WEST WILDWOOD – Mayor Herbert “Chuck” Frederick said that if he and fellow Commissioner Gerard McNamara face a recall election, Commissioner Scott Golden will probably join them.

Since Monday, Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten has heard testimony in order to determine whether two recall committees have collected enough valid signatures to schedule a recall election for Frederick and McNamara.

However, on Tuesday July 27, just as testimony was going to continue Frederick and McNamara have decided to stop fighting a recall attempt, telling the judge that the recall election should go forward.

Borough Solicitor Paul Baldini announced the two commissioners’ decision in court.

In an earlier interview, before Baldini’s announcement, Frederick said if any of the three commissioners are to face election this year, they all should.

“If this recall committee is going to ask the taxpayers of West Wildwood to pay to have another election just because they didn’t like the result of the first one, it won’t cost anymore to throw Mr. Golden in the ring,” Frederick said. “That way the residents will have to look at all three commissioners.”

Frederick estimated a recall would cost the borough $18,000 to hold a special election.

Frederick said he and McNamara weren’t involved in the committee to recall Golden, but said he has heard from its members that the petition has been signed by the necessary amount of residents and are ready to be filed.

“I don’t know if we aren’t allowed to be involved legally, but regardless we are not involved in the recall committee,” he said.

Despite not knowing the names of the committee members, Frederick said he had heard that the number of residents that signed the petition to recall Golden was substantial. 

“I know they have at least 124 people and are all ready to go,” Frederick said.

Golden said he would not comment on the group’s recall efforts.

The courts got involved after the recall committees attempting to oust Frederick and McNamara from office after a dispute over how many signatures were needed, and with a number of signatures that acting-borough clerk James Roberts found invalid.

Attorney Mary D'Arcy Bittner, who is representing the two recall committees, had asked Batten to hear the case to either certify the recall petitions and order an election be held or refer the petitions to the Cape May County Board of Elections so it can determine which signatures are valid.

Initially, there was a question if 123 or 124 signatures were needed, but last week Batten agreed with Cape May County Clerk Rita Fulginiti that 124 are needed.

State statute requires that a recall petition feature the number of signatures equal to 25 percent of a municipality’s registered voters in the last general election. In this case, West Wildwood had 493 registered voters for the November 2009 election, so the number needed was 123.25.

In the past, the Clerk’s Office rounded down when the decimal was below 0.5, but County Counsel Barbara Bakley-Marino, representing Fulginiti, said that because it was impossible to get a signature from a quarter of a person, it made sense to round up to 124.

The committees have collected 136 signatures for Frederick’s recall and 134 signatures for McNamara’s recall.

Bittner said the committees have gathered more than enough signatures for a recall.

The remaining issues included the validity of about 18 signatures that Roberts found invalid and questions about when the petition’s circulators had the petitions notarized.

Bittner argued that the petitions were properly notarized, but Baldini questioned why the petitions were not notarized until well after the first signatures were collected.

Baldini has said that delay raises concerns of fraud and collusion. Baldini also argued that there were crossed-out names, changed dates and blank spots on the petitions.

“It’s in the judge’s hands and I trust his decision,” Frederick had said prior to making the decision to stop fighting the recall in court.