Candidate Continues Attack On Restroom Project In OC Mayor's Race

OCEAN CITY, NJ — The 6th Street Restroom Project continues to be the center of what is becoming an increasingly heated mayor’s race in Ocean City.

Former councilman John Flood, who is challenging incumbent Mayor Jay Gillian in Tuesday’s non-partisan election, released emails he obtained via Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request on Thursday that show the then-Acting Director of Public Works asking Gillian if the public restrooms should be open at the same time as Gillian’s new pizza shop. Flood previously accused the mayor of "using public funds for private gain” when it comes to the project, which Gillian has denied.

“The mayor publicly denied that his business benefited from the restrooms. However, how many other boardwalk businesses are asked when public facilities should be open to coordinate with their operations? I would bet none,” Flood said. “This was all necessary because the mayor’s pizza restaurant was constructed without installing customer restrooms. During this campaign I have been asked how could the mayor have a restaurant without customer restrooms, isn’t there a law? After considerable research it has been confirmed by the State of NJ Dept. of Community Affairs Division of Codes and Standards that by law a sit down restaurant, such as the mayor’s, must have a public restrooms. Somehow it seems the mayor was given special consideration by the City. This again clearly shows that the mayor’s business benefits from his position and now the taxpayers pay the bill for the elaborate publicly funded restrooms.”

Gillian said the quoted email actually refers to port-a-potties that would be used by workers during the project. Those port-a-potties were ultimately placed at the Civic Center.

“Of course we wanted the largest facility we could rent - this is a very busy area with 5Ks and early morning walkers and several City facilities, including the turf field, the track, the beach, the volleyball courts and the Civic Center,” Gillian said. “The hours of operation for these port-a-potties varied, but they were consistently opened for public convenience at 7 am - well before any part of Wonderland was open for the day.

“The determination as to all construction issues for the pizza shop were handled by the conflicts construction officials, as are all such issues involving property owned by elected officials. I followed the conflict plumbing inspector's instructions.”

Gillian has already referred to Flood’s attacks on the project as “toilet politics,” and said Thursday’s release was “more fake news.”

Flood also pointed to the administration’s use of a “secret email server,” which Gillian said is not so secret.

“The most disturbing was the discovery that the mayor has a secret email server. The city’s official domain name and emails go to OCNJ.us,” Flood said. “The secret domain name is OCNJseniorstaff.com, and that it seems to be used as the mayor's private chat room. What makes it even more questionable is that this domain name is not registered to the City of Ocean City but to a private individual and residence in Millville, NJ. This raises so many questions and concerns. Why are the top level city employees conducting city business with an unofficial email address in violation of city policy? Where is the email server, who is in control of the data, storage and security, and is this being done to keep city communications out of the public eye?”

“This is an official City domain, established by PCS, the City's outside IT consultant, for official City business,” Gillian said. “Mark Mosley is an employee of PCS. This domain is a management tool which allows Department Heads to candidly report personnel matters, exchange information about confidential Human Resource issues and contract negotiations, and keep the Mayor and the Business Administrator advised on what is happening in their respective departments. It insulates the City's IT Department from any allegation that they are privy to "inside information" about other employees. It is subject to OPRA, as the release of emails to my opponent's son demonstrates - no secrets here.”

The mayor’s seat the two are battling over in the May 8 election carries a four-year term.

See related:
Meet the Ocean City Mayoral Candidate: Jay Gillian
Meet the Ocean City Mayoral Candidate: John Flood
Mayoral Candidate Speaks Directly To Voters At Ocean City Forum
John Flood Talks Litigation, Mayoral Debate Issue In Ocean City
Will Candidates For Ocean City Mayor Debate?
Mayoral Candidate Floats Solution To Ocean City Parking Problem

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