Disappointing Attack
Editor:
After the Tuesday, Oct. 12 Ocean City Council work session, it was brought to my attention there was an attack by Councilmember John Gehrig on Budget Manager Jennie Knapp during her presentation to explain the history of room tax.
As former City Engineer for the Town of Ocean City, I am sure fellow employees will be apprehensive that they, too, will be harassed and berated if they deliver information to the elected officials and are met with disrespectful behavior.
As former City Manager of the Town of Ocean City, I know the city charter requires elected officials to deal with individual city employees only through the City Manager. Councilmember Gehrig should have followed the city charter and met with City Manager Doug Miller and discussed the issue in detail. If that wasn’t satisfactory, he should have asked Council President Matt James to schedule it in closed session since it involved a single employee and that he was accusing Mrs. Knapp with “You’re completely out of control with it. You’re making decisions we don’t even know about.”
I hope Council President James will schedule this charter violation for discussion and the possible reprimand of Councilmember Gehrig. City Manager Miller was correct in requesting Council President James to stop the inquisition by Councilmember Gehrig, but he was denied and the president allowed the condescending bullying to continue.
As a former Ocean City Councilmember, I know the complete budget is given to every elected official, and it contains a line-by-line itemization of revenue and expenses. In this case, the $400,000 was shown as a deduction from the tourism budget with an explanation that it was being transferred to Special Events. These departmental budgets were reviewed in a budget hearing on April 8, 2021. Councilmember John Gehrig was not present at that budget hearing and thus missed an opportunity to address his concern. Instead, he waits 6 months and berates and assaults an innocent employee for doing her job as requested.
As a resident, I’m embarrassed and disappointed that our town leadership seems to have lost all civility.
Dennis W. Dare
Ocean City
Vaccine Mandates
Editor:
I got vaccinated. I am in that age group most at risk. It was my choice. I can still catch COVID and I can still pass it on to others, but I am less at risk, all good so far.
But the federal government is now mandating the vaccination for entire segments of the workforce with no regard to individual situations, benefits or risks. So, if mandates for whole segments of the population are a good idea, why hasn’t Congress mandated that they themselves be vaccinated? Or are we being played?
Charles Eary
Selbyville DE