Thirty\nyears ago, Fairness in Taxes was formed to fight the Tax and Spend mentality of\nthe City government. As we know, the current administration has an entrenched\ntax and spend mentality, as well as a lack of integrity, transparency, and\naccountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two months\nago, with your support, we successfully completed a petition drive for a\nreferendum, immediately stopping the city\u2019s shady plan to purchase the Klause\nproperty at 16th<\/sup> and Haven, at the taxpayers\u2019 expense, for the\ninflated price of 9 million dollars. In the course of the referendum, we\ndiscovered the City Solicitor, Dorothy McCrosson had been conducting government\nbusiness on a private email server and that Mayor Gillian had secretly signed\nan agreement with the Klause family, which he kept from the public for several\nmonths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh off our\nsuccess, and with your strong financial support, we are now in the midst of\nfighting the City\u2019s atrocious plan to spend 20 million taxpayer dollars to bail\nout the mismanaged Ocean City Housing Authority. In 2015, Mayor Gillian rejected\na proposal from a private developer of affordable housing, which would have\ncost Ocean City taxpayers nothing, simply because he could not control who\noccupies the facility. While FIT recognizes the legal mandate and need for Affordable\nHousing, out of 200 New Jersey communities who reached settlements with the\nnon-profit New Jersey Fair Share Housing Center, not one has made taxpayers pay\nfor the construction of public housing. (Please see the attached ad that we\nplaced in the Ocean City Sentinel.) After repeated requests, Mayor Gillian has\nrefused to meet with myself and Vice President Dave Breeden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the city\u2019s\nAffordable Housing Workshop on January 12, the Mayor called FIT members out by\nname and said FIT was not telling the truth. He said the public, instead,\nshould believe the City and that no one should talk about the past actions of\nthe City that led directly to our current financial crisis. A FIT member\ncorrectly admonished Mayor Gillian that those who ignore the past are condemned\nto repeat their mistakes over and over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2019, FIT\nwill continue fighting hard for transparency and accountability by focusing on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since I am the\nnew President of FIT and Dave Breeden is the new Vice President, I thought I\nwould give you a brief summary of our experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My wife, Marie, and I have been year-round residents of\nOcean City for 15 years. I have a BS from the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, and\nMasters degrees from Cornell and George Washington Universities. After serving\nas a US Navy Officer, I worked for several major aerospace and IT corporations and\nam currently managing a program for a large utility company. I also was an\nAdjunct Professor at Immaculata University. I am currently on the Mayor\u2019s Air\nAdvisory Board and previously served on the Environmental Commission. I am also\nthe webmaster for the new FIT website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dave Breeden, Fairness in Taxes Vice President, has\nlived in Ocean City for 45 years since graduating from Ocean City High School\nand holds a BA from Richard Stockton University. He has over 30 years of experience\nin the public sector with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs and as\nBusiness Administrator for Barnegat Township. Dave was an instructor at Rutgers\nUniversity and Atlantic Cape Community College. Dave and his wife are the proud\nparents of a talented 12-year old daughter who attends Ocean City Intermediate\nSchool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n