City Council Candidate Profile: John Quinn

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): , John Quinn (see below)

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): , ,  

JOHN W. QUINN

BIO INFORMATION:

Name: John W. Quinn                     

Age: 73           

Address: 1100 block of Ocean Avenue

Education: Graduate of La Salle College

No. of years lived in Ocean City: 30

Family:

Occupation: Retired controller and CFO of a Coca-Cola bottling facility in the Philadelphia area. Also worked for General Electric and Campbell's Soup.

Public service:

• Past president of Ocean City Board of Education
• Past chairman of Ocean City Zoning Board 

PLATFORM: 

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

• Taxes: Utilizing the skills, knowledge and abilities of my corporate financial background, I will work to minimize the tax rate and reduce and eliminate any wasteful spending of our hard-earned tax dollars.
• Zoning: Ocean City has more than 60 zones within the city — 23 of which are in the Second Ward. A number of zones in the Second Ward are antiquated, poorly designed and just not working. These zones place unfair, unreasonable restrictions and hardships on property owners. My 10 years on the Zoning Board have me well aware of them. I will work to correct, simplify and optimize these ordinances.
• Control flooding and improve our streets and roads: Now is the time to put forth a concentrated effort to improve drainage and pave our streets. I will work to increase capital expenditures on flood control and road improvements. Now is the time to aggressively pursue these major projects. Borrowing and debt service is at a very low rate now. Money is cheap, and we should take advantage of it. Spending more now will save us many thousands of tax dollars over the long-term, and these problems need a fast resolution.
• Provide an enhanced business district: I will encourage our city administration to work with the downtown business community to provide quality year-round shopping for our residents.

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

Accomplishments: Provided residents with excellent police and fire departments, social services and recreational programs.

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

Under our mayor-council form of government, City Council has the responsibility of reviewing, revising and adopting the municipal budget, authorizing debt, borrowing money, levying taxes and enacting zoning laws. My experience as a Coca Cola corporate controller with the responsibility of the financial management of a Coca Cola bottling company and as chairman of the Ocean City Zoning Board has given me the experience and knowledge to competently carry out these important council responsibilities.

ISSUES: 

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: Yes

I support the continuation of a local volunteer Ethics Board with broad powers to conduct investigations and pass judgment on city employees: Yes

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

BYOB: Not in the hands of City Council — will be rightly decided by the voters.

Salary increases: Cannot make a determination of any contractual pay increases without knowing the cost of the benefit package and change in work rules. All three elements add up to the total cost of the contract.

Borrowing for capital improvements: See "control flooding ..." explanation in the "Issues" section above.

Ethics Board: I support the continuation of our local volunteer Ethics Board. We all hope and expect our elected officials and city employees to conduct themselves ethically at all times. This board provides to our citizens an independent investigation of ethics violations.