6/7/2006

Mathias awaits appointment to state legislature
By Don Klein
 
This week the citizens of two lower Eastern Shore counties will have a new delegate to the Maryland General Assembly and depending on the action of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., residents of Ocean City may have a new mayor.

The chances that James N. Mathias, Jr., the peripatetic mayor of Ocean City will receive the expected gubernatorial appointment to the Maryland House of Delegates succeeding the late Bennett Bozman representing all of Worcester and part of Wicomico counties, seems to be a pretty good bet.

He has been indorsed by Democratic central committees in both counties whose recommendation now sits on the governor’s desk. The anticipated appointment must be made by the end of this week and when it is Mr. Mathias may be leaving his local job and move into state politics.

Related to Mr. Mathias’s appointment will be the automatic ascension of Ocean City Council President Rick Meehan to the top job in the resort town. The Ocean City charter says when there is mid-term mayoral vacancy, the town’s council president will become acting mayor until the next election.  

If Mr. Mathias gets the nomination, as is expected even though the governor can appoint anyone he wants as long as the named individual is a Democrat, the mayor will enlarge his constituency to all of Worcester and the eastern part of Wicomico counties. Given his reputation as an energetic omnipresent force wherever he operates, it will not be long before Mr. Mathias will make his larger than life presence known in Annapolis.

The 54-year-old soon to be state legislator was born in Baltimore and lived there as well as in Baltimore and Carroll Counties before moving to Ocean City as a 22-year-old University of Maryland graduate. He can look back on 32 years of seaside life which saw him work himself up from his first resort job at a boardwalk pizza worker to the top political office in town.

He was just a child when his parents first brought him to Ocean City for summer vacations. It was then that he fell in love with the blossoming ocean resort of that period. In September 1972, his father acquired property in downtown Ocean City and built his amusement/arcade business. In March 1974, young Jim’s father died of a heart attack, the same year Mr. Mathias graduated college and decided to move to Ocean City fulltime to run the family business.

Always active in the local community, he served as chairman of the Worcester County Ambulance Service Committee; was involved with the Berlin/Ocean City Jaycees; was chairman of the Ocean City Humane Society Commission; is a member of the Knights of Columbus; is a member of St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Parish; and to this day serves as a member of the Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company, Engine 703.

Mr. Mathias is also well known around the state. He represents the Coastal Bays Watershed, Ocean City and Worcester County on the State of Maryland Critical Area Commission and served as State Chairman for the 2004 WalkAmerica for the March of Dimes. He was president of the Lower Eastern Shore Mayors Association for 2004.   

His political career began in 1987 when he was appointed to the Ocean City Board of Zoning Appeals, where he served until 1990. In October 1990, he was elected to the City Council and was re-elected in 1994. In October 1996 he was elected mayor.

In the last decade Mr. Mathias has made his mark in town. There is hardly a public event that did not find him in attendance. His ubiquitous appearances usually made him a welcome guest and always a recognizable and vigorously outspoken promoter of the resort. There was never a surprise to see him at a women’s group luncheon, or at a visiting business convention, or a house of worship event, or just talking to residents and vacationers alike on the town’s streets or on the boardwalk.

As mayor he focused on making the resort an affordable clean, safe, and fun destination. He made that his philosophy so vacationers from near and far who have traditionally visited Ocean City, and those who were in town for the first time, will find it a place they want to continue to visit and enjoy.

Besides holding the highest political office in town, Mr. Mathias, who prefers to be called Jim, owns a small retail store in downtown Ocean City. He and his wife, Kathleen, nee Petry, where married in 1978 and have two children, Lauren, 22 and Trevor, 13.

Whoever gets the appointment to the House of Delegates will have to run again for the job in September’s primary and if victorious, then again in the November general election. The same goes for Mr. Meehan as mayor if Mr. Mathias moves up to Annapolis.

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