The public needs more information about the actions of government,
according to candidates for office, and needs to be involved in
their community's plans for the future.
Three women are candidates for office in Ocean City: Pillas for Mayor; Nancy Howard and Sadowski for the City Council.
Said Pillas, "I go to every meeting (of the city council, county commissioners and boards and commissions) and then I will read in the paper three weeks later that something was done and I never saw it happen in that meeting. I never saw it, I didn't hear it. In the beginning, I thought I was not astute enough, or I did not have the background and it went over my head. But I do understand now."
Joined by County Commissioner Jeanne Lynch, the first successful woman candidate for county office in 250 years, the three city candidates met voters recently in an informal forum. They presented their views, explained their desire to serve in public office and answered questions. A seasoned, county-wide view was provided by Commissioner Lynch, and political savvy was injected by Delly Scott, long-time party activist, plus many community activists and members of citizen groups.
The mayoral candidate, businesswoman Margaret Pillas, began the presentations. During the last election, she explained, she was among the "silent majority" serving on committees, etc.
One of the things that made her take a more public stance, she said, had to do with not being informed of a gun-toting, disorderly group that last spring played havoc in town. "They came into my store and they had a gun," she said. "Eight men... they did what they wanted to do in my store. They stole from me. When I got on the phone, the police said they did not know what I was talking about. And it took me three days to get one bit of information."
Pillas said that later she discovered the police had been coping with multiple problems at the time of her call, but this did not take away the fear she felt at the time.
She continues to believe that it is wrong to withhold knowledge from local citizens because, as she put it, "... they did not want information to go back across that bridge..."
There must be a way to inform the Ocean City public "without having a megaphone destroying our tourism," said the candidate.
With an eye toward learning how the information channels work, Pillas said, she began to get involved in the city. The result is not necessarily illuminating, she said.
Margaret Pillas explained that as administrator for a soon-to-be national organization, she sees the need for orderly procedures for city government. They should not be happening in rump sessions or closed caucuses of city officials. Nor should precedents rely on the memory of one city officer. They must be inscribed and known.
"That is what I am about. I am open to information, trying to learn all I can," said Pillas.
Pat "Taylor" Sadowski, businesswoman, announced that she has not changed her "Fairness for All" platform since running in 1994.
"People say 'you can't be fair to all!' Why not?" Sadowski asked. "You sit and listen to people and you have to make the decision based on what is going to be best for the taxpayer. Right? My thinking is this, and I listened to Margaret intently. She is very right. I spent a year and a half sitting at council meetings. ... I go down there periodically now, but I see what goes on.
"There is a feeling... with the taxpayers that there currently is a council that is at odds with one another. They are not working as a team for the taxpayer... (taxpayers) are electing us. You are the ones we are working for. I advocate being a full-time council person, and I can do that."
If there is an issue which affects the taxpayers, in Sadowski's opinion, the council member should be in touch with those taxpayers, getting recommendations on the upcoming vote.
"This is the type of council person I would like to be," she concluded, representing all the taxpayers, not just those with power and wealth.
Candidates and those in attendance addressed a flurry of questions on issues facing Ocean City, including the convention center, a controversial flea market, the city's growing debt, a sewage outfall pipe to the ocean, the multitude of golf courses, a proposed aquatic center.
A question was asked about the costs of feasibility studies on some of these projects.
Noone can be an expert on everything anymore, said Pillas. There is a need for experts and their research studies. The people should not have to elect engineers, soil and water scientists, urban planners, said Pillas. The elected should reflect the electorate and "be in a position to ask the questions that you, the voter, need to ask."
Myra Wells, community leader, said, "It is too complex today. No one person can know all about the environment, all about the myriad things there are. Nobody can know everything. And you are right, the administrator gets work done through people..."
Jeanne Lynch drew on her own experience when she observed, "The problem with feasibility studies is when they tell you something you don't want to hear.
"I say this in all honesty, because in many cases, people get a feasibility study thinking it is going to tell them what they have already got as a foregone conclusion. And in many cases it is actually the opposite, and so you've got to have the political will to do what is best for the (community) in the long run.
"And that is where I get a whole lot of flack sometimes because I will take a long view, and that is what I wanted. That is what I ran for. What I wanted to get elected for is -- I wanted someone in there who took a long-term view.
"You cannot just sit there and react. You have got to plan into the next century. I mean, we are THERE! And if you have not thought about it, you are going to be behind the eight ball before you even start."
Delly Scott, active in Democratic party circles, said, "I think what the problem a lot of people have is that they are just tired of these feasibility studies when sometimes all it takes is common sense..."
Margaret Pillas said, "I think if you look for reputable people, you won't find 'yes' people ... they will just say, look, I am going to do my report based on what I see. You may not like the results."
Delly Scott observed : "You have to remember ... a lot of the individual people who pay the taxes for their little homes here, condos, townhouses, (have conflicting feelings about the studies) The people don't trust the council people. But how did they get elected? Hello!!!"
Someone said that, sadly, when candidates are elected with high hopes, they become "them" ... the target politicos.
Pat Sadowski offered a suggestion for the economic problems, first asking: " Don't everybody scream at me until I've finished. We go to New Jersey, New York... large cities that charge exorbitant taxes... I remember going for a show to a big hotel in Newark, New Jersey and ... they have toll roads, toll bridges, toll this and toll that. Residents carry passes.
"Would you mind telling me what would be wrong with having a toll on Route 90? A toll coming from Delaware into OC? A toll on Route 50? You are going to say it could cause a major backup, but also you could have a permit for local land owners. Tourists are going to pay to get to this beach! And it is going to put money into the state and into Ocean City. That is my long-term thinking."
Members of the group told of vacation spots where they have seen just such tolls.
Sadowsky continued: "Tourists are going to come to Ocean City no matter what. I think it would help build our state, our roads, our counties and everything."
Margaret Pillas considered that Ocean City is in economic transition now. "We used to be a family resort where people with medium to low incomes could come and get a break and enjoy themselves and get a little bit of luxury... I don't know if anybody has looked outside lately, but they are not there any longer."
Prices have risen so much, she said, that Ocean City appears to be headed for exclusivity; a middle to upper-middle-class-income resort, and possibly moving up from there, in income and in swarming numbers.
"Our aquifer cannot keep this little town going with all the people we expect to come; another 30,000 in Worcester county in the next 30 years," said Pillas. We have to face the facts down the road in terms of long-term planning. That has got to be in our thinking."
Nancy Howard referred back to a question asked at the start of the presentations: "Why should you vote for me?"
"Vote for me because I love Ocean City as we all do," she said.
Howard said that she was a June-Bug and is proud of that. She liked the city and returned, attracted by the life style...
"We chose to live in Ocean City, a resort town. And it is a resort town. But it is also a microcosm. It is not even ten miles long. And in some areas it is probably not even a quarter of a mile wide. We have absolutely everything here that you could get anyplace in the country."
Myra Wells said wistfully. "We don't have the Kennedy Center."
Howard agreed, "No, but we have theater... the Worcester Country School that puts on a musical every year; the Pines Players; the stage group. We have the Board Walk; the glitz, the excitement, the razzle-dazzle and the scuzzy part of the boardwalk. We have high-rises... 20-story high-rises ... we have lovely single-family homes like this one. We have town houses like the one I live in. We have softball...
"We don't have schools. That is the one thing we don't have on the island. But we have families with children who live on the island ... We have businesses, we have retired people, we have T-shirt shops. We have my friend Marcia's dress shop. I mean, we have a little bit of everything.
"We have the wonderful restaurants. Yes, they are expensive, but go to New York, go to Washington and these other places... It is 1996. Things are not the Hot Shoppe anymore. Now you go to Tutti Gusti and you see a three-year-old having dinner and there is nothing in there under $26.00...or whatever it is for God's sakes.
"I won't harangue you, but ... there are some things that need to be changed in Ocean City. But there are some things about Ocean City that are right. And that is what I want to do: I want to keep those things in Ocean City that are right. And those things in Ocean City that need to be changed, hopefully we will work together to do that."
There were questions and discussions on refurbishing of beautiful old buildings in downtown; whose responsibility is their care? Why don't present owners -- possibly third generation of the original families -- want to keep up the buildings? Do they not value the old styles? Or do they value more the sheer money value of the land? Delly Scott said that the city is lax in researching grants for restorations and retrofitting of historic sites. "There are billions out there," agreed Howard. It is suggested that worthy but deteriorating properties be condemned and taken by the city, to be retrofitted with grant monies. But the old families who, largely, own those properties, said Pillas, are the ones who tell people what to do. No one tells them. There is general agreement.
How about creating new "destinations" for tourism in the parts of town that are now neglected by visitors, Howard asked.
Most of Ocean City's excitement, its wealth, its appeal, she said, is all based on its natural assets. "It's based on the beach," she said. "This is Maryland's only ocean beach. Delaware's got more ocean beaches than we do; as do New Jersey, the Carolinas, Virginia... this is it for Maryland... if that beach goes away... as Pat said, the people are going to go somewhere to get to the ocean like lemmings to the sea. We have got to keep our beach in good shape. as Margaret and Pat both said, we have to think: what DO we want for Ocean City? Where do we want to be in 20 years? and then we have to think, how do we get there?
"Unfortunately most of what we want to do and what we want to be and where we want to go costs money. We have to figure out how we are going to make the money and then where do we spend it most judiciously so that we can keep OC that place that we chose to live in."
"I am ready to work with anyone, and I think I can," Howard continued. "I've worked with the State for ten years for God's sakes.(on the dune replenishment program).. I ought to be able to work with almost anyone."
A plan which involved everyone might overcome many of the old-family/newcomer barriers, in the group's opinion. Pillas considered it might have special appeal if it came from young people, many of whom are the children of those old families.
"Go to Stephen Decatur and talk to the high school kids who are our future and say, 'make a plan for Ocean City... Nobody is going to holler there. If we go to the establishment or the Beautification Committee... they are just going to say; 'Who are you to tell us what to do?'"
She wondered if the kids would be a credible group with a future in the community, ties to the local families. Perhaps their plan would inspire the owners to join together and do something. If we don't do some planning, we don't get anywhere."
Every thinking business person and home owner in the city, said Pillas, "will want to be a part of that plan."
Attending city council meetings is all well and good.
But you may hear later that important actions took place some
other time, some other place, according to Margaret Pillas,
candidate for Mayor of Ocean City. Pat "Taylor" Sadowski,
candidate for City Council, agreed that, furthermore, the public will not find city actions only sparsely reported in the local press.
Sadowski, specialist in business management, agreed with Pillas about the need for information about city operations. "I feel that it is important that the taxpayer, who does not go down to City Hall and sit and listen... the majority of them don't ... should be advised of what is going on in more than the little bits and pieces that you read in the paper. Sometimes half of it is not in there." she said.
July 13, 1996 Jo Campbell Ecotopics International News Service
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