Ocean City Council Names New Vice President; Remains Undecided on Vacancy

Pete Madden is Ocean City Council’s new vice president.

The newest member of council was nominated by Councilman Antwan McClellan, seconded by Council President Keith Hartzell, and unanimously approved with a 5-0 vote by council members present during Thursday night’s meeting. Councilman Anthony Wilson was absent.

What wasn’t unanimous the opinion among council members as to what to do with the seat recently vacated by Michael Allegretto.

Ocean City Council approved a resolution at its last meeting allowing Mayor Jay Gillian to appoint current Council Vice President Michael Allegretto as the new Director of Community Services.

Allegretto resigned his seat effective Sept. 14. Council now has two options.

It can choose to appoint a successor, but must do so by Oct. 14, as it has 30 days from the date the seat became vacant.

That person would serve in that seat until May, when a special election would be held. The winner of that election would assume the seat immediately as opposed to waiting until the annual reorganization meeting. They would hold onto the seat until the next regular at-large elections in 2018.

Council can also choose to leave the seat vacant until May’s special election, with the winner occupying the seat until the spring elections in 2018.

“You still have four ward councilmen in tact,” Madden said. “I think we should leave the seat empty and let the voters decide in May. If it was a ward seat, it would be a little different, but Keith and I can handle at-large matters, and so can our four ward councilmen.”

Hartzell and Councilman Peter Guinosso agreed with Madden.

“I think we’re better off leaving the seat open until May and letting the people decide,” Guinosso said.

“I’m worried about the timing,” Hartzell said. “If we appoint someone, they take their seat at the second meeting in October. They’re here in November and December, and people start filing their papers in January. Then you have the person we appointed who’s able to sit up here and speak and people get to know them and their positions. They have an advantage. I’m more comfortable leaving the seat vacant and letting the people decide.”

Mayor Jay Gillian had a different viewpoint on letting the people decide.

“You have some time,” Gillian told council. “We should let the people speak and let you know if they want you to appoint someone. If you do leave it vacant, it’s vacant for seven months, and we have a lot of work to do.”

Hartzell said he’d been speaking to people about the vacancy for the last two weeks, and he didn’t sense an overwhelming opinion from the public either way. McClellan said he experienced the same thing, but said he was “still torn” on the issue.

“Do we need to wait or should we make an appointment? I don’t know, and we also have a councilman missing,” McClellan said, referring to Wilson.

“I’m not prepared to act on this tonight,” Councilman Michael DeVlieger said. “We have to examine our options. They give us 30 days for a reason.”

However, council now has a little bit less than three weeks to decide.

If council chooses to discuss the matter further, it can do so at the Oct. 1 workshop meeting. If it decides to fill the vacant seat, the city must immediately advertise that it will be interviewing for the vacant position. Interviews and the appointment of a new council member would take place at the next regularly scheduled council meeting on Oct. 8, so that that person could be sworn in before the council meeting scheduled for Oct. 15, one day after the deadline to fill the vacancy.

“I can’t imagine conducting a 30 minute interview and putting a person into a council seat that night, but that’s what we’d be doing,” Hartzell said. “If we have 5-10 candidates, interviews might be 15 minutes.”
He also expressed concerns over meeting a person for the first time that night and deciding if that person should be on council.

City Solicitor Dorothy McCrosson advised that councils are preferred to have an odd number of members. Should council choose not to fill the vacant seat, there would be only six members and it would run the risk of a 3-3 vote. In the event of tie votes, proposed legislation fails, she said.

Gillian added that there has never been an instance of a seat on either council or school board in Ocean City becoming vacant and the board or council not filling that seat.

Meanwhile, Hartzell said installing Madden, who was elected to council in May of 2014, as vice president gives an opportunity for someone new to gain experience in a leadership position. Madden previously served on the Ocean City Board of Education, and was the president in 2010.