{"id":17468,"date":"2020-12-17T03:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T08:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=17468"},"modified":"2020-12-17T03:03:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T08:03:55","slug":"gerry-little-will-not-seek-re-election-to-ocean-county-freeholder-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2020\/12\/gerry-little-will-not-seek-re-election-to-ocean-county-freeholder-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerry Little Will Not Seek Re-Election to Ocean County Freeholder Board"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Freeholder<\/a>

Freeholder Gerry P. Little (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ocean County Freeholder Gerry P. Little will retire in 2021 after more than four decades of public service and 18 years as a county freeholder.<\/p>\n

Little, of Surf City, announced at Wednesday\u2019s board meeting that he will not seek re-election next year. The announcement took his fellow board members by surprise, and elicited a request from Freeholder Joseph Vicari that he reconsider, but Little said he had made up his mind and is retiring. He told his colleagues about his decision before the meeting and told the public a short time later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in public service since 1968 since I walked into the Marine Corps barracks to sign up,\u201d Little said, adding that he is planning trips in his new camper and plenty of pilgrimages to State College, Pa., home of his beloved Nittany Lions.<\/p>\n

Jokes about Little\u2019s notorious camper, which always seemed to break down in the most precarious of places in his many journeys, were common at board meeting. He recently replaced it, perhaps the first sign that a more leisurely life awaited.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter all these years, I have a lot of changes that are underway in our family \u2013 all good \u2013 and I have to say this is the beginning of my sunset in public service,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not a goodbye. We have a year yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little has been a longtime luminary in Ocean County government. He has served as a member of the freeholder board since 2003 when he filled the unexpired term of the late Freeholder James J. Mancini. Over the past year, Little has worked tirelessly alongside the Ocean County Health Department to help manage the coronavirus pandemic and keep county residents informed on statistics and trends.<\/p>\n

Perhaps appropriately, Little made the announcement during a nor\u2019easter which dumped snow in some parts of the county. He has long served as liaison to the Ocean County Road Department, the largest county road system in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

His public life began with a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps and continued behind the scenes in politics before he became an elected official. Prior to his appointment to the freeholder board, he served as a commissioner on the Long Beach Township Board of Commissioners from 1988 to 1991 during which time he served as police commissioner. He became a member of the Surf City borough council in 1995 after moving up Long Beach Boulevard, and has been a community leader there ever since.\u00a0 He served as board director in 2018 and, if history was any guide, would have likely been named director again in 2021 since his term would be coming to an end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally asked him to reconsider, and he said no, and I respect his opinion,\u201d said Vicari, who has been serving with Little throughout his tenure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI followed your guidance continuously,\u201d Vicari said, looking in Little\u2019s direction. \u201cI think the important thing is the diversity of thought on this board. I respect your future. You have a new camper, you have to do some traveling. You\u2019re going to be missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeholder Gary Quinn, the board\u2019s newest member, was Little\u2019s running mate after he was appointed to fill the seat of the late Freeholder John C. Bartlett. The campaign brought the two together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt came as a shock to me as well when you told me your plans,\u201d Quinn, a former Lacey Township mayor, told Little. \u201cAs much as I\u2019m sorry you\u2019re leaving and will miss you tremendously, I\u2019m thankful you\u2019re going to be here for another year. Having you as my running mate and as a mentor has meant everything to me. I\u2019m lucky to have had you by my side so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gary<\/a>

Gary Quinn (left) and Ocean County Freeholder Gerry Little. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Little served as chief of staff for the state\u2019s 9th legislative district, which encompasses central and southern Ocean County, from 1984 until his retirement in 2003. It was in that role where he met his now-colleague Freeholder Virginia Haines, who was serving as a member of the state\u2019s General Assembly in the 10th district, which covers the northern portion of the county.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve always been very, very dedicated to the position you\u2019ve been in,\u201d Haines told Little from the dais. \u201cI see the dedication you give to your department and all of the departments in the county of Ocean. You\u2019ve stepped up to make sure all of us are very informed on how we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between the pandemic and Wednesday\u2019s nor\u2019easter, there were almost no members of the public at the meeting. But the sole speaker gave Little his compliments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I speak for a lot of citizens in saying we\u2019re going to miss you very much,\u201d said Sam Foster, of Brick Township. \u201cYou\u2019ve always shown concern for the public and you\u2019ve always been a real class act.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Ocean County Freeholder Gerry P. Little will retire in 2021 after more than four decades of public service and 18 years as a county freeholder. Little, of Surf City, announced at Wednesday\u2019s board meeting that he will not seek re-election next year. The announcement took his fellow board members by surprise, and elicited a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[24,3446,222,2257],"class_list":["post-17468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-ocean-county","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-gerry-little","tag-ocean-county-freeholders","tag-retirement"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/DSC_0107.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-4xK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}