By Anne Geggis
With three Town Commission seats coming up for election, Ocean Ridge voters have four candidates to consider with experience ranging from the never-elected to one with nearly two decades on the dais.
The two highest-vote getters on March 19 will get three-year terms and the third-place finisher will get a two-year term. They’ll be representing a town that is facing questions about how much infrastructure improvement involving water and sewer a community of 2,000 can afford.
Technically, three incumbents are looking for votes to return to office, but two of them came on board only this year.
Up for consideration are:
• Ainar Aijala Jr., 67, a retired Deloitte senior partner appointed to the commission starting in January.
• Nick Arsali, 68, a retired professional engineer and four-year alternate member of the town Board of Adjustment who would be a newcomer to the dais.
• David Hutchins, 75, a retired airline pilot and member of the town Planning and Zoning Commission appointed to the commission at the same time as Aijala.
• Incumbent Geoff Pugh, 61, a town commissioner from 2003 to 2018 who returned to a commission seat in 2021.
Though Pugh is currently mayor, that position is selected by commissioners annually.
The election arrives following some turmoil in Town Hall. Two commissioners resigned in early 2023 following a split vote on making then-acting Town Manager Lynne Ladner a full-time employee. They were replaced by two others who resigned at the end of the year, one citing the state’s new financial disclosure law. The town’s police chief also resigned in 2023 to go to Gulf Stream.
The state of town affairs is a point of contrast among the candidates that emerged at a Feb. 22 forum, which drew about 60 residents.
“I think the town is going in a good direction — I think we’ve really turned a corner,” Pugh said.
Aijala said he believed the town got onto the right course beginning last April and Hutchins said he is “pretty happy” with the way things are going.
Arsali, however, said he’d be coming to the dais with a particular focus.
“If we look at our budget, it has gone up by 100% in the last five, six years, and then unfortunately, there’s nothing to show for that,” he said.
Long-lingering seaweed on the beach and the lack of citizen engagement in town affairs are also on his list of things that need attention, Arsali said.
“I want everyone to be involved,” he said. “I want to at least make sure everybody gets the news about it, hears about it so I get everyone’s input about it.”
The topic of converting the town onto a sewer system also produced some contrasts among the candidates.
“It’s on the horizon and it’s something that we need to look at,” Aijala said.
Pugh sees that horizon, first set out as a town goal in 2020, as something that’s far off — and only under certain circumstances.
“I don’t see that happening unless we have huge grants from the state or the federal government,” Pugh said.
Arsali was more blunt on the topic of moving the town to a sewer system.
“It’s all talk,” he said, noting how unfair it would be to people now building and investing in expensive septic systems.
Hutchins said he doesn’t want to spend the town’s money if the federal and state governments are willing to put up some funds.
“The direction of the state and federal government is to get away from septic systems in coastal zones,” he said. “I don’t want to be preemptive because it will be a very expensive undertaking.”
Aijala, with experience overseeing Deloitte’s global operations, can boast that he’s already saved the town money before completing two full months on the dais. He advised the town on updating its cash management policy.
“So we are optimizing our investment opportunities,” he said.
Hutchins said that serving on the planning board put him in touch with people’s hopes and dreams for their lives as they built their homes.
“We don’t want it to change because we love the way it is,” Hutchins said. “ … I certainly would like opinions on what we can do to make this town … a place we always want to come back to when we’re on the other side of the bridge.”
Comments