{"id":3122,"date":"2019-05-13T00:58:43","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T00:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fairnessintaxes.com\/?p=3122"},"modified":"2023-06-18T11:39:29","modified_gmt":"2023-06-18T11:39:29","slug":"letter-to-the-editor-on-klause-property-purchase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fairnessintaxes.com\/letter-to-the-editor-on-klause-property-purchase\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to the Editor on Klause Property Purchase"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Editor,<\/span><\/p>\n

I would like to comment on the editorial in May 8 Sentinel, entitled \u201cYou get what you fight for- Citizens fought lot purchase, get more housing instead.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As the President of Fairness in Taxes, I led the referendum drive to stop the purchase of the Klause property because it was a bad deal for OC taxpayers. Fairness in Taxes always recognized the unique nature of this large plot of centrally-located land and felt that it would be a tremendous asset to the City, but that the $9 million price tag was too high.<\/span><\/p>\n

The price the City wanted to pay for the property was based on very questionable appraisals. Instead of working to get the price as low as possible, the City insisted throughout the process that \u201cthe price was the price\u201d and they refused to negotiate at all. Fairness in Taxes even found evidence that the City had agreed on a price several months before they announced an interest to buy the property. <\/span><\/p>\n

Last Fall, after the petition drive met its goal and the City announced that it would not be purchasing the Klause property, I told City council that I did not believe the successful referendum was a victory for Fairness in Taxes, but rather a victory for Ocean City Taxpayers and for the democratic process. My wife and I have been involved in fighting similar issues in the past and found that when an issue resonates with the public, it will succeed. If it does not resonate with the public, it will die a quick death. In this case, The City was caught time after time misrepresenting the facts and that incensed the public. The City\u2019s lack of transparency resonated with the voting public and, more than anything else, that\u2019s what convinced over 15% of the Ocean City voters to support Fairness in Taxes\u2019s referendum.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Mayor\u2019s most recent update, he shared that the City was once again negotiating \u201cin good faith\u201d to purchase the Klause property. Fairness in Taxes applauds the Mayor\u2019s decision to purchase this property! As a community, we want and need it! We also hope that, unlike what has happened in the past, the Mayor will truly negotiate \u201cin good faith\u201d and bring the taxpayers a deal that we can all live with. If he does not, he knows only too well that Fairness in Taxes will do what is right for Ocean City citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/span><\/p>\n

David Hayes<\/span><\/p>\n

President, Fairness in Taxes<\/span><\/p>\n

Ocean City<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Editor, I would like to comment on the editorial in May 8 Sentinel, entitled \u201cYou get what you fight for- Citizens fought lot purchase, get more housing instead.\u201d As the President of Fairness in Taxes, I led the referendum drive to stop the purchase of the Klause property because it was a bad deal …<\/p>\n

Letter to the Editor on Klause Property Purchase<\/span> Read More \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[90,87],"spectra_custom_meta":{"_edit_lock":["1561126458:6"],"_edit_last":["3"],"_wp_page_template":["default"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":["80"],"site-sidebar-layout":["default"],"site-content-layout":["default"],"theme-transparent-header-meta":["default"],"stick-header-meta":["default"],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["30"],"_uag_page_assets":["a:9:{s:3:\"css\";s:263:\".uag-blocks-common-selector{z-index:var(--z-index-desktop) !important}@media (max-width: 976px){.uag-blocks-common-selector{z-index:var(--z-index-tablet) !important}}@media (max-width: 767px){.uag-blocks-common-selector{z-index:var(--z-index-mobile) !important}}\n\";s:2:\"js\";s:0:\"\";s:18:\"current_block_list\";a:2:{i:0;s:14:\"core\/tag-cloud\";i:1;s:11:\"core\/search\";}s:8:\"uag_flag\";b:0;s:11:\"uag_version\";s:10:\"1706048605\";s:6:\"gfonts\";a:0:{}s:10:\"gfonts_url\";s:0:\"\";s:12:\"gfonts_files\";a:0:{}s:14:\"uag_faq_layout\";b:0;}"],"rank_math_primary_category":["80"],"rank_math_news_sitemap_robots":["index"],"rank_math_robots":["a:1:{i:0;s:5:\"index\";}"],"rank_math_analytic_object_id":["70"],"rank_math_internal_links_processed":["1"],"_uag_css_file_name":["uag-css-3122.css"]},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"OC FIT GUY","author_link":"https:\/\/fairnessintaxes.com\/author\/meltaylor\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Dear Editor, I would like to comment on the editorial in May 8 Sentinel, entitled \u201cYou get what you fight for- Citizens fought lot purchase, get more housing instead.\u201d As the President of Fairness in Taxes, I led the referendum drive to stop the purchase of the Klause property because it was a bad deal…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairnessintaxes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairnessintaxes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairnessintaxes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairnessintaxes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairnessintaxes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fairnessintaxes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairnessintaxes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairnessintaxes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairnessintaxes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}