Dear Friends,
At last night’s City Council meeting, I delivered the administration’s proposed city budget for 2022. The draft budget includes no increase to the municipal tax rate. Including this budget, we have come in at zero for three of the past four years.
I want to thank my senior staff and the entire city team for working on behalf of all taxpayers to deliver this responsible budget, while maintaining all of the services Ocean City residents expect and continuing our aggressive program of capital improvements.
The mayor’s proposed budget is available online for everybody to see at www.ocnj.us/finance and my State of the City address is included below. This is the first step in the budget process. Finance Director Frank Donato will make a presentation on budgeted revenues and appropriations at the March 24 City Council meeting. At later meetings, City Council will formally “introduce” the budget and then work on potential revisions until a final public hearing and vote.
I hope you all have a great weekend and a happy St. Patrick’s Day on Thursday, and please come out to support our local merchants at the Market Madness one-day sale 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Ocean City Music Pier. The event will go off rain or shine, and there’s plenty of free parking in the boardwalk lots near the Pier.
Warm regards,
Mayor Jay A. Gillian
State of the City Address
Mayor Jay A. Gillian
March 10, 2022
Good evening.
I’m here to report tonight that the state of the city is stronger than it’s ever been.
We continue to make improvements to every part of town. We’re adding new services and preserving the traditions we love. We have an experienced and dedicated city team that makes it all possible. Ocean City remains a great place to live, work and play. Investments in Ocean City are sounder than ever.
In a moment, Finance Director Frank Donato will distribute a draft budget that includes no increase to our tax rate. Zero.
Every year, I challenge the city team to do more with less as we continue to take on more projects to improve our infrastructure and way of life. I want to thank them for their commitment to all taxpayers.
With everything that’s going on in the world, I think it’s important to come in at zero this year. We always have to consider how inflation and other global issues might affect Ocean City. But I’d like to put that aside for a moment and send our thoughts and prayers to the people of Ukraine. They deserve our full support.
Ocean City continues to benefit from a growing tax base – we saw $174 million in new ratables this year. After record years for beach tag and parking revenue, our fund balance sits at another record: $10.4 million. These are some of the factors that help us sustain our capital improvements without raising the tax rate.
Built-in increases to health care benefits, salaries and pensions provide a $2.5 million challenge to overcome. Even after adding five police officers in 2021, our count of full-time employees is down by three to 269. Departments across the board made significant cuts to their budgets.
I’m proud that we were able to accomplish so much this year, and we have plans in place to keep the momentum going in 2022.
Here’s a quick look at just a few of the things we achieved.
We continued to execute our comprehensive flood mitigation plans.
- Plans are complete for a West 17th Street pumping station project and work will begin this spring.
- We awarded a contract for design of more flood mitigation improvements for Merion Park.
- We addressed flooding on the beach block at Fifth Street.
- We rebuilt bulkheads at several locations.
- We secured a $3 million grant for the elevation of 52 units at the Ocean Aire Condominiums on West Avenue at 43rd Street.
- We advanced a project for flood mitigation along Waterway Road.
At the same time, we paved many miles of roads and alleys in every ward.
The city was able to acquire an entire city block to be converted from a car dealership to open space.
Our maintenance dredging program continues across the length of our bayfront.
We replaced Boardwalk decking from 18th Street to 20th Street.
We finished a major renovation of the Civic Center.
City Hall rest rooms were expanded, renovated and made handicapped accessible.
The Music Pier HVAC system was replaced.
Pickleball courts were resurfaced and fencing expanded. A championship court was named for Don Hepner.
Final restoration of the Life Saving Station was completed.
Fencing and other improvements are underway at the Little League fields at 35th Street.
Ocean City Municipal Airport improvements took advantage of over a million dollars in grant money to install artificial turf areas for safety, wildlife and erosion control.
We brought back our popular raptor program for gull abatement on the Boardwalk
The summer flag-raising ceremony moved to the Ocean City Music Pier with a new flagpole dedicated to veterans Joe Caserta, Bill Cruice and J.R. Robinson
We sponsored a free patriotic outdoor concert by the Ocean City Pops for the Fourth of July.
We worked with the school district to provide a venue for the high school’s prom and Homecoming Dance and an Intermediate School dance.
We provided surf chairs and expanded beach mats to improve accessibility to our beaches.
At a time when COVID vaccine appointments were very difficult to secure, a city team was able to arrange them for more than 400 seniors in Ocean City.
Our Community Services team hosted virtual events like our annual Martin Luther King Ceremony before the safe return of live events like the Fourth of July, Night in Venice, Fall Block Party and even a new Dog Day on the boardwalk.
Our police department worked with local parents to organize a bike rally to establish positive relationships with young residents and encourage bicycle safety.
Our Tax Office now accepts credit cards for tax payments.
Renovations to the Community Center courtyard provide an outdoor reading space for kids and exercise space for adults.
We updated our capital plan at the end of last summer, and we know our priorities for 2022. We will present a capital plan for 2023-2027 before the end of the year. It will remain on that cycle – with capital plans outlined before the preparation of the municipal budget each year.
State guidelines will allow us to use the balance of COVID relief money (about $4.9 million) from 2021 for flood mitigation projects and cybersecurity.
In addition to West 17th Street and Merion Park, we will be able to use $3.7 million toward beginning work along sections of the Haven Avenue corridor between 9th Street and 28th Street.
The remaining $1.2 million is on tonight’s agenda to fund cybersecurity and upgrade computer networks. Like the rest of the world, Ocean City has become dependent on technology to conduct day-to-day business. Unfortunately, attacks on public and private computer networks are not uncommon these days, and they can be devastating. The state encourages towns to use this relief money to protect against cyberattacks.
We are actively seeking Infrastructure Bill grants and funding for everything from road projects to electric vehicle charging stations. In fact, just this week, we spoke with a special assistant to the President at the White House regarding potential funds for multiple capital projects that the city has in the works.
Tonight’s agenda includes a resolution to approve a Community Energy Plan Grant application for EV charging stations. Other initiatives for the coming year include an expansion of grant-funded Social Services programs, including a rental and mortgage assistance program, a food and essential items pantry and new counseling and mental health services. Our budget includes funding to supplement a pilot program for a summer jitney service.
As always, everything we do is with the taxpayer in mind. Including this budget, we have come in at zero for three of the past four years.
Thank you all. We are fully prepared for another productive year for America’s Greatest Family Resort. We will make sure our city is clean, safe and family-friendly.
We share a common mission to make sure future generations can enjoy the town we all know and love.
