OCEAN CITY, NJ — Ocean City has four City Council ward positions up for election. The election has been entirely conducted by mail because of the new coronavirus.
Although many votes have been cast, it still seemed important to catch up with candidates during this critical time.
The conditions during this election have been unlike any other in modern history. So Patch appreciates all the candidates who gave us their time for the questionnaire.
Related article: How To Vote By Mail In Ocean City’s Upcoming Election
The candidates were sent the questions at the same time and were given the same deadline to submit them. They were given no minimum or maximum word count, and encouraged to write as much as they needed, or to keep the answers brief if they wanted to.
Here are the candidates (four-year terms):
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First Ward: Michael DeVlieger
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Second Ward: Tomaso Rotondi
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Third Ward: Jody J. Levchuk
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Third Ward: Anthony P. Wilson
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Fourth Ward: Robert S. Barr
Second Ward
Tomaso Rotondi
1. The timeline and lasting impact of the coronavirus in Ocean City remains unpredictable. But what are your plans for guiding the economic recovery of the city?
Our economy consists of two major industries: Tourism and Real estate (selling, building, and renting). Our challenge isn’t going to be a supply and demand issue. People still want to bring their families to our beautiful island and they are still building, buying, renting, and investing in our amazing properties. Together we will build strategies around social distancing and operational safety of our businesses. The Cape May County Freeholders have submitted a timeline for the reopening of the county. We should follow the protocol and adjust the guidelines to the needs of Ocean City’s families and businesses.
2. As a potential new member in a council with many longstanding members, what do you think makes you different from other members of the governing body?
I am sure there are many differences between each of us. We all have our own skill sets, values, and experiences. The key is pulling from everyone’s strengths to create cohesiveness on the council and make sure we work together to strengthen our great community.
3. What past accomplishments would you cite as evidence that you can handle this position?
I am a first generation American. I grew up in a small business family. I served in the United States Army, as a local police officer, and as a state correctional officer before going into business consulting for one of the largest firms in the world. I serve on multiple boards, participate in many charities, and travel around the world to help those in need. All of these experiences have built my leadership skills, core values, and moral compass. I will always do what is best for the people I aim to serve.
4. What do you see as the most important issues facing Ocean City, and how do you hope to address them in this upcoming term?
The biggest challenge we face today is the safe reopening of our island. Data, safety protocols, and communication will be key to a smooth and safe reopening. We need to allow people to take personal responsibility for their actions. We need to have a strategy to protect the vulnerable. Other issues to tackle includes flooding, tourism, zoning, and the City Plan to keep and grow the year round population and to keep our Island beautiful and thriving.
5. Ocean City has made progress in terms of flood mitigation in recent years, but many residents and homeowners have noted room for improvement. What is your take on the issue, and how can Ocean City improve its mitigation?
There is always going to be room for improvement when it comes to flooding. I live near the corner of 4th and Bay. The flooding in this area was bad. We were constantly moving our cars and maintaining quality landscaping was a challenge. The new pump station has worked well and we have had no flooding. We need to see more projects with similar success. We need to look at the zoning law and city planning to see how our new construction is impacting flooding and make adjustments where it is needed. We need to work together with other barrier Island and the county to get state and federal grants to improve and offset cost of flood mitigation programs.
6. What conflicts of interest do you have (what issues won’t you be able to vote on) at this time?
I have no conflicts of interest.
Third Ward
Jody J. Levchuk
1. The timeline and lasting impact of the coronavirus in Ocean City remains unpredictable. But what are your plans for guiding the economic recovery of the city?
My plans would include a safe and guided reopening of our town. Everyone needs to understand that the immediate future for our entire society will be built around things like social distancing and masks. Every business will have to embrace this new reality. However, a complete shutdown of our summer season will devastate our small town and our state as a whole. To this end, it is imperative for the success of our businesses that we protect our customers from this virus. The city will need to support the efforts to educate people and remind them about the requirements and the city will have to play a role in helping to enforce them. But all of our businesses are going to have to band together to accept this new reality and do everything we can to make sure we open in as safe a manner as possible.
2. As a potential new member in a council with many longstanding members, what do you think makes you different from other members of the governing body? What do you think makes you better suited for this role than your competitor?
Every organization can benefit from a fresh look and new ideas. In some ways, I am very much the same as the current members. I’m not coming in to upset the apple cart, I just want to help. I think my long-standing relationships throughout our community, and my business experience will be a great benefit to the people of Ocean City. This town has given so much to my family and I and I now I want to give something back. I’m not running against anybody, I am running for the people of the 3rd Ward. I have not run a campaign to try to convince people to vote against someone. I have run a clean and positive campaign to convince my neighbors to vote for me. I hope I have earned their vote.
3. What past accomplishments would you cite as evidence that you can handle this position?
This position requires strong community leadership. For the last 20 years I have built my business to service thousands of guests per day and manage a team of over 100 staff. Through my business experience, I have learned how to listen to complaints and compliments equally. I have learned to hear and consider others ideas. I have learned how to think outside of the box and come up with back up / alternate plans. Additionally, I am an active member and currently sit on the executive committee for the New Jersey Amusements & Attractions Association NJAA. In this position, I work and communicate directly with my fellow board members, our respected association, NJ legislators, and other leadership throughout the state on a regular basis. Locally, my active commitment to the Boardwalk Merchants Association, the Ocean City PTA, and the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce.
4. What do you see as the most important issues facing Ocean City, and how do you hope to address them in this upcoming term?
First and foremost, the most serious issue facing our community is making sure our local economy is able to survive the current shutdown. Since our town is made of mostly small mom and pop style businesses, they may not have the guidance and support that is needed at this time. Many other towns have lots of franchise style stores who benefit from a central franchise system that acts as the support system. Since we do not have that in Ocean City, it will very much be up to our local leaders to help guide small businesses back to success.
Secondly. we have to settle the question on the (Harry Klause) property. We can’t be afraid to take these types of questions to the people and really get their input. I think it would be great as open space, but we need to be responsible with the taxpayers’ money and make sure we have support for the things we do with it.
Finally, I hear from my neighbors that they feel as though they don’t get enough information from the city on important issues. They feel sometimes like things take place behind closed doors. We have to work hard to overcome that perception and make sure that we are fully informing our residents on all the critical decisions we make.
5. Ocean City has made progress in terms of flood mitigation in recent years, but many residents and homeowners have noted room for improvement. What is your take on the issue, and how can Ocean City improve its mitigation?
We need to solve our flooding problems once and for all. We are a barrier island and we will always have to deal with flooding, but it is unacceptable that we continue to ignore the plight of our neighbors who have flooding as a regular occurrence. I have done a great deal of research on these issues while we’ve all been staying home, and I see stories of various towns taking smart steps to reduce flooding. Whether it is underground recharge systems or better outflow pipe check valves or some other creative solution, it needs to be done and it needs to be done now.
6. What conflicts of interest do you have (what issues won’t you be able to vote on) at this time?
Certainly, anything to do with my businesses I would stay completely out of. I am not running for city council in order to place myself in a position to advance my own business interests. Other than that, I will look to our city attorney for advice if I think that I have a conflict of some nature, and I will be completely transparent if anything like that might arise.
Third Ward
Anthony P. Wilson
1. The timeline and lasting impact of the coronavirus in Ocean City remains unpredictable. But what are your plans for guiding the economic recovery of the city?
The first priority must be protecting the health and safety of Ocean City residents. To date, we have been extremely fortunate to have experienced relatively few confirmed cases and no widespread transmission among the community. The only way to ensure our economic recovery is to make sure we beat this deadly virus first and make sure everybody stays healthy. I understand that the shutdown has been crippling to many local businesses and residents. But if we act too quickly and with no viable plan for safely reopening, things will get worse and we’ll risk another shutdown in the middle of the summer.
First, I have worked with my former City Council colleague and current Assemblyman Antwan McClellan to advocate with the federal government for extended PPP relief and other programs to help local businesses bridge the gap until we can reopen. Second, I have worked with the rest of Council and the city administration to start to plan for how and when we can get the beaches, boardwalk, rentals and businesses back open in a safe and responsible fashion. This summer won’t be like others, but if we put the right policies in place, we’ll have a good start on economic recovery.
2. What do you think makes you better suited for this role than your competitor?
I have more than eight years of experience on the job. I have served in leadership roles as president and vice president of City Council. As a lifelong resident, I know the city, I know the ward, I know the issues, I know the Council, and I know how to get things done.
3. What past accomplishments would you cite as evidence that you can handle this position?
When I was first elected in 2011, failing drainage systems flooded neighborhoods throughout Ocean City, bayside lagoons were too shallow for boating, and a lot of the city’s facilities were in disrepair.
I was part of a council that agreed to commit whatever resources it would take to tackle the city’s many long-neglected projects. Taking advantage of low interest rates, we launched a capital improvement program that resulted in innovative neighborhood pumping station projects to mitigate flooding. The bayside dredging program was relaunched and all lagoons have been dredged. The boardwalk was rebuilt, roads and alleys repaved, and open space acquired.
At the same time, City Council delivered a municipal budget last year with zero tax increase. Council is working now to deliver another budget with no change to the tax rate.
I believe these infrastructure improvements have changed the quality of life for our residents and made investments in our homes that much more valuable.
4. What do you see as the most important issues facing Ocean City, and how do you hope to address them in this upcoming term?
I would like to see the city acquire the entire city block in the Third Ward adjacent to the Ocean City Community Center to protect it from development. Council already has authorized the city to negotiate for its purchase or to take it by eminent domain. This would create an uninterrupted stretch of public space from 15th Street to 20th Street.
5. Ocean City has made progress in terms of flood mitigation in recent years, but many residents and homeowners have noted room for improvement. What is your take on the issue, and how can Ocean City improve its mitigation?
Flood mitigation is perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the current City Council and administration. With the signing of a 50-year agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers for the south end of Ocean City, an uninterrupted line of dunes now protects the ocean side of the island. On the bayside, the replacement of bulkheads and a living shoreline project hold back the bay. Council approved ordinances that require all new homes and substantially renovated homes to be elevated at least two feet above the 100-year flood level. The city is raising elevating streets and infrastructure each time a new project is approved. Major drainage projects featuring pumping stations have remediated flooding in three of the lowest-elevation neighborhoods in Ocean City.
A new pumping station project for the flood-prone area of the Third Ward between West Avenue and Bay Avenue is part of the updated capital plan that will be presented later this month. This is part of a comprehensive plan to eventually address all flooding issues.
6. What conflicts of interest do you have (what issues won’t you be able to vote on) at this time?
I have always been careful to avoid conflicts of interest. I own a plumbing and heating business with offices on the 900 block of Haven Avenue and must recuse myself from votes that could be perceived as specifically benefitting this type of business.
Fourth Ward
Robert S. Barr
1. The timeline and lasting impact of the coronavirus in Ocean City remains unpredictable. But what are your plans for guiding the economic recovery of the city?
I think it has to be done in phases. This is a complicated answer, so bare with me. No. 1, I think that already the governor is wrong to not allow small businesses to open. If you can go to Home Depot and Lowe’s, you can certainly go to Rauhauer’s candy store, as long as they’re social distancing and so forth and following all the rules like the other bigger stores are, why not? So No. 1, I think that can happen immediately.
I think that we can open the retail stores. We may have to think outside the box a little bit, maybe using the back door of some boardwalk stores so you don’t have the large crowds on the boardwalk. But you allow the stores to open. You do these things as you open retail stores, as you open boardwalk stores through the back door — you’re constantly looking at the numbers because the virus dictates what you do. So if you see infections, for example, going up, then that means that wasn’t the right thing to do. And then if it doesn’t, you maybe open up restaurants who want to do outdoor dining with tables on the sidewalk 6 feet apart. You can do that and then slowly, maybe in a few weeks, you open up the beach for exercise only.
You slowly work it up to where you eventually get it back to normal. You just heed the restrictions as the virus warrants, all the while realizing that if there’s a spike or changes — because this changes almost hourly — you have to be mindful and you have to be flexible enough that everybody has to be on the same page. The boardwalk merchants have to be on the same page, the Chamber has to be on the same page and the City has to be on the same page with the message that we’re sending.
I think it’s very critical that everyone understands this isn’t going to be the summer quite like we’re used to. It’s going to be different. There will be rules. Even when things open up, it’s not going to be, ‘OK everybody, we’re back to normal and this is a come one, come all.’ The governor of California opened up the beaches and then he’s already closing them down because people weren’t listening and were not social distancing. If we open the beach and people are, for example, sunbathing and they’re not supposed to be, these are the things that we have to look at. People must follow the rules. If they don’t and the numbers go up, then you have to take further action.
Also, another thing we have to look at, and this is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, is how we incentivize folks to support our local businesses. One of the ways I think you do that is — and I don’t have all the details worked out just yet — maybe you do a program where you spend so much, you get a discount on your taxes or something like that — something to encourage folks to shop local and to support the over 300 businesses that we have. I think it’s very important to make sure our local businesses are supported.
I think that we as a shore community need to come together. For example, if Ocean City does something, then Wildwood and Sea Isle need to do it*. You can’t have it where one town does something. For example, if we opened up and Wildwood and Sea Isle did not, everybody’s going to come here. We don’t necessarily want that. We want it spread out like it normally would be. Everybody needs to act in a very thoughtful and careful way. And if things don’t work out in the way we think that they should or the numbers dictate that we need to take steps, it’s complicated. This is hard. It’s very, very, very hard. The governor came out with his economic task force group that will look at reopening the economy, and there is no South Jersey representation on it whatsoever. That’s criminal. It’s wrong. We really have to come together as a town to think outside the box to protect our residents because the thing that people don’t realize is we go from a population of roughly 9,000 in the wintertime to roughly 250,000 on 4th of July weekend. That’s a big jump. How do you manage that and keep everybody safe? It’s hard.
*Editor’s note: Barr answered Patch’s questionnaire last Thursday, before Wildwood and North Wildwood announced a reopening of beaches for this Friday.
2. What past accomplishments would you cite as evidence that you can handle this position?
To me it’s the work that we’ve done and the road and drainage improvements since I’ve come on — for example, 29th to 34th Street. Working with our congressman, I’ve been able to get our south end beaches and really island-wide beaches on a three-year beach replenishment schedule that will occur every year for the next however many years.
I got Christmas lights on in the south end. That was something that when I campaigned, people really were heads up about, and we were able to get that done. We’ve done a number of other improvements via the landscaping and with open space. I’m proud to say we spent millions — I don’t have an exact number — for at least two years of my term, the Fourth Ward led the way in capital funding. And for a long time, folks felt the south end got the short end of the stick. Hopefully they don’t feel that way anymore.
That’s not to say that everything is done, and that’s why I’m running again. We’re working on large-scale projects for Ocean City homes, the second phase of the Marion Park project. This is going to dovetail into your question about the coronavirus. We’ve had to totally scrap our budget that the mayor introduced in January. We had to scrap it and basically start over. Our summer season is already being impacted. We missed out on Easter weekend. It looks like we’re going to miss out on Memorial Day. We’re still waiting for final word from the governor there. I seriously doubt that we’re going to have a Memorial Day weekend like we’ve done it or even at all as far as the boardwalk businesses and other businesses are concerned. There’s still a ban on short-term rentals, so that impacts the budget and impacts the capital plans. For example, I originally had some projects in the capital plans for this year that could’ve gotten done that will probably now be at least delayed a year. This thing has far-reaching impact that people don’t even or can’t even see or think about. Depending on how long this goes, our budget will be impacted greatly. So will capital projects.
There’s a lot that we’ve done. There’s a lot more that we’d like to do. That’s why I came back. I wanted to finish what I started and make sure that the things that I promised, that I wasn’t able to get done, I’m able to get them done now hopefully.
3. What do you see as the most important issues facing Ocean City, and how do you hope to address them in this upcoming term?
Really the challenge to us all is to get our tourism economy working. As I said, I want to be able to finish what I started on capital projects. But I also have to be mindful that we’re not going to have nearly the revenue that we expected this year and maybe even next year, depending on where we are. It’s really difficult to speculate right now. So there’s the coronavirus and getting our economy going again and then at the same time and then finishing the things I set out to accomplish when I first came on board. The biggest challenge facing everybody right now is how do we get things moving again in an environment that will look nothing like what we’re used to. That’s a big deal when you’re so dependent on four months out of the year. It impacts everything. It impacts our ability to do these capital projects. I’m going on and on about the same thing, but it’s far-reaching.
4. Ocean City has made progress in terms of flood mitigation in recent years, but many residents and homeowners have noted room for improvement. What is your take on the issue, and how can Ocean City improve its mitigation?
It’s something that we’re constantly working on all the time. Every so often, we talk about things we need to do, projects that need to be done. Meanwhile, we’re doing these projects, but we’re also constantly looking for large-scale projects.
For example, when i first came into office in 2016, one of the things we looked at was a grant that came from the New Jersey DEP. It was a grant for a flood mitigation project using the railroads at 52nd Street almost like a barrier to keep the water out of a whole section of town there. The DEP awarded us the grant. Then about six months or a year later, we were into the design phase of the project. Another arm of the DEP came in and said, ‘Woah, woah, woah. You can’t do that because there are wetlands back there.’ We tried to work through the process with them.
Getting the state and feds involved can sometimes be very challenging. So we need to come up with not only what to do at the local level for flooding, like we’ve done from 29th to 34th Street and the bay where we’ve done some mitigation work. But we continue to look for federal grants. We’ve looked at everything from bulkheading the entire island, which costs millions and millions of dollars, to small community projects — dune fencing and all those kinds of things and geotubes. You just have to constantly be mindful that things are always changing and the environment is constantly changing. The sea level is constantly rising. One of the things I’ve challenged our emergency coordinator, Frank Donato, to do, that he’s done, is constantly look for opportunities, look for grants, look for outside-the-box ideas and bring in the experts. We’ve done that.
It’s ever-evolving, and I think it’s something we will always be working on long after I am gone. People will be dealing with this almost to the end of time. It is what it is. It’s just an ongoing process. I’ve been pushing for mitigation projects in areas that have been affected by this for years. I’ve been successful in some areas. We’ve done little band-aid projects on the south end of town as I alluded to that we can do. I still want a pumping station project done in the deeper south end of town like we’ve done in, for example, the first ward. They have a pumping station project on 29th and 34th Street. I want to see something like that in the deep south end of town. The problem is, as I’ve said before, you’ve got wetlands there that you don’t have in the other areas. It becomes more costly. There’s more red tape involved. So unfortunately, the deep south end of town is the most challenging area that I have to deal with. But we’ve done the best we can, meanwhile trying to think outside the box to do other things.
5. What conflicts of interest do you have (what issues won’t you be able to vote on) at this time?
None that I can think of unless something comes up with the Housing Authority. I’m chairman of the Housing Authority here in town, and sometimes I can’t vote on those issues. But I’m not a plumber or a construction worker, and I don’t do any government work. So I’m able to freely vote on almost anything.
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This article originally appeared on the Ocean City Patch