Arbitration vote left to residents of Ocean City

OCEAN CITY, Md. – Along with choosing who’ll be the next mayor of Ocean City, residents will also be given an opportunity to vote on one important referendum question.  On Tuesday, residents will either be voting for or against a town charter amendment that would allow the Career Firefighter Paramedics Association of Ocean City to have a binding interest arbitration. This means if the town of Ocean City and the association, who represents the town’s emergency services and fire department, cannot agree on a bargaining matter an outside third party would make a final decision.  The association is in favor of the amendment, but the town is not.

“Our concern is that’s an arbitrator that is from outside this area, who is not vested in ocean city,who does not have responsibility for the ocean city budget or setting our tax rate and that is who would be making the elected decision,” said Ocean City mayor Rick Meehan.

“We know what it takes to keep the public safe. It’s what we do everyday. Politics have no place in public safety and no and all of Ocean City firefighters and paramedics agree that the charter amendment is a vote for a better department,” said president of the Ocean City Firefighter Paramedic Association, Ryan Whittington.

Meehan says if the referendum is passed, it could have a direct impact on the town’s general fund budget which could increase residents taxes. But the association says that the amendment is simply a safeguard against bad decisions.

Below is a sample ballot for the 2018 Ocean City Municipal Election which includes mayoral candidates, council candidates and a referendum question:

[SEAL]

NOTICE OF ELECTION

Town of Ocean City

2018 Municipal Election

The Town of Ocean City is holding the Municipal Election in conjunction with the National Election. Registered Ocean City voters are able to vote in both elections at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center, 4001 Coastal Highway, on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The Municipal Election will be held in Hall A; the National Election will be held in Hall B.

The Mayor and City Council approved free bus service on Election Day. ADA service requests require a 24-hour advanced trip reservation. The building is handicap accessible.

Referendum:

A fair summary of said question is that Section C-1003(C) of the Town Charter will be amended to allow Town employees who are represented by the Union for certain employees of the emergency medical services division of the Ocean City Department of Emergency Services, and the Ocean City Fire Marshal’s Department, to have binding interest arbitration by an outside arbitrator in collective bargaining matters where the Union and the Town are in disagreement. Binding interest arbitration is defined as the process through which parties negotiating a collective bargaining agreement upon reaching any impasse on one or more terms, call upon a single person acting as an outside third party to resolve the impasse and create the terms of the collective bargaining agreement to which both parties are thereafter bound.

A vote for the Union Referendum Question supports allowing a single person acting as an outside third party to resolve an impasse in labor negotiations between the Town and the Union by creating the terms of the collective bargaining agreement to which both sides are thereafter bound.

A vote against the Union Referendum Question maintains that Town and Union collective bargaining impasses will continue to be resolved by your elected officials and not by a single person acting as an outside third party.

Please contact City Clerk Diana Chavis at 410-289-8842 if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Local Board of Supervisors of Elections