It was Monday, October 7, and we had just finished our 22nd grueling negotiating session on the beachfront Redeveloper's Agreement. Between meetings, we had spent literally hundreds of hours reviewing the text and consulting with city professionals. Now it was time to put the results of seven intense months of negotiation into the hands of Asbury Park residents.

Then, City Manager Terrance Weldon closed the door and made the incomprehensible announcement that he was resigning his post as the result of an FBI investigation in neighboring Ocean Township.

In the week since life inexorably changed, I have made several fumbling attempts to make sense of his announcement for this column. Now, after eight days of false starts, I can only tell you what I know, rock-solid, to be true:

The Beachfront Agreement. I am unshakably convinced that the Beachfront Redevelopment Plan approved in June and the Redeveloper's Agreement introduced last week are Asbury Park's best hope for recovering from the decay that cripples our community and overwhelms our taxpayers. And, while I naturally support some provisions more than others, my firsthand experience gives me faith that these documents represent solid, viable, and honestly negotiated agreements.

In a town not previously known for its openness, the June redevelopment plan was the result of an unprecedented number of public meetings and intense negotiating sessions, and represents the combined input of planners, architects, engineers, council members, redevelopers, state officials, and the public.

The new Redeveloper's Agreement was negotiated, checked, and counter-checked by council members, redevelopment attorneys, tax attorneys, real estate attorneys, architects, engineers, state agencies and city professionals, and contains significant, hard-won concessions in the city's favor.

As a further sanity check, I contacted a forward-looking New York architecture magazine in summer, 2001, and they have generously sent architects and planning experts from New York and Philadelphia - as well as their own executive editor - to Asbury Park to provide free advice in the past year.

And, although state law and general redevelopment practice dictate that the council could have passed the Redeveloper's Agreement by resolution last week - with no need for public comment - we purposely agreed months ago to break tradition and introduce it as an ordinance. As a result, residents will be given a chance to speak out at a public hearing on Wednesday, October 23 at 6 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre, and we will schedule a vote only after we consider your comments.

This also means that any future enhancements will also be subject to public scrutiny and comment. (The proposed Redeveloper's Agreement is available at the city clerk's office or at the city library, and is posted on asburypark.net for your review. Hopefully, you also attended the October 16 information forum at the Paramount Theatre.)

Given the thoroughness of our planning process and the number of highly attended and frequently contentious negotiating sessions (I can't tell you how many restorative M&Ms I've ingested in the past 12 months), it would have been essentially impossible for any one individual - or even a group of individuals - to dishonorably influence either the original plan or the proposed Redeveloper's Agreement.

The On-Going Investigation. Just as I believe in the beachfront plan, I also realistically expect that the on-going FBI investigation will bring additional pleas and arrests in Asbury Park and surrounding towns in coming months for a variety of offenses.

It doesn't take much imagination to guess that Asbury Park has seen its share of shady dealings over the years, and some individuals have reportedly profited from the city's misfortunes for more decades than many of us have been alive.

The coming months may be painful ones, but hopefully that pain will serve the same purpose as radiation or chemotherapy in finally ridding our community of the ills that have held it captive.

It will be up to each of us, however, to ensure that the treatment doesn't kill the still-fragile patient, and that we maintain our unity and forward momentum - and the newly created trust of the outside world - in the months ahead.

Having spent a good deal of time talking to city residents and business owners over the past several days - as have some of my council colleagues - I am gratified by the number of people who have expressed their support for the beachfront plan and their faith in Asbury Park's future.

When I returned home last Monday, I blindly reached for the bookshelf, pulled out a book, and flipped it open.

"Joy and sadness are inseparable," I read, "and if you try to avoid one, you will never experience the other."

Two more things I know are true: The profound sadness of last week's events will remain with many of us for a long time to come.

And it is finally within our grasp - as individuals, as a city council, and as a community - to ensure that, for the first time in living memory, Asbury Park's story ends in joy.