Consequences: Seaside Heights to Close Boardwalk Nightly, Ban Backpacks, Increase Fines

Seaside Heights Code Enforcement officers ride along the boardwalk, July 2020. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

A raucous Memorial Day weekend that brought heaps of negative publicity to Seaside Heights, in the midst of redevelopment efforts that have more than doubled the value of its tax base over the last several years, has led the borough to crack down hard on foul behavior driven by social media and a culture of lawlessness, officials said Wednesday.

The borough council introduced a suite of ordinances that are aimed at preventing violence and mayhem on the boardwalk and holding property owners accountable for illegally renting out their homes without permits, or renting them to underage guests that are not supervised by adults. All of the ordinances will be subject to a public hearing before a vote on their final adoption at the next council meeting, scheduled for June 18.

“It was the worst Memorial Day weekend in my 59 years in Seaside Heights,” said Mayor Anthony Vaz, tallying nearly 90 arrests over the course of the long weekend. “Years ago when we were young, there were motorcycle gangs, bar fights. This, in my opinion, was even more horrific. The disrespect that was given to our police officers was shocking.”

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Police officials at the meeting detailed the nature of the arrests, the vast majority of which were people under 24-years-old, most of them teens (see separate story on these details). During a closed session discussion that preceded the meeting, council members decided to introduce the five ordinances with more likely to be proposed in the coming weeks.

New Rules

Two of the ordinances address the boardwalk itself, which will include an official closing time. The boardwalk will close to visitors at 10 p.m. on the holidays of Memorial Day and July 4, including this coming July 4. The rest of the year, the boardwalk will close nightly at midnight – even after the summer season is over – except Fridays and Saturdays, when it will close at 1 a.m.

Backpacks will also be banned from the boardwalk, with exceptions only for “necessary medical equipment and diaper bags, etcetera,” said borough attorney Robin La Bue.

The other measures significantly increase the minimum fines for violations of ordinances already on the books. Previously, said Borough Administrator Christopher Vaz, violators were sometimes fined just $100, even for serious matters such as renting an unlicensed property. Violations will now carry a minimum fine of $1,500 and a maximum fine of $2,000.

“The judge has a lot of leeway in imposing a fine, and this will make the minimum fine much higher,” said La Bue. “There needs to be a range because the judge has to have discretion.”

The fines were increased for violations of several specific ordinances. The first covers those who fail to obtain a rental certificate of occupancy before renting out their properties. The second covers those who fail to comply with the borough’s mercantile license ordinance, which is required when renting a property, and the third imposes the fines on property owners who rent to parties larger than those authorized by their certificate of occupancy. In the latter case, separate fines would be levied upon property owners for each person over the occupancy limit.

Finally, the minimum fines were likewise increased for those who violate the borough’s “unreasonable disturbance” ordinance, covered in Chapter 154 of the borough code. This chapter includes provisions for “creating a disturbance by violence” as well as several other offenses, such as urinating or defecating in public, or vandalizing property during the circumstances of a declared nuisance.

“Financially, it’s not going to be a good situation for someone who disobey the rules,” the mayor said.

More to Come

La Bue said she expects additional ordinances will be introduced in the future which will provide borough officials with more tools to crack down on bad behavior, and provide stiffer penalties for those who violate the law.

“We believe, if implemented the right way, it will curtail many of the behavioral problems we have with young people, particularly on Memorial Day, through the prom era, and into the Fourth of July,” said Vaz. “My heart tells me we have many more to come. I think this is a start in the right direction.”

Vaz said he spoke with Gov. Phil Murphy following the nationwide press coverage that resulted from the holiday weekend chaos in Seaside Heights, Wildwood and several North Jersey shopping malls which descended into lawlessness. Murphy, just before the holiday weekend, vetoed a bipartisan bill passed by the state legislature that would have created an “anti-brawling” law in order to crack down on wild gatherings that are unpermitted. Murphy said he vetoed the law because of a section that bans the use of masks – often worn by criminals to prevent themselves from being caught on camera – because he believed it could theoretically be used to punish people wearing masks for legitimate medical purposes.

Vaz said Murphy offered Seaside Heights manpower in the form of New Jersey State Police troopers and mounted units on horseback to patrol the borough. Officials plan on taking the governor up on his offer, but are hopeful police reform policies put into place several years ago are, themselves, reformed in order to prevent simple misbehavior from spiraling out of control.

“We are all smart enough to know what caused this problem: consequences,” said Vaz. “We had no laws that helped our officers or those in any law enforcement agency, do anything for minors. If you saw those cops in action, you’d ask, ‘who would want to be a cop today?’”

The sentiment was echoed by Seaside Heights Police Sgt. Erik Hershey, who spoke later in the meeting during a discussion on the arrests that occurred.

“The big thing about this weekend was the lack of respect these kids had for anybody, including their own parents,” said Hershey. “If you heard the way they talked to their parents, you would be shocked. This is a societal issue and a social issue.”

Hershey said because state policies now prevent officers from issuing summonses to juveniles, parents of every juvenile detained were issued summonses of their own.