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Mayor Gillian has said publicly many times that the reason\nFIT challenges some of his proposals is because we don\u2019t like him\npersonally. The truth is not as simple\nas that. There are members of the FIT\nboard who believe Mayor Gillian\u2019s motives are to do what he sincerely believes\nis in the best interest of Ocean City. \nThe City acts on many things. \nSometimes we agree with the Administration and have said so. When we oppose him as a group it is because\nwe think there are better options that should be considered. True, there are some people in every group,\nincluding FIT, who make all things personal. \nThat always results in a breakdown in communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fairness In Taxes has made no objection to the City meeting\nits affordable housing obligation. When\nanyone (Council, Mayor, or public bystander) tries to caricaturize us as\nuncaring, they only show how much they\u2019re not listening. If you show us our factual errors, we\u2019ll\nacknowledge, reconsider and even revise. \nBut changing the discussion to the personal is a distraction that some\nwill see through and others will not. \nAnd it doesn\u2019t advance the discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We applaud the City for deciding to offset the rehabilitation\ncost of affordable housing by using a Community Development Block Grant as FIT\nrecommended. But some questions remain\nunanswered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, why can\u2019t the City issue bonds for the work and\nuse the Affordable Housing Trust fund to pay off the bonds as has been\nrecommended by more than one FIT member?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the Nov. 28th<\/sup> Council meeting City Solicitor,\nDottie McCrosson, said that the cost would be between 11 \u2013 12 million\ndollars. At the January 12th<\/sup>\nworkshop it was 15 million dollars which the Mayor said would be reduced by a\n4.4 million dollar grant the Housing Authority received. Is this the same grant that the Housing\nAuthority received back in March 2017? \nWere not those grants already calculated into the earlier cost\nestimates, or are they being counted twice? \nWe all make mistakes so I\u2019m not accusing. I\u2019m just asking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We understand not wanting a developer from out of town but is\nit justifiable to spread millions of taxpayer dollars to developers just\nbecause they\u2019re local rather than pay a third-party developer like Pennrose who\ncould do the job at $0 cost to taxpayers? \nYour answer to this was yes, based on the justification that it gives\n\u201ccontrol\u201d to the City. OK, but control\nof what? Occupants, land, design, money,\nall of the above? Is it not true that Pennrose is a company that\u2019s been in\nexistence for over 40 years and specializes in converting older buildings into\nsustainable, high quality, mixed income, affordable housing units? Could not hiring local employees where\nappropriate be part of the negotiable conditions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, if the\nHousing Authority had accepted the Pennrose proposal in 2015 wouldn\u2019t all those\nresidents be right now sitting in their brand-new apartments high above flood\nlevel?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to the question: \u201cWill the Ocean City Housing\nAuthority pay Ocean City back?\u201d The\nCity\u2019s response was, \u201cOcean City will have a mortgage on each Housing Authority\nunit\/building to which Ocean City contributes taxpayer funds.\u201d OK, but how is that secure? Could the City foreclose on the property and\nresell it at market price while it is bound to an affordable housing\nobligation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m not interested in hearing from anyone in the\nAdministration or in FIT about what anyone\u2019s suspected motives, intentions or\n\u201cagendas\u201d are. But I would respectfully\nappreciate a public response to the questions above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jim Tweed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mayor Gillian has said publicly many times that the reason FIT challenges some of his proposals is because we don\u2019t like him personally. The truth is not as simple as that. There are members of the FIT board who believe Mayor Gillian\u2019s motives are to do what he sincerely believes is in the best interest …<\/p>\n