Council Inaction Suspends Ethics Board's Work, For Now

While the ultimate fate of Ocean City’s Ethics Board remains undecided, City Council effectively halted the group’s work Thursday by tabling a resolution to reappoint a board member.

Without the reappointment of Stanley Pszczolkowski, the Ethics Board has only three members, not enough to meet a minimum four-member quorum.

City Council voted 5-1 to table the reappointment resolution Thursday night amid uncertainty over whether the board will continue to exist. Councilman Roy Wagner voted no on tabling, while Councilwoman Karen Bergman was absent.

Earlier this month, council was poised to abolish the board, but at the request of Mayor Jay Gillian. Now, City Council and the mayor are supposed to be researching issues surrounding the Ethics Board before voting whether to .

Councilman Anthony Wilson said council should come to a decision on the board itself before appointing members. Questions—including a possible insurance policy to protect against litigation costs and how keeping the Ethics Board will fit into the upcoming budget—remain unanswered, Wilson said.

“This is no time to go halfway. If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right,” Wilson said. “Research is cheap, but the stakes are expensive. Let’s get all of the facts together before we put a board in place and put ourselves in harm’s way.”

Councilman Keith Hartzell agreed that the focus should be on the board’s future before deciding on member appointments. He called for an up or down vote on the board itself to end the “limbo” the group currently faces.

“We should have a drop-dead date to do that. Either we’re going to have a board or we’re not going to have a board,” Hartzell said. 

Wagner was the lone dissenting vote on tabling Pszczolkowski’s reappointment. City Council’s inaction on the board’s future has hamstrung the body, which cannot work on issues without a quorum, he said.

City Council did agree on one aspect of the Ethics Board debate—Pszczolkowski is not the issue. Councilman Scott Ping, while voting to table the reappointment, called Pszczolkowski the “perfect person” for the position.

‘Why do we pay you?’

It’s unclear when City Council will take an up or down vote on the Ethics Board as a whole. Council President Michael Allegretto said after the meeting council is waiting on information from Gillian, who asked council to table the elimination vote. Gillian said research into the board is continuing and he could not provide an expected completion date.

The inaction irked two residents, who spoke out against council’s tabling decision.

“The council doesn’t understand—you have a statutory obligation to appoint this member, unless you object to the member,” said Ed Price, who is running for a . “I think it’s ridiculous to table this now. … If you want to get rid of the Ethics Board, get rid of the Ethics Board. But right now, you have a law on the books.”

Jack Stover chose a blunter tone for his disapproval. Council is flouting public trust by delaying a decision on the Ethics Board’s future, he said.

“I assumed two weeks ago when it was tabled, it was tabled to make a decision,” Stover said. “Why do we pay you? … Isn’t it your job to obey the ordinances that you and your predecessors put in place? I think we probably need a public group to really go over what in the Sam Hill is being done here—I’m sorry, what’s not being done.”

(An earlier version of this story may have mischaracterized Councilman Keith Hartzell's opinion of the state Local Finance Board, which he believes, through his research, can be an effective replacement to Ocean City's Ethics Board.)

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