Ocean View gets packed house for voting issue

Non-resident property owners in Ocean View don’t have a vote in town elections – at least, not yet – but those who turned out on July 28 for a special town council meeting on non-resident voting still made their voices heard.

Although not a clear-cut victory by any means, if those who came out on Tuesday and spoke at the meeting were any indication of how the town council might vote on the issue – and that’s hardly guaranteed – non-resident voting might pass, if only by a slim margin.

Of the 50 or so residents and non-resident property owners who were there and signed up to speak, eight were against changing the charter to allow non-resident voting, with most of them also opposed to the elimination of the town’s election districts, which was a secondary issue raised along with the idea of non-resident voting. Many of those speaking in opposition are regular attendees at town council meetings and spend most of the year in Ocean View.

On the other side of the issue, 15 people spoke in favor of allowing non-resident voting in some format, whether it be across the board or in some type of compromise measure. Of the 15 people, eight made up four couples who spoke as individuals sharing the same view.

One resident was not in favor of allowing non-resident voting “straight across the board” but favored a compromise proposed by Bear Trap resident Ira Broadman – and supported by fellow Bear Trap resident and former town councilman Roy Thomas – in which Ocean View’s non-resident property owners would have their own district and would elect their own non-resident representatives as a council person in that district. Several people who spoke on Tuesday seemed to like that idea, while several others still wanted a “full vote,” not a partial or district-limited vote.

Elaine Birkmeyer, a resident of Ocean View since 2000 who attends nearly every town council meeting, started off her comments by saying that to allow non-residents to vote would be “totally absurd.”

“I have to ask: Who is sitting up at night planning this but our own nemesis, Roy Thomas, working behind the scenes? These people have rights to vote in all property-related elections, as it should be, but to allow them to vote in municipal elections would allow large community groups to literally control our decisions.”

“Of the 57 municipalities in the state of Delaware, 47 don’t allow non-resident voting,” she continued.

Frank Forte, now a full-time resident but also a former non-resident property owner before he retired to Ocean View in 1998, said that he felt he had “earned the right to vote.”

“We knew the rules, and we played by them,” he said.

Former mayor Gary Meredith said the current situation works as is. “Why fix what is not broken?” He also said that non-resident property owners can be uninformed on town issues and could easily be swayed by anyone with an agenda.

“A vote could be controlled by anyone who has the best campaign literature, as we saw when one man came and said he spoke for 700 homeowners,” Meredith said pointedly, referring to the council meeting a few weeks back when Thomas attended the meeting and stated that he was representing the 700 homeowners in Bear Trap on the issue of non-resident property owners voting.

Steve Alexander, a local real estate agent, said he took offense to the insinuation that non-resident property owners are ill-informed. As a resident of Ocean City, Md., Alexander said he keeps up with the local news and offered that ‘It’s time we get some voice.”

Later, in responding to a resident who said non-resident property owners can come to meetings and mentioned that it was the first time he had seen Alexander at a meeting, Alexander retorted, “I’m sure he had his first meeting, too. And when I pay my property taxes, and my business license and my rental license, whether I miss the Tuesday meeting or not, I’m here the rest of the week,” he said, laughing, referring to the revenue he brings into town coffers through his business.

Although many of the non-residents who spoke noted their plans to retire to Ocean View once they can do so, some, such as Diane and Russel Archet, who live 2.5 miles outside of town limits, see the voting issue through the eyes of a different kind of non-resident property owner.

“I’m a native. I went to school in Ocean View,” said Diane Archet. “My grandpa and great-grandpa owned half of Ocean View. I lived here for 25 years. I get offended when people say we are uninformed. I go to church in Ocean View. I own a business in Ocean View. I keep up with Ocean View. I read Ocean View.”

Russell Archet added that he could see council taking issue with a charter change years ago but offered that times are different now.

“Things have changed. With change, brings change. We are not asking to run the town, just to have a voice,” he said, adding that the council makes a lot of land-use and zoning decisions, and that non-resident voting was not just a taxes or revenue issue.

Many of the non-residents took offense to the general notion that they were ill-informed or wanting to “take over the town.”

“Non-resident voters only want a seat at the table,” said Broadman.

Concerning the fact that non-resident voters could already participate in referendums concerning property issues, such as annexation, resident Ed Herbert said, “Big deal! I’ve been here five years and we haven’t had one. And 95 percent of the residents are never here [at town meetings]. Should we take the vote away from them?” he asked rhetorically.

Elaine Herbert spoke about hearing non-residents referred to as outsiders. “These people are our neighbors, our friends, but we want their money. It’s not right to put your hand in someone’s pocket without them being able to say ‘get your hand out of my pocket.’”

Fred Valenti, who said he plans on retiring to Ocean View and picked it over “many places along the East Coast,” added, “It’s wrong. It’s archaic. You can take my money, but I can’t vote. And what are you going to do when some hotshot lawyer comes in and say you can’t do that [prohibiting non-residents to vote]. Then you’ll be spending money on that.”

Beth Engle said, “It frightens me that, in a room with the American flag, I have no vote, or maybe only 25 percent of the vote,” she added, referencing some sort of compromise on the issue. “I don’t want a seat at the back of the bus. I don’t want a separate bathroom. I love Ocean View, and I want to keep it that way. We love it here and want to keep it beautiful.”

Dennis Hayden asked rhetorically if non-resident property owners are allowed to vote in county or state elections. (They’re not.) “Why not? Because they are not full-time residents. There are rules. This is not to put these people down. I love my part-time neighbors, but they can come to the meetings.”

Resident Bill Olsen recalled the history of Ocean View’s charter and wondered whether, if non-residents had “a place at the table,” they might miss more meetings. “What would we do in a 2-2 vote?”

Steve Cobb said more non-residents should come to meetings. “It’s a year-round process. They meet Tuesday nights monthly, sometimes bi-monthly. You want a seat at the table, you have to come to the table.”

Mayor Gordon Wood noted he had many thoughts on the issue and said about how it should be considered, “The first issue is yes or no. And then, if yes, how do we perfect it? It’s not going to be easy.”

Wood raised issues such as whether the town should spend money redistricting before the 2010 Census, including defining a property, defining a non-resident, determining how many votes a business would get, determining what a schedule might look like and calculating administrative burdens to the town for redistricting. He urged careful consideration of all of these issues and any process going forward.

“There is no rush,” Wood reiterated. “Who knows where the issue of yes or no on the issue will turn out? If there is to be non-resident voting, it must be done right.”

Councilman Robert “Bob” Lawless, who represents District 4, which includes Bear Trap, Country Village, Country Estates, Avon Park and Wedgefield, said to the people of Bear Trap, “I understand my role to represent all the people of that district. I am your representative, regardless of what happens. You are taxed and represented.”

Councilman Perry Mitchell asked specifically about trusts as property owners – if a property was held in a trust, how would it be considered by the town if non-resident property owners get a vote?

“If approved, you’d have to decide who or what entities get a vote,” answered Town Solicitor Dennis Schrader. “You have trusts, limited liability corporations, partnerships, general partnerships, corporations, timeshares. It gets complicated the further out you go. I don’t have the answer for you, but I can identify the problems.”

Councilman Richard Nippes, who originally proposed the idea of allowing non-resident property owners to vote and the elimination of the town’s council districts, said he hoped public participation would continue at the council’s Aug. 11 meeting, when he would have something more formal to propose to the council.

“Thank you for the pros and cons,” he said. “I now have the delightful tasks of melding all this together into a charter amendment. I could do nothing, or present a charter amendment. I will spend some time with our distinguished town solicitor, and if there is an amendment, I am sure it will be accurate. And, as the mayor pointed out, there will be a lot of questions. Whatever we decide to do, hopefully, it will answer those questions.”

As for the notion of a referendum on the issue – referendums being a voting mechanism in which both residents and non-resident already have the right to vote – as its stands, that is a moot point.

The only type of referendum provided for in Ocean View pertains to repeal of an ordinance. This proposed change, to allow non-resident property owners to vote and eliminate the town’s election districts, would require a change to the town charter, which must be approved by both the town council and the state legislature. And there is no provision for any referendum on charter changes.

The council will meet again on Tuesday, Aug. 11.