Thoughts From The Publisher’s Desk – June 10, 2016

Thoughts From The Publisher’s Desk – June 10, 2016
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With bikers mixing in with pedestrians in a confined space, the Boardwalk in the early morning hours can be chaotic. It’s only going to become more so as the season progresses.

That’s why the Ocean City Mayor and Council were right to jump on an inadvertent oversight made over the winter when it comes to hoverboards. I wouldn’t categorize these devices as a huge problem currently, but it’s only a matter of time before it becomes just that.

On the Boardwalk last summer, I can remember seeing a group of kids on hoverboards in the early afternoon. They weren’t doing anything wrong necessarily, but they were getting impatient waiting for room to pass pedestrians and on several occasions nearly rolled through little kids who they couldn’t see from their slightly elevated vantage point.

The emergency ordinance passed this week was a good move, but like everything else, it will only turn out to be successful if there’s enforcement. That will require police to be aggressive on the Boardwalk, particularly doing the morning hours, letting the tourists know of the change.

How much support Ocean City’s firefighter/paramedics union will receive in its petition to referendum drive in the coming weeks and months will be interesting to observe. History shows us they may have success getting the required number of signatures, but it’s going to be a challenge to get binding interest arbitration passed at the ballot box.

It took the Fraternal Order of Police 17 years to achieve collective bargaining with binding interest arbitration. After numerous successful petition efforts, the voters of Ocean City turned down the FOP’s referendum once before passing it in 2002. By the time that referendum passed, the FOP leadership was comprised of skilled speakers who could eloquently explain to voters in detail several reasons why the change was needed. There were specific examples cited as to why a labor agreement was necessary.

With the paramedics’ union issue, there will be some obvious talking points. They will sound familiar because many of them will echo what the FOP was uttering in the late-90s while trying to convince the electorate the change was needed. The words of IAFF Local 4269 President Ryan Whittington sounded familiar to what FOP leadership maintained all those years ago.

“The benefit of binding interest arbitration is that it tends to encourage labor and management to work to find common ground and to resolve disputes on their own. … The current conflict between Local 4269 and the town does not need to recur. If the amendment passes, in the future we will have prompt resolution to unresolved issues through negotiations. That is as it should be,” Whittington said in the statement. “This has been the experience of Ocean City police personnel who are represented by the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 10. While the town and FOP 10 have experience significant conflict in past negotiations, they have always managed to resolve their disputes and reach an agreement without resorting to interest arbitration.”

The city will surely point out the new contract that puts an end to the controversial “24-72” shift schedule came with a long phase-in, allowing for 18 months of adjustment time, as well as salary increases. Those are two points that the union will need to combat head on because they will resonate with voters who may or may not think the city’s employees have it so bad.

Undercover police operations on the Boardwalk are nothing new. I remember as a kid being asked by random people if I knew where they could get this or that drug, and my friends and I always figured they were cops. I didn’t think much of it at the time.

These days it seems like smart business for the Ocean City Police Department. There are two stories in the paper this week how these random encounters with people on or near the Boardwalk led to drug buys and subsequent arrests.

This program came up during the recent ride-along with members of the Ocean City Police Department’s narcotics team. I encourage you to read that in-depth article because it’s disturbing to know there’s an open-air heroin market nearby that police know about and are monitoring in an effort to crack down on suppliers of the epidemic happening on the shore.

While those efforts are being carried out, the same approach to undercover work in Ocean City seems to be playing out nightly in the downtown area.

“In the summer, we obviously keep a close eye on the Boardwalk, and it’s hard to really keep tabs on everyone who is coming in and out of town because of the volume so sometimes, we’ll spend entire evenings trying to just purchase drugs on the Boardwalk from dealers, and the next night, we’ll do reversals, and trying to catch people trying to purchase drugs,” a detective said. “We want them to be fearful that you never really know who you are selling to or buying from. It might just be an undercover officer.”

About The Author: Steven Green

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The writer has been with The Dispatch in various capacities since 1995, including serving as editor and publisher since 2004. His previous titles were managing editor, staff writer, sports editor, sales account manager and copy editor. Growing up in Salisbury before moving to Berlin, Green graduated from Worcester Preparatory School in 1993 and graduated from Loyola University Baltimore in 1997 with degrees in Communications (journalism concentration) and Political Science.