Discusses budgeting, Wonderland site, public comment, personnel
OCEAN CITY — At the July 1 Ocean City Council meeting, Terry Crowley Jr., the former vice president of council, was unanimously elected president, while former president Pete Madden was named vice president.
The Sentinel posed a range of questions to the First Ward representative on the budget, the future of the Wonderland Pier site and other aspects to the now leader of City Council.
What did it mean to get the full support of council to be elected president?
It means a lot. There’s a lot of really successful guys who sit at that table and to earn their trust and then their endorsement is important. I think it’ll help us moving forward.
How do you envision your role as president?
As a communicator, I think it’s important to deal with the administration, but then also represent the wishes of council and find a medium ground so that we can all move forward.
Do you have any changes planned on how you’re going to run the meetings compared to Pete Madden?
No, I think Pete did a great job. Pete’s a good friend of mine. He’s a super busy guy, and I’ve enjoyed being in the vice president seat for a couple of years and kind of setting the agenda and dealing with the mayor and the administration, so I don’t see any wholesale changes.
What do you believe are the biggest issues expected to come before council in the near term and over the course of your year as president?
I think we’re going to have a lot this year. Certainly the hotel is at the front of everyone’s mind and how that’s going to proceed will be interesting if and when we see a presentation. (Icona Resorts owner Eustace Mita has proposed a 252-room hotel with 10 to 12 storefronts and a few amusements at the former Wonderland Pier amusement park site. He is planning a formal presentation in August.)
Additionally, we’re looking at the airport, a number of properties in town and there’s just always an issue.
Taxes have risen 17 percent over the past three years — more, if you consider the compounding effect. What do you want to happen with the next budget and how are you going to shepherd that as the council president?
We’re all concerned about that. I think (Fourth Ward Councilman ) Dave Winslow had some really good points that I know the mayor and his team have taken seriously. We have a hiring freeze right now and we just looked at the 3 percent Airbnb tax, which we think will help with the number next year.
But overall, as an outsider, I would be critical of the increases, but having kind of gone through the process and seeing our expenditures — between police and fire, we have 120, 130 personnel; they do get a raise every year in their negotiated contract. Our health benefits for every employee in the city have just been astronomical — close to 30 percent some of these years.
The things that we can control, I think we do a really good job with it. But overall, we’re always looking at new revenue streams and how to minimize the impact of tax increases. It’s just been really challenging the past couple of years with inflation. I think everyone can sympathize with that or agree that when you go to the store, stuff is a lot more expensive than it used to be. To put gas in your car has been crazy.
Now we’re seeing some of the prices come down, but the city’s not immune to those type of increases. Over the past couple years, sometimes the city has gone and self-funded (insurance), which is a little bit less of an expenditure but it puts you at really high risk because if you do have a major incident the city’s on the hook to pay for that.
So I like being in the commercial-type system. But no one’s cutting costs with any of these companies. We’ve changed a couple times, but it’s the lesser of the evils.
Do you think some of the future budgets are going to be affected because of the expected wind-down in large capital project spending?
We reduced the capital plan this year. And we’ve done a good job with roads, with dredging, with the beach replenishment. I do know it will decrease, but I don’t know how much. We’ve got the police station still in front of us. (The capital plan includes $38 million for the new police substation at Eighth Street and Boardwalk and renovating and expanding the existing station on Central Avenue between Eighth and Ninth streets.)
There’s just the unexpected, things like the roof at the Civic Center. We weren’t planning on having to replace that, but things go wrong.
Councilman Winslow has proposed a swath of ideas to control and/or reduce personnel costs. Do you know how those things are being implemented and are you going to push to see that they are?
Yes. The first thing was the hiring freeze. We’re also looking at the budget kind of quarterly at this point to kind of get ahead of the process for next year. We’ve changed some of the HR policies with middle management, with people having to clock in, that sort of thing, just to be able to really look and control costs.
And then ultimately, we’ve talked about bringing a third-party company in to look at the right-size amount of head count that we need moving forward.
Do you have any expectations how City Council is going to react if Eustace Mita asks for a redevelopment zone at the Wonderland site for his hotel project?
I don’t, honestly. We haven’t talked about it as a group at all. I think everyone’s been to his different presentations. And I know there are some guys that are probably, if I had to guess, are really against the hotel, and there’s probably other people that are for it, but we haven’t had any official type of discussion about it. Everyone’s just kind of heard the same presentations.
In fairness, you know, I’ve probably seen the presentation three or four times. Every time I’ve seen it, something’s tweaked or changed. So until we see the final proposal, I think it’s kind of premature to really form an opinion or put a position out there.
I’ve heard a lot of feedback that the city needs to take leadership of the process. And I just want to ensure that if and when it’s presented to us, we are the leaders of the city and we will take ownership of it.
You know, if you have a Facebook page and you’ve declared yourself the president of it, that doesn’t give you a seat at the table. The council is going to gather all the information. We’re going to do our homework. We’re going to talk to the experts, and we’re going to do what’s best for Ocean City for the future.
Do you believe the change in public comment limiting the first session near the start of the meeting to agenda items and other comment to the end of the meeting serves the public well?
I think it gives a better flow to it because if you do have an issue with the agenda, we get right out in front of it before we vote on anything. And then the second public comment is whatever’s on your mind, whatever you think is prudent to talk about when it comes to a city.
I think the important thing for people to remember is that the City Council meeting is a business meeting and we’re there to conduct the business of the city and to move things forward.
You know, all of our emails are on the website, all of our phone numbers are on the website. The phone number that I give out is the same one that my kids have. If someone really wants to get a hold of us, it’s not that hard.
What role does the Ocean City Council play in regard to the administration? What’s its function?
We’re the checks and balances, we’re the financial side to say if we’re willing to fund a project or what do we want to look at moving forward? But you know, it’s a partnership, obviously, in this form of government. It’s a very strong mayor, and the mayor is kind of the CEO and his team all report to him. We have input, but it’s definitely a balancing act.
Is there anything else that you want members of the public to know about you?
I would just like them to know about me and everyone else that sits at that (council) table is, we’re there to do the best for Ocean City. Sometimes we might disagree, but I never question that everyone sitting at that table was there because they love Ocean City and they want it to move forward and be successful.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
