Councilman-elect: I’ll be agreeable, but won’t abandon my principles
OCEAN CITY — Jim Kelly said he will be agreeable when he joins Ocean City Council on July 1, but that doesn’t mean he will abandon his priorities or principles.
“I always remind myself, ‘Be strong and be agreeable,’ because that is how you can work with other people,” he told the Sentinel the day after Tuesday’s municipal election.
“That’s how you can work with other people, whether you’re in alignment on your thinking with them or you have differences in your beliefs. Be strong in your convictions, but be agreeable with the people you’re working with,” Kelly said.
In the May 12 election for the three at-large City Council seats, Kelly received the second-highest amount of votes among the four candidates. Sean Barnes, seeking his first full term after serving two years as an appointed councilman, led with 2,942 votes. Kelly, a newcomer to elected politics, received 2,778, and incumbent Tony Polcini, who is finishing his first term, got 2,627.
Another newcomer, Jocelyn Palaganas, a member of the Ocean City Board of Education, came in fourth with 2,270.
Asked how he will work with Mayor Jay Gillian’s administration and fellow City Council members, Kelly said his plans “are to have an extremely productive relationship with both …. I start with the relationship first.”
Kelly has been serving on the Boardwalk Subcommittee, appointed by council President Terry Crowley Jr. in the fall to study the zoning on the boardwalk, including the former Wonderland Pier amusement park site at Sixth Street.
He said he used his approach first with other members of the subcommittee, which has citizens, council members and Planning Board members. It is chaired by Fourth Ward Councilman Dave Winslow and is expected to release its recommendations to council later this month or in early June.
Kelly won’t be in the same position he was in for most of the past year. Before running for City Council, he was an integral member of the Ocean City 2050 advocacy group. As such, he regularly appeared before council strongly arguing against hotelier and developer Eustace Mita’s proposal to build an eight-story, 252-room hotel on the Wonderland site, which isn’t zoned for hotels.
Kelly argued strenuously against the hotel and against council sending the property to the Planning Board for a recommendation on designating it in need of rehabilitation, a status Mita wanted as an important step toward building the hotel. Kelly also spoke before the Planning Board, which ended up letting the designation die in a 4-4 tie vote.
Kelly did not disclose where the Boardwalk Subcommittee is heading, but he wants to see a recommendation “that helps City Council and its planning resources to take control and lead this conversation forward.”
As a councilman, Kelly will be part of the body to listen to the subcommittee’s recommendations and make decisions on the boardwalk, including the Wonderland property.
Through the reports filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJELEC) 11 days before the May 12 election, Kelly had greatly out-raised his opponents, noting donations, including loans from himself, totaling more than $46,000. Polcini reported $15,500, Barnes $8,500 and Palaganas $1,000.
Asked about the amount raised and the high-profile campaign he waged and why he believed it important to win the seat on council, Kelly said he cares about the community.
“I believe it’s good for any community to have experienced people in elected office, but also to have new people,” he said. “I think it’s good to have balance where you have new people coming in.”
Kelly said he believes he has the qualifications and that the city needs people to step up and run.
He credited his “great team” with working to get the message out.
“I think we’ve done a great thing in bringing a new voice on City Council and maybe encouraging other people to do this in the future.”
Kelly noted he was pleased and honored to be elected.
A new political action committee, Our Ocean City, supported Kelly, Barnes and mayoral candidate Keith Hartzell, who lost his second attempt to unseat incumbent Gillian.
On Election Day after the polls closed, Hartzell noted his own disappointment with his loss, but was happy to see Kelly elected and suggested the two of them will help get things accomplished.
“We have two more years on council and with Jim (Kelly) there, hopefully we can make a difference and do some things in this government that need to be done,” Hartzell said. He has two years remaining in his term as Second Ward councilman.
Asked what he would like to accomplish, Kelly said he would like to see a standing Finance Committee set up and for council to expand public engagement beyond the council meetings.
“I think there’s an opportunity to set up other community forums to bring in that engagement and information,” he said.
Kelly cited the last council meeting where citizens presented a petition with more than 500 signatures opposing a 125-foot cell phone tower at 33rd Street and Bay Avenue. Three brothers who own property there spoke before council, saying they weren’t aware of the project even though it had been reported in the media and was discussed at council meetings.
Kelly said in hindsight it should have been clear that project would be of great interest to the neighbors and that is the kind of thing in which the city could be having more public engagement ahead of time.
“Sometimes the governing body’s got to go out and foster (engagement),” he said. “This isn’t as much a criticism as sort of a constructive recommendation for City Council. You have to almost publicize it and push people a little bit, be very inviting, make it easy.”
He noted the company he works for — he is vice president for Erickson Senior Living, one of the nation’s leading senior living developers and managers — does an extensive amount of surveys.
“If you really want the public engagement, you’ve got to be willing to go out and foster it and welcome it and actually promote it. You can’t just schedule a meeting and think it’s going to happen. You have to put a little more energy into making it happen,” Kelly said.
“I don’t think anybody intended for people not to know what was going on with the cell tower, but in hindsight, I think we recognize that is what happened. I think we learn from that.”
Kelly and his wife of nearly 40 years, Donna, moved their family to Ocean City in 2004. They have two grown sons, both Ocean City High School graduates who were state champions for the Red Raider surfing team. They also have three grandsons, ages 8, 4 and 2.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
