Commentary
Ocean City Today Nov. 5, 2021
Page 44
Make bids public to limited extent Twelve years ago in late October, the Ocean City mayor and council began the secret process of selecting an advertising agency to handle the resort’s multi-million-dollar account. The city accepted the bids and picked its agency without revealing (until much later) what that winner proposed to do for the undisclosed amount it would end up handling. So tight-lipped was the city that the companies’ presentations were delivered in a Fort Knox-like circumstance because “proprietary information” was involved. Understandably, the agencies didn’t want to reveal their trade secrets and ideas to their competitors for fear they might steal them. Also a possibility was that some other resort might snatch and use for themselves ideas developed for Ocean City. The same “proprietary information” argument is being used again, following the council’s Monday night acceptance of agency proposals. But money, and more specifically the room tax money that finances the resort’s marketing, is not proprietary information because it is not the property of the agencies. It’s money generated for this specific use by every lodging establishment and legitimate rental in town. Yet, few of the resort’s hotel and motel operators (along with every other business that benefits from resort marketing) will have any idea of what will be spent and where. They are expected to trust the judgment of the City Council. But, some will ask, what about the Tourism Commission’s role in vetting the proposals? That too has to be restricted to members who also are elected officials, according to what the late City Solicitor Guy Ayres said in 2009. If these bids do contain proprietary information, Ayres explained, then no member of the public can see them, and that includes the Tourism Commission’s representatives of the business community. Ayres added that these documents are either open or they’re not, and allowing the commission’s business members to see them would mean they must be open to all. Understanding that creative material should be closely guarded, we contend that the financial breakdown on who will spend what where and with whom is not proprietary and should be made public.
Ocean City Today 11934 Ocean Gateway, Suite 6, Ocean City, Md. 21842 Phone: 410-723-6397 / Fax: 410-723-6511.
EDITOR ............................................ Stewart Dobson MANAGING EDITOR ................................ Lisa Capitelli STAFF WRITERS .................. Greg Ellison, Greg Wehner, ..........................................Jack Chavez, Mallory Panuska ACCOUNT MANAGERS.......... Mary Cooper, Vicki Shrier ..............................................................Amanda Shick CLASSIFIEDS/LEGALS MANAGER .... Nancy MacCubbin SENIOR DESIGNER ................................ Susan Parks GRAPHIC ARTIST .................................... Kelly Brown PUBLISHER........................................ Christine Brown ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT ...................... Gini Tufts Ocean City Today is published weekly by FLAG Publications, Inc. 11934 Ocean Gateway, Suite 6, Ocean City, Md. 21842 Ocean City Today is available by subscription at $150 a year. Visit us on the Web at www.oceancitytoday.com. Copyright 2021
PUBLIC EYE
Let me repeat myself
People often ask me how I come up with material for this column every week. Here’s the answer (pick one): 1. I possess a superior intellect, so I sit down at my computer, say “Inspiration On!” and just like that it happens. I’m amazing! 2. Give a monkey a keyboard, and sooner or later it will ... 3. I steal, lie, cheat, talk to the spirits and run old stuff that I happen to come across when I’m bored. That’s what I’ve done By with the following, which I Stewart re-discovered this week. It’s from 2009, but my memory Dobson being what it is these days, it’s all new to me, and it’s still appropriate, however sad that may be. *** Question: What’s the most useless thing on the face of the planet? Answer: A member of Congress with a leaf blower. Let me explain why. My approach to autumn leaves laying in the yard is to be deeply involved in watching my wife rake them. It is, after all, my belief that we should allow nature to take its course and let this spent foliage remain on the ground, happy and undisturbed. I think of it as being environmentally friendly, or at least that’s the best argument that I have for doing nothing. I’m told, however, that old leaves will kill the grass, which doesn’t sound like a terrible thing to me. If that’s true, then it reduces the
frequency with which the grass must be cut. And if we don’t cut the grass or rake the leaves, we will never need a leaf blower, the one garden implement that proves mankind’s obsession with convenience regardless of the result. In other words, cool versus tool. This is because the actual effectiveness of a leaf blower is somewhere between a hoe without a handle and a sprinkler system in Death Valley. While I understand that a leaf blower is the perfect lawn tool for me, since I could appear to be busy without doing anything, I find that sufficient whining about having to do any sort of yard work generally gets me out of it altogether. But what I don’t understand is why we even have these things, considering that the wind, which is free and doesn’t require oiling, does the same thing, only better. A good west wind and – poof – I have transferred ownership of my leaves and clippings to my neighbor across the street. The problem is that most people who use leaf blowers don’t pick up the leaves or grass clippings when they’re finished doing whatever it is they do. They merely redistribute them. In that respect — and here’s the connection we’ve all been waiting for — leaf blowers are like Congress: they make a lot of noise and don’t accomplish anything of a permanent nature. The only difference is that instead of redistributing leaves, Congress redistributes money, the liberals to social programs and the conservatives to business interests, while neither side seems to put it where it won’t get blown away. A member of Congress and a leaf blower. That’s what I call a more perfect union.
