Bergman, Madden, Polcini win the three City Council seats
Editor’s note: The election results are unofficial until they are certified by the Cape May County Clerk’s Office.
OCEAN CITY – Jay Gillian won his fourth consecutive term in office, defeating challenger Keith Hartzell, the longtime City Council member, 2,299 to 1,893 – a more than 400-vote margin in unofficial results from the Cape May County Clerk’s Office on Tuesday night.
Incumbent Karen Bergman outdistanced everyone in the race for the three at-large City Council seats, garnering 2,267 votes. She was joined by incumbent Pete Madden, who received 1,945 votes and their running mate, newcomer John A. “Tony P” Polcini, who earned 1,980 votes.
Sitting Second Ward City Councilman Tom Rotondi, who was seeking an at-large seat, earned 1,897 votes, finishing in fourth place.
Former First Ward councilman Michael DeVlieger, who resigned from his position in August but was seeking to get back on council, was fifth with 1,709 votes.
Donna Moore, a regular speaker at City Council meetings who focuses on environmental issues, was sixth with 1,502 votes.
Gillian won in every ward in the city, including the Second, where Hartzell lives, but the margin there was the closest, with the mayor outpolling him 316-308. Gillian’s margin was largest in the First Ward, 542 to 435. The ward results do not include the mail-in ballots, which Gillian took 598 to 417.
The celebration was boisterous at The Flanders Hotel, where Gillian, Bergman, Polcini and their supporters gathered, with applause and cries erupting each time the tallies from the individual precincts were written on a large board.
The mood was somber at Prep’s Pizza on the Boardwalk, where Hartzell arrived after the results had been tallied.
A hard two years
Gillian’s wife, Michele, spoke to the crowd, saying it has been a hard two years. She said she was proud of the team that ran. She said as they campaigned, people told her, “We love Ocean City the way it is.”
“Four more years,” she exclaimed, drawing cheers from the crowd. “We’re going to have dredging, beach replenishment, we’re going to have all the amenities Ocean City deserves. Things are going to move forward again.”
Jay Gillian’s theme in office has been “unity in the community,” and relations between him and City Council were mostly harmonious, with little infighting, as the city embarked on major capital improvement projects for flood mitigation, replacement of the boardwalk, roadwork and other projects. The hard two years Michele Gillian was referencing was the increasing antagonism with some members of council as Hartzell geared up his campaign for mayor.
“We are a community of neighbor to neighbor, family to family, friend to friend,” Michele Gillian told the crowd. “We don’t do what has happened in this campaign. We don’t like this. We live like a family community.”
Joined by Bergman and Polcini, the mayor talked about how he won his first election 12 years earlier stressing unity. “Like Michele said, it’s been two rough years. The reward is tonight.”
He thanked the “great team” they had for the campaign. He said there were too many to thank, but included Michael Dattilo, campaign manager Scott Halliday, treasurer Carol Heenan and state Assemblyman Antwan McClellan, a former City Council member who was with Gillian from the start of the campaign with a friendship that goes back many years before that.
He said he was coming out of church and Heenan was having him meet people at the back of the church. “I was doing things I’ve never done before,” he said to laughter, as he clarified that he was talking about campaigning.
“I’m so thankful and so humbled,” he said. “This was about us working together as a family.”
“It was about the courage to stick up for what you believe in. Ocean City is more important than anything,” Gillian said. “That’s what was forgotten these last couple of years.”
Gillian said Madden, who hadn’t arrived at The Flanders yet, “is a great councilman.” Turning to Bergman, he said, “You should be president of council.” That, too, drew cheers from the crowd. During her campaign, Bergman said she would like to take on a leadership role on council. This will be her fourth term in office when she is sworn in. Madden will be in his third term.
“Where’s the real mayor,” Gillian said. “Where’s my wife?
“The one thing I realized over this last campaign is that every (event) we went to Michele got stronger and I just sat back,” he said. “It’s been a rough week and a half,” he added, referencing the death of a welder at Gillian’s Wonderland Pier on Monday, May 2. The subcontractor’s employee fell from a lift and died of his injuries.
“After last week I almost wanted to end everything and just stop because I didn’t know how to move forward, but with the family and everybody who came to me … you can’t lose with this team,” he said.
“I promise you, like I have done for the last 12 years, I’m going to work every day,” he said. “You know I’m 24/7.” He called up the city’s Business Administrator, George Savastano, who came up and raised Gillian’s hand in triumph.
“He’s the undisputed champ,” Savastano exclaimed. “He is unbreakable.”
Gillian added, “We do have a real engineer in this city, just so everybody knows.” (Savastano, an engineer, has drawn some flak from council members since the campaign began.)
He also thanked aide to the mayor Michael Allegretto, city solicitor Dottie McCrosson and Chief Financial Officer Frank Donato.
Bergman, Polcini
thrilled with results
Bergman thanked everyone for coming out that night, and for inviting them into their homes during the campaign.
“That’s what brought it home, unity in the community,” she said.
Bergman said it felt “wonderful” to be the top vote-getter in the election. She was more than 275 votes ahead of any other council candidate and less than 40 behind Gillian.
“I am just so happy because I really care about this town and I’m happy we kept it positive. Keeping it positive got us the votes,” she said.
“I told you, don’t let the inexperience fool you,” Polcini said. “I’m looking forward to a lot of learning and a lot of challenges, but I’m very excited. I feel that you run and you’re honest, and you run from your heart, good things will happen.”
Hartzell: I brought
key issues to light
Hartzell said he was proud of the campaign he ran, noting that while unsuccessful at the polls, he did succeed in bringing several important issues to light.
“Sometimes it’s not about winning, it’s just about making sure the issues get discussed and get brought to the forefront,” Hartzell said. “Naturally I’m disappointed but I made some great progress.”
He said he was “more than convinced” that Gillian plans to build a hotel at the Wonderland Pier property.
“We’ve exposed that,” he said. “It’s going to make it much harder for them to do that.”
Likewise, Hartzell said, he was convinced Gillian planned to import sewerage from Upper Township, that would allow greater development of the Roosevelt Boulevard corridor.
“Hopefully we were able to stop that by turning a light on that,” he said.
Hartzell also noted his efforts helped stop “the overpriced public safety building.”
“Some changes were made through this election, so we are going to feel good about that. We didn’t prevail but we made some changes,” he said.
Hartzell said he would continue to be an advocate for Ocean City.
“I’ve had a good 16-year run. I love the city and that’s where I’m at,” he said.
Rotondi said he would have liked to win in case he moves out of the Second Ward but said if he does, “they’ll find someone to fill my spot.”
In the meantime, he said, “I’m going to continue to do the right things for Ocean City no matter what. I stood up for the taxpayers and I stood up for families and I’m still going to do that.”
DeVlieger, with his campaign managers — son Flynn and daughter Reagan — by his side, took the loss in stride.
“Congratulations to my opponents, and I’ll see the rest of the public on the beach this summer,” DeVlieger said.
– By DAVID NAHAN and CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
