OCEAN CITY – Ocean City Council voted 5-2 Thursday evening to eliminate term limits for the city’s boards and commissions.
Councilmen Tom Rotondi and Jody Levchuk provided the no votes.
Term limits on the volunteer boards and commissions had been debated for more than a year, with some council members and members of the public concerned that many sitting members of the boards had been on for longer than two terms and that a mix of new and younger members would benefit the city.
A counter argument was that because so many of the appointees had already served two terms, the city would be faced with replacing numerous board members at once and the resort didn’t want to lose all of the experienced members.
Councilman Bobby Barr said he received a lot of phone calls from constituents who feel like these are “Supreme Court appointments,” meaning the members are appointed for life. He assured citizens that the appointments do have set terms and that the mayor and/or City Council has the opportunity to appoint new members as their terms finish.
City Solicitor Dorothy McCrosson explained that members are appointed for specific terms, but if council approved the resolution members would not be precluded from serving more than two terms.
“They will be reconsidered after each term and council or mayor will have the option to reappoint them or not,” she said.
Among the volunteer boards are the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Adjustment, Historical Preservation Commission, Environmental Commission, Housing Authority, Shade Tree Committee, Aviation Advisory Board, Tourism Development Commission, Library Board of Trustees, Healthy Living Advisory Board, Lifeguard Pension Commission, Local Assistance Board and Municipal Alliance Commission.
They have different compositions with varying numbers of members and lengths of term, some with alternates serving shorter terms than regular members. On Ocean City’s website, the boards and commissions and their members are listed. They also show that terms on various boards expire in different years and are staggered.
Rotondi said he researched the issue by talking to administrators in other communities about how they handle appointments. He also noted that eliminating the provision for term limits wouldn’t necessarily solve the problem of members serving for long periods of time.
He said that’s what elections are for, that if citizens don’t like the appointments that are made, they can vote for new officials who make those appointments.
Council President Pete Madden, Vice President Karen Bergman and Councilmen Terry Crowley Jr., John “Tony” Polcini, and Barr voted in favor for eliminating term limits.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff