OCEAN CITY — A seemingly innocent presentation to a former councilman revealed an apparently larger communication breakdown amid the council and staff, touching off a spirited debate that included the word “speechless” for the second time in as many weeks.
Some Ocean City Council members this week presented a plaque on behalf of the city to former Councilman Doug Cymek during an informal breakfast meeting. Cymek lost his seat in the November municipal election and some of his former colleagues acknowledged his service to the resort with an award on behalf of the city.
However, it came to light at the end of Tuesday’s meeting not all of the current councilmembers were privy to the plan to present Cymek, who served eight years on the council and previously on the town’s Noise Board, with the token of appreciation. Instead, the informal presentation turned out to be the brainchild of Council Secretary Mary Knight, who consulted with City Manager Doug Miller on how best to informally recognize Cymek’s contributions.
Councilman Wayne Hartman said at the close of Tuesday’s meeting he learned of the presentation to Cymek only through social media after the fact and no mention of the plaque or the informal breakfast was ever made in Miller’s broader weekly notes to the full council.
“I understand various councilmembers got together with former Councilman Doug Cymek to give him a plaque from the town,” he said. “I want to publicly thank Doug for his years of service to the city. I understand it was something small and he didn’t want the entire council there and that’s unfortunate.”
Hartman said he fully supported the presentation to his former colleague and did not want to disparage that. Instead, he merely wanted to know why only a few members of the seven-member body were even kept abreast of the presentation.
“With that said, I believe Councilmember Mary Knight initiated the idea and I think it’s a great idea, I was just a little disappointed that is wasn’t shared with the full council,” he said. “I’d just like to know a little history on it because I didn’t know anything about it and four other councilmembers knew nothing of it. I learned about it on Facebook.”
For his part, Miller said he was approached by Knight about putting something informal together for Cymek, who did not want the traditional key to the city and other formalities.
“We were asked to put together some sort of recognition for the former councilman and the folks in my suite took it as a project that resulted in a rather nice plaque and the council secretary arranged for a breakfast, which we had yesterday,” he said.
However, Hartman said the informal Cymek presentation was a symptom of a large communication issue between the council and its staff. Just two weeks ago, Hartman used the word “speechless” when he learned an agenda item involving the purchase of a property on 2nd Street was removed at the last minute with not everyone on the council aware of the change.
“I agree it was a nice plaque,” he said. “I just always hear references to some of the horrible councils from years past and the divide and so forth. When I hear something like that has taken place and not even knowing it existed, it’s a little disappointing to me. I was taken by surprise that in your weekly notes to the council, no mention was made that this was even going on.”
In terms of the Cymek presentation, Hartman said only a few councilmembers and certain staff were privy to the details.
“I just want to be kept in the loop,” he said. “If I hear after the fact it was a great presentation to former Councilman Cymek, I feel a little stabbed in the back. We had this same conversation two weeks ago. There are seven of us and I just feel like we need to improve communication. I just don’t know how else to ask.”
For her part, Knight said she merely wanted to do something laid back for Cymek and apologized for not including all of the councilmembers.
“I will take full responsibility for this,” she said. “What occurred was Doug didn’t know we were presenting something to him. He thought it was just a breakfast with the old crew. It was my idea and I should have run it by you guys, but I just assumed we were doing something nice. I take full responsibility and apologize, and if I ever have an idea like this again, I will share it with all of you.”
Knight attempted to deflect blame away from Miller for apparently not including all of the councilmembers in the discussion.
“He’s [Cymek] the kind of man that didn’t want to stand up here and have all of us do something,” she said. “He was really excited and I apologize for not including everyone. Please don’t blame the city manager.”
Nonetheless, Hartman could not easily be dissuaded from the apparent communication breakdown, not just in terms of the Cymek presentation, but in a larger sense. In addition to the apparent breakdown over the 2nd Street property purchase, earlier on Tuesday it was learned Hartman was not aware the ongoing issue of the old baseball backstop at 3rd Street had been taken off the agenda of the Recreation and Parks Committee he chairs a week earlier.
“I don’t want to take away from what was given to Doug because he really deserves it,” he said. “What I am commenting on is this process of communication and asking the city manager to remember there are seven of us. When three people are included in something and four are left out, I’ve never been a city manager but I think that wouldn’t be something that is a healthy policy. My request again, two weeks later, is that you improve communication. There are seven of us here.”
Councilman Matt James agreed there appeared to be more communication breakdowns recently and referenced the apparent snafu over the 3rd Street backstop removal.
“I was sort of thrown off earlier when we learned an agenda item from Councilman Hartman’s committee meeting was pulled and he didn’t know anything about it,” he said. “I’m not sure if that happens frequently, or has never happened before, but recently it seems to be happening more and more.”
James also voiced concern the apparent breakdowns threatened to divide an otherwise unified council for the most part.
“We don’t want to become a divide-and-conquer body or group, but I think if there is not an improvement in communication, that’s how we’ll be perceived,” he said.
Miller attempted to explain the breakdown over the 3rd Street backstop issue and its removal from the Recreation and Parks Committee agenda without Hartman’s input.
“If I could address the backstop issue, we reported back to you promptly,” he said. “It was my impression that issue was elevated to the council level and had left the commission level. The council president and I discussed it and that’s why it was back on the agenda at this level.”
However, James said the clarification fell short of explaining why Hartman, as committee chair, was not kept in the loop.
“You were under the impression it was back at the council level while Councilman Hartman was under the impression it was still at his committee level,” he said. “As a group, there is some breakdown in communication.”
For his part, Hartman said the Cymek issue, along with the issue of the 2nd Street property purchase and later the backstop issue pointed to a larger problem, particularly the latter.
“No one had enough consideration to fill me in on it,” he said. “I think I used the word ‘speechless’ two weeks ago and this is another one of those times when I can use the words speechless and disappointed again.”
Council President Lloyd Martin attempted to close the debate with a vow for all involved to do better with communication.
“As we go forward, I think we can try to communicate better and make sure some assumptions don’t go the wrong way,” he said. “We’re all trying to work together in a direction that is best for this town and we’re all committed to do our jobs well. We play a big role here in the city and we need to do it together. As a group, I think we can do a better job.”
