OCEAN CITY — While unsuccessful in advancing a measure to fund cameras and other equipment to televise and stream Worcester County government meetings, Commissioner Joe Mitrecic this week vowed to continue to push for more citizen access.
On Monday, Mitrecic, who represents the Ocean City district in Snow Hill, briefed the Mayor and Council on a variety of issues of mutual interest between the jurisdictions including televised or live-streaming commissioner meetings. Since being elected to the Worcester County Commissioners, the former Ocean City councilman has pushed for more openness from the county’s elected officials including a way for citizens to watch their bi-weekly meetings.
At each turn, largely due to financial constraints, Mitrecic’s colleagues on the County Commissioners have rejected his attempts at getting the meetings televised and live-streamed. His latest attempt came during the recently completed county budget work sessions when his proposal barely got lip service.
“Not only did I not get a second, I didn’t even get a reason for not getting a second,” he said. “Broadcasting the meetings is a responsibility that we owe the people of Worcester County. We cannot operate in a vacuum.”
The Mayor and Council told Mitrecic on Monday they appreciated his efforts to get the County Commissioner meetings televised. Mayor Rick Meehan said the distance and the time of day for most county meetings create challenges for residents in the north end who are interested in the proceedings.
“We respect your continued efforts to get the County Commissioner meetings televised and streamed live,” he said. “Not everybody in the north end of the county can get down to those meetings. To be able to watch them or stream them will be a great asset to Worcester County.”
Ironically, the discussion was held during Monday’s Mayor and Council meeting, which was being televised and streamed live, a point not lost on Council President Lloyd Martin.
“Everybody has an opportunity to watch this meeting right now,” he said. “We’re going to open with everything we do and I think it’s time the county should do the same. We have friends in Ocean Pines and friends in West Ocean City that like to follow our meetings and I think they should be able to see the county meetings as well.”
Mitrecic said he would continue to push for funding for televising County Commissioner meetings in the future.
“I’m not going to let this go,” he said. “You’ll be watching the meetings sooner rather than later.”
In the meantime, Mitrecic vowed to continue to push for more transparency from the county government. For years, the perception has been, with a few exceptions, the commissioners often work out issues before debating them in public, leading to a lot of 7-0 votes publicly. Mitrecic said that culture has changed somewhat recently.
“I’ve been able to move a lot of the dealings done in the back and behind closed doors out front,” he said. “I can honestly say in the last year and a half there haven’t been any dealings behind closed doors that shouldn’t have been back there.”
In other county news germane to Ocean City, Mitrecic explained the county’s recycling program has been moved from the Public Works Department’s solid waste division to the general fund and the plan is to have the program’s $1.2 million cost paid for by the taxpayers.
“That’s something you’re going to want to keep an eye on,” he said. “The landfill is self-sufficient, but the recycling program costs $1.2 million and there is a consideration for a $30 fee for every household in the county. I’m vehemently opposed to that, but we’ll see what happens.”
Meehan said the proposed recycling fee would be felt most acutely by resort residents.
“I just did the math,” he said. “At $30 per household, Ocean City would fund $900,000 of the $1.2 million. We’re already paying 60 percent of the county budget.”
In other county news, Mitrecic updated the Mayor and Council on efforts to dissolve the failing Department of Liquor Control (DLC). With a phased-out approach, the DLC will stop wholesale operations by this fall and retail operations by the fall of 2017. Mitrecic pointed out the DLC reportedly lost around $432,000 last year and there is now a plan in place to liquidate a lot of the inventory.
“There’s going to be a huge sale at the retail stores and they’re going to try to move 50,000 bottles of non-moving inventory,” he said. “Keep an eye out because there are going to be some great deals as the county tries to move this inventory.”
