Ocean City Council Takes Step to Reestablish Community Services

One year after the City combined the Department of Services with the Department of Community Operations, Ocean City is going back to the old way of doing things.

Ocean City Council unanimously approved on first reading an ordinance that would reestablish the Department of Services.

The public hearing and second reading is scheduled for Aug. 28.

The new department will oversee recreation and leisure programs, the Aquatic and Fitness Center, public relations and public information, operation of the Ocean City Music Pier, the Ocean City Pops Orchestra and economic development.

Mayor Jay Gillian hopes the reestablishment of the department will allow the City to focus on enhanced customer service, improved coordination of events and programs and improved communication.

He also wants to get back to a friendlier form of customer service in the city.

“Our customer service has to get better,” Gillian said. “ … We have to get back to being nice and being kind, and we’ll look at what we need and what we don’t need.”

“In retrospect, we just created too big a monster,” Ocean City Business Administrator Mike Dattilo said. “We all anticipated construction would be on the upswing, but it far exceeded our expectations.”
He said the department is limited in all that it can do overall.

“I go to a lot of meetings and (Director of Community Operations) Roger (McLarnon) is at all of them,” City Council President Anthony Wilson said. “If we can get him more focused and get him some additional help, we’ll do better than we have done the last six months.”

With the reestablishment of the Department of Services, a new director position will be created. Former Director Jim Mallon has returned to the City, and has been assisting Gillian and Dattilo on a number of projects, according to the Ocean City Gazette. He was in attendance at Thursday night’s meeting.

This would increase the number of City employees to 261, something Councilman Keith Hartzell voiced concern over Thursday night.

“In 2010, we had 250 employees,” Hartzell said. “As we’ve added employees, we’ve been told there would be decreases in other areas. I understand the position is necessary and it’s hard to measure because it’s community services, it’s tourism, it helps us all. But adding 11 employees is not OK with me, and I hope to see some planning as to where the level of employees might be over the next few years. I don’t want people to get laid off, but we should look at retirement opportunities, outsourcing employees, things like that. … I’m not saying we should go back to 250, but we should go down.”

“This has been a painstaking process for me to make sure we need it,” Gillian said. “We don’t add positions unless it’s necessary. We have some retirements coming up in the next few months, there will be some things happening that should make you happier.”

The administration noted the separation is not a reflection on the job the Department of Community Operations has been doing.

“I’m proud of the improvements we’ve made throughout the organization for the last four years,” Gillian said in his notes attached to the resolution in the agenda packet. “Community Operations has exceeded my expectations in many areas, but in my opinion, it is too large to place the focus on the customer service specific areas that are very important to me.”