By RACHEL SHUBIN
Special to the Star and Wave
CAPE MAY — The city and Cape May Point have entered into a five-year agreement for law enforcement services provided by the Cape May Police Department.
Cape May Point will pay Cape May an annual service fee of $331,258 under a resolution approved Jan. 6 during City Council’s reorganization meeting. It is effective immediately.
The cost was based on factors including average salary; operating expenses; health care benefit expenses; and pension, capital and related administrative costs incurred by the city in employing two full-time equivalent (FTE) officers for the borough.
Cape May solicitor Chris Gillin-Schwartz added that the FTE analysis recognizes the relative impact of the police department serving Cape May Point, given its limited activities, as well as the county dispatch.
During Cape May Point’s reorganization meeting the same day, Deputy Mayor Elise Geiger said there is an estimated $15,000 in county dispatch calls, as the county has moved to a cost-per-call system.
“We’re going to be paying for all the calls that go through the system,” Geiger said. “This includes all the fire calls and EMS calls, which is important to know, because we shouldn’t be making gratuitous calls through 911 and through the county dispatch.”
Geiger added that, overall, it is a 2.7 percent increase over 2025 when the two line items are combined.
Gillin-Schwartz said Cape May has had shared service agreements for police with both West Cape May and Cape May Point for the past 10 years.
Geiger said there was no record of how the original service fee was calculated, which resulted in both parties putting a great deal of effort into determining a fair and transparent structure.
“Under this framework, we’re going to be able to tie our actual cost of having a department, having service to this, and then every year we’re going to be providing a sort of reconciliation of where we are at with those department costs,” Gillin-Schwartz said. “The fee for the following year is going to be tied to that.”
Geiger said Cape May Point, as part of the agreement, will participate in paying for the actual increases in police salary costs, health care, pensions and a 3 percent increase on all other allocated core costs.
“Last year we began the process of evaluating and negotiating and coming to terms on a successor to that agreement,” Gillin-Schwartz said. “The city did so with the intention that we value those relationships; we value them as neighbors and the negotiations reflected those intentions and understandings.”
Because the agreement has aged a decade, Gillin-Schwartz said the new terms had to recognize that the economic realities of the situation had changed.
“It was a long and a somewhat arduous process, but in the end, I think both groups are happy where we came out in terms of both the structure and the cost,” Geiger said.
Gillin-Schwartz said obtaining data from each community was essential to advancing the agreement.
“We’re able to localize the data to each community and understand what calls we’re getting out of Cape May Point, and calls we’re getting out of West Cape May,” he said. “We’re able to do a direct cost per call, and based on that data, really get into a framework where everybody’s paying their fair share for the services that are being provided.”
Cape May Deputy Mayor Maureen McDade said she felt confident with the agreement.
“For those of us who [were] involved in the process, we are ensuring that the cost that Cape May pays for police in our city is covered appropriately,” McDade said. “I think that what we found when we looked at the prior contract was that we were unable to discern where those costs came from.”
McDade added that she can say with confidence that the expenses in all categories are fully understood.
“We can ensure that year after year, as those costs increase — whether it be health care, salaries, operating expenses, whatever they might be — we will be able to recognize those and share that expense with the municipality that we have the agreement with,” McDade said.
Gillin-Schwartz added that the advantage of the framework is evaluating costs yearly, so as not to get out of sync with reality over a 10-year period.
“Those discussions were difficult at times, but I think both parties recognized that the framework wasn’t going to be able to go on and a credit to them for coming to the table with this concept as well,” Gillin-Schwartz said.
Mayor Zack Mullock thanked everyone, including Cape May Point, for completing this process. He also acknowledged Chief Dekon Fashaw.
“I think what this does is a real buy-in to the department,” Mullock said. “There is no better way to protect the citizens of Cape May Point than by the Cape May Police Department. They do an excellent job, and their response time is second to none.”
Geiger said it is important for the community to be reacquainted with the police department and other individuals.
“Some time in the spring, I would like to organize an open meeting for the public where police and code enforcement are present and we’ll be able to communicate what each other’s roles are as well as answer any questions,” she said. “There’s obviously some leg work to get that organized, so stay tuned.”
Negotiations between Cape May and West Cape May regarding a new shared service agreement are ongoing.
