History

Ocean City Lodge No. 10, Fraternal Order of Police

association · active attested 1987–2025

Also known as FOP; FOP Lodge 10

The police union whose recognition Ocean City's charter once forbade outright. In February 1987 Officer Bill Jones brought close to 1,800 signatures asking the council to strike the clause providing that "No union, association, club, etc., or other collective bargaining organization shall be recognized as a bargaining agent", and came back twice with outside legal opinions — one of them from the Fraternal Order of Police — until a 4–3 vote put it on the October ballot, where the voters rejected it 446 to 1,171. Thirty-eight years later, on Resolution 2025-17, the Mayor and Council ratified a three-year collective bargaining agreement with Ocean City Lodge No. 10 of that same organisation, unanimously and without a referendum.

In the record (1)

  1. 1990 · 1990-10-18

    The F.O.P.'s collective-bargaining charter amendment, put on the October ballot by the council itself after the petition fell short at 15 per cent of the voters, was defeated 1,202 to 811

    The 18 October 1990 organizational meeting closed the count: "And the charter amendment referendum: For - 811; Against - 1202." The route to the ballot is in the summer minutes. On 16 July the Board of Election Supervisors reported the F.O.P. petition's valid signatures "represented 15% of the registered voters" against the 20 per cent required, and the council accepted the finding unanimously. At the special session of 24 July the council nonetheless moved to put the question on the ballot with the technical defects corrected - Councilman Gisriel: "I presume the ballot question will in essence be the same questions you put on the petition but the technical problems with it will be addressed" - City Solicitor Ayres warning that as drafted "the Mayor here would enter into binding arbitration, but the Mayor in Ocean City doesn't have the power to bind the Council to appropriate money", that a charter petition should cover one subject, and that it "confers a special status onto the Police Department." Councilman Hall: "If this passes by the voters, if they vote in favor of it, this will be binding." Ayres: "If it passes, it becomes law." On 1 October the council voted 6-1 to spend money answering the F.O.P.'s advertising, Steckman saying "because some of the ads are misleading, the public should get real facts", and on 15 October Rudy DiDio read a letter "voicing his disappointment on the Mayor and Council's anti-charter referendum position." Mayor Powell recalled on 17 September that collective bargaining had been on the ballot once before "and it was defeated."

    Ocean City Police DepartmentVincent Gisriel Jr.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10