On August 21st, I filed as a candidate for election in Dewey Beach. I created this blog to have a place where people and voters in Dewey can come and learn about my views and positions.
Just to get things started, my campaign for Commissioner and my platform is based on these key issues:
- Full openness and transparency in Dewey government - much improvement is needed here.
- Property owners who rent pay an inordinate share of the town costs. The businesses, and in particular the big bars should pay their fair share as they cost the town hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in public safety, policing and code enforcement.
- Our property values are eroding due to Dewey's reputation as an "anything goes" place. We need to take strong and immediate action to reverse this trend.
- The property owners in Dewey are not represented by the current Council members. In fact, its hard to understand whose interests the current Commissioners represent. We need to change that right away -- and if elected I'll work for you!
On a personal note, my wife Trish and I live in Spring Mount, PA (a suburb of Philadelphia) and we have grown kids and a granddaughter -- Scarlet (age 6). We spend a great deal of time in Dewey in the off season, and like many of you, we love bringing our dog Josie to the beach. Unlike some, we actually come to Dewey throughout the winter as well and think that the town is beautiful all seasons of the year.
We've owned our property on Swedes St. in Dewey since 2007 and I've been active in various committees and community organizations the entire time. In the early days I was on the Policy Committee and briefly the IT Committee, and participated in two Town Manager Search Committees. More recently I served for two years on the Dewey Budget & Finance Committee and have been a board member of the Civic League since 2012.
Both Trish and I have been frequent participants in the Beautification Days sponsored by the Civic League, and I also help administer the website for the Civic League. I'm also a recent member of CPD, and have long been a strong supporter of the 35 foot height limit in Dewey.
Professionally, I've had a 30+ year career in healthcare and technology businesses and am currently CEO of Otovation, a medical device company that I founded in 2004 and is located in King of Prussia, PA. I have a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Ursinus College, and have been working on a Master's degree in Psychology at Harvard for the last several years.
I hope to meet many of you in the days to come leading up to the election on Sept. 20th, and will work hard to fairly and diligently represent the property owners of Dewey Beach.
My contact information is below, and I welcome your comments and questions and will do my best to respond to each and every one.
Cell: (610) 613-5600 Email: dave@dave4dewey.org
Call or write and let me know what you think about how things are going in Dewey these days. I'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for your support, and I promise to do my very best to give Dewey property owners the representation you deserve!
Dave
