Curtailed Public Safety Workshop to Resume Dec. 19

A public workshop that ended last month without public comment will resume on Thursday, Dec. 19.

City Council held a workshop Nov. 14 to discuss public safety budgets and issues. But presentations by the police chief and fire chief used the entire two hours allotted for the meeting. A full house, including many firefighters, had no opportunity to provide feedback.

The continued workshop is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 19, in the lecture hall at the Ocean City Free Public Library.

No official actions are taken at council workshops — instead they are devoted to gathering and sharing information, public input and planning. City Council and the city administration are in the early stages of creating a budget for the next fiscal year.

Public safety departments include the Ocean City Fire Department, Ocean City Police Department and Ocean City Beach Patrol.

In his presentation, Ocean City Fire Chief Chris Breunig proposed reallocating three firefighting positions to create three other positions: fire inspector, training officer and a community education coordinator.

See the full presentations:

• Ocean City Fire and Rescue Services
• Ocean City Beach Patrol
• Federal Government Surplus
• Ocean City Police Services