OCEAN CITY – Candidates running for City Council addressed the prospect of cutting city services in lieu of raising taxes at last week’s candidates forum.
Last Tuesday evening the Ocean City AARP Chapter 1917 hosted an Ocean City Candidate Forum. Council candidates Nancy Bolt, who withdrew from the race Thursday, Tony DeLuca, Wayne Hartman, Matthew James, Christopher Rudolf, and former councilman Joe Hall were present to participate. Candidate Joe Cryer was not present and incumbent Council President Lloyd Martin was absent due to illness.
A question posed by moderator Bryan Russo of WAMU 88.5 probed the candidates on their position regarding raising the tax rate. In the second of a three-part series leading up to the Nov. 4 election, the following question was asked followed by candidates’ responses.
Q: At budget time would you consider cutting town services rather than raising taxes?
Bolt: As far as our services are concerned, there really is no fair way to trim anything back or to charge anyone for anything else. Obviously, we don’t want to raise taxes, and with the constant yield we shouldn’t need to but looking through some of the things that we have spent money on over the years, such as studies, we do a ton of studies. We are always doing traffic studies, we just hired Venable to conduct a study on Boardwalk performers, and what do we get from these studies? Does anything actually come from it? Those dollars could be very well spent elsewhere like tourism, ambulance services, the police department or transportation. The dollars are there within the budget that we have, we just need to look at them again and re-appropriate them.
DeLuca: When the economy took a turn for the worst, the City Council looked at the budget and they made reductions. It was significant, the reductions that they made. We can call on the city planner or go to the city employees but I think there is enough money in the budget. I would never cut services in this town. I think services are just very, very important. When you think about the trash, and service after service this town provides it is just great.
Hartman: I think we are spoiled here in Ocean City by the services that we get. I wouldn’t want to see any services cut. It is great to look outside and see a clean town. At budget time, I think we need to look at what we’re doing and see if there is a way we can do it less expensive and do it better. Such as when purchasing vehicles, is that size vehicle necessary and is it expensive to operate? Look at Animal Control driving an E350 van, and can that be done in a smaller van? So no I don’t want to cut services. I want to try to spend to get the most for our dollars’ worth.
James: I believe if the town’s financial situation did deteriorate it would be beneficial to have the city manager and the department heads meet and then come to the council with recommendations as to where they can cut some spending and where they can cut spending without cutting services. So, if you think the budget is very big and if they are able to cut one, two or three percent that is a few million dollars that could be cut from the budget.
Rudolf: I don’t think the people want to see their taxes go up. That is clear when I am out knocking on doors. But they don’t want to see our services get cut either. Especially when for example, our average response time for ambulances in Ocean City is four minutes, and in the surrounding areas like the Delaware resort beaches it is 11 minutes. I think I will take that four-minute time over the 11-minute time if there is a serious situation. That reflects the money that we put into providing that service. In addition, we need to be frugal, and always look at way to perform the services that the people expect in a more cost effective way like waste energy that saved Ocean City $1.5 million, so I think we are on the right track there.
Hall: I have been quoted in the past and I still believe that government is inherently inefficient, so the more you ask of them the more they are going to spend. As for essential services, they are all great. A four minute ambulance service is incredible but what our residential statistics show is people are moving out of town. So, if the pain of the cost of living here is so great that you decide to live on the other side of the bridge, what good are the services to you? It is finding that essential balance to be able to try to afford the four minute ambulance service but also make it so you can choose to live here. We continue to have a decrease in year-round population. That is for a reason. They feel that the value is on the other side of the bridge. We need to change that. Worcester County has grown in population. Ocean City has decreased. It is blatantly a problem and I hope to be involved in addressing it.