VILLAS — Lower Township Councilman Joseph Wareham is seeking re-election to the Ward II seat Nov. 3 and facing a challenge from two opponents.
The Cape May Star and Wave profiled each of the candidates in the Oct. 14 editions (find them at starwavenewspaper.com), but neither Wareham nor incumbent Tom Conrad in Ward I replied to messages seeking comment before that time.
In an effort to provide as much information as possible to voters, Wareham’s profile is included below.
Lower Township Council is a partisan board with five members: mayor, deputy mayor and three ward representatives. This year, the three ward positions are up for grabs in a busy field.
Wareham is one of six candidates running for the three seats. He is facing a challenge from Democrat Elizabeth Blair-Slemmer and independent Caroline Rankovic.
For the past four decades, Wareham, 47, has called Lower Township home. He lives with his wife of 19 years and they raised their twins in the area. Wareham started serving in January 2025, when he was appointed to replace Kevin Coombs, who became deputy mayor.
What is your education/employment/military service?
In 2005, I was offered a job at the Cape May County Sheriff’s Department, working in the correctional facility. I became a sergeant and I was assigned [as] a team leader [on] the crisis negotiation team and I taught at the Police Academy.
In 2021, I was offered a position as a confidential assistant investigator for the Cape May County Human Resources Department. In December 2025, I transferred down to Cape May County Consumer Affairs, Weights/Measures, completed school and was appointed director and active superintendent of that department.
What is your experience relative to serving/community involvement?
I started a non-profit basketball club in Lower Township specifically and expanded it into all South Jersey. I started a basketball team and coached for the last seven years, donating my own money, paid for some of these kids to travel around the country and play. [It’s] an opportunity to build relationships and give them opportunities. I coached basketball at Wildwood Catholic High School for several years.
I was a fire commissioner for about 13 years before stepping down to take my council seat. I [served] as secretary, vice chairman and chairman. I kept the tax rate very low, with multiple zero percent increases while bonding and getting grant money for emergency services. I was also a member of the recreation advisory board, the citizens’ advisory board and vice chairman of the Young Republicans Club.
Why do you want to serve?
Lower Township is a great place to live and I’m really committed to preserving the quality of life that makes it a great place to live and, more importantly, a great place to visit. I want to continue to provide responsible leadership, protect our taxpayers’ money, protect the community, ensure safety and opportunities for the youth. This place is better now than it was when I grew up and I’m hoping it’s going to be better for my children than it is now.
What skills do you have that would benefit the governing body?
I’ve had experience with recreations/parks, dealing with grants and working through the process of applying for them. I also have familiarity with Robert’s Rules and the governing stuff unseen by the public.
We’ve done a lot of things, and there are some current projects I’d really want to see through and finish, and that’s a big motivation for me to continue.
What do you think are the top issues the community is facing today and in the future? What can be done to address these issues?
Obviously, inflation is insane nationally and the important thing is a stable tax bill. I think it’s important for people to know how blessed that we are in Lower Township, that we have the 19th-lowest property tax bill out of 565 municipalities in the entire state. This year we came in with zero percent tax increase.
We just did a shared service agreement with our courts to save taxpayers money. To address issues, we’re going to be very conservative and look at avenues like grant money and continue doing shared service agreements with other municipalities.
We just finalized some paperwork, which is a big deal to me for one of the biggest projects in my ward specifically, for David Douglass Sr. Park Memorial. We got $2.1 million from Cape May County Open Space Board funding, $1.4 million from the Delaware River and Bay Authority and an additional $400,000 ADA grant, so minimal cost to do a project which is going to be monumental down there. That’s the kind of work I’m good at: finding valuable money that doesn’t hurt taxpayers.
This summer there was discussion on closing our public pool. I personally advocated very hard [against] that, to push to keep open communication with multiple people involved with that while still doing another project. It’s almost complete and we were able to maintain that and stay open the entire time.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
We’re in the process of looking into green grant money for solar and starting to come up with plans to move forward and save money that way. Also, assistance from other municipalities, so we can save on manpower and money.
— Rachel Shubin
