Candidate Outlines Goals, Apologies To Council

Candidate Outlines Goals, Apologies To Council
Candidate1

OCEAN CITY – Joseph “Joe” Cryer has decided to run for Ocean City Council to contribute back to society and continue previous political contributions.

According to Cryer, 48, he is a registered lobbyist with the State of Maryland and started working with the state in 1992. Prior to moving to Ocean City from Annapolis in 2003, Cryer worked with “corporate America” until he decided he didn’t like the direction his life was heading and made the move to Ocean City where he started working as a lifeguard with the Harrison Group until he retired from the government in 2004.

At that time, he began the Delmarva Veterans Services USA, Inc. to assist veterans in receiving their benefit.

Cryer unsuccessfully ran for Ocean City Council in 2006.

“I wasn’t prepared but you never know until you run. The voters did me a favor giving me a few more years to get my life together to revisit the subject,” Cryer said. “I have been visiting Ocean City my entire life … I came here in a full-time capacity in 2003 walking away from the corporate world.”

Looking back to when he first ran for office in Ocean City in 2006, Cryer stated Ocean City was in bad shape but is now pointed in a better direction.

“Now I am seeing about 80 percent of occupancy and retail, and year round we are keeping pretty busy. The ship is heading in a better direction but we need to obviously look at it on a periodic basis. We are doing a lot better than we were,” he said.

If elected to the City Council, Cryer wants to address loss issues, such as negative financing related to the Ocean City Municipal Airport and golf course.

“I need to look at the budget. If I get elected, that will be my main thing to do for the first couple of months to make sure all the money is accounted for. That is the role of a councilman,” he said. “My background is pretty diverse but I want to keep it simple enough where I don’t see over people’s heads. At the airport, I would like to see drones operated out of the facility, and I know who to talk to at the pentagon to make that happen … I would make it a profit center so the airport wouldn’t be a loss.”

If elected to City Council, Cryer would also like to see Ocean City become more of a “training and fitness mecca.”

“We should promote fitness and health more than we do as a city and bring some sporting events here that are more than just running a 5K. When you are looking at weather and location, I think there is a lot of training potential here. There are a lot of areas that we can promote but we need to do it correctly here in Ocean City,” he said.

Another one of Cryer’s priorities if elected to council would be to address issues affecting citizens externally.

“I saw in corporate America when the industry drops people become internal instead of external. If you are out there making sales being external you basically put yourself at risk of losing your job but no matter what the council should be out talking to people instead of sitting in City Hall,” he said.

Cryer is currently one of eight candidates running for four open council seats in the 2014 municipal election to be held on Nov. 4.

At the conclusion of Monday evening’s Mayor and City Council meeting, Cryer came before the elected officials to make a public apology for anti-semitic posts he made on Facebook about a long-time business owner as well as negative comments about the sitting Mayor and Council.

“I want to sincerely apologize to the Mayor and Council. I made some inappropriate comments on social media towards the mayor and certain business owners in the city, and it was wrong. I made a mistake, and I apologize,” Cryer said.