OCEAN CITY – There still aren’t term limits on Ocean City’s volunteer boards and commissions, but judging from comments at Thursday evening’s City Council meeting, they may be back in place before the end of 2022.
Ocean City Council approved a resolution on second reading that will delay reinstating limits of no more than two consecutive terms on boards and commissions.
City solicitor Dorothy McCrosson said a vote for the ordinance would keep the city from returning to the term limits until the end of 2022. Voting against the resolution would have put the term limits back in place starting Dec. 31 of this year.
Were that to occur, McCrosson explained, the city would be faced with having to fill multiple vacancies on things such as the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Adjustments and Historic Preservation Commission to the Shade Tree Committee and Aviation Advisory Board.
“We would have many, many vacancies,” she said, that would open up as of the end of the month. The other option would be to wait to decide on term limits for another year. During that time the city could look at citizen applications to determine if there are plenty of qualified people to fill the vacancies. She noted council did not have to wait the entire year to do that.
Although council voted 7-0 to approve the resolution and delay term limits, members expressed interest in them.
Councilman Keith Hartzell said delaying term limits gives the city flexibility. For the short haul, he said, extra time would allow council to determine if there should be changes rather than rushing into it.
Councilman Terry Crowley said the city needs to look at term limits.
“We need younger people in town involved in these decisions,” he said. The delay “gives us a year to figure out what we need to do and then move forward.”
Councilmen Tomaso Rotondi and Jody Levchuk said they were “fans” of term limits. Levchuk said he wanted a discussion about it and Rotondi said he preferred time to come up with a plan rather than forcing people off at the end of this year.
Councilwoman Karen Bergman advocated for a balanced approach, saying she wanted a mix of newcomers and experienced members. Bergman said she wanted new members but she didn’t want “all new blood and new ideas and no experience.”
Council President Bob Barr said City Council and the administration should work together, in part through social media, to attract more people to the boards and commissions and increase involvement.
During public comment, resident Suzanne Hornick said the city should put term limits into place. “Bring back the term limits,” she said. “We need new people and new people would volunteer if given a shot.”
Resident Donna Moore suggested a compromise of staggering appointments so there would be fewer vacancies at one time, but added that she supports term limits “because we need fresh energy in our town. There are many intelligent people living here now with qualifications to serve on our boards. If we don’t have limits, they don’t have a chance to serve. Let’s open it up.”
She said if council didn’t act, it would just be in the same place a year from now.
Barr said the city should work on the term limit idea “sooner rather than later.”
Different boards and commissions 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 although some appear out of date and have not been updated (some have terms that expired at the end of 2020). They also show that terms on various boards expire in different years, that individually they are already staggered. However, the city could be forced to fill a substantial number of vacancies at the end of any year given how many boards and commissions there are.
One appointment to Zoning Board
After an executive session to start Thursday’s City Council meeting, the board reconvened to vote on an appointment to the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
Barr said three qualified candidates had applied for a position on the board.
One of the candidates was Robert Becker, who was listed as “alternate 2” on the board with a term ending Dec. 31.
Councilman Pete Madden made a motion to appoint Becker. It was seconded by Bergman. Madden, Bergman and Crowley voted in favor of Becker, but Hartzell, Barr, Rotondi and Levchuk abstained, allowing the motion to die.
Levchuk then made a motion to appoint John Quinn. Hartzell seconded.
Madden voted no, Crowley abstained, but Bergman, Hartzell, Levchuk, Barr and Rotondi voted for him. Quinn will get the appointment Dec. 27 if a final resolution passes. There was no discussion.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff