Guy R. Ayres III
city solicitor · active c. 1979–c. 2024
City Solicitor of Ocean City for more than forty years, and the longest continuous professional presence in the modern record. He explained the shape of the 1988 beach dredging to the council — one company working south from the Delaware line, another north from 5th Street, meeting near 74th Street — and answered the joke about driving a golden spike with "Drive the golden surfboard, I guess." In May 1993 he read Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council into the record over a twenty-foot strip of the Jolly Roger property, told Mayor Powell there was "a very good chance" the town would be effecting a taking, and was corrected from the floor by a citizen who thought the case nowhere near close. He disagreed with Vincent Gisriel about the adequacy of public notification for thirty years. He is gone by 2025, when the town is advised by City Attorneys Heather Stansbury and Maureen Howarth.
In the record (49)
1979
The council debated publishing the budget in the newspaper and decided against it — "as long as it's available for the public to see"
Councilman Trimper's formulation draws the line where the town had drawn it in 1977 when it wrote its own open-meetings exemptions: access on request rather than access by default. Thirty-four meetings this year. Mayor Harry W. Kelley in his ninth year; President J. Warren Frame; Councilmen Purnell, Trimper, Deutsch, Harrison, Ayres.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
1979 · 1979-05-21
Faced with a casino bus tour operator, the council declared itself against gambling as a family resort and confined the buses to loading and unloading at the 2nd Street Trailways terminal, six to nothing with one abstention
On 21 May 1979 a Mr. Denis, represented by Attorney Casey, sought to run casino tour buses out of Ocean City (the opening page of the item is missing from the minutes' text layer; the discussion resumes on page thirty). President Frame: "we're against gambling, we're a family resort and we certainly don't want to indicate with any billboards or any other kind of advertisement that we approve it. But, if the ICC approves you, if you have a loading zone even though you were making money and exploiting the visitors to Ocean City I didn't see anyway to stop you." Councilman Purnell moved, Trimper seconded, that the buses be allowed "to load and unload at 2nd Street only ... On the bus terminal lot, and only the bus terminal lot." Frame first put it as a motion "to disallow casino tours" and was corrected by Trimper and Mr. Hoover: "To allow them." "Six of Mr. Purnell's motion, and one abstention. Councilman Ayres abstained." Two weeks earlier, on 7 May, Purnell had told the Nonresident Property Owners' Commission, which had prepared a report on legalising casino gambling in Ocean City, "if you do come back don't come back with any advantages for gambling, please."
Nonresident Property Owners' Commission
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1981 · 1981-02-02
A man who had run parasail rides at Chincoteague asked Ocean City for a permit to fly customers behind a boat in the Isle of Wight Bay, and was sent to Planning and Zoning for a conditional-use hearing
Item 10 of the regular meeting of 2 February 1981: "Mr. Jeff Redmond, relative parasailing - wants a license to operate a parasailing business in Ocean City." Redmond: "I'm here to request a permit to operate not out of a motel room, but possibly in the Isle of Wight Bay. Parasailing is a recreational sort of a parachute behind a boat. Some of you may have seen it in the Bahamas, Acapulco, or hopefully down in Chincoteague, Virginia this year with me." He would take off and land from a barge with a pulley, and be "there every day of the operation myself in a boat aside from the actual boat that is doing the pulling." Councilman Feehley: "I visualize this as a powerboat towing someone who's up in the air ... I would take a lot of convincing to convince me that this would be a safe activity back there," given the summer boat traffic on the bay. Zoning Administrator Hoover said the use "would require a conditional use permit approved by the City Council" after a Planning and Zoning hearing, and Councilman Deutsch asked why Redmond had "come before the Mayor and Council rather than take the normal channel"; Redmond: "My mistake then." Councilman Ayres asked whether he would not still be relying on wind to get a customer back onto the dock. No decision was taken.
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1981 · 1981-05-04
For the White Marlin Band Parade of 9 May 1981, moved up from Memorial Day to open the season early, the council voted 6-1 to let two or three private cars onto the Boardwalk so the Fire Department Queen and Miss Teenage Maryland could ride in a convertible
Bob Givarz, president of the Downtown Improvement Association, reminded the regular meeting of 4 May 1981 "of the upcoming White Marlin Band Parade, May 9th, of which the Mayor and City Council will be serving as Grand Marshals" - "the whole concept of this parade was to try and kick off the summer season a little bit early rather than the traditional Memorial Day." He asked the council to relax its rule against private vehicles on the Boardwalk: "We do have some ladies who will be in the parade, some Queens, one of which is the Ocean City Volunteer Fire Department Queen, and we think we might have Miss Teenage Maryland here ... we would like to have a nice car to allow them to ride in"; the Chamber of Commerce wanted a four-wheel drive "to show sport fishing" and the Assateague Mobile Sport Fishermen an entry. President Trimper was against it: "you're setting a very dangerous precedent, because everybody wants to use the boardwalk to put vehicles on. We've denied the antique cars. We've denied all others." Councilman Ayres had asked Public Works' Jake Shaner, who saw "no problem with automobiles or even pick-up trucks", and thought convertibles "an intricate part of a parade". Councilman Feehley moved to try it "on a one-time basis" with the boardwalk liaison; Harrison seconded; "Six in favor, one opposed. President Trimper was opposed." Givarz then asked, for the same association, that bicycles be allowed on the Boardwalk until 6 p.m. on May and September weekdays.
Ocean City Volunteer Fire DepartmentOcean City Chamber of CommerceGranville TrimperG. Hale Harrison
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1981 · 1981-05-04
Ocean City's surfers were left five designated beaches for 1981 - losing 66th Street to the Holiday Inn and 52nd to a condominium once it was occupied - and lost 4-3 their request to surf until 10:30 on weekdays
Rich Parolski, for the Surfers' Liaison Committee, made his annual appearance at the regular meeting of 4 May 1981, having toured the beaches with Councilman Ayres. The 1980 beaches had been 52nd-53rd, 66th-67th, Pyramid to Century One, 118th-119th and 144th-145th Streets. Proposed for 1981: 52nd-53rd "until occupancy of 'Constellation House' project", 58th-59th (by consent of the owner), Pyramid to Century One, 118th-119th and 144th-145th - "We will lose 66th to 67th because of the Holiday Inn ... in effect we're losing two beaches and adding one." Parolski: "obviously the beaches are diminishing as time goes on. I think surfing has turned from a sport to now it's a commercial venture," naming three surf shops in the room. The committee asked to extend weekday morning surfing from 10:00 to 10:30. President Trimper: "I think your beaches are quite crowded by 10:00"; Councilman Harrison: the tourists "are on the beach in sufficient numbers by 10:00 to warrant the surfboards coming off." Ayres's motion to approve the whole request including 10:30 failed, "4 opposed and 3 in favor" (Feehley, Ayres and Duggan for); a fallback extension only north of 135th and south of 7th Street also failed - Ayres: "You know, we're running out of beaches." Parolski: "Got plan C?" The mayor suggested a beach patrol crew chief be made liaison to the surfers so the word could travel on days the swimmers stayed out.
Ocean City Beach PatrolG. Hale HarrisonGranville Trimper
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1981 · 1981-06-01
The Hare Krishna movement, which said it had worked the Boardwalk for ten or fifteen summers, asked to park book carts with juice and cookies there in 1981 and was told the town had never let anyone put a cart on the Boardwalk and would not start now
Item 16 of the regular meeting of 1 June 1981: "Mr. Lawrence Clow relative Hare Krishna Movement's activities for 1981 in Ocean City." Clow: "Over the past years all over the Country and here in Ocean City for the last 10 or 15 years we've been coming and performing our different activities. What we'd like to try this year is to kind of centralize our activities. In the past they've always had roving book distributors which distribute books and talk to the people on the boardwalk. But this year we would like to centralize our activities by having carts located at different areas on the boardwalk where people could come to us" - two-foot-wide carts with books and "some refreshments if they like", juice, peanuts, cookies, for a donation. Councilman Deutsch: "I don't think the First Amendment provides for the placement of the carts and so forth. It provides for your activity of the distribution of literature." Councilman Ayres: "if this is a First Amendment right why do you need our permission?" Clow: "We're not asking permission ... We plan to go ahead and do this, but we just wanted to see what your position would be. We're trying to present ourselves in a cooperative spirit." President Trimper: "How is that a cooperative spirit if you're telling us you're going to do it anyhow whether we like it or not?" Feehley objected to free food beside taxpaying boardwalk businesses. Trimper, for the council: "the City in the past has never interfered with your First Amendment rights or any Amendment rights to practice your religion on the boardwalk ... However, we have never in the past permitted anyone to put carts, tables or anything else on the boardwalk and I don't believe it's the position of this Council that they're going to give you permission to do it now." No councilman objected.
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1982
Harry Kelley ran for governor and lost the September primary with 61,271 votes, and for most of the year President Granville Trimper ran Ocean City — appearing in the record more than three times as often as the mayor
Councilmen Ellis, Harrison, Duggan, Feehley, Deutsch; Councilwoman Conner; Guy Ayres as City Solicitor. A mayor of a town of a few thousand year-round residents standing for the governorship of Maryland is itself a measure of what the resort had become — and the town governed perfectly well without him, which is another.
Mrs. George B. ConnerGranville Trimper
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1982 · 1982-04-05
Asked by Senator Long how it felt about a State bill keeping mopeds out of bike lanes and off sidewalks, the council backed it four to three, its president having called the traffic lane "the slaughter lane"
At the close of the regular meeting of 5 April 1982 City Solicitor Ayres reported a call from Senator Long about a bill, passed by the House and pending in the Senate, that "prohibits mopeds from being in the bike lanes or on sidewalks." President Trimper: "It puts them out in the slaughter lane." Councilman Deutsch recalled the town had once wanted to restrict mopeds and could not, and moved that the council "go on record as being in favor of the bill"; Conner seconded. Trimper: "We better increase our ambulance force." Councilman Harrison: "whether how you feel about mopeds or not, they're going to be in the town ... they oughta be in the bicycle lanes, I can't go along with supporting that bill." Ellis: "I agree with Hale, don't mix um up with the cars." Ayres explained the bill let the State Highway Administration post particular bike lanes as open to mopeds, so the town could ask for Coastal Highway afterwards. Captain Cropper noted that because of the engine size a moped "is not considered a motorized vehicle." On a show of hands: "Four. Opposed? Three." Trimper: "Ah, gee, I have mixed emotions on this." On 7 September 1982 the police report to council counted two moped accidents over the Labor Day weekend.
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1982 · 1982-06-07
The annual dog licence fee rose from $3 to $5 by Ordinance 1982-22, passed unanimously on first reading
Item D under first readings at the regular meeting of 7 June 1982, "Ordinance - 'Licensing Procedure' and 'Violations and Penalties'." City Solicitor Ayres: "This is the annual dog license fee of $5, it increases from $3 to 5, I believe. I have taken out section 23-5.3 which is the violations and penalty section since that's been added to a new Chapter of the Code that the Mayor and Council requested that I prepare so the actual affect of this ordinance 1982-22 would be to increase the dog license fee." Councilman Harrison moved approval on first reading, Councilwoman Conner seconded, and "the vote was unanimous with everyone voting." The same evening's next first reading, 1982-23, set a fee of one-half of one percent of the purchase price on property transfers. The ordinance came back for second reading on 21 June 1982.
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1983
Kelley returned from the governor's race to a council that had run the town without him, and the chair alternated between President Trimper and Acting President Ellis
Councilmen Moore, Hurley, Deutsch, Ellis; Councilwoman Conner; Guy Ayres, City Solicitor. Twenty-nine meetings. The year's two defining documents — the growth resolution and the publicity defence of unconstitutional ordinances — are both the council's work rather than the mayor's, which is a change in where this town's decisions were being made.
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1984
The Maryland Coast Dispatch was founded in 1984 — the first local paper since the Democratic Messenger stopped in February 1973 — but its online archive does not reach back this far
Eleven years without a hometown paper in this corpus, ended in principle and not yet in practice. Twenty-seven meetings this year. Mayor Harry W. Kelley; President Trimper, with Acting President Hurley; Councilmen Ellis, Deutsch; Councilwoman Conner; City Manager Barrett; Guy Ayres, City Solicitor.
Harry W. KelleyMrs. George B. ConnerAnthony W. Barrett
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1986 · 1986-01-06
The council met fifty-two times in 1986 — the first year it sat weekly — and opened the year by lifting a building moratorium
"DISCUSSION ON BUILDING MORATORIUM … Then I think we probably need a motion to go ahead and lift the building moratorium." Mayor Roland E. Powell in his first full year; Council President Granville Trimper; Councilmen Duggan, Meehan, Moore, Ellis, Trumpower, Hurley; City Manager Anthony W. Barrett; City Solicitor Guy Ayres III; City Engineer Dennis Dare; City Planner Jesse Houston; Zoning Administrator Blaine Smith; Clerk/Treasurer Sheldon Dietert. In 1946 the council met thirty-one times; in 1957, forty; now every week of the year.
Rick MeehanAnthony W. BarrettDennis W. DareGranville TrimperJesse Houston
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1986 · 1986-02-03
The State budget carried $700,000 for beach replenishment — the point at which Ocean City's beach stopped being something the sea maintained and became something the State buys
The agenda item reads "MAYOR POWELL DISCUSSES STATE BUDGET APPROPRIATION OF $700,000 FOR BEACH REPLENISHMENT," and City Solicitor Ayres confirmed the frame: "I think that the DNR plan, the replenishment plan, still ultimately calls for that." The thread runs unbroken — the jetties named as the cause of Assateague's recession in 1978, the Trident Report the State asked the town to endorse in 1982, the million-dollar bond bill the Governor opposed in 1984. Every later argument about the town — its insurance, its skyline, its budget, its right to exist where it is — runs through this appropriation.
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1988
The year the sand was actually pumped is recorded here from forty-eight sets of council minutes and nothing else
About 1.67 million characters. Mayor Roland E. Powell; Council President Granville Trimper; Councilmen Feehley, Hurley, Meehan, Steckman, Trumpower, Hall; City Manager Anthony W. Barrett; City Solicitor Guy Ayres III; City Clerk Carol Davis. The environmental groups whose objection Hurley describes are known to this record only through the mouths of the men who waited them out.
Rick MeehanA. C. DavisAnthony W. BarrettGranville Trimper
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1988 · 1988-03-21
Two dredging companies worked toward each other — one south from the Delaware line, one north from 5th Street — hoping to meet around 74th Street
"one of the dredging companies is going to start at the Delaware line and work south. The other dredging company is going to start at 5th Street and work north. They're hoping to meet around 74th Street." — City Solicitor Ayres. Councilman Trumpower: "To drive their little spike." President Trimper: "There will be a big step towards the beach." Ayres: "Drive the golden surfboard, I guess … so I don't know how that fits in with the surfing beaches." The joke is a transcontinental railroad joke and it is the right one. The surfing association spent February arranging alternate contest sites "depending by that time what's going on with the beach pumping", and a councilman suggested the surfers simply follow the dredge down the coast — "what is bad for the sunbathers may be perfect for you all."
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1989
Forty-nine meetings, about 1.32 million characters, and still one source — sixteen years after the county paper stopped
City Manager Barrett; City Solicitor Ayres; City Engineer Dennis Dare; City Planner Jesse Houston. The Maryland Coast Dispatch was five years old and the Maryland Times-Press had been publishing since November 1988, held at Enoch Pratt. Neither is in this corpus.
Anthony W. BarrettDennis W. DareJesse Houston
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1990
The document count doubles to 94 as work sessions, correspondence packets and bid documents begin to be filed with the minutes — from here the record is an archive rather than a transcript
About 1.73 million characters. The change matters for how every later year of this campaign must be read: verbatim argument gives way to filed paper, and the kind of sentence that made 1972 and 1988 legible becomes rarer. Mayor Roland E. Powell; Council President George Hurley; Councilman Richard Meehan as Secretary; Councilmen Feehley, Gisriel, Hall, Steckman; Councilwoman Sally Hacking; City Solicitor Guy Ayres III; City Clerk Carol L. Jacobs.
Rick MeehanVincent Gisriel Jr.
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1992
A hundred and six documents and a changed council: Meehan in the chair, Mathias and Mann arriving, Gisriel still on the floor
Mayor Roland E. Powell; Council President Richard Meehan; Councilmen Gisriel, Hall, Mann, Mathias, Westfall; Councilwoman Sally Hacking; City Manager Dennis Dare; City Solicitor Ayres; City Planner Jesse Houston; Finance Director Martha Bennett. About 1.35 million characters across 106 documents — more paper than 1990 and less text, the archive form settling in.
Rick MeehanDennis W. DareJesse HoustonVincent Gisriel Jr.
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1993 · 1993-05-17
The Supreme Court's beachfront takings case was read aloud in Ocean City eleven months after it was decided, over a twenty-foot strip of the Jolly Roger property — and a citizen took the City Solicitor apart from the floor
Mayor Powell: "would we not be taking away his rights and we would have to reimburse in some manner? Isn't this a recent court ruling that you can't by zoning do away with a person's rights to his property?" City Solicitor Ayres: "if you consider the case of Lucas versus South Carolina and its progeny … you could potentially create what's known as an inverse condemnation because you effectively by zoning action deprived the property owner of any effective use of his property. The Lucas case in particular was a beachfront case. And the action that was taken under the so-called premise of beach replenishment or beach preservation allowed Lucas some use of his property. So you don't have to take away all uses, but they effectively denied him the real beneficial use … And Lucas of course was successful in the Supreme Court." Powell: "Would we not be doing that to Mr. Jenkins?" Ayres: "I think there's a very good chance you would be doing that to Mr. Jenkins." Then King Burnett, from the floor: "There are many, many cases upholding setbacks of lots larger than 20 feet. And the big difference between South Carolina — you've got a whole lot there, a couple hundred feet. It may have been an acre. I know of no time anywhere in this country where somebody said if you prohibit somebody from using 20 foot of their property, it's any kind of a taking. … I have a lot of admiration for Mr. Ayres, but this case is in no way even close … What makes this land really useless is the fact that it's only 20 feet. It's the natural attributes of this property."
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1994
Ninety-eight documents and about 1.92 million characters, with Richard Meehan giving way to George Feehley in the chair through the autumn
Mayor Roland E. Powell; Councilmen Duggan, Hall, Mann, Mathias, Westfall; City Manager Dennis Dare; City Solicitor Ayres; City Planner Jesse Houston; City Clerk Carol L. Jacobs. Both Meehan and Mathias would later hold the mayoralty.
Rick MeehanDennis W. DareJesse Houston
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1995
Ninety-eight documents and about 2.23 million characters — the archive still growing, and still the only source
Mayor Roland E. Powell; Council President George Feehley; Councilmen Duggan, Gisriel, Hall, Mann, Mathias, Meehan; City Manager Dennis Dare; Finance Director Martha Bennett; City Solicitor Ayres. Two hometown papers had been publishing for years by now and neither is held here.
Rick MeehanDennis W. DareVincent Gisriel Jr.
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1995 · 1995-03-20
The Ocean City Ministerial Association applied for a special-event permit to walk up Baltimore Avenue on Good Friday, stopping to pray at each church, and the city solicitor told them a procession of churchgoers needed no permit at all
At the regular meeting of 20 March 1995 (item 5B) Jim McGinnis, for the Ocean City Ministerial Association, presented "a new request for a gathering of people on Worcester Street at the Sunspot Ministry and to march up Baltimore to the Atlantic Union Methodist Church in honor of Good Friday ... stopping at each church. And we'll be there for approximately 15 or 20 minutes each place. The pastors of each church will offer a small sermon, and the people will move on." Councilman Gisriel offered to waive the $25 application fee but not the insurance rider. City Solicitor Ayres: "Well, I'm not even so sure this requires a special event permit." Mayor Powell: "For a group of people walk along the sidewalk and stop at a church and do some praying." Ayres: "To my knowledge, just about every church in town on Palm Sunday people get out and walk around with palms ... I don't think church members going from one church to another requires a special event permit in this town." McGinnis said they had been sent to the Convention Center for the form; the council counted the group at 150 people; the trolley they had asked for was not handicapped-accessible and the City Manager offered a van instead. Gisriel withdrew his motion and no permit was issued.
Roland E. "Fish" PowellVincent Gisriel Jr.
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1995 · 1995-05-15
A marionette maker of thirty-two years read the council the eight rules printed on his Boardwalk performer's permit and asked for the whole Boardwalk back, and was told a fatal train accident had made crowd control the first consideration
James Starck, at the regular meeting of 15 May 1995: "I'm a puppeteer, street performer, entertainer, landscaper, gardener, and businessman ... Thirty-two years I have been making marionettes." He read the permit's rules: "The performer must remain mobile, not obstruct the flow of traffic. No amplification or electric sound system allowed. No sales of any product. Performer must represent himself only. No handouts or advertising for other businesses. No use of fire or other hazardous materials in the performance. You may give the people the opportunity to tip you for your performance. You may not try to solicit, beg, or hustle, or physically accost people." He performed "late in the evenings from 10 p.m. to 1 or 2 a.m." with "my marionette, tip bucket, and my voice," and the only places now allowed were "Wicomico Street to the end of the Boardwalk, 9th and 10th Street, and maybe if you get chosen for a short time the Caroline Street pad." He asked for the Boardwalk "from 33rd Street all the way down to the end, open for all the performers." President Feehley: "We really have a safety problem ... we had a fatal accident not too long ago." City Solicitor Ayres: acts "such as yours ... draw crowds ... the Boardwalk train comes to a stop in some instances and has to inch along. And it's just become uncontrollable over the years." Starck proposed squares of the Boardwalk's benches as performing rings on every block, and orange cargo netting between the train's sections.
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1995 · 1995-08-21
The mayor told the council that live models in thongs were posing as mannequins in a volleyball shop, that the off-colour T-shirts had come back, and asked "where is our public image?" - and was told the models were on private property
At the regular meeting of 21 August 1995 Mayor Powell broke into a discussion of a police picnic: "They have live models and they're beautiful girls, no doubt about it. And they - they're the kind of people that stand there and they don't move, you know ... But while the lady was parked there with all her kids in the car, the model turned, backside to the public, and managed to bend over and do that. And guess what she had on? A bong." Councilman Hall: "A thong." The mayor: "Now this lady - a gong or thong, a bong, a string ... You know, where is our public image? ... I don't know what's starting to take place in this town, but there's been a change this year. The T-shirts have come back. I've had two people today. And they named the places. And I constantly ask the Police Department to look at it." Councilman Gisriel recalled that "several years ago we wrote to the state's attorney in this county about the thong issue. And he wrote back to us and told us he would not prosecute that." City Solicitor Ayres: the town's ordinance "wouldn't apply to that situation anyway ... because it's not public property." The synopsis (item 17) records "a local volleyball shop where live models dressed only in thongs pose as mannequins" and that "it was agreed that more police enforcement was needed."
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1996
1996 is Roland Powell's last year as mayor, closing the eleven-year term that began with Harry Kelley's death and ran through the pumping of the beach
Ninety-three documents, about 2.26 million characters. Council President George Feehley; Councilmen Duggan, Gisriel, Hall, Mann, Mathias, Meehan; City Manager Dennis Dare; Finance Director Martha Bennett; City Solicitor Ayres. Powell had first appeared in this record as a councilman in the town's full-page advertisement in the Democratic Messenger's centennial edition of August 1969.
Rick MeehanDennis W. DareVincent Gisriel Jr.
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1996 · 1996-03-18
The council refused both a drafted body-piercing ordinance and a motion to regulate piercing like tattooing, and voted instead to ask the State to write the rules, after the shop owner told them "the last time I checked my ears are connected to my body"
A draft ordinance negotiated since February between the City Solicitor, shop owner Melissa Adams and the Health Department came to the regular meeting of 18 March 1996 (item 17). Councilman Duggan moved instead "to see body piercing on the same regulations and guidelines as tattoo ordinance that we have locally", which would have required a physician on the premises. Adams: "I started this business last year ... spent $40-50,000 getting my shop opened, started; spent $11,000 in advertising. And simply because I came to you instead of going to the state, you're now gonna put me out of business ... The Health Department sat in here last week and said ... it will make it more dangerous ... because it will put it underground. It will put it in backrooms. It will put it in kitchens ... Body piercing is body piercing. And the last time I checked my ears are connected to my body." President Feehley: "a high school dropout could put themselves in business." Duggan's motion failed 3-4 (Gisriel, Duggan and Feehley for; Mann, Hall, Mathias and Meehan against). Mayor Powell said he would support neither the motion nor the ordinance: "We are not a medical board of review. I don't think we have the expertise to put this ordinance together" and that passing it "will give a feeling of security to the people who may go to these ... body piercing shops." Councilman Mathias then moved to ask the State to regulate; the City Solicitor advised that a moratorium on new licences "would create a monopoly for the two known businesses and would be illegal"; the vote was unanimous.
Roland E. "Fish" PowellJames N. "Jim" Mathias Jr.
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1996 · 1996-05-20
A tenant asked to keep a five-foot iguana that relieved itself in his bathtub, and the mayor, who wanted nothing to do with "a damned snake", asked the solicitor whether a permit holder could walk one down the Boardwalk
Regular meeting of 20 May 1996, item 15, request to house an iguana, with Council Secretary Hall in the chair. Mayor Powell: "Five foot long. Where does it go to the bathroom and how is this maintained?" Bob Noonan: "I put it in the bathtub is where he usually goes." Councilman Meehan: "Is this what we want to promote in Ocean City? I mean why not get a flock of chickens ... and put 'em in your spare bedroom?" Powell: "Where does this thing stop? ... You've got a five-foot animal living in a cage in a - probably a small unit, multi-unit place, that does his business in the bathroom in the bathtub ... Move across the bridge and get yourself an acre of land ... the majority of people including myself don't want anything to do with a damned snake." Noonan explained the police had seen an empty aquarium through his porch window, Animal Control had asked whether he housed a snake, and he had since sent the snake to his brother in Baltimore; he was a renter in a second-floor unit and needed a sign on his door. Powell: "Guy, can - are they able to take these animals and walk 'em down the Boardwalk or down the beach? ... How about the snake? Can you walk down the Boardwalk with a snake around your neck? ... It's not a damned bit funny to me." City Solicitor Ayres: "I think the ordinance deals with housing one. I don't think it deals with someone who drives into town and wants to walk down the Boardwalk and back. I'm not aware of any law that prohibits that." The permit was approved unanimously with Hall abstaining and Feehley absent. It was the year's second exotic-animal permit; Diana Peterson's two-foot ball python in a 500-gallon aquarium had been approved on 3 January, and the black rat snake followed in August.
Roland E. "Fish" PowellRick Meehan
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1996 · 1996-05-20
The $1.00 licence that had let farmers sell produce, fish and fowl from a pickup in a hotel parking lot was repealed, over a local farmer's objection, so that every vendor paid the same business licence
Ordinance 1996-11, second reading at the regular meeting of 20 May 1996 (item 20): it "amends Chapter 72 which repeals from the code the $1.00 license provision for hawkers or peddlers of fish, fowl, and local produce". Attorney Peter Wimbrow, for the farmer Harry Wimbrow: "it's my understanding that there were only four of these licenses issued last year ... if there isn't a problem, I just don't understand why it needs fixing." City Solicitor Ayres: "I can remember ... when these people used to come in their pickup trucks and pull into the hotel parking lots and ring their bell and that's where a lot of people went out and bought their produce. These people don't come into town anymore." Councilman Gisriel: "We had a series of complaints by businessmen ... who pay a business license, pay property taxes, and have a designated produce stand ... we've since ... found out there apparently is no Maryland law that guarantees a farmer, who grows produce in Maryland, the right to be on a corner." Harry Wimbrow, from the floor, sold "wherever the property owner'll give me permission ... so basically north of the city, bayside". Mayor Powell asked how much parking was required for a pickup truck selling produce; the planner cited the vendors' set-up on Brice Phillips's lot at 142nd Street. The synopsis: "The repealing of this section does not prohibit selling of the produce; it just requires the same business license be obtained." Passed 6-0, Feehley absent.
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1996 · 1996-10-17
The October 1996 election results were read into the record on 17 October: James Mathias 1,424 for mayor against George Feehley 664, John Staley 456 and Margaret Pillas 364, and Nancy Howard led the council poll with 1,684, so that the elections chairman opened with "this'll be the last time I'll be saying gentlemen"
Special session of 17 October 1996, the organizational meeting, chaired by Council Secretary Hall because "Council President Feehley resigned his seat to run for Mayor and his resignation takes effect the day after the election." Mary Adeline Bradford, chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Elections: "For Mayor: George Feehley 664; James Mathias 1424; Margaret Pillas 364; John Staley 456. The winner for Mayor, James Mathias. For Council: Seymour Bridge 254; Douglas Cymek 561; Leroy Duggan 1571; Jim S. Hall 1465; Joseph T. Hall 750; Nancy Howard 1684; Lloyd Martin 961; Richard Meehan 1516; Stanley Rodman 259; Pat Sadowski 966; Kyle Sandler 142; Glenn Steckman 1287; Henry Westfall 946. Those elected for full four-year terms: Nancy Howard, Leroy Duggan, Richard Meehan, Jim S. Hall. And elected to fill the remaining two years of Councilman Mathias's term: Glenn Steckman." Councilman Gisriel questioned why poll watchers were sent out at 7 p.m. before the count (the board "took 'may' to mean 'may' and not 'shall'") and learned that "five or six" absentee ballots marked with a check instead of the X the Charter requires had been disallowed on the City Solicitor's reading. Feehley, without a vote: "I was asked to send in a letter of resignation this time which I thought was not necessary because up to now, a Councilman stayed a Councilman until the next group was sworn in." The results were accepted on Mann's motion, Meehan seconding. Richard Meehan was council president by the next regular meeting on 21 October.
James N. "Jim" Mathias Jr.Rick MeehanVincent Gisriel Jr.
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1998 · 1998-06-09
The council voted unanimously to get a price on a study of whether Ocean City's taxpayers were getting a fair return on what they paid the county
Also at the work session of 9 June 1998: Councilman Steckman said "a study should be done by InterGovernmental Services at the University of Maryland to ascertain if the taxpayers in the Town of Ocean City are getting a fair return compared to what they pay the county". Councilman Hall moved that it be formulated by City Solicitor Ayres, Mayor Mathias and Councilman Steckman and that an estimate be obtained from IGS; seconded by Councilman Mann; the vote was unanimous. What the town gets back from the county is among the oldest questions in this record and is usually asked rhetorically. Here it is asked as a procurement.
Source · checked 2026-09-04
1999 · 1999-01-19
Twenty Boardwalk merchants testified against the non-profit T-shirt tables, and the city solicitor told them the last attempt to remove them had cost the town $50,000 to $75,000 against "what we refer to as the Church of the Holy T-Shirt"
The regular session of 19 January 1999 held a public hearing "to consider the economic effects to the local economy as a result of the non-profit vendors on the Boardwalk. Since One World One Family Now was allowed to place tables on the Boardwalk several years ago in order to display their T-shirts, many complaints have been leveled to the Mayor and Council." Twenty speakers are listed, from the co-owner of the T-Shirt Factory ("now I have a guy who's taking probably $500 to $1,000 away on any given day from a particular store") to Boardwalk jeweller Jeff Thaler, who said the vendors "started setting up tables on the trashcans". A voice from the floor put the loss at "$2 million out of the economy every summer". City Solicitor Ayres explained why the town had settled for a daily rotation ordinance after the last suit: "The last time we just stayed in U.S. District Court ... My guess is that cost the Town somewhere between $50--- and probably $75,000. Because what happens is, these become civil rights cases ... in the last case we had the ACLU; we had a law firm representing what we refer to as the Church of the Holy T-Shirt; and we had another law firm representing a couple of the entertainers." He added that the shirts had changed since the court saw them: "a little smaller message, a little smaller whale, and a much bigger Ocean City, Maryland." The council closed the hearing 4-0 and voted to extend the rotation schedule year-round.
Ocean City BoardwalkRick Meehan
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1999 · 1999-02-09
All three holders of the beach photographer's franchise missed the 80 per cent instalment due on 1 January, and at a sworn show-cause hearing on 9 February none could say when they would pay
City Solicitor Ayres opened the hearing at the work session of 9 February 1999: "The Beach Photographer's Franchise in Ocean City requires that the annual franchise fee be paid in increments, 80% on or before January 1st of each year and the remaining 20% on or before June 30th ... The amounts due from Mr. Gregory Ferrante comes to $129,780; Kathleen Ferrante comes to $128,880.80; and from Patrick O'Malley $128,400." The code made no provision for a hearing, "however, in view of the substantial contract rights involved, in the interest of fairness and due process, this hearing is being extended." O'Malley, owner of Sunbeach Studio, read a statement recalling his years as "a beachboy on 10th Street, a Boardwalk casino attendant on 10th Street ... a bellhop at the Kittywake Hotel" and "an Ocean City Beach Patrol Lifeguard for three years" - the four O'Malley brothers, he said, held the patrol's record for lifeguards from one family - and said "I'm not prepared to make it today." Gregory Ferrante: "I would be unable to do so until sometime this summer." Kathleen Ferrante: "I cannot make a payment now." Councilman Gisriel read O'Malley's record into the minutes: the payment due 30 June 1996 was 18 days late, 1 January 1997 27 days late, June 1997 about 35 days. The franchises were revoked and rebid; on 5 April all three were debarred from bidding on municipal contracts until 2003.
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1999 · 1999-08-16
Faced with the first application for a tattoo parlour in the town's history, the council passed an emergency ordinance in six days requiring that a physician do the tattooing, with $5 million of insurance, a $500 licence and a $1,000 fine
At the work session of 10 August 1999 "Mayor Mathias addressed the recent submission of an application to establish a tattoo parlor in town, noting if it got approved, it would be the first. Also, a pawn shop has opened here ... Members of the Police Commission had met prior to this meeting and fully support exploring every avenue to deny the application." The City Solicitor and City Planner "were instructed to investigate ways to deny the application as soon as possible." Six days later, at the regular session of 16 August, Ordinance 1999-27 amended Chapter 61A, Licensed Tattoo Establishments: "the major amendments stipulate the person performing the tattoo must be a physician or osteopath, the medical malpractice and liability insurance increases to $5 million, the license fee increases to $500, and the fine for a convicted violation increases to $1,000." Councilman Gisriel objected that the ordinance "was too hastily prepared without considerable study and leaves the Town vulnerable for litigation whereby the existing ordinance has been in the code since 1985 with no applicants"; Ayres said it was modelled on a New York City ordinance upheld on appeal. The applicant, Michael Copley of Wind Chimes Tattoo, "stated he has been practicing this art for 20 years with no complaints" and that the ordinance was unfair since his application "had already been filed and met the current test". It passed 5-2 on first reading and 5-1-1 as an emergency ordinance, with the mayor's concurrence. In May the City Manager had already answered an Orlando firm proposing to sell tattoos carrying "messages" under the peddling exemption: "we do not understand what you are proposing."
James N. "Jim" Mathias Jr.Vincent Gisriel Jr.Dennis W. Dare
Source · checked 2026-09-10
2001 · 2001-07-04
The Mayor and Council met at 11 a.m. on the Fourth of July 2001 and, by unanimous emergency ordinance effective that day, made the town's alcohol-free dance clubs close at 2:30 a.m. after police described after-hours crowds mixing with drunks leaving the bars, ecstasy dealers arriving from out of state, and crack laid out in a cup holder
President Meehan opened the special session: "I know the 4th of July is not the most opportune time to meet, but we felt, based on the circumstances, it was necessary that we do so." City Solicitor Ayres explained that the dance clubs, "because of the expanded hours now going until 5 and 6 o'clock into the morning," were "mixing people who have consumed alcoholic beverages, many of whom are intoxicated, who are leaving the bars and nightclubs at the required closing time of 2:30," with "certain criminal elements" driving "two even three hours" to arrive at 2:30 or 3 a.m. Chief Massey asked to amend the moratorium Ordinance 2001-10, which had set no hours: the after-hours clubs had generated "about 188" police reports and "about 160 arrests." Det. Sgt. Lee Fisher of the Maryland State Police said a "core group of ecstasy investigators" had put undercover officers in the clubs since Memorial Day and watched known distributors from elsewhere in Maryland and Delaware "roll in" at the 45th Street Village around 2 a.m. An Ocean City sergeant told the council that "probably 50% of the individuals we arrest have some type of controlled dangerous substance on them" and that the week before "there were 20-25 rocks of crack cocaine laying in a cup holder in plain view." Councilman Jim Hall moved the hours - "No person shall operate a dance club during any hours other than 4:00 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. of the following day" - and the council passed it unanimously, Gisriel absent, then voted unanimously to ask the mayor to sign it as an emergency ordinance, "effective today," with copies delivered to every affected club.
Ocean City Police DepartmentMaryland State PoliceRick Meehan
Source · checked 2026-09-10
2004
Eighty-nine documents and about 2.29 million characters, with Joseph Hall II and James Hall both on the council alongside Lloyd Martin and Joseph Mitrecic
Mayor James N. Mathias, Jr.; Council President Richard Meehan; Councilmen Vincent Gisriel, Jr., Joseph Hall II, James Hall, Lloyd Martin, Joseph Mitrecic; Council Member Nancy Howard; City Manager Dennis Dare; Public Works Director Hal Adkins; City Solicitor Guy Ayres III. Martin and Mitrecic would both later serve as mayor or council president; the bench of the next twenty years is assembled here.
Rick MeehanDennis W. DareHal AdkinsVincent Gisriel Jr.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2006
Mathias's last full year as mayor, with Council President Richard W. Meehan — who succeeds him — in the chair beside him
Councilman James S. Hall as Secretary, later Councilman Lloyd Martin; Councilmen Gisriel, Mann, Joseph Hall; City Solicitor Guy R. Ayres III; City Clerk Carol Jacobs; Planning Director Jesse Houston; Zoning Administrator Blaine Smith. Ninety-four documents, about 2.34 million characters, including Planning and Zoning Commission transcripts. Meehan had been council president on and off since 1992.
Rick MeehanJesse HoustonVincent Gisriel Jr.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2008 · 2008-01-22
The City Solicitor told the council that certain information could not be released until the referendum period had run
"City Solicitor Guy Ayres said this information will be available after the referendum period." The referendum petition — the instrument that had governed this town's politics since 1976 — is here shaping what the council may say and when, though the subject of this one was not established in the pass.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2008 · 2008-02-04
The council capped the Springfest and Sunfest beer-truck rotation at forty-five non-profits, and was advised it could also require them to give a share of profits to the community
"Council Member Lloyd Martin suggested a cap to the number of non-profit organizations on the list. City Solicitor Guy Ayres said that a cap is allowable by law. Council Member Lloyd Martin moved to cap the number of organizations on the beer rotation list to 45 and allow new requests only when existing organizations drop off; seconded by Council Member Jim Hall. The vote was unanimous. Council Member Pillas suggested that non-profit organizations should be required to contribute a certain percentage of profits to the local community. Solicitor Ayres said such a requirement is permissible." The town is negotiating the terms on which charity may raise money on its beach, in the same session that it endorses slot machines.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2013
Ninety-one documents and a staff list that has become professional: an ICMA-credentialled manager, a CPA finance administrator, a city engineer and a tourism director
Mayor Richard W. Meehan; Council President Lloyd Martin; Council Secretary Mary Knight; Council Member Dennis Dare; Council Members Pillas, Michael James; City Manager David L. Recor, ICMA-CM; City Solicitor Guy Ayres; Zoning Administrator Blaine Smith; City Engineer Terence McGean; Finance Administrator Martha J. Bennett, CPA; Tourism Director Donna Abbott. In 1957 the town's whole professional staff was a clerk who told the councilmen privately that a bond issue was needed to get Ocean City out of the hole.
Terry McGeanRick MeehanDennis W. DareDavid L. Recor
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2013
The Caine Woods substation ran into the new year and produced the town's oldest complaint again: "Vince Gisriel expressed his disappointment of the Finding of Fact. He also claimed that public notification was inadequate. City Solicitor Ayres disagreed."
The same objection Gisriel made as a councilman in 1996, when the Open Meetings Compliance Board reprimanded the town over an ordinance that reached the packet without reaching the agenda, and as a petitioner in 1998, when he appealed 1,353 signatures name by name. Ayres has been City Solicitor since the early 1980s and has disagreed with him for most of that time.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2014
Eighty-eight documents and about 4.48 million characters, with a police chief, an emergency services director and a tourism director all named in the record
Mayor Richard W. Meehan; Council President Lloyd Martin; Council Member Dennis Dare; Council Members Mary Knight, Michael James; City Manager David Recor; City Solicitor Guy Ayres; Police Chief Ross Buzzuro; Emergency Services Director Joe Theobald; Tourism Director Donna Abbott. The largest annual volume in the corpus, and still one source.
Rick MeehanRoss C. BuzzuroDennis W. DareDavid L. Recor
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2015
From 2015 the IQM2 packets include every attachment: 1,541 files retrieved for the year, of which 336 are actual session records carrying about 8.29 million characters
The year and every year after it must be triaged by filtering to documents whose opening pages are a session record. Mayor Richard W. Meehan; Council President Lloyd Martin; Council Secretary Mary Knight; Council Members Doug Cymek, Dennis Dare, Tony DeLuca, Wayne Hartman, Matt James; City Manager David L. Recor, ICMA-CM; City Solicitor Guy Ayres; City Clerk Diana Chavis; City Engineer Terence McGean; Public Works Director Hal Adkins; Finance Administrator Martha Bennett. The corpus's problem has inverted since 1934: the difficulty is no longer that nothing survives but that too much does.
Terry McGeanRick MeehanDennis W. DareDavid L. RecorHal AdkinsDiana Chavis
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2015 · 2015-01-20
The council voted 6-1 to draft an ordinance confining smoking to designated areas, with a preliminary map that included the bus shelters
Regular meeting of 20 January 2015, under the continued Smoking on the Beach and Boardwalk policy discussion: "Council Secretary Knight moved to proceed with the first reading of an ordinance to establish designated smoking areas with the preliminary map to include bus shelters, subject to the approval [of] ADA Requirements and City Solicitor Ayres' approval; seconded by Council Member Cymek. The vote was 6-1 with Council Member Matt James opposed." The discussion had run across at least three sessions that January before it produced a motion. The single dissent is recorded by name, as this record's minutes usually do.
Source · checked 2026-09-04
2015 · 2015-03-16
The council let a Sunday church service be held under the Springfest tent with its $250 space fee waived, then voted 4-1 to deny a Christian music hour at Sunfest after the city solicitor raised the separation of church and state
Regular meeting of 16 March 2015, Miscellaneous Reports item C, "Private Event Approval Request for Sunday Morning Church Service at Springfest - May 10, 2015". Two motions were taken on the one application. First: "Council Member Cymek moved to allow the Sunday Morning Church Service from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. [sic], under the Springfest tent, and, waive the $250.00 space fee; seconded by Council Member DeLuca. The vote was 5-0 with Council Members Hartman and James absent." Second: "Council Member Dare moved to deny the Christian Music Event at Sunfest, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.; seconded by Council Member Knight. The vote was 4-1 with Council Member Cymek opposed. City Solicitor Guy Ayres expressed concern about the separation of church and state." The same evening's consent agenda carried a three-year approval for the Easter Sunday Sunrise Service through 16 April 2017, and the Transportation Committee's recommendation "to grant the OC Baptist Church twenty parking spaces at the 1st Street Parking Lot from 8:00 a.m. to noon on Sunday beginning Easter" was accepted 5-0.
Source · checked 2026-09-10
2015 · 2015-06-09
The Board of Elections certified 1,477 valid signatures on the petition to cap the property tax rate by charter amendment - 249 more than the 1,228 needed from 6,141 registered voters - and two weeks later the council voted unanimously to ask the Circuit Court whether the amendment was lawful rather than put it on the ballot
Work session of 9 June 2015, item A, "Discussion of Board of Supervisors of Elections Communication Regarding Petition to Amend Charter Pertaining to Property Tax Levy": "Mary Adeline Bradford, Chairman of the Board of Elections, read the June 1, 2015, letter to the Mayor and Council confirming 1,787 signatures were submitted, 310 were invalid and 1,477 valid registered voter signatures were certified by the Board of Elections. The Annotated Code of Maryland stipulates the number of signatures needed for a charter amendment shall be based on twenty (20%) percent of the number of registered voters on the rolls at the time the petition was submitted. There were 6,141 registered voters on the rolls at the time the petition was submitted. Twenty percent of that total is 1,228." Tony Christ, who led the drive, thanked "petitioners who signed." At the work session of 23 June, after closed session: "Motion to move Charter Amendment Petition for Declaratory Relief in Circuit Court for independent judicial review, because the proposed Charter Amendment that caps the property tax rate constitutes an unlawful rollback and violates State law. RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]." Mayor Meehan then set out the town's figures against the petition's proposed return to the 2009 rate of 38 cents: the assessable base had fallen from $12,105,325,297 in 2009 to $8,390,862,470, the rate was now .4780, property tax revenue was $40,207,662 "or $5 million less than in 2009", and full-time employees were down from 622 to 533. On 20 July Joe Moran handed the clerk filings in a federal suit by "Ocean City Taxpayers for Social Justice"; on 3 August the solicitor said he had moved to dismiss it and that "if the Court says it has to go to the voters, then it will go to the voters."
Source · checked 2026-09-10
2016
Three hundred and ninety session documents, about 7.69 million characters, filtered from the full packet set — and one source
Mayor Richard W. Meehan, also Acting City Manager this winter; Council President Lloyd Martin; City Clerk Diana Chavis; City Solicitor Guy Ayres; Human Resources Director Wayne Evans; Finance Administrator Martha Bennett.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2017
Three hundred and sixty-six session documents, about 7.69 million characters, one source
Mayor Richard W. Meehan; City Manager Doug R. Miller; City Clerk Diana Chavis; Finance Director Martha Bennett; City Solicitor Guy Ayres. Ayres has been City Solicitor across this entire block and most of the previous two.
Rick MeehanDoug R. MillerDiana Chavis
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2019 · 2019-09-03
City Solicitor Guy Ayres died in the late summer of 2019 after forty-one years advising the town, and the council replaced him with his own firm a month later
The Regular Meeting of 3 September 2019 opened, before the prayer and pledge, with the clerk's line: "Mayor Meehan recognized the passing of City Solicitor Guy Ayres and his commitment to the City for the last 41 years." Ayres had sat through the year's closed sessions on the 67th Street gym lease and the Advanced Marina land swap, and his last appearance in the staff list is the Work Session of 11 June. Through September the minutes name "Town Legal Counsel" Mark Cropper, Heather Stansbury and Bruce Bright in his place; on 7 October the council reported from closed session a "Motion to accept proposal for legal services from Ayres, Jenkins, Gordy and Almand, P.A., and to appoint the firm as legal counsel for the Town of Ocean City."
Source · checked 2026-09-10
2025
Guy Ayres, city solicitor since the 1970s, is gone — the town is advised by City Attorneys Heather Stansbury and Maureen Howarth
Mayor Richard W. Meehan; Council President Matthew M. James; Council Secretary Tony DeLuca; Council Members John F. Gehrig Jr., Jacob H. Mitrecic, Carol L. Proctor, William C. Savage III, Larry R. Yates; City Manager Terry McGean; Deputy City Manager Elton JR Harmon; City Clerk Diana Chavis. Ayres advised this council on the dune line in 1975, on Lucas v. South Carolina in 1993, and on public notification against Vince Gisriel for thirty years. A Mitrecic sits on the council forty-five years after Joseph Mitrecic first appears in this record.
Terry McGeanRick MeehanDiana ChavisVincent Gisriel Jr.
Source · checked 2026-09-02