Ocean pines progress march 2015

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www.OceanPinesToday.com

March - Early April 2015

Vol. 10, No. 12

410-641-6029

www.issuu.com/oceanpinesprogress Thompson questions board golf action

THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY COVER STORY

OPA Board increases lot assessment by $12 Base levy raised to $921 from current $909; Renaud

splits off from erstwhile allies to support Terry’s Plan B By TOM STAUSS Publisher cean Pines Association property owners will be paying $12 more per lot in annual assessment in the fiscal year beginning May 1 as a result of a board vote approving a 2015-16 budget in a special meeting March 12. The base lot assessment will be $221, an increase from the $909 levy in the current fiscal year. Amenity fees for the most part are remaining the same this summer. The budget and lot assessment increase were approved in a 4-3 vote, with Director Pat Renaud joining Tom Terry, Sharyn O’Hare and Bill Cordwell in the majority. OPA Treasurer Jack Collins floated an alternative that would have left the assessment at $909, with the apparent backing of OPA President Dave Stevens and possibly Marty Clarke, who had offered an alternative in late January that would have reduced the assessment to $866.09. The $12 increase is roughly half of the $25 increase proposed by OPA General Manager Bob Thompson in January. Renaud’s support of an assessment increase and partnership with Terry in forging what they called a budget compromise represented a fraying of the majority bloc that seemed to have emerged following the board election last August. The StevensCollins-Clarke-Renaud bloc stayed together in the recent 4-3 vote selecting a new management company to run the Ocean Pines golf course. In that instance, efforts by Terry and others to peel Renaud off in support of keeping Billy Casper Golf as the golf course management company failed to dislodge him. But on next year’s budget, Renaud felt comfortable in working with Terry to the exclusion of his erstwhile allies. At one point during discussion, Renaud joked that Collins was resorting to his Tea Party origins in supporting a budget with no increase in assessments. An irritated Collins said he

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resented the remark, but later he suggested that it hadn’t bothered him all that much. The issue that seemed to divide the board as they grappled with a final vote on the budget involved the status of the five-year-plan revenue stream that had not been addressed to any great extent in previous board discussions. This funding stream represents $130 of the annual assessment, or $1.1 million in revenue to the OPA, originally conceived as a supplemental source of funds for major capital projects. It’s been earmarked as the primary funding source for the new Yacht Club that opened in May of last year. Through the current fiscal year, the sixth year this funding plan has been in place, it has raised $4.3 million from OPA property owners, precisely the amount approved by property owners for the new building in the summer of 2012. It apparently has been used for capital projects other than the new Yacht Club, however. Under the approved budget, only $923,760 has been earmarked of this $1.1 million for the capital assets replacement reserve, which is called the Major Maintenance and Replacement Reserve in monthly summaries prepared by OPA controller Art Carmine. The remaining $175,000 of the $1.1 million will be used to pay for a like amount in new capital expenditures not included in the general manager’s draft budget released in January. Even so, when added to the $4.3 million already collected in five-year-plan funds, next year’s $923,760 allocation will raise the total collected in new Yacht Club funds to more than $5.2 million. That’s more than enough to pay for the new Yacht Club had the five-year-plan funding stream been used over its life strictly for the new Yacht Club. Because the five-year-plan funding stream will be in its To Page 2

General Manager Bob Thompson recently said the board of directors had failed to do its due diligence and to properly vet Landscapes Unlimited before agreeing to negotiate a management contract for the Ocean Pines Association’s golf course with the company. Several directors were not pleased with Thompson’s challenge to the way they handled the golf course management issue. The topic apparently was raised in a closed session of the board March 12, with no reported outcome as it was a personnel matter. ~ Page 7

Thompson projects modest loss for year Ocean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson is projecting a relatively modest $24,493 loss for 2014-15, in a quarterly forecast delivered nine months into the fiscal year. Issued as part of his Feb. 24 general manager’s report, the revised projection contrasts with the $157,748 loss in the half-year forecast issued last Nov. 22. Even with the relatively modest loss for the year, however, Thompson predicts that the OPA will miss its budgeted $198,301 surplus for the year by a substantial $222,793. ~ Page 21

County faces budget woes, freezes hiring Facing another challenging budget year resulting from a continued decline in projected property tax revenues, the Worcester County Commissioners have enacted an immediate hiring freeze for non-public safety personnel. OPA General Manager Bob T“County revenues are anticipated to dip from $178 million in the current fiscal year to $167 million in FY16 unless significant budget stabilization funds are utilized,” Commissioner President Jim Bunting said. ~ Page 28

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