SEASIDE — In a rare move, the City Council voted 4-3 Monday to rescind previously granted funding for residents to remove trash from a private property adjacent to the Mill Ponds area.

Candace Remer, who owns Ruby’s Roadside Grill on S. Roosevelt Drive with her husband, David, approached councilors last month alongside residents Randy Stemper and Bill Montero with a request for $5,000 from the city to assist with disposal fees from trash accumulated on the Remers’ business property.

Stemper and Montero had been working to remove the trash using their own funds, time and equipment. The trash is largely from unsanctioned homeless campers around the Mill Ponds.

Montero said he had previously helped clean the property several years ago.

A motion to provide the funding passed 5-2 on March 24, but the issue reappeared on Monday’s City Council agenda. Councilor Seamus McVey, who initially voted in favor of the funding, invoked a clause in the council rules to reconsider the action. Mayor Steve Wright said it was the first time he had seen the clause be invoked.

“It’s come to my attention that the property owner is very delinquent on back taxes in excess of $100,000,” McVey said. “If we’re giving tax money to someone who is that far behind, we need to be really sure about that.”

Candace Remer said she was aware of the issues with back taxes, and that she was working to fix them so they would be amended within the next few months.

“Ruby’s was a labor of love, and my husband and I have poured a lot into the community,” she said. “And it’s just been a little bit of a struggle trying to keep up with that and all the other things going on in our lives.

“I appreciate the City Council and all the hard work they do. They’ve been very good to me in the past, and I hope, moving on, we can handle some of these issues together.”

Councilor Tita Montero, who originally voted against the funding, questioned why the city should use taxpayer money to pay for the responsibilities of a private land owner in maintaining the owner’s land, especially since other places in the city are dealing with trash overflow from unsanctioned homeless camps.

She said that the property’s track record of accumulated trash showed another cleanup may not be a permanent fix.

“This is a cost to the Remers,” said Tita Montero, who is Bill Montero’s sister. “They’re very lucky to have neighbors such as Randy and Bill, who pitched in. But personally, I’m going to say they took advantage of Randy and Bill because this is the second time it’s happened.”

Councilor Seth Morrisey said that he believed helping Bill Montero and Stemper clean up the property had nothing to do with the Remer’s wealth, or lack thereof, but that it was a sensitive area as part of a wetland.

Because the area borders the Mill Ponds, chemicals and trash could seep into the groundwater, affecting not only the Mill Ponds, but also the Neawanna River, the Necanicum River and the ocean.

“There’s 170 cubic yards of trash. That’s somewhere between 20 and 60 tons of trash that have not been dumped on this property by the land owner but by homeless individuals who have been squatting on it,” he said. “So my concern is that, if we leave this in the hands of the Remers, nothing will ever happen with it and it will continue to get worse and worse.

“And I hope by cleaning up this property, it can start a wider effort where we can actually take back the Mill Ponds for the community as opposed to letting it be a place where people aren’t comfortable going.”

McVey said that although he also appreciated Stemper and Bill Montero stepping up and taking on the project, he took issue with the fact that the area in question is private property, and that several other private properties are also adjacent to the Mill Ponds.

At the very least, he said, funding should be conditional on routine checks to make sure the property doesn’t continue accumulating the amounts of trash it has been for the last 20 years.

“This has been an ongoing problem for decades with this particular property,” McVey said. “This is not a new thing; it’s not spillover from the homeless camp, as much as everybody would like to say it is. It’s been an ongoing homeless camp in itself.

“In at least one case, they (homeless campers) were invited by the Remers to act as management for the other homeless people there, showing not only was she aware of what was going on and not doing anything about it, she was encouraging it, which is further reason why I don’t think it’s appropriate to be subsidizing this.”

Councilor David Posalski said that he saw the funding more as a support of Bill Montero and Stemper for their efforts.

The mayor said that the people he had spoken to in the community just wanted to see the Mill Ponds area cleaned up, and didn’t mind the $5,000 budgeted to do so.

He also said that responsibility was partially on the city, as it was decided to have a sanctioned homeless camp with a limited number of spaces that could result in overflow in other places, such as the Mill Ponds.

“So I’m not looking to change our decision, and I’m fine with the way it stands right now,” he said.

Tita Montero countered that other people in the community had reached out to the council in opposition to the funding, particularly neighbors and business owners on Avenue S who have spent their own money trying to protect and clean the areas around the sanctioned homeless encampment.

After an extensive — and, at times, heated — discussion, McVey moved to withdraw the funding. His motion was seconded by Tita Montero, and Councilors Chris Binnicker and Heidi Hoffman voted in favor.