But don’t nix debate, discussion
We are curious what Ocean City Council meetings will be like in the coming months.
With no municipal election coming up for another two years, we’re hoping for a more cordial atmosphere. Given the outcome of the election, that seems to be the preference of a majority of voters.
In spite of a long and hearty campaign by Councilman Keith Hartzell, who will be finishing up his 16 years in office next month, voters opted to stay the course with incumbent Mayor Jay Gillian. For added measure, they picked the three candidates most closely and unabashedly aligned with the administration – incumbents Karen Bergman and Pete Madden and their running mate, newcomer John “Tony P” Polcini.
To be clear, we are talking about less antagonism, but no less hearty debate. Sometimes the undercurrents of anger over various issues, especially in the last year, became hard to ignore, looking more like personal animosity than differences of opinion. We don’t know that did anything to help advance the resort.
That doesn’t mean stifling debate. We want council members not to hesitate raising objections and opposing views during council meetings, not just on agenda items, but other issues facing the resort.
A good democracy, including one as local as that on a little barrier island at the Jersey shore, runs best when citizens can see how decisions are made.
Not all details need to be worked out in advance. Opposing viewpoints can strengthen the final product. Debate should be welcomed, not feared.
We believe all the members of council – the ones who ran and won, who ran and lost, tried to get elected or weren’t up for election – have the best interests of Ocean City at heart.
Looking at the split among council members on some major issues over the past year, and given the makeup of the new council doesn’t really eliminate that, the only way to move forward on multiple fronts will be for consensus. We expect the mayor, his administration and council to find common ground. The city still needs to work on flood mitigation, dredging, building a new police station or some sort of public safety building. (And if some of the campaign issues that were speculation turn into reality, they could be talking about housing on the boardwalk or taking sewage from Upper Township.)
It is worth remembering that much of what has been accomplished during Mayor Gillian’s 12 years in office came about because of the support from City Council. For a decade the combination of council and administration working together replaced the boardwalk, dredged the lagoons and back bays, did extensive flood mitigation work with new piping and pumping stations, paved roads and fixed bulkheads. Some of these issues should be no-brainers moving forward.
Disappointing turnout
One negative about the election itself was voter turnout, a sad 44 percent. Of 9,633 registered voters, only 4,274 turned out, three-quarters of them on Election Day May 10 and the other quarter via mail-in ballot.
We don’t know if that is because of apathy, that the non-partisan nature didn’t excite partisans who otherwise get more worked up about larger elections, or because more than half of the people just don’t care who is in elected office. (That last point can be taken positively or negatively.)
