Irwin built OCDC with perseverance

When the Ocean City Council created the Ocean City Development Corporation 23 years ago, its purpose and operational approach were not well-defined.

After years of false starts and trying to find a way to reinvigorate the resort’s voter-poor but economically critical downtown sector, local government recruited a group of influential businesspeople and entrepreneurs to see what ideas they might have.

It soon became apparent, however, that this new organization’s members, independently successful as they were, expected to function as a real board of directors in pursuit of real answers. Meanwhile, elected officials wanted more of an advisory board that wouldn’t tug on the short and politically safe leash it was given.

Then two things happened that changed all that. Members of the OCDC’s first board of directors threatened to quit if they weren’t given a reasonable level of autonomy and then they hired Glenn Irwin as the corporation’s first director.

Irwin’s professionalism and low-key demeanor didn’t just carry the day, it carried the OCDC to a level no one could have imagine at that time. Although he clearly knew what he was doing, he did it in such a nonthreatening manner that even critics of downtown improvement came to accept that his mission really was about improving Ocean City overall.

The one attribute that never gets mentioned as Irwin relinquishes his leadership role at the end of the month is his ability to walk through a room full of egos without stepping on one.

Considering that many of the OCDC’s board members over the years succeeded by following their own instincts and doing things their own way, Irwin’s ability to draw them in around the same campfire without sparking any great controversy was remarkable.

Never mind the grant money and initiatives that Irwin has produced in 23 years, the defining characteristics of his OCDC leadership have been personality, patience, perseverance and professionalism. That’s what made the program the success that it is and why it will continue to be under his successor.

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Last week was National Invasive Species Awareness Week, which is either an attempt by Hallmark to get you buy a card for the space alien next door or a government effort to make people aware of snakehead fish, blue catfish and spotted lanternflies, all of which are here and shouldn’t be.

I understand the need for such an advisory, although I do think it falls short in some respects.

By Stewart Dobson

know anything for a fact? I’m not as sure as I used to be after reading about Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s claims that he has photo evidence of an elflike creature. I am not kidding about this.

“Everything is mystical,” he wrote on Twitter and included a picture of a shrouded creature with glowing eyes perched in a tree. He said it was an “aluxe” — a Mexican elf of sorts whose existence was discovered by the Mayans, or so they say.

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People, for instance, can be an invasive species in certain circumstances. The difference is we tend to look the other way when that happens.

The National Geographic Society, for instance, defines “invasive species” as “an organism that is not indigenous, or native, to a particular area.” And yet, we don’ hear one word about people who moved here from Towson.

Just kidding. The mayor is from Towson, so ...

Moving on, what you also don’t hear or see in all the information being spread about invasive species is any reference to Lizard People. Why? I say it’s because they’re the ones running the government.

After all, wouldn’t you think if real humans were in charge that we’d be getting better results? Me either.

This would also explain how some members of Congress get away with some crazy things — you catch them, think you have them by the tail and then it just falls off, allowing them to skitter away to continue to do what they do.

But here’s the big question — do we really

Personally, I avoid things with glowing eyes, especially in bars, but I also avoid people who admit publicly that they have seen such things.

My first thought upon reading this story was that this guy is nuts. I mean it’s one thing to see something with eyes that glow, but it’s another thing altogether to tell everyone in writing when you’re the head of state.

There’s just no such thing as a say- it-andforget-it account of having seen a bizarre creature when you’re the president. No, you have to keep the story going.

“I’m happy to report that our newest national security measure, which is thousands of elf-like creatures with glowing eyes, is having a positive effect.”

Were that to happen in this country, I’m not sure in this political environment whether the president’s approval rating would go up or down.

In 2013, Foreign Policy magazine reported on a poll that said 4 percent of Americans believed our government was being controlled by reptilians from outer space, i.e., Lizard People.

They could be right, they could be wrong. We’ll have to catch a few and see if their tails fall off to know for sure.