BERKELEY – A six-member group will decide what money Seaside Park owes Berkeley for annexing South Seaside Park.
After many years of discussion and court battles, the section of Berkeley between Seaside Park and Island Beach State Park (called South Seaside Park) was allowed to leave, and Seaside Park is in the process of annexing them.
Part of the rules governing annexation is that Seaside Park needs to pick three people and Berkeley needs to pick three people. Those six will sit down and hash out what needs to be done financially for this process.
While all of the people’s homes are annexed, there are properties owned by Berkeley that Seaside Park needs to buy. Additionally, Seaside Park will have to take on a portion of any debt that Berkeley incurred for projects that benefitted South Seaside Park. In municipal language, they will determine apportionment of property, assets, liabilities, and indebtedness. Borough professionals will be compensated at their hourly rates.
Berkeley held a special meeting of the Township Council on April 7 to pick their three. The council usually meets on the third Monday of every month, which would have been too long to wait to form the committee, according to state law.
Although the meeting started at 5 p.m., the first order of business was for officials to enter into a closed session to discuss issues. After approximately 45 minutes, they came out and chose Berkeley Mayor John Bacchione, Councilman James Byrnes, and financial advisor Robert Benecke.
Benecke shares the name of a financial advisor who settled charges in 2023 for allegedly failing to register as a municipal advisor and for failing to disclose material facts about his registration status to his municipal entity clients.
According to the U.S. Security and Exchanges Commission, he worked on eight municipal bond issuances between 2019 and 2022. Robert L. Benecke d/b/a Benecke Economics was not registered with the SEC while providing these services. He did not disclose to his clients that he was not a registered municipal advisor, despite knowing that he was required to be registered.
“Without admitting or denying the findings in the order, Benecke agreed to a cease-and-desist order barring Benecke from association with various regulated entities, including municipal advisors. The order also imposes a civil penalty of $60,000,” the SEC said about the settlement.
Currently, the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website does not list the name “Robert Benecke” as being registered.
The Berkeley Times reached out to the SEC about Benecke, and a spokesperson said “We decline comment beyond our public filings on the matter.”
No one with the name Benecke shows up as a donor to any political campaigns on the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission website.
Berkeley is split up geographically into four wards, and there is one council member who represents each. The ward that used to include South Seaside Park is represented by Councilman James Byrnes.
He said he would continue to support the Sgt. Lyons Park at the southern end of the property. Sgt. John A. Lyons, a Central Regional High School alumni, was born December 4, 1984. He was killed in action in the Ghazni Province, Afghanistan on October 26, 2011.
“I enjoyed being the councilman over there all these years. I just feel a little slighted on how everything is going,” he said at the special Berkeley meeting.
Seaside Park’s three members are bond counsel William Mayer, borough attorney Steven A. Zabarsky, and Seaside Park Mayor John A. Peterson, Jr.
Seaside Park also created a Council Committee, made up of Council President Marty Wilk, Jr., and council members Gina Condos and William Kraft. These members of the governing body will address other issues in regards to the annexation.
Both of these groups were created on the night that the Seaside Park Council voted to annex South Seaside Park.
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