August 2017 ocean pines progress

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August 2017

www.issuu.com/oceanpinesprogress

443-359-7527

THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY COVER STORY

Parks, Horn elected; Clarke falls short Trendic position on board strengthened; ouster efforts lose traction By TOM STAUSS Publisher oug Parks and Dr. Colette Horn were elected to the Board of Directors in results announced at the annual meeting of the Ocean Pines Association Aug. 12 at the Ocean Pines Community Center. Parks, an appointed member of the board this past year, was the top vote-getter this summer with 1,912 votes. His victory probably reflects appreciation of his role this past year as a mediator and peace-maker between competing board factions. Elections Committee Chair Steve Tuttle said 3,491 ballots were counted compared to the more than 7400 ballots that were mailed out. Of those counted, 40 were disqualified because the ballots showed votes for three candidates. Only two board seats were contested this summr. Horn, with 1,647 votes, outpolled the third-place finisher, former director Martin D. Clarke, with 1,579 votes. The spread between the two was 68 votes. Nicole Crosariol came in fourth with 1,407. Clarke, who refrained from erecting yard signs or sending mailings

D

Doug Parks

Colette Horn

to property owners in the way he has in past runs for the board, may have hurt his candidacy by seeming to align himself with a board faction that was determined to oust Director Slobodan Trendic in recent months. He also posted a message on oceanpinesforum.com in which he seemed to suggest that any OPA employee filing a formal complaint against a superior was effectively resigning his or her position. That remark was widely panned by others on the forum. The election of Parks and Horn would appear to end any possibility that Trendic’s chief adversaries on the board, Tom Herrick and Brett Hill, will have the votes to remove Trendic from the board. Horn ran

SUMMER

with the lowkey support of Trendic, and Parks showed no interest in attending a meeting of the board prior to the election in which Trendic’s possible ouster as a director would be discussed. It’s likely the matter won’t even be raised after the new board organizes later this month. Trendic told the Progress after the conclusion of the annual meeting that he doubted the board, in the weeks prior to the scheduled arrival of a new general manager Sept. 11, would be interested in removing Hill as acting general manager. Trendic pushed for that in recent months, with no more success than Hill’s attempts to have Trendic removed as a director. With the election over, and a new general manager arriving soon, there are prospects that the bitter infighting of recent months will recede. In a brief interview with the Progress after the meeting, Horn said her focus the next year would be reviewing and updating board resolutions and to review and draft conflict of interest policies that apTo Page 28

OPA on ‘fire watch’ at Country Club due to renovation snafu

During demolition work on the interior second floor of the Ocean Pines Country Club, a fire suppression company apparently working under the supervision of the Public Works Department, removed the fire suppression system, without the knowledge or permission of the county fire marshal. The fire marshal cut Ocean Pines a break, allowing activities on the lower level to continue uninterrupted so long as a Public Works employee remains on the upper level whenever the building is occupied, on what’s called a fire watch.

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Bailey hired as new general manager, starts Sept. 11

Acting General Manager Brett Hill’s tumultuous year as acting General Manager of the Ocean Pines Association is drawing to a close, with the recent announcement that John Bailey, with more than ten years’ experience managing two other large homeowner associations, has been hired to serve as the OPA’s new general manager. Bailey also has had several years in municipal government. His first official day as the new general manager will be Sept. 11. ~ Page 10

Options to restore adults-only Oasis pool not promising

The days of an adults-only Oasis swimming pool at the Ocean Pines Yacht Club are over, and it doesn’t look they’re coming back anytime soon. Probably never. Officially, the adults-only use policy is suspended, in accordance with a motion passed by the Board of Directors in a special meeting July 9. ~ Page 30


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