Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian
The following letter is from Drew Fasy, chairman of the Committee to Re-Elect Mayor Jay Gillian, regarding an April 7 candidates debate at the Ocean City Free Public Library.
Two men — incumbent Mayor Jay Gillian and challenger Ed Price — are running for mayor in the May 13 municipal election, but only Price attended the debate. In an earlier statement, Fasy said the mayor received an invitation for the April 7 debate only on March 24 and that the debate sponsors had run a newspaper ad announcing the debate without first confirming the mayor could attend.
Read the counterpoint letter from Michael Hinchman, president of Fairness in Taxes, sponsors of the debate.
Mayor Jay Gillian believes that open debate and discussion of the issues is an important part of our electoral process in Ocean City and is looking forward to two public debates during the campaign season. The first is a Candidates Forum sponsored by the Ocean City Community Association on Wednesday, April 23 at 7 p.m. at the Ocean City Free Public Library. The second is a debate jointly sponsored by the Ocean City Republican Club and the Ocean City Democratic Club on Wednesday, May 7 at 6 p.m. at Ocean City High School.
Unfortunately, Mr. Hinchman is deciding to play politics over scheduling. The fact is that Mr. Hinchman's invitation was received well after the other events were set and conflicted with a previously scheduled family commitment for Mayor Gillian that he had arranged around the other scheduled debates. Due to a busy calendar, as well as not wanting to dilute attendance for the other organizations who had planned in advance, it wasn't possible to reschedule.
Mayor Gillian is proud of his record of working with the community to overcome challenges and restore cooperation and teamwork to our local government so that the priorities of Ocean City residents are the focus, not bickering or grandstanding. And he looks forward to discussing the future of Ocean City at the two public forums and debates that are scheduled.
Andrew Fasy
Committee To Re-Elect Mayor Jay Gillian
