While other shore towns are banning ALL short-term rentals for the time being, Brigantine still allows local realtors to conduct business as usual.
To be clear, the only action Brigantine City Council took on April 1, 2020….. was to force AirBnB type sites to REMOVE all Brigantine rental listings.
FACT: Local realtors never use AirBnB. They hate sites like this.
Most were not aware of a last minute council meeting, held online, on April 1. We suspect NOBODY was listening in, either. Meeting was not advertised.
Draft of resolution was not made public. As of April 7, it’s still not available. City Clerk glitch, we assume.
In essence, Brigantine City Council secretly voted to allow local realtors to keep renting to ANYONE, from ANYWHERE. Even COVID-19 hot spots like NYC.
Your chance of COVID-19 infection will be increased by this foolish, highly unethical Brigantine City Council action.
Why would Brigantine council & business chamber allow this? Certainly not to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Rather, could it be a great way to kill off the growing AirBnB competition in Brigantine? This would force landlords to use a local real estate agent… like Brigantine Councilman, Mike Riordan.
Local insiders will bristle at these inconvenient facts. Quite frankly, facts don’t care about your feelings. These Brigantine insiders are not our friends. They just want you to shut up. Stay home. And don’t forget to pay your taxes on time.
Did you know? 75% of Brigantine taxpayers have no voting rights.
Who voted YES to allow Brigantine local realtors to keeping renting?
- Mayor Simpson
- Councilman Sera
- Councilman Riordan
- Councilman Lettieri
- Councilman DeLucry
- Councilperson Bew
- Councilman Haney
Who supported / allowed this harmful effort?
- City Clerk Sweeney
- City Manager Bennett
- Chamber of Commerce
Who didn’t effectively warn Council about the harm in this effort?
- City Solicitor Scerni
Who had conflict of interest?
- Mayor Simpson
- Councilman Riordan
- Chamber of Commerce
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This action may reduce the presence of Air BNB and VRBO in Brigantine rentals. What it will also do is effectively KILL Brigantine as a vacation destination, as most of the rentals take place through these venues.
Thinking logically for a moment, how will allowing only local realtors to rent be any more effective in protecting the public? Do they know something State and Federal health officials do not?
This is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to “protect” local realtors. BE prepared for the fallout, which will be a rash of “For Sale” signs, plummeting real estate price, lower tax revenues and a ruined economy. Keep up the good work!
Disgrace! So who starts the criminal investigations into all these secret n self centered acts? Some full-time person down in privileged beach NJ.
Must not like it either? Or would that be like ratting on a relative since their all inbred!
Hello Brigantiners. We need to stop this now. How can we stop this ?
OC WW shut beaches boardwalks down. I don’t want that for us but I do want to stop this insane influx of people at this time. He ( they) are not looking out for our community. Very self centered. So again what can we do as a community to stop the insanity?? Let me know I’ll help get things going !! Tks
While it appears to be helpful that some short-term rentals may be limited, what is more troubling is that the Mayor and others believe what they did is legal.
It is actually illegal for local government to pass any laws, or ordinances to force its citizens to utilize the services of one business over another. In essence that is exactly what this is doing. If this is allowed, what would prevent counsel from forcing residents and property owners from purchasing gas from off island, groceries or anything else.
Personally, I purchase everything on island, and if it’s out, I wait.
The point is, there is no difference between a local realtor renting to outsiders and Air BB renting to outsiders. Government cannot force home owners to utilize the services of a specific group of limited businesses. This is known as a forced oligopoly, and yes it’s illegal.
I was going to state the same thing…this is not legal. Lawsuits on the way.
It seems like folks are trying to make good the enemy of perfect.
Must it be all or nothing?…endorse only big leaps, not any small steps?
The first comment seems to favor short-term rentals during the current health emergency, that’s a confusing agenda right there.
Well…I’m looking forward to filing suit. Any readers up for a class action?
I’m in favor of a class action lawsuit. It’s overdue. City Council does not care about residents of Brigantine. It’s only about them. And it’s not only regarding short term rentals but on any factor where they can make money.
Class action will cost Brigantine millions! Deservingly so!
Brigantine Republicans must believe it’s Okay to serve themselves and not the citizens of the City. They think nothing of our health and welfare. They think only of what can fill their pockets! SUE, SUE, SUE!
Brigantine council acted on behalf of the community they serve, although the perception of a conflict of interest may have occurred. Based on what I listened to (as I haven’t seen the order yet), This doesn’t “Prohibit” homeowners from renting their home, like the extreme Cape May ban. It only “restricts” homeowners from using public websites like Airbnb or VRBO to rent to non-essential personal (per NJ Governor’s EO). Homeowners can still rent to essential personal and may still use their own private websites or other means to rent to the public more than 30days. They do not want Brigantine homeowners to rent to New York residents or other hot zones for weekends. Local realtors are not aloud to use public websites either and held to the same order as the public. Nobody is suing anyone. This will pass. Brigantine has been on the frontline and has been worked well with Airbnb/VRBO compared to many other shore cities or other cities nationwide with severe restrictions. They understand seasonal/transient/short term renters are a vital part of their community and local economy. This is an unprecedented situation. If they did nothing it would look like they only care about city revenue and not public health. Stay safe out there.
Is this really true? I can not find this anywhere
Business as usual for Brigantine. From police and fire dept making over 100k a year to this. Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t one of the councilman on the board of realtors? Hypocrisy at its finest
Jean
As an owner of a condo in Brigantine since 1988 and have seen many changes there, I must say
I am not happy about owners in my building being able to rent to anyone from hot zones through
local realtors. I live in New York and I’m very aware of the safety of all involved. I’d love to come down to my piece of paradise, but will respect the current situation, and stay home until the all clear is given for travel.
Be safe and healthy everyone. God willing this too shall pass.
Day trippers are the biggest risk. Ban them too!
Mimi
April 8, 2020 at 11:00 PM
Get the class action lawsuit started. City Council is a disgrace in Brigantine. Also all local homeowners should organize and refuse to pay real estate taxes unless City Council cancels all short term rentals. It doesn’t make a difference if they are Democrats or Republicans in Brigantine. Both parties are there to serve themselves only.
Also, one of he City Council members either sits on the real estate board or is a real estate agent so it is what is best for him and the rest of the Board members. It’s all about making money for them. They don’t give a damn about the residents of Brigantine.
No they do care about residents, but you have to stop folks coming here from hot spots. You don’t care about the residents of Brigantine.These folks don’t even quarantine. I see their cars coming and going on the time. Eagle eye for license plates.
Brigantine locals get COVID-19 from short-term renters.
This is state government overreach. I rent the entire summer in Brigantine. I love it there, 50 minutes and I’m at the door. I don’t mind if you come to Gloucester county and I’ve already paid for the summer. I m semi retired and have been indoors for the last 6 weeks. I’m a vulnerable one, but sitting on the beach and going to Acme will be a little harder this summer. I pay the landlords taxes that allows them to keep the other 1/2 of their home in the family and not sell that they have owned since the 60’s. Most of the people getting infected took public transportation, caught it from a health care employee of some sort like hospitals and nursing homes and finally staying indoors and subjecting yourself to someone bringing it into the home. We must be careful but the media has people scared and panicked. I hope the state and local government overreach goes away with our health challenge and they don’t take advantage of this issue to press their personal agendas.