By Richard Crumbacker

CRISFIELD — In a polite but firmly worded statement Mayor Barry Dize reminded members of the City Council that any requests for state funding be through consensus of all elected leaders and submitted centrally from City Hall.

The mayor was specifically addressing Vice President Eric Banks who requested in January that Sen. Mary Beth Carozza introduce a $100,000 bond bill for architectural costs related to the depot which the waterfront development team he chairs sees as a priority.

The amenities in mind include a protected outdoor stage plus vendor and food concession booths to accommodate special events during the tourist season. The letter of request was from Mr. Banks as council vice president using his home address with the grant recipient the Mayor and City Council.

Mayor Dize said he was “surprised” to learn after the fact that a bond bill had been submitted on behalf of the city, adding, “At least myself and half of the council was unaware of this,” but chalked it up to “an honest mistake” due to “error and inexperience”

He said Del. Charles Otto, who was asked to submit a companion bill, and his staff, “were unaware that the city had not approved this request.”

At that time, the mayor had not spoken to Sen. Carozza, but he said, “this could have placed the senator and delegate in an embarrassing situation, and not only for them, but the City of Crisfield.”

The mayor said during a meeting in April 2019 Secretary Ken Holt of the Department of Housing and Community Development asked that bond bills for the next few years be dedicated to the rehabilitation of the armory, which is due to receive $1 million over four years.

Further, a month after the bond bill request was made the city’s consulting engineer completed the first long-term Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) which breaks down all infrastructure from water and sewer to buildings and parks to streets and sidewalks and estimates what it will cost to have them rehabilitated or maintained.

The depot and City Dock are part of the CIP with the grand total for all projects conservatively at $18 million over the next five years. Mayor Dize said, “the good news is” if this bond bill passes, the City Dock is in need of repairs and improvements, so from that viewpoint he thanked Mr. Banks for taking the lead and the delegation for sponsoring legislation.

Mr. Banks thanked the mayor for his comments during the meeting, and said later that he is taking “the high road” about this. However, the waterfront development team was an authorized committee and he had updated the Mayor and Council on what it and the marketing team were doing as well as the event-driven Crisfield 24 plan which he is leading.

Mr. Banks said he emailed the mayor with information and noted that Sen. Carozza was willing to support waterfront development, and introduce a bond bill.

“I was just going through the paperwork process,” which required information from City Hall, Mr. Banks said, and he did not hear back from the mayor to stop or change course. “He didn’t just learn about it,” Mr. Banks said of the mayor, and he could have reached out earlier if there were concerns.

However, to avoid any misunderstandings in the future, the mayor said the policy will be that while council members can seek community input, “all ideas have to be brought back in the front of the mayor and full council.”

Mayor Dize said he alerted Sen. Carozza, Del. Otto, and Gov. Larry Hogan’s staff by certified mail “that all financial requests have to originate from City Hall.”

Sen. Carozza didn’t think that was necessary, and in this case the waterfront development team was a committee setup by city leaders and it provided the information she needed to draft a bond bill. If passed it will require no local match.

She said the committee considered other projects including continued work on the Customs House, a boardwalk around the waterfront, as well as an outdoor entertainment venue on the dock.

Bond bills have to be for a targeted purpose, she said, and there are no guarantees any money will be awarded especially in a tight state budget weakened by COVID-19.

“It would be a good situation for Crisfield if this funding would be approved,” she said.

“Crisfield would not even be in consideration if the basic information were not provided to the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee,” she added. If there was miscommunication at the local level, at least now the city is in a position “to possibly be funded on a priority waterfront project” that will make Crisfield a tourist destination.

Del. Otto said he was hesitant at first about the request but because the filing deadline was near he let the senator’s office take the lead “and assumed everybody was on board.” He is preparing a companion bill and would be concerned if there was a divided council or if the mayor called this an unauthorized request.

“We’ve been pretty open, if everybody’s on board we’ll try to work with you and get something to happen,” Del. Otto said, adding that “we’ll see where this goes.”