City Council Candidate Profile: Bart Russell

The municipal election on May 8 will decide the four ward seats on the seven-member City Council. The winners will serve four-year terms.

Ocean City Patch asked each candidate to complete a questionnaire outlining biographical information, their platform and their stands on a handful of issues.

The questionnaire is presented here in the same format it was given to the candidates. There were no further instructions, and none of the responses has been edited (beyond basic proofreading and formatting). Readers can make their own judgments on how the candidates did or didn't answer the questions.

The candidates are as follows:

FIRST WARD (all addresses north of the north side of Fourth Street): , 

SECOND WARD (south side of Fourth Street to north side of 12th Street): ,  

THIRD WARD (south side of 12th Street to north side of 26th Street): , 

FOURTH WARD (all addresses south of the south side of 26th Street and the Ocean Reef community off Tennessee Avenue): , , Bart Russell (see below)

BART RUSSELL

BIO INFORMATION:

Name: Bart J. Russell           

Age: 66

Address: Sunnyside Court 

Education: Graduated Ocean City High School in 1964; attended college for a year; USMC, NCO schools, Westinghouse  AC/R Tech schools. 

No. of years lived in Ocean City: Moved to Lower Township in 1969, returned to Ocean City in 1997.

Family:

• Wife, Barbara, married 44 years
• Daughters: Becky Russell, Dr. Roberta May, son-in-law Dr. David May
• Two grandchildren: Sean and Becky

Occupation: Self-employed, partner in SEABECK LLC; owner of Buddy’s Ice Cream (summer business)

Public service: 

• United States Marine Corps, Vietnam veteran
• Past member of Lower Township School Board
• Past president of Cape Education Fund
• Past vice president of Cape May County School Board
• Past member of Ocean City Board of Education

PLATFORM:

What issues do you see as critical for the next four years?

I see working to have a 10-year-long plan for streets, drainage, buildings, and working toward having more year-round people move to our city, and to work to grow our summer business. Keeping our downtown alive.

What do you see as the biggest accomplishments and shortcomings of the existing City Council and city administration in the past four years?  

Not being on the other side of the table, I feel it would not be something I would be able to judge. You never know the reasons for things. Only what you hear, and most times, that is not truth. I am pleased with the drainage and road projects and the look of a long-term plan for that and will hope that expands to other things.

What do you want voters to know about you and what you’ll bring to the table?

I bring years of working on boards and knowing how to work with others and a general common-sense approach to things. I will work toward making our city grow and hope to make a difference as I have in the past.

My business experience gives me the knowledge of how to spend money and how to save.

Several of the things I have done in the past: built two schools while on the Lower Township School Board. While serving on the Ocean City School Board, we built our new high school.

Put into law the No Early Release Act, which keeps convicted criminals in prison for at least 85 percent of their sentence. That law was for our daughter Becky. 

YES-OR-NO QUESTIONS (one-word answers only, please):

I support allowing BYOB restaurants in Ocean City: No response

I support 2 percent annual salary increases for police, firefighters and public employees: No response

I support continued borrowing (bond ordinances) to pave more streets, improve drainage, dredge more channels and improve more parts of the city's infrastructure — even if it means the city and taxpayers will pay more in debt service: No response

I support the continuation of a local volunteer Ethics Board with broad powers to conduct investigations and pass judgment on city employees: No response

YES-OR-NO QUESTIONS (explanations … go ahead and provide rationale here, if you wish):

BYOB: I support the question going to the vote and feel that is the right way to do it, and I support the downtown and see how they are almost not making ends meet. I do not want to see our downtown fail.

Salary increases: Would have to look into what they are now compare them to other cities our size and make a decision.

Borrowing for capital improvements: If it makes sense and in the end would save.

Ethics Board: No, I feel there is no need for another level.