Online Town Hall Forum Planned With OC Candidates; Public Can Submit Questions

Online Town Hall Forum Planned With OC Candidates; Public Can Submit Questions
File Photo by Chris Parypa

OCEAN CITY – Ahead of the Nov. 3 municipal election in Ocean City, The Dispatch will host a virtual town hall with Ocean City Mayor and Council candidates next week.

On Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 6 p.m., the seven candidates for the four open Mayor and Council seats will be featured in an extensive question-and-answer session with Editor Steve Green and Managing Editor Shawn Soper. Each candidate has been invited to participate in the Zoom session, which will be recorded and a link provided through The Dispatch’s social media outlets the day after the meeting for residents to watch as their schedule allows.

Invited to attend the session will be Mayor Rick Meehan, who is unopposed, as well as council candidates Peter Buas, incumbent Tony DeLuca, Nicholas Eastman, incumbent John Gehrig, Jr., Daniel Hagan and Frank Knight. There are four open council seats up for grabs in the Nov. 3 election.

The candidates will receive a set of topics to be discussed ahead of time from the newspaper. Residents who wish to have a question asked to the candidates are invited to email them to [email protected]. There will be time allowed for the moderators to pose questions to the candidates from the public. All questions would need to be submitted by Friday, Oct. 16.

“As was the case with the Berlin forums we hosted last month, we look forward to providing the voters in Ocean City a chance to hear from the candidates themselves in their own words,” said Green. “We will allow them an opportunity to introduce themselves and ask them to weigh in on a number of topics likely to come before them as elected officials in Ocean City. Members of the public wishing to submit questions they want posed to the candidates are invited to do so as well through email.”