Council, Mayor and Planners Should Disclose Their Real Estate Holdings
Originally published in the Ocean City Sentinel
by Michael King
To the Editor:
Sixteen months and counting.
1. 13½ months – The amount of time it took to build the Empire State Building from initial construction to opening day in 1931.
2. 27 Hours – The amount of time it took FDR and Congress to declare war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
3. 10 months – The amount of time it took to hold a design competition and select Maya Lin's submission for the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial out of 1,421 entries in 1982.
4. 16 months (and counting) – The amount of time Wonderland Pier has been closed, vacant, with government officials trying to decide what to do with it in 2026.
It is quite remarkable that elected government officials in a little shore town in South Jersey, that has a representative democracy form of government, have yet to formulate a plan to handle a vacant business on a small part of boardwalk after 16 months. As the name representative democracy implies, the decisions of government officials should be based on the constituents they were chosen to represent, and not their personal business or financial interests.
Seeing that Mr. Keith Hartzell on a recent social media post has decided to run for mayor, I asked him if he would disclose his personal real estate and business holdings. To my surprise, and being transparent, he did just that.
I would challenge the mayor, City Council members and Planning Board members to also disclose their personal and real estate and business holdings on the island as Mr. Hartzell did. This transparency would aid Ocean City voters to determine if an elected official's vote is cast for the betterment of all Ocean City citizens or for their own personal gains or interests. For the island to have such blatant disregard of building variances over 30 years, one can only suspect that those running the show are the ones benefiting the most.
Elected officials in Ocean City should have a high moral calling to understand why the island as a resort was formed, be able to accurately see what it is today, and be able to prepare a vision for the future of the entire island for all its residents. This vision is what is noticeably absent today.
Catering to developers, realtors, millionaires and a small group of wealthy boardwalk owners is most likely not what the city's founders, the Lake brothers, had in mind. Even with rising home values, Ocean City is no longer that quaint, friendly and uncluttered seaside resort where a childhood memory is made. How many weeks a room is rented in the summer is now the new adult memory.
If the current elected government officials don't have the ability to accurately bind the Wonderland situation, develop a logical plan with pros and cons, list advantages and disadvantages of each, and make a decision (do their job) without paying for outside lawyers, planning groups and other professionals, it is time for the residents to reconsider whom they will be voting for the next time a mayoral, committee or planning group election is held.
Ocean City until recent times was never about, "My house is worth a million dollars." It was about walking barefoot down Central Avenue drinking Mom's cold lemonade, hearing the ocean and not even thinking about getting run over by a car.
That town is long gone. Today it is unequivocally about the money. And it seems that the government officials who run the show want more of it.
Michael King
Marmora
