George Van Brunt Rudolph. I got
all the names for you. I live at 620
Blooming Grove Road, Hannover,
Pennsylvania. also live at for South
Plaza Place and also live at uh 21
Turkey Tail Trail in uh the Poconos Way
David. So, it depends which area I'm
looking over at that point in time. So,
my residence is actually truly split. Um
a few things. I think that the the
regulations that are in this town, um
honestly, I think you need more for to
regulate the short-term rentals.
Um,
and but the point being though is I
think that you need to have ones that
actually make sense because to put a
seven-day on does nothing but kill the
market. That's all it does. If you want
to kill the STR market, that's a 7-day.
If you don't want to kill the STR
market, that's where you work on a
compromise.
I can give you
plenty of the industry um
figures on things. So, a a twoight
minimum will on average drop uh the STR
market um as far as the number of stays
by 11 to 13%. A three night a three
night minimum it um on average in this
market uh will drop it somewhere between
21 to 23%.
So already you have limited these owners
by 21 to 23% on average. A seven night
minimum it's not actually 80%. In this
market area, it is 84%.
That you're going to drop the STR market
by.
So, you've already taken 21 to 23%. And
now you want to take between 80 and 84%.
So, yes, I do manage properties. I
manage properties here. I manage
properties in multiple states. Um, that
being said, you know, like I said, there
are a lot of regulations that should be
put in place. And unfortunately, there's
been questions that have been asked
tonight about other regulations and even
our own board members didn't know them.
So, let's actually have the rules set in
place. Let's actually get them out there
and let's make sure that everybody
follows them. I like the regulations
because it keeps the bad actors out and
it keeps the good actors in. So, when
you have good actors, they can actually
do, you know, they do positive things.
When you don't have the good actors,
that's where all the bad stuff comes in.
And I'm sorry to hear about the people
that are afraid to take their kids
outside and everything else. I'd be more
concerned about your registered sex
offenders in the area. Thank you.
[Applause]
I don't
think I see anybody else getting
up. So, may I get a motion to motion to
close the public portion? May I have a
second? Second. All in favor? Any
opposed? Not hearing anyone is opposed
to closing it. We are now closed for
public comment on ordinance number 13.
May I have a motion to adopt?
So moved. May I have a second? Second.
Any comments? Yeah, council council
president. I have a few comments. Yes,
Mr. Dill. Uh
the first time this ordinance was
passed, I own property other than my
residential where I reside and um I
recused myself because of a conflict of
interest.
I don't own property anymore other than
where I reside. So I'm comfortable in
being able to speak about this. when I
had an opportunity to hear tonight from
people in the coalition and other people
as well as people that are opposed
or want the uh ordinance expanded to 7
days. Uh
I uh I think the first thing I voted for
was to extend it for 6 months till the
end of the year and let the people who
are currently
have bookings or going to book the rest
of this year have the opportunity to do
that for 3 days. Uh, the nice part about
this amendment also is it gives the city
six months to think about it. I'm going
to be waiting to extend it to seven
days, but during that six-month period,
I would like to see potentially maybe
the council president put together a
committee. I'd be willing to serve on
that committee now that I don't have a
conflict of interest and work with the
coalition in trying to come up with
something that's reasonable and
acceptable to everyone. Okay? It's not
going to happen. But if we can if we can
satisfy 80% of the people, that's where
the ultimate goal is. Yeah, this
happened fairly quickly, but Airbnbs
have been on the uh on the horizon and
been talked about for years now. Uh,
I've stayed quiet because I did I had a
conflict of interest, but I would like
to see during this I will be voting to
extend it to seven days, but I would
like to see
some communication between this council
and because you have a formed
organization. Okay. Some discussions
with that organization, that coalition
in order to see if we can come up with a
reasonable solution. Okay.
Go. Any other comments? I have some
comments. Council President, go ahead,
Mr. Darling.
Yeah. First, I want to start with uh the
past few weeks. I just want to start off
with uh I'm not one for being bullied or
harassed or even threatened by
individuals within the past few weeks.
I'm also not one for private interest
people out there on TV land. I'm sure
you know you might understand.
Finally, I'm here for the residents and
the community of of this town of what we
call Summers Point.
And the residents that I speak to are
all in favor of seven nights when I'm
out walking my dog
throughout the town, down at the beach,
farmers market, you name it.
So, yeah, I'm in favor of three nights
of this town. This town consisting of
11,000 residents. It's 11,000 residents.
There 11,000 people here in the audience
tonight. Probably not. I mean, do do the
math. Do the numbers, right? We're all
about numbers.
So, I appreciate everyone coming out
tonight,
bringing up uh
come out tonight and being a part of the
democratic process in which we live here
in the United States.
and it's all part of democracy.
So that that's that's what I had to say.
Thank you. Anybody else?
Um I've made several comments, but I'll
just reiterate that I am a definite no.
I don't think there's a problem. I think
we already did the work. We already did
it a year and a half, two years ago. We
already formed the committee. We already
heard the voices. Everybody had an
opportunity to voice their opinions
then. And I I think we beat this thing
to death then and I don't see any reason
to start all over again from uh square
one when there there really is no
justification for this. Thank you.
Anybody else?
Uh first off, I'd like to say Mike has
me confused with that answer.
So I didn't know you mentioned three
days and seven days. I didn't know where
you were drifting. Uh the tally on the
audience was 3 to one. Uh I've been a no
from the beginning. I've stated that and
everything and I'm trying to come up
with what what's the objective here. Is
it to lessen the occupancy which if we
do that lessens our tourism, lessens our
hotel tax and all of that? If that's
what the objective is. That will be the
only second time in 30 years that I've
been involved here that we've actually
passed something that gave us less
money. All right. Uh Airbnbs.
Uh my family uses them. Born and raised
here, grew up here, live in all
different parts of the country. Get a
weekend where they can come home and
visit. They come for a weekend. When
they go on vacation, they go to other
cool places. All right. Uh,
you know, a lot of people that I know
that have Airbnbs
bought them because they thought Summers
Point was a cool place to buy a house
and it's a very expensive place to buy a
house and it was a pathway for their
retirement. I have yet to have anybody
come to me and say, "I bought a house in
Summers Point because the town sucks,
you know." So, uh, different cars in in
the driveway every week. I can tell you
right now, you didn't want to live next
to me and my brothers growing up because
we probably had a hundred cars because
we were hot rodders and car nuts and
stuff. Uh I have had Mrs. McGillicuy who
was worried about who was next door and
in my younger days I told her to mind
her own business. I'll be more polite
now and not say that. And I think the
problems that we have with some of the
Airbnbs is an enforcement problem of the
existing rules that we seem to struggle
to do anything lately on this council.
Since I came back here in September,
nothing works. Nothing works. And I'll
give you an example. Just cleaning up
the beach the other day was a struggle
getting that done. Uh everything that we
have done here for the last nine months
has been done with committees that were
talked about an issue and beat it to
death before it ever reached here. This
is something that popped up. No facts,
no background, no information, no list
of complaints.
Uh how many complaints have we even had
and what are they? you know, so I mean
the all I can say is and I think it's
all been talked and 9:00 is past my
bedtime. So I'm going to be a firm no on
this and I think that as Mr. Mcwigan
always quoted me on some of the issues
that I opposed him on. I think it's
government overreach. I don't even think
there should be a three-day
but that doesn't mean I think Mr.
McGrigan's a bad guy. All right. So,
does anybody else have any Yeah,
Charlie. Go ahead, Rick. Yeah. Uh I was
part of the original committee a few
years ago when we were trying to decide
on the Airbnbs and we had meetings just
like this and everything everybody said
here tonight I've heard before and the
committee
we had a hard time deciding between 7,
five and three and it ended up that
three we thought would be the best thing
and I think that the three has worked
well for both the city and the
homeowners. And I'm going to be a no.
Thank you.
Okay. Not seeing anyone else with any
other comments. May I have a roll call,
please? Council member Mcwigan,
yes. Council member Dell,
yes. Council member Owen, yes. Council
member Johnston, no. Council member
Dampilis, no. Council member Gity, no.
Council President Habercorn. Yes.
One person. Okay. Houses and people from
Pennsylvania.
All right. Um, let's move on. Uh,
ordinance ordinance ordinance number 14,
please. Ordinance number 14 of 2025.
Have some quiet, please.
Why should they? Ordinance number 14 of
2025, an ordinance fixing the salaries,
wages, and compensation of the officers
and employees of the city of Summers
Point, county of Atlantic, state of New
Jersey. I have a motion. Oh, no. I don't
need one on this. First, we just You do
need a motion. Just if I just make a
suggestion, just wait a few minutes
until
Let everybody run and get their bills.
Yeah, I'll see you. I think you're
ready. I think we're ready here. I need
a
same move. Wait a minute. I'm starting
to fight.
It's going.
Okay. I need a motion for ordinance
number 14. I agree. So move. I have a
second. Second. Okay. Any comments? Are
there any comments? It's all in favor. I
Any opposed? Not hearing any opposed.
Ordinance number 14 is uh introduced.
Resolution. I forgot to put your asking
for a motion. Okay. May I have a motion
to open up for public comment on
resolutions?
I'll make that motion. May I have a
second? Second.
All in favor? I. Any opposed?
Not hearing any opposed. We are now open
for public comment on resolutions only.
Motion to close public portion of the
resolutions. May I have a second?
Second.
All in favor? Any opposed? Not hearing
anyone opposed. We are now closed for
public session.
Your comment. Thank you.
All right.
Resolution number 142. Resolution number
142 of 2025. Contract for gasoline and
diesel fuel. Have a motion.
So moved. I have a second. Second. Any
comments?
Not hearing any comments. All in favor?
I. Any opposed? Not hearing any opposed.
Resolution number 142 is approved.
Number 143, please. Resolution number
143 of 2025, employee advancement of
Tiffany Hounds. May I have a motion?
I'll make that motion. May I have a
second? Second. Any comments, Mr.
President? Yes, Mr. McGregor. Not
knowing Tiffany very long. Uh all uh my
interactions with her has been very
positive and I congratulate her on her
uh advancement here. uh and you know
it's been a pattern uh that we are
recognizing uh employees and uh uh that
that are that are uh quality employees
and uh I'm just glad that this is
another example and it and it's just
another example of how wellrun the uh
city clerk's office is this day these
days. Thank you. Any other comments? Not
hearing any comments. All in favor? I.
Any opposed? Not hearing any opposed.
Resolution 143 is approved. Number 144.
Resolution number 144, 2025, authorizing
purchase of Ford F250 for fire
department truck through the North
Bergen National Purchasing Program
contract from Winter Ford. Contract
number BC-B-24-43
for the city of Summers Point. Motion,
please. I'll make that motion. I have a
second. Second. Any comments? Hearing
any comments? All in favor? I. Any
opposed? I hear any opposed. Resolution
number 144 is approved. Um, number 145.
Resolution number 145 of 2025,
appointment of marketing services
vendor. I would like to make a comment
here. I'm a I think we need to do a
little bit more work on this one to find
out what the um specific programs would
be to go on so that we have the proper
metrics in place um to measure success.
But I can't mot make a motion. I need a
we need a motion from someone else to
table this. Council President, I'll make
a motion to table this. We have a
second. I'd like to second that because
it just seems kind of vague. I like like
to see more accuracy with with uh
Okay. basically trends and whatnot and
how how we gauge things here in town
with marketing. Okay. May I have um a
vote? Um all in favor of tableabling? I
I Any opposed? Opposed? Got one opposed.
Uh resolution number 145 is tabled.
That's why I wasn't allowed to speak. I
guess that's why I got walked out. Okay.
Number 14 is to speak. That's why I got
walked out. Number 146, please.
Resolution number 146 of 2025
authorizing the purchase of a vehicle
for use by the Summersplane Police
Department. Have a motion. So move. Have
a second.
Second. Any comments? Not hearing any
comments. All in favor? I. Any opposed?
Are there any opposed? Resolution number
146 is approved. May I have a motion and
a second for the um consent agenda,
please? I'll make that motion. I have a
second. Second. Any comments? Not
hearing. Any comments? All in favor? I.
Any opposed? Not hearing any opposed.
The consent agenda is approved. Any old
business?
Not hearing any old business. Any new
business? Not hearing any new business.
Oh, public session.
Yep. That's fine. All right. Um, so
enough, excuse me, no new business. Uh,
discussion of the bills. Mr. Fuzz. Yeah.
This evening we have a billist in the
amount of 1,90,918.
We have two record of payments. One in
the amount of $1,427.50.
The other in the amount of $19,4324.
Okay. May I have a motion to open for
public comment? So moved. May I have a
second? Second. All in favor? I. Any
opposed? I hear any opposed. We are now
open for public session
for comments.
Go ahead. How you doing? Uh Matt Carluzi
123 Higgby Aav. Uh I got a lot of
issues. Uh I know I emailed all you guys
and I apologize about some of my emails
where they were harsh, but uh I know
they cleaned the beach up a little bit
and the weeds and stuff. I appreciate
that. It's getting worked out. Uh the
other issue I have is my neighbor. Um I
don't know the address. It's the blue
house to the right. Uh I mean, if you're
looking at it, it's to the left, but if
you're looking out, it's to the right. I
It's a real nice neighborhood. He's got
like 2 ft of grass out there.
Something's got to be done. I don't know
if the house was sold or what was gone.
You know, I have a little kid and I have
a dog and I mean, you go outside,
there's two feet of grass out there. So,
something's got to be addressed with
that. Um, the other issue I have is I
know that I I brought this up the last
time, uh, low-speed vehicles. I know
there's a ban in Summers Point, um, but
I don't I guess everyone's against it.
My other question would be, um, I don't
know if you guys are familiar with
Mooch. They offer a 45 mph um, electric
vehicle and they're saying it's supposed
to be registered as a regular car. And
I'm trying to get clarification. Mochoo
saying it's registered as a regular car.
I want to know what your guys
clarification is. Is that going to be
allowed? Um Moog says it's registered as
a regular vehicle and I don't want to
purchase it if it's not allowed. So
that's what I want to find out. I
reached out to the chief of police and
he says he says it's registered as a
low-speed vehicle, but that's not
correct. A low-speed vehicle um only
goes from 0 to 25 miles an hour. Moch is
saying that this is registered as a as
an automobile. Um, and that goes up to
45 mph. So, I want to know I could give
you guys my email and get me some
information on it, but I mean we like to
drive back and forth like you know local
area and I think 45 mph all these roads
are 45 m an hour. So, what do you want?
Do you want my email or what do you
want? Yeah, I I believe I have your
email. Uh, I'll Yeah, you guys do. If
you guys could get back to me, that'd be
great. Um, I want to buy it. I just
don't want to get in trouble. The cops
have pulled me over. They harassed me.
They've given me tickets and, you know,
it's not it's something that I I
intended to do, but I mean, I was kind
of forced and I bought a low-speed
vehicle and they told me that, you know,
it's allowed and if you get it tagged
and then all of a sudden, you know,
there's a ban on it here. So, I'm stuck
with a $15,000 golf cart and there's
nothing I can do with it. So, I had to
sell it, you know, but unfortunately
stuff happens like that. Okay. So, let
me follow up on that with the chief
first. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate
your guys' time and like I said, you
know, the it's getting cleaned up the
beast. They power wash today.
Everything's getting good. It's just,
you know, was out of control and I hope
next year it's better cuz it hasn't been
like this in many years. Okay. You know
what I mean? So, I appreciate your guys'
time. Thank you. Thank you. Excuse me,
Matt. Yes. Nice to meet you.
on it or anything like that. Just a
quick question for you, and this was not
pre-planned or anything like that, but
one of the concerns I've been having
living here is the EV bikes. And I'm
sure you've heard this before, but I've
seen so many close calls coming in just
you last year right in front of the Ver
the AT&T building. Gentleman was going
down passing me on the shoulder and the
gentleman was coming the opposite way on
New Road and the gentleman waved him in
while the bike was coming down. We see
it on Pennsylvania Avenue every day.
Young kids and they're I don't know how
old they are, but I would assume they're
just looking at them. I'm not expert in
anything like that, but I think they're
12, 13, 14 years old. They don't
understand the laws of the road or
common sense of the road. I've seen them
coming down the opposite side. And of
course, when a car comes out, we all do
that. We look one way. If you're going
to make a right, you look to your left.
You don't expect some some person coming
down the other way. It's catastrophic.
It it's there's a catastrophe waiting to
happen. And I don't know what you can or
can't do. And I understand it's really,
you know, that that New Jersey has
offthe-wall, but you know what? I have
an ebike. I'll admit it. But I'm also 65
years old. And you know, knock on wood,
have not had a traffic ticket. I know
how to drive. But when I see 12, 13, 14
year old kids. And as the gentleman
said, not all ebikes do 25. My friend
has one that does 45. That's way too
fast. I mean, mine does 25 and I've
never got 25. I'm too scared to do it.
But I see young kids coming down and
just my wife and I see it every morning.
Kids coming down Pennsylvania Avenue,
both hand here's what they do. They're
looking at their phone, no hands on the
handlebars and going full tilt. And that
that's fine. I mean, I did that as a kid
on my bicycle, but I wasn't doing 25
mph. And number one, I didn't have a
cell phone in my you know, I had a
baseball glove or baseball. But I don't
know what you can do, but just food for
thought. But I mean that's just I hate
to see a catastrophe happen to
somebody's child. I mean it's just you
know and I'm just curious. Is there any
legislation? Is a state taking any
positions on this or all state
regulations are
do you know treat it like a bicycle?
Yeah. Treat it like a motor. And and
that's to me the most offthe-wall thing
because they can do 40 like the
gentleman said my friend has one that
does 45 m an hour. I mean that's almost
turnpike speed. Yeah. Yeah. There is
something in the legislation though cuz
we talked about this before. If you have
a bike and it's it's usually electric
bikes are limited to 25 mph. I agree
with you. Right. And there's what Mr.
Smith is saying. They're considered
bicycles. Yeah. Uh there's a lot of
YouTube videos on how you
get past that. Take the governor off and
get them to go at least 45 miles an
hour. The state's regulation on that is
if you do that, you are now subject to
all the motor vehicle laws in the state
of New Jersey that they need to have a
license plate, a registration, and the
driver needs to have a helmet on. Kirk
and I guess it comes down how do you
enforce this? Well, that's the whole
thing is what you need to do is you can
have we had talked about this that maybe
this is an avenue for the pal to to
start inviting some of these kids in and
do a little bit of a seminar because you
know just like you said you know 50
years ago I was that guy. Oh I was on I
was on a bicycle and at 25 I was going
downhill like that. I wasn't going
straight at 25 m. But I think the the
way to combat it would be do
someformational stuff. I'm just throwing
that out for thought as you're thinking
of different things. So, you know, fill
up your agenda. Yeah. We'll get our
heads together and we'll talk to Nick
who was up earlier who's one of our
people with PAL. Sean's one of our
people with PAL. It's actually an
excellent idea. Yeah. I'm just curious.
You mentioned the word. What is that?
What's that? You mentioned the word
mode. I have no idea. That's why
it's another one. Yeah. So, is it a
bike? It's not a bike. Golf. Yeah. All
right. I'm lo I'm losing control.
Caribbean golf. All right. The Caribbean
golfart.
Thank you.
Are electric bikes allowed?
Yes. Yes, they are. Unfortunately, under
under a certain speed. All right. Not
seeing anyone else coming up. Can I get
a motion to close the public portion,
please? So moved. Can I give a second?
Second. Thank you. All in favor? Any
opposed? Not hearing any opposed. May I
get a motion to pay the bills?
Motion. May I get a second? Second. All
in favor? I. Any opposed? Not hearing
any opposed. Comments from the governing
body. I do have something I want to say.
I was pretty quiet during the short-term
rental part.
To me, someone's point is I can I can
talk, right? I'm allowed to. Yeah. Okay.
I just want to make sure.
Okay. I just want to make sure our
Summers Point is made up of um very
distinct and varied neighborhoods.
Summers Point is experienced development
projects that are bringing businesses,
homes, and traffic alike. In today's
busy lifestyle, residents and
neighborhoods look to the sanctuary of
their homes as a peaceful getaway and to
their neighbors as a sense of
socializing and community. Short-term
rental owners have a business model of
running their property to guest. the
audience in front of us tonight and that
we've come up with I believe is a
compromise. It allows the residents of a
home to to have the comfort the comfort
of fewer rental periods by extending the
stay. It allows the owners of short-term
rental properties the opportunity to
still have the business model of renting
the guest. A term referred to as
gentrification is one I believe is
important to Summer's point. The
positives of the term is investment and
revitalization. the negative of the term
the negative impact on long-term
residents affordability and the
socializing aspects of the unique
neighborhoods. There needs to be a
balance simply put a compromise. Both
the resident homeowner and the operator
of the small ter short-term rentals will
concede to coexist. In today's
everchanging world, Summers Point is no
different. All must adapt to new and
innovative ideas. Innovative ideas are
just that. They are new. Time will tell
as the decisions are made to balance
investment and revitalization with our
small town charm. I just just wanted to
express my opinion after I listened to
what everybody had to say and that is
what I promised I would do and I voted
the way I did because of what I just
said. So, anybody else have any other uh
comments from the governing body? If
not, I need a motion to adjurnn. So,
moved. May I have a second? Second. All
in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Any
opposed?