Board votes 6-1 to establish New Capital Reserve The Board of Directors voted 6-1 at its Nov. 2 monthly meeting to establish a New Capital Reserve, an idea pushed in recent months by Treasurer and Director Larry Perrone with the support of the Budget and Finance Advisory Committee, of which he is a former chairman. As a candidate for the board this summer, Perrone advocated for a new capital reserve.
~ Page 28
Viola won’t propose assessment dollars for deficit recovery General Manager John Viola recently said that he does not intend to look to relying on the lot assessment as the source of revenue for continued operating fund reduction. Unbudgeted deficit recovery seems to be occurring this fiscal year on the strength of better than budget performance throughout the OPA. That will reduce the operating fund deficit more or less automatically. ~ Page 30
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Trendic files complaint with Circuit Court alleging bad faith in referendum denial Attorney asks for summary judgment, injunctive relief, legal fees and court order requiring community vote on board spending threshold
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By TOM STAUSS Publisher
he long-awaited lawsuit by former Director Slobodan Trendic on behalf of his START advocacy organization against the Ocean Pines Association’s Board of Directors and individual directors for their rejection of a petition to force a referendum vote on board spending authority has been filed. Bruce Bright, Trendic’s attorney, filed the 14-page complaint electronically with Worcester County Circuit Court Nov. 15. Once a case number is assigned to the complaint, Bright will follow up with a motion for a summary judgment on issues raised in the complaint. The complaint is seeking a court order mandating that the board take steps to conduct a referendum on the spending issue. The referendum would ask property owners to approve or reject a lowering of the board’s capital spending authority without a referendum from the current $1.65 million to $1 million. The complaint contains two counts for declaratory judgment, one for injunctive relief and one for breach of contract/breach of fiduciary duty. The counts for a declaratory judgment ask the court to declare that the plaintiff’s referendum petition was
consistent with the OPA by-laws and the Board Resolution B-07 and that the requisite number of petition signatures were obtained by the plaintiff, submitted to the OPA Board, and validated by the OPA. The suit asks the the court to rule that the board “is and was required to proceed in accordance with the OPA by-laws to submit the referendum to a vote by the members of the OPA, and that it must promptly do so.” The plaintiff further asks for a ruling that the OPA board “acted improperly, incorrectly, unlawfully, and in contravention of its by-laws and its Resolution B-07, when it decided not to act upon the subject referendum petition and refused to advance the referendum question for vote by OPA members.” The suit also asks the court to declare that the board refused to advance the referendum question for vote by OPA members “because it opposed the question presented in the referendum petition; and the reasons as stated in the board’s publicly-stated position(s) were a pretext and were contrived in order to advance the board’s objective, which was to avoid or block a vote by To Page 25
BERLIN i.g. Burton
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www.igburton.com 10419 Old Ocean City Blvd, Berlin, MD 410.641.0444
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THROUGH NOVEMBER 30th!
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After approving a text amendment last month adding regulation of short-term rentals in the county’s unincorporated areas, including Ocean Pines, the County Commissioners have moved on to the next phase, setting license fees for affected households. According to County Commissioner Jim Bunting, Director of Development Review and Permitting Ed Tudor has proposed a $400 per household license fee for short-term rentals, homes rented out for 28 days or fewer. ~Page 17
November 2019
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County considers $400 license fee for short-term rentals
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