Meet The Ocean City Mayoral Candidate: John Flood

OCEAN CITY, NJ — There are two candidates running for mayor in Ocean City's non-partisan elections on May 8. The mayor serves a four-year term and is the head of the administration in Ocean City. He works with Ocean City Council, but is not a council member and doesn't have a vote.

Ocean City Patch sent a series of questions to each candidate in this year's elections. The questions listed below are listed as sent, and each answer is published as received, with corrections for minor errors.

The subject of today's "Meet the Candidate" profile is John Flood.

Why are you running for Ocean City Mayor?

Like most of you, I’m very satisfied with the basic services our government provides us. Our town is a clean and safe community with many recreation and cultural opportunities for all ages. Our trash is collected, public works employees do an excellent job. When someone calls 911, the police, fire or rescue personnel arrive quickly and are very professional. This praise should be attributed to the hardworking men and women of the city. They make Ocean City truly a wonderful place to call home. As your mayor, I want to assure you that these operations and opportunities will be a priority, and I will work to find ways to improve them.

Because of that level of satisfaction, I had become complacent in staying abreast of how our government makes decisions now, and really functions. In my experience the way in which our mayor makes decisions and spends our tax dollars is shortsighted and sadly self-serving in some cases. I know how our government should work. I believe if these problems are not addressed and continue unchecked, it will lead to a devastating future. Our city debt level has skyrocketed under Mayor Gillian, with millions more to come and a very weak plan to minimize and manage that debt.

It is because Ocean City is my hometown and, in my heart, and my understanding of how our government should function, that I have been inspired to run for mayor.

Have you ever held a public elected office? If yes, please name the governing body (school board, township council, fire commissioner) and years of service.

• OC third ward councilman 1988 to 1996
• Served as council representative on the planning board for several years
• Served as council representative to the aviation advisory board
• I was appointed to the Library Board of Trustees 1997 to 2009 Chairman for several years

Why do you feel you are qualified to serve as Ocean City Mayor?

Next to my 8 years on city council, by far the biggest life experience that qualifies me to be mayor was my experience leading the Library Board. Most people don’t know that the initial concept on the Library Project was to do a small expansion to the library; that’s it. But because we wanted to be good stewards of taxpayers’ dollars, we did a needs assessment. By conducting focus groups with library patrons and citizens, we learned the community wanted something much more than a small expansion. What you see today is the result of that community feedback.

I have the discipline and temperament to start projects with questions rather than statements. I will ask and value your opinion, rather than dictating mine. I will always remember that tax dollars are more than just a number on a piece of paper, but that each dollar is someone’s hard earned money. So, I better make sure it works as hard for you as you did for it. These things and more qualify me to be your next mayor.

What is the biggest issue facing Ocean City? How do you feel the issue should be addressed by the mayor?

Infrastructure is still the biggest issue facing Ocean City. Much of it has well exceeded its useful life and needs to be replaced. But we need to plan better to make our tax dollars go farther. The mayor should be the one leading a conversation not dictating the conclusion. Drawing on my experience in business and government the problems come down to process, transparency, and accountability.

Process: There is no meaningful process. Most decisions are made behind closed doors and then rubber stamped by council with little or no public discussion or input.

Transparency: Transparency is often used as a buzzword, but in reality, it is little more than posting information online often after the fact. My administration will seek to be truly transparent. This means sharing information with you well in advance of a decision by the governing body. It means giving you the opportunity to vet the issue, concept, project or proposal, to get questions answered, and to offer comments or concerns.

Accountability: Currently, the administration is borrowing like there is no tomorrow. This is all being done with no reconciliation of how and where all the money is being spent. Each project needs to be closed out and all associated expenses accounted for to understand the value.

When elected mayor, all future projects will go through the same process that was so successful at the library and community center. The process is concept, design, fund and implement. Each project will start with a true needs assessment and interviews of all interested parties. From that, schematic designs will be developed to focus in on a final design solution. Then, we will determine the best way to fund the project and finally schedule and implement the project. This is how a seemingly small renovation to the library alone grew into what we now all enjoy today.

What do you feel is Ocean City's biggest asset at this time? How would you exploit that asset to the city's benefit?

Ocean City’s biggest asset is what it has always been. The ocean, beach, bay that surrounds a clean safe and caring community. Most people that live here first came for a day or short stay, then came back for longer vacations and then finally invested and moved here. We must find ways to get people here and ensure they have a pleasant stay, after that Ocean City sells itself.

How do you plan to balance spending and revenue in tough economic times?

Because of the lack of process, transparency and accountability, we are currently blowing away too much money. In the rush to do so much, many tax dollars are being wasted. Our total debt has grown from $67 million to $126 million in just 7 years, and there is over $70 million planned for the next three years. There are many projects to do but we need to plan smarter to get more done with less dollars. If we do better planning and we can make our tax dollars go farther!

Under this administration, all we are doing is paying only interest on the debt when we borrow money. In the next 2 years, the mayor is planning to go out for $128 million in financing. At that time, we will begin to have to pay back the principle on that debt. Based on interest at the time and length of the bond, the cost to the taxpayer could be significant. These events will increase taxes and may change people’s attitudes towards the amount of capital spending we do.

What do you feel is the best way for the administration and city council to interact when it comes to draft and passing legislation?

Council should fully participate in the drafting and passing of legislation. There needs to be more notice to the public beyond what is prescribed by law. We need to make better use of technology to inform and get the public to engage in the discussion during the drafting phase of an ordinance as opposed to being able to speak after it has been drafted and before passage. We have a lot of thoughtful, knowledgeable people in our community who can and will be assets to the process if given the chance. It seems like all of the legislation comes from the administration. I would encourage members of council to get involved in the process on new or changes to laws that they feel the people want.

The attached image of John Flood was provided