Trendic prevails in referendum lawsuit A ecision by Worcester County Circuit Court Judge Beau Oglesby issued Oct. 21 delivered a solid victory for former Ocean Pines Association Director Slobodan Trendic and his effort to force a reluctant Board of Directors to conduct a community referendum on board capital spendng authority. The decision, subsequently stayed for 60 days until Jan. 1 to give the lawyers time to work out details of a settlement, including the possibility of fees for Trendic’s Ocean City attorney, implicitly rejected the OPA’s legal defenses while granting Trendic’s motion for declaratory relief. ~ Page 3
OPA closing in on trash collection, auditing contracts General Manager John Viola on Nov. 18 reported that the OPA is getting close in finalizing a new trash collection contract, having received two bids. He provided no details on the competing proposals. Later he confirmed that Republic Services, the current vendor, is one of the companies vieing for the contract. Viola said that three bids have been received for auditing services. One of the three bidders is SC&H, the current auditing firm. ~ Page 10
Jordan hires lawyer in dispute over severance Andre Jordan, a former 35year OPA employee whose most recent role was golf course superintendent, says he has hired a lawyer in his dispute over severance pay. ~ Page 6
November 2020
www.issuu.com/oceanpinesprogress
THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY
COVER STORY
Janasek survives removal vote, accepts censure instead; Viola denies threatening to quit Two-week complaint process ends with fist bump and apology By TOM STAUSS Publisher hat could have been an ugly spectacle of competing charges and counter charges aired out in public instead ended with a very public and evidently sincere apology by Director Tom Janasek to General Manager John Viola, following a unanimous vote by the Board of Directors at a public hearing Nov. 20 to censure Janasek for John Viola a series of negative comments he made about Viola’s continued tenure as general manager. These comments occurred over a period of 15 months, with the last incident occurring earlier this month. The censure motion was made by Director Frank Daly as a less draconian response to Janasek’s admitted transgression that all directors believed were serious enough to warrant board action short of overturning the wishes of those who voted for Janasek in board election last year by a wide margin. The censure vote followed a failed 4-3 vote to remove Janasek from the board on a motion by Colette
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Horn, the Ocean Pines Association’s vice-president. Voting to oust Janasek were Horn, OPA President Larry Perrone, and newly appointed Director Frank Brown, who had been recruited by Horn and Perrone to fill the vacancy created by the recent resignation of Steve Tuttle. Tuttle without much doubt would have voted to retain Janasek. Tuttle was a Janasek Tom Janasek ally who often clashed with Perrone and competed against him for the OPA presidency this past August. Voting against the removal were Daly and Directors Camilla Rogers, Doug Parks and Janasek. It takes a supermajority of five directors to remove one of their colleagues from the board, a difficult hurdle. It’s never happened in the OPA’s 50-plus year history. With Parks thought to be unlikely to abandon Janasek in a removal vote, Horn and Perrone would have needed both Daly and Rogers to opt for censure. In the end, they were unable to persuade either that ouster was an appropriate response. To Page 6
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