Ocean City Community Association Hosts Candidates Forum With Format Change

Ocean City residents had their first opportunity to see all five candidates for three at-large council seats and both candidates for mayor in one place Wednesday night when the Ocean City Community Association held two candidate forums at the library.

Due to a format change implemented earlier this week, each candidate had five minutes to give a statement to the public before the event opened up to a meet-and greet with the public.

Initially, each candidate was to answer a series of questions submitted by a four-member committee. However, questions arose in recent days surrounding three of the four committee members and possible conflicts of interest involving the candidates.

However, Ocean City Council Association President Bob Barr said the change became necessary only after Board Member Jim Tweed’s computer crashed and he lost his questions last week.

“This is a small town, and there has never been an election in the history of Ocean City in which there were no conflicts,” Barr said. “We trust everyone here. … If Jim’s computer had not crashed, it would’ve been different.”

However, Barr added that although the board and the association trusted all members of the committee, it was still important to avoid the appearance of a conflict. He also guaranteed there would be no recurrence of the problem for either the next council candidates debate April 29 or the mayoral debate May 7.

"The person in charge of keeping the questions has a triple backup for the questions," Barr said. "This will not happen again."

Both of those debates will be held at the high school 7 p.m. on their respective dates.

Once each candidate finished giving his statement on Wednesday, members of the public had their opportunity to interact with the candidates, but questions were not made public.

“People tend to give speeches and make a presentation, they might start shouting,” Barr said. “We wanted to make sure this was done in a controlled, fair way and give everyone an equal opportunity to speak.”

Council candidates spoke at 6 p.m., followed by a meet and greet. At 7 p.m., each mayoral candidate had the opportunity to speak, followed by another meet and greet.

Residents packed the library to hear candidates speak and to meet with them in person.

A mayoral debate was also held on April 7 and a debate for council candidates was held on April 14, but Wednesday night was the first time all seven candidates were in attendance.

Incumbent councilmen Keith Hartzell and Michael Allegretto and challengers Michael Hyson, Peter Madden and Eric Sauder are running for three open council at-large seats.

Ed Price challenges Mayor Jay Gillian in the mayoral race.

The non-partisan municipal elections are scheduled for May 13.