Ocean City Today
18 NEWS
NOVEMBER 9, 2012
Knight, Dare, Cymek, Mitrecic claim council seats 2012 MUNICIPAL ELECTION Continued from Page 1
OCEAN CITY TODAY/ZACK HOOPES
Mayor Rick Meehan shares a laugh with a supporter while campaigning outside the convention center Tuesday morning. Although he easily beat his mayoral challenger, Nick Campagnoli, Meehan said he was more worried about the outcome of the council race against Jim and Joe Hall, whom he has consistently opposed.
entire 2010 contest (the final 2012 tally wasn’t scheduled to be released until Thursday night after Ocean City Today’s press time). Meehan said he was more concerned with the outcome for the four winning council candidates, whom he had supported, than he was for his own race. “I’m very happy with the way the council race turned out,” he said. Meehan also noted, as did several others, that he believed the outcome of the election was largely a referendum on the adversarial attitude that has pervaded City Hall for the past two years. “Some of the very negative advertising that we saw didn’t work,” Meehan said. “Instead of [that mindset] becoming the norm for the future, I think it will become past history.” Cymek, Knight, Dare, and Mitrecic have been more often than not endorsed as a group this
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OCEAN CITY TODAY/ZACK HOOPES
Councilman Brent Ashley, who was not up for re-election, campaigned for his voting allies outside the polls. With the departure of Hall and Hall, Ashley and Councilwoman Margaret Pillas will be the only remaining members of the four-person majority who introduced some controversial changes.
political season, due mainly to the perception of them as an opposition bloc against what was – up until Tuesday night – the fourperson voting majority in council, whose positions have stoked the ire of their fellow officials, particularly Meehan. That majority was formed in 2010, with the election of Councilman Brent Ashley, who voted in tandem with Hall, Hall, and Councilwoman Margaret Pillas in a number of controversial revisions to city policy. Particular among these were moves to abolish the city’s sub-commissions, as
well as revisions to employee benefit structures that saw the city’s pension plan closed out to new hires and a defined-contribution system introduced. While the 2010 majority maintained that they were workings towards transparency and sustainability, their detractors – Meehan, Cymek, Knight, and Council Secretary Lloyd Martin - countered that these changes were ill-conceived and intended to hang decisions up on a secretive four-member voting bloc that evidenced an antagonistic, purgative mentality towards city government.
TROLLBEADS THE ORIGINAL SINCE 1976
Lauren Glick & The Moodswingers Friday, Nov. 9
DJ Rupe
Saturday, Nov. 10
Simple Truth Thursday, Nov. 15
A CUSTOM CREATIVE EVENT August 1 - September 3
RECEIVE A STERLING SILVER BRACELET with the purchase of a decorative clasp
Indian River Trading Co. Gold Coast Mall 114 TH St |Ocean City, Md 1.410.524.2121 | Open Daily