From Mayor to Beach Tag Inspector: Stone Harbor's Suzanne Walters is Enjoying Her 'Promotion'
Suzanne Walters with her grandchildren on the Stone Harbor beach (where else?). From left, Robert Smith, Nora Smith, George Walters, Suzanne, Anthony Kahly, Charlie Walters, and Priscilla Walters.
Once an ambassador, always an ambassador.
Suzanne Walters savors one of the most unique victory laps a public servant could imagine. Stone Harbor’s former mayor remains linked not only with community residents but with a throng of summer visitors because of a job she started last summer. The position is unique, and perhaps unprecedented, in the annals of former mayors.
Walters is a beach tag inspector, by choice.
Yes, the former occupant of Borough Hall is one of the people who check to make sure people are wearing their badges.
“It’s one of those jobs I always wanted to do,” Walters says with a laugh. “I am always on the beach; I walk the beach for exercise in the winter, by myself. I love to get a tan. It’s a job that was made for me.”
For Walters, this job is the latest segment of a longtime love affair with Stone Harbor. She’s been a homeowner here since 1975, was the mayor from 1997-2017, and currently is serving her second stint as president of the Stone Harbor Board of Education.
Walters has raised three children here. Now, some of her six grandchildren spend time with her in Stone Harbor for the summer. The home is a natural magnet to keep generations of family together.
“This is a very special place, I am at peace here,” she indicates. “Stone Harbor is where my children grew up. This is a wonderful community. I am fortunate enough and blessed enough to give back to the town that has given so much to me.”
Walters is pleased that the impact of her past service is felt here. As mayor, she testified in Washington before the federal government to enable beach replenishment that eventually came.
And now, at age 75, she can walk over that same terrain roughly 120 blocks and anywhere from four to six miles each day, conversing with the public.
This job has a public-relations component. That may start with people doing a double-take when they see her on the beach.
“They ask, ‘Aren’t you the mayor?’” Walters says. “I laugh and tell them I got a promotion.
“When people do that, it’s fun, because you are an ambassador for Stone Harbor. For people who have known you, me asking for their badge might be something we laugh about. But for someone who does not know you or has never met a council person or a mayor, the beach-tag inspector represents Stone Harbor for them.
“It’s a good time to ask them what brings them here, how are they enjoying the experience.”
The interactions may include anecdotes about Stone Harbor and information about businesses that are open to help tourists do significant things like plan a wedding.
There is a specific job function, too.
Walters and her coworkers will find several people each day who don’t have beach tags.
Some will simply buy the $8 daily badge, the weekly $17 version, or the seasonal pass for $40. Others require a judgment call: renters who forget to bring them, people who purchased badges recently but don’t have them, some who may have it one day and not the next. They receive a kindly reminder to bring the badges next time, along with some unexpected interaction.
“I knew I would like this job, but had no idea that I would love it,” Walters indicates. “At some point, the girls who do this job with me said, ‘Do you have to talk to EVERYBODY?’”
Well, yes. That’s who she is.
The dialogue fits a pattern that makes sense for the borough according to Sandy Bosacco, the Stone Harbor Beach Patrol captain who hired Walters last summer.
“At first I was a little surprised by this idea, but Suzanne said she always wanted to be a beach-tagger,” Bosacco recalls. “She loves the beach, she loves the town, and she is enthusiastic about both the town and the job.
“Calling it the role of an ambassador is a good description,” Bosacco adds. “The beach-taggers and the guards are interacting all day with the public, who want to see pleasant, personable people to deal with.
“I have known Suzanne for well over 20 years. I have known her both as the mayor and as a beach-tagger. She does a great job.”
During the offseason, Walters may walk the same beach blocks, with no lifeguards present. Some people will invariably tell her that they indeed have their badges.
Whatever the circumstance, Walters has been accustomed to launching conversations with various people.
As mayor, she answered to the citizens here. As president of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, a group of mayors overlooking the interests of some 565 communities, Walters gained a state-wide snapshot of public sentiment. Throughout New Jersey, property owners are alarmed at their taxes.
Along her professional road, Walters has been named among the Outstanding Woman in Government by the New Jersey Association of Elected Women Officials and Mayor of the Year by the New Jersey Conference of Mayors. Walters also was a Cape May County Lincoln Day Honoree.
Walters still serves as a board member for the New Jersey League of Municipalities, the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, and the Cape Regional Medical Center Foundation.
Those positions may appeal to her sense of achievement and consume chunks of time.
But Walters essentially does what she wants at this stage of life. It can be a graduation one day, the beach another, and a meeting on a different day.
Walters looks back with a balanced lens regarding her mayoral tenure here.
“As far as what I miss, it’s the people I worked with, the employees at the borough administration, public works, the police, etc.,” she says. “To me, they are the most fabulous people in the world.
“I miss getting to know the new people, too.”
What Walters does not miss is a familiar refrain among elected officials.
“What I don’t miss is the negativity of things,” she says. “One thing you have to realize as the mayor is that every time you make a decision, you upset somebody.
“You need thick skin to do that job. You do have to deal with some people that no matter what you do, nothing is right. That,” she adds, “is something I don’t miss at all.”
All of that is in the rear-view mirror now. Walters is right where she wants to be.
“I absolutely love the peace and tranquility of this town,” she says. “There is always a sigh of relief when I come over the 96th Street bridge into Stone Harbor. It is a sign that I really am home.”
It’s a home that fits her.
