Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian won re-election Tuesday with 60.4 percent of the vote
He defeated Ed Price, 2,112 to 1,380, to capture his second term in office.
The results include vote-by-mail ballots but will not be official until they are certified by the Clerk’s Office — likely by later this week.
Voter turnout for a municipal election that also featured a five-way race for three City Council seats was 39.11 percent — with 3,533 of Ocean City’s 9,033 registered voters casting ballots.
“I’m humbled, and I think the message is that people like the way the town is running now,” Gillian said Tuesday night. “It makes me want to work even harder.”
Gillian, 49, is a lifelong Ocean City resident and the owner of Gillian’s Wonderland Pier on the Ocean City Boardwalk.
In his campaign, he pointed to “an aggressive five-year Capital Improvement Plan that includes $10 million in much-needed investment in the city’s infrastructure.” The plan allocates $5 million alone to road and drainage improvements.
“I’m shocked that Ocean City did not want to change,” Price said after the election at a gathering at Ocean Reef. “For as many doors as I knocked on and listened to people talk about change, they didn’t really want to change.”
“But it was clear what the voters said,” he said.
Price, 54, said his candidacy already has done some good. He and Gillian each responded to a question about beautifying Ocean City’s gateways during a candidates’ debate on May 7.
“The next day, Jay has landscapers there,” Price said of a recent project at the corner of 34th Street and Bay Avenue.
“I’m not unhappy I ran,” Price said.
He congratulated the other candidates, particularly unsuccessful City Council candidates Eric Sauder and Mike Hyson.
“It takes a lot of courage to run,” he said.
Gillian will serve another four-year term. An ordinance sets the part-time mayor’s annual salary at $20,600, but Gillian said that, as in his first term, he will not accept the salary.
See complete vote tally by ward.
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