Elaine Brady, an Ocean Pines homeowner since 2002 and a member of various Ocean Pines committees over the years, has announced her candidacy to the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors, the first OPA member to do so.
She resigned as a member the Ocean Pines Elections Committee shortly before announcing her candidacy.
~ Page 18
Matt Ortt, managing partner of the Matt Ortt Companies that operates three food and beverage operations for the Ocean Pines Association, recently agreed to an interview in which he explains and defends his lack of knowledge about the tragic accident that killed Ocean Pines teenager Gavin Knupp last July.
He discusses how he’s coping with what he clearly believes is a targeted campaign against his company, and says he has “no idea” what might end the campaign
and bring closure to the family of Gavin Knupp. The interview follows:
Ocean Pines Progress -- The Matt Ortt Companies have been subject to a sustained campaign by some associated with the “Justice for Gavin” movement that urges the public and live entertainment perform- Matt Ortt ers not to patronize or perform at MOC restaurants. Other
Property owners will need to break out their pens if they want to vote in this summer’s Board of Directors election. During a March 18 meeting a majority of Board members voted to return to paper-only ballots for the 2023 election.
Director Rick Farr’s motion was approved 4-2-1.
~ Page 20
Two Board members, Colette Horn and Steve Jacobs, dissented from the Doug Parks statement critical of some within the Do It for Gavin movement for encouraging bands, service groups and individuals not to do business with OPA venues managed by the Matt Ortt Companies.
~ Page 9
From Page 1
than a statement issued almost eight months ago in support of former partner Ralph DeAngelus, and a subsequent statement clarifying that initial statement -- you have not gone public to challenge your critics. You have agreed to this interview. Why now?
Matt Ortt -- I’ve been quiet for several months now. However given the large amounts of misinformation that is circulating about me and my business, I feel like I need to set the record straight.
From day one of this incident people have made assumptions about me and what they think I know.
The truth is, I was not at the Yacht Club that evening and did not witness any of the alleged events of that night.
I have fully and voluntarily cooperated with the authorities. MOC and the OPA have provided any and all information and documents requested by investigators.
I was interviewed by Maryland State Police and did not at any time invoke a Fifth Amendment privilege. Each time I tried speaking out publicly, I was immediately attacked, so it felt like no matter what I said, it wouldn’t be well received anyway.
I guess the group thinks that if they put enough
pressure on me I’ll turn over some key piece of evidence to implicate a driver. I have no such information. If I had it, I would have already provided it rather than let me family, friends, staff and business suffer for the last eight months. I want people to know that their pursuit for justice is being misdirected.
Ocean Pines Progress -- Can you describe in general terms the nature of the campaign against MOC. Clearly you believe it to be fundamentally unfair. Why is that?
Matt Ortt -- The campaign consists of boycotting our venues, leaving false one-star reviews across multiple platforms, writing vile comments on our social media platforms, vandalizing our properties, harassing and bullying our staff, vendors, and entertainment.
This has included emails and voicemails threatening death.
This frustration is misdirected. It is not targeting the individuals believed to be involved with the accident.
This campaign is doing nothing to bring the family any closer to justice.
Ocean Pines Progress -- In your second clarifying statement, you mentioned support for certain objectives of “Justice for Gavin” and expressed sympathy for grieving family and friends
of Gavin Knupp. And yet the campaign against MOC business interests continues. Is it reasonable to assume that at some point this campaign ends, and how to you think this could be brought about?
Matt Ortt -- I don’t know if the campaign will end, but I also don’t know why it continues now because everyone who is suspected to have involvement in the accident has no ties to MOC. I have completely divested my partnership with Ralph DeAngelus.
The corporate papers and licenses both show that.
I don’t know how to bring this campaign to an end because there is nothing more that I can personally do to help the family get the closure they deserve.
To my knowledge, no one remaining at MOC is alleged to have had any involvement in the accident, and no one at MOC, including myself, has the ability to pressure or coerce anyone to come forward.
Ocean Pines Progress -- The sale of the former Coastal Smokehouse restaurant owned and operated by MOC recently went to settlement. Please explain why you concluded this sale was in the best interest of MOC and what connection it had if any to the protests on site by “Justice for Gavin” supporters.
From Page 3
Matt Ortt -- I was presented with an opportunity to sell the business and it felt like the right decision for me at this time. All factors were taken into consideration before making the decision.
Ocean Pines Progress -- The recent fundraiser by the Veterans Memorial Foundation at the Ocean Pines Yacht Club presented some challenges for MOC, as two live acts pulled out from providing entertainment for this event. Please describe what these two acts told you about their reasons for pulling out, and how you dealt with this challenge.
Matt Ortt -- The entertainment that pulled out were threatened and harassed by certain members of the Do It For Gavin group.
This left the Veterans Memorial Foundation scrambling to find another entertainer for their event. [A deejay was called in at the last minute to fill the void.] Bullying others is never the answer, especially when it’s people who have nothing to do with this case.
Threatening a band that plays at our venue and threatening to vandalize the Veterans Memorial because they are holding their banquet at our venue isn’t going to get anyone closer to justice.
Ocean Pines Progress -- MOC continues to operate Ocean Pines Association food and beverage venues and other venues in the Greater Ocean City area, with live entertainment routinely offered. In addition to the recent challenges at the foundation fund-raiser, have there been situations in which live entertainers have been reluctant to perform at MOC-operated venues?
Matt Ortt -- Absolutely. There have been bands and performers that have canceled out of fear of retribution.
They have expressed to us that they really don’t want to back out because certain members of the Do It For Gavin group are threatening and harassing them, but they feel they have to out of safety and for business concerns.
Ocean Pines Progress -- Are there still plenty of bands who are willing to perform to fill out the Yacht club live entertainment schedule? Have some of these bands been pressured not to perform and decided to perform anyway?
Matt Ortt -- Yes, we have had several bands back out because of the pressure applied on them by certain members of the Do it for Gavin group. We also have other bands who have played here repeatedly and have told me they will not change their plans to play at the Yacht Club.
We are very fortunate to have some bands who understand that MOC and myself are not in-
volved in this investigation or accident. Ocean Pines Progress -- What message do you have for those associated with the “Justice for Gavin” movement that you believe have unfairly targeted MOC?
Matt Ortt -- I understand your frustration. It has been eight long months with no answers. A child’s life was lost and the family does deserve justice for Gavin.
The real frustration is the slow process of this investigation to bring justice to this terrible tragedy.
I have children and I can’t imagine the pain the Knupp family feels.
MOC is being targeted because of me. I put out an initial statement supporting my then partner, not knowing the facts.
That was a mistake that I have acknowledged and apologized for.
It’s been alleged that I was involved in a cover up, that I’ve lied about my knowledge of the situation and that Ralph [DeAngelus] is still a silent partner of MOC. None of these allegations are true.
Coming after me, my employees and my business will not bring justice to the community any faster.
I have and continue to hope that justice for Gavin is delivered and the Knupp family and the community can have some closure.
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The lawyer for the family of the Ocean Pines teenager killed last summer in a hit and run accident called out Ocean Pines Association President Doug for “elevating” the OPA’s own interests ahead of residents they were elected to serve, but only after he said the family of the late Gavin Knupp would not be responding to a prepared statement highly critical of the “Do It for Gavin” supporters.
Knupp family attorney Neil Dubovsky according to a recent account in a local weekly said rather than respond to Parks broadside in a “back and forth”, family members and supporters “remain focused on the [Gavin Knupp Foundation
and honoring Gavin’s memory.”
Dubovsky did not define what OPA interests Parks was promoting, but it most likely referred to Parks’s statement that a continued campaign against the Matt Ortt Companies in the form of protests, boycotts and “bullying of the business staff ... and threatening organizations, customers and OPA board members” at some point “will affect us financially, which in turn will most likely lead to an increase in annual assessments. We must continue to do what it takes to protect our community and the amenities we have paid to enjoy.”
Parks said a series of targeted actions against MOC by the “Justice for Gavin” and “Do It for Gavin” groups “demonstrated a move from jus-
tice to support for vengeance.”
Dubovsky did not respond to that allegation.
Parks later walked back somewhat the statement that annual assessments will increase as a result of the anti-MOC campaign.
In a response to Dubovsky’s snipe about the OPA putting its financial interests ahead of the interests of OPA members, Parks said that “we can’t ignore the potential impact these effects could have on our operations.”
So far there has been no measurable impact on food and beverage revenues by the anti-MOC campaign, but there has been some lost business, a gathering of the Raven’s Roost organization and some weddings that were canceled.
Other weddings have been booked to replace those that were canceled, with the Yacht Club still one of the go-to venues for nuptials in the area. Recent nights at the Yacht Club with booked live entertainment have been packed, according to those who were there, and this is before the annual onslaught of summer residents arrive en masse.
But Parks said that if these efforts to hurt MOC-managed Ocean {ones businesses are suc-
From Page 7
cessful, it “could” turn what have been profitable enterprises for the OPA into a net loser.
Amenity losses historically have been subsidized by higher annual assessments than otherwise would be necessary. The OPA has actually decreased assessments for two consecutive fiscal years.
The “will” was converted into a softer “could” in his response to Dubovsky.
Parks wondered what the lawyer meant when he suggested that the interests of OPA members had been diminished in Parks’s March 18 statement.
“We responded because of many emails from our members asked us what we were planning to do” about the anti-MOC campaign, he said.
Rick Farr, the OPA vice-president, recently told the Progress that most of what the Board has heard from residents is support for MOC, with some hate mail and threats in the mix.
After some charged commentary in his March 18 statement, in which he itemizes some examples of harassment and bullying, Parks suggested that dialog might turn down the heat on a divisive community issue.
“We would welcome a conversation with representatives from the Do It For Gavin group with the hope of understanding why they want to disrupt the Ocean Pines community and how their actions would serve to move forward with justice. Trust that justice regarding this case is what all of us want. Perhaps we could convince them that their anger should be directed towards those who are in charge of the investigation,” Parks said.
He later clarified that he is aware that investigations are not overnight affairs and that he is not advocating protests against the Maryland State Police or the Worcester County State’s attorney.
Dubovsky in his brief remarks did not respond to Parks’s call for dialog.
“I can’t predict what anyone will do,” Parks said, suggesting that perhaps in time some cooler heads in the Do It for Gavin group will agree to discussions. He was less conciliatory in his March 18 statement.
“When will they stop? I can answer that – they won’t!!” he said. “This is a call to all Ocean Pines Association members – raise your voices and be heard. We cannot let this
Ocean Pines Association President Doug Parks wants OPA members to know the extent to which food and beverage venues operated by the Matt Ortt Companies have been targeted.
“Their tactics have been to bully and threaten organizations and entertainment providers from having events at our Yacht Club. As an example, because of the harassment that was going on the in the community by this group the Ravens Roost organization decided to move their planned fundraising event from the Yacht Club to another location,” Parks said in a statement read at the March 18 Board of Directions meeting.
He said the recent Veterans Memorial Fund-Raising event was disrupted by this group as the planned entertainer backed out from performing. Actually there were two cancellations, the second one just hours away from the scheduled event.
vigilante group run roughshod over our community. By their actions and social media posts, they have demonstrated they care nothing about Ocean Pines and will go to whatever lengths it takes to disrupt our community and our livelihood.”
In response to Dubovsky, however, Parks said that while it “would be irresponsible” to ignore the potential affects of the anti-MOC campaign “we’re sincere in wanting a dialog.”
Parks’ March 18 statement appears in the Opinion section of this edition of the Progress.
Matt Ortt had to fill the entertainer slot with a deejay.
In perhaps the most brazen example of targeting to date, Parks said that organizers of the Foundation “were told if the event was held at the Yacht Club, that the Memorial was going to be vandalized.”
Parks said that the band that was scheduled to perform at the St. Patrick’s Day event at the Yacht Club backed out at the last minute “due to being harassed by this group. Do these actions convey a desire for justice or vengeance?” Parks said.
He urged OPA members to “talk to your friends, talk to your neighbors and talk to other Association members to let them know these situations are taking place and that this group is promoting a level of disruption to our community that at some point will affect us financially ... I ask the members of the Association to continue to support our amenities and fund-raising events as together we can maintain the things that make our community what it is for us.”
The Gavin Knupp Foundation, established to honor the memory of the Ocean Pines teenager killed last summer in a hit and run incident, recently received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service indicating that it is a bonafide public charitable organization.
According to a letter from Stephen A. Martin, Director of Exempt Organizations for the IRS, this tax exempt status means that donors to the foundation may deduct their
gifts on their income taxes.
“This letter could help resolve questions on your exempt status,” he wrote.
The foundation has raised $47,265 as of Feb. 21 with $36,842 resulting from the first Gavin Knupp Foundation Benefit held at Sinepuxent Brewing Company off Route 611 in October.
So far, according to reports, $8,244 has been distributed to lo-
Publisher
There were at least two takeaways from emails among the Board of Directors recently obtained by the Progress following the release of a statement by Ocean Pines Association President Doug Parks on an ongoing campaign against operations of the Matt Ortt Companies in Ocean Pines and elsewhere.
One is that there is no evidence to date that the campaign has actually adversely affected food and beverage revenues at OPA food and beverage venues managed by MOC.
The other take-away is that there were two Board members, Colette Horn and Steve Jacobs, who dissented from the Parks statement, which was critical of some within the Do It for Gavin movement for encouraging bands, service groups and individuals not to do business with OPA food and beverage venues operated by MOC under a management contract.
Horn and Jacobs said they would have preferred what in their view would have been a more balanced and less inflammatory statement in support of MOC.
“Threats, violence, and threats of vandalism have no place in our public debate,” Jacobs said in one email. “No one is blameless in this, and I would not have singled out one side over another. Let me add, that at present there is no indication that our revenue streams from the food and beverage amenities have suffered.”
Bands have pulled out from performance agreements, and the Ravens Roost organization decided to hold an event elsewhere. Some wedding business has been lost, but the Yacht Club is such a popular venue for nuptials that dates have been filled, according to sources.
From Page 7
cal charities — $2,000 to the Ocean City Surf Club, $6,244 to a bingo event at Sterling Tavern to raise for an 11-year-old local girl fighting for life and $4,000 for local residents to attend Camp Woodward on a scholarship.
In his statement issued at the March 18 Board of Directors meeting, Parks suggested that if the campaign against MOC campaign succeeds and OPA members stop supporting the food and beverage
venues operated by MOC for the OPA, then these amenities could cease to be profitable and OPA assessments would rise to subsidize operating losses that at one time were routine in Ocean Pines.
Limited
Since MOC has been operating these venues, they’ve been profitable, contributing to conditions that have resulted in decisions by the Board to lower assessments for two consecutive fiscal years.
In his statement, Parks called on OPA members to rally against the anti-MOC campaign and continue to support OPA food and beverage venues.
In the emails obtained by the
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Served on Bagel, Roll or Bread (White, Wheat or Rye Croissant or a Wrap
Egg & Cheese ..................................… $5.55
Meat, Egg & Cheese …............................ $6.95
Your choice of Bacon, Sausage, Ham, Turkey Sausage,Ham, Taylor Ham or Morning Star Vegetarian Sausage
PLATTERS & OMELETS
Two Eggs Any Way with Meat ............. $5.95
Your choice of Bacon, Sausage, Ham, Turkey Sausage,Ham, Taylor Ham or Morning Star Vegetarian Sausage
Cheese Omelet .................................. $7.00
Veggie Omelet …................................... $7.50
(green peppers, onions, tomatoes, carrots, celery)
Western Omelet …................................ $8.00
(ham, cheddar, green pepper, red onions)
Quiche ................................................... $4.00
BAGELS WITH ...
Bagel with Butter ...….......................... $2.50
Bagel with Cream Cheese ….............. $3.95
Bagel with Cream Cheese and Jelly ..... $4.25
Bagel with Peanut Butter and Jelly ..... $5.25
Cinnamon Crunch Bagel
With Butter $3 With Cream Cheese $4.45
Bagel with Nova Cream Cheese ......…... $6.95
Bagel with Sliced Nova or Lox Salmon … $10.95
LUNCH SPECIALTIES
Homemade Soup Small ........................ $3.25
Chicken Pot Pie ...................................… $5.49
Pizza Bagel ~ Plain $5.75 - Pepperoni $6.50
Bagel Dog ............................................. $5.25
LUNCH SANDWICHES
Served on Bagel, Roll, Sliced Bread, Croissant or a Wrap
Includes a Side of Macaroni Salad Ham …………............................….……. $9.45
Turkey ………...................................….. $9.45
Roast Beef …..................................…… $10.45
Cappicola …….................................….. $9.45
Genoa Salami …................................… $9.45
Italian Combo …...........................…… $10.45 (Roast Beef, Cappicola, Salami and Provolone)
Roast Beef & Turkey Combo ..............….. $10.45
Liverwurst …...............................……… $7.95
Bologna ................................................. $7.95
Chicken Salad ........................................ $9.95
Egg Salad ….............................………… $8.95
Tuna Salad ………..........................…... $10.25
Whitefish Salad ….................………… $10.25
Grilled Cheese ……........................……. $7.25
Add to any sandwich Cheese $1 • Avacado $.50
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Scone (blueberry, cranberry or raisin) ..$3.55
Lemon/Pecan Bar …….....................…… $2.55
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Brownie ….................................……….. $2.55
Crumb Cake ............................................$3.55
Turnover ………..........................……… $3.55
Croissant Pastry/Danish ……….............. $3.55
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Big PB Cup/Chocolate Chip Cookie ...... $2.50
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Onion • French Toast • Garlic
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1 Flagel (weekends only) .............. $1.40
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Half Dozen Bagels …..........……… $8.00
Dozen Bagels …............….......… $14.50
Cinnamon Crunch Bagel ….....….. $1.90
N.Y. Kaiser Roll ……............….. 75 cents
Portuguese Roll ……........…….. 75 cents
Knot Roll ................................... 75 cents
WHIPPED CREAM CHEESES
Plain • Light • Veggie • Light Veggie
Walnut Raisin • Almond • Scallion
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Plain Cream Cheese 1 lb. …......… $6.40
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From Page 9
Progress, which were in response to questions posed to Parks by a reporter for a local weekly, he said that in the days prior to the March 18 meeting he shared a draft of his statement with his Board colleagues.
“Not that my statement required approval, [but] it is notable that five of the seven Directors agreed with the statement and supported it being read as my President’s remarks,” Parks said. “That said, the statement was representative of a super majority of the board.”
Parks in response to another question that he decided to compose and release the statement because he and other directors “had been approached by OPA members asking what was being done to address these matters and as the leadership group it was our responsibility to ensure the concerns of the membership were made public. The need to make a statement was spurred by both the issue of the Veterans Memorial and complaints from the community.”
The Veterans Memorial issue pertained to an anonymous phone call to a member of the Veterans Memorial Foundation that the memorial in Ocean Pines would be vandalized if the group proceeded to have a fund-raising event at the Yacht Club. A police report was filed about the phone call, recently confirmed by OPA Director and Vice-President Rick Farr.
The foundation had its event while losing the original entertainer for the event and then losing a replacement within hours of the fund-raiser. No vandalism has been
reported at the memorial.
Parks confirmed that there have been incidents of children and others being bullied because of their perceived association with MOC.
“Several instances of this behavior were shared unsolicited with board members. In one instance that was shared, a high school student who worked at the Yacht Club was told by some other students that he should just go kill himself since he worked there,” Parks said.
Jacobs provided an explanation in an email for why he was not in support of the Parks statement as written.
“Doug did inform all of the Board members that he would be making a statement on the subject and provided us with one draft and a second that incorporated some suggestions. Most of the comments from my colleagues were supportive, there were some suggestions as to content, including my suggestions,” Jacobs said.
After acknowledging that the OPA president for a number of years has been making remarks at the beginning of monthly board meeting, and is free to say whatever he wants, Jacobs said he “would not have taken the same tack as [Parks[ did. I would have much preferred to recognize that this is a difficult subject that has raised a great deal of anger, frustration and meanness in our community. It has served to heighten the disagreements in Ocean Pines and raised the nastiness on both (or all) sides when one reads social media.”
Jacobs said that peaceful protest, boycotts and other demonstrations are accepted and protected means of addressing community
From Page 10 issues, while threats, violence and threats of vandalism “have no place” in our public debate.
He went on to say that he would have preferred a statement that calls on all to be civil in the public debate.
“I am concerned that Doug’s statement did not accomplish that aim,” he said, adding that some of the allegations concerning anti-MOC actions “are more than a few months old. There are those who have continually raised them up again and again for the sole purpose of further inflaming passions. We can and should do better.”
Horn in her response to the reporter’s questions said that as an alternative to Parks’s statement “I proposed something that would ask for support of our amenities and fund-raising, which was included in the final draft of the statement. I was not in favor of belaboring the accusations and outrage about the allegations of bullying etc. In my opinion the rhetoric was inflammatory and would not serve the goal of lowering the temperature within the community on this topic.”
In a follow-up email to Parks, Jacobs offered some words of conciliation.
“I fully understand what could be Board policy when a vote it taken as opposed to making a statement as provided for in the agenda by you, the President. I made a point of both commending you and expressed my appreciation for your willingness to share your statement with all of us,” he said.
Jacobs told Parks that he never suggested that the OPA president did anything improper or out of order. “To the contrary, I fully support your use of that item to speak as you see fit. I disagreed with the tenor of the statement and as I said in previous emails, I would pursued a different train of thought,” he said.
Jacobs added that he had never suggested that unanimous consent was needed before Parks read his statement.
“I think it is fair to say that you and I have a different opinion on the entirety of this topic, going back to the issue of [renaming] the skatepark [after Gavin Knupp].
“That said, when possible we have tried to work cooperatively, shared opinions and as a general rule where we differed we did so in a civil manner,” he told Parks.
Despite her best efforts to secure chairmanship of the Search Committee, Sherrie Clifford will not be leading the effort to find candidates for this summer’s Ocean Pines Association election.
In a 4-3 vote, with OPA President Doug Parks and Directors Monica Rakowski, Rick Farr, and Stuart Lakernick opposed, and Directors Colette Horn, Steve Jacobs, and Frank Daly in favor, the Board of Directors during a March 18 meeting rejected her application to chair the committee.
Clifford is the founder and administrator of the ROC (Residents Oversight Community) Facebook page, with more than 2,000 members. ROC is one of several Facebook pages and Websites that comprise the Ocean Pines social media environment.
She’s been a vocal critic of some policies and decisions of the current Board.
Lakernick requested that committee appointment up for consideration at the meeting be voted on one by one, and raised an objection to Clifford as an applicant for the Search Committee, to which he serves as Board liaison.
He said he has a hard time endorsing an applicant who encourages boycotting the OPA’s food establishments.
“How can you be on a committee to work to better our town when you openly endorse hurting our town? It just doesn’t make sense to me,” Lakernick said, adding that Clifford signed an on-line petition that has a negative impact on the OPA.
He quoted a comment Horn made last year in a similar debate over his application to serve on an advisory
committee.
Sherrie Clifford“I do not endorse this candidate as having the skills and attitude necessary to inspire confidence,” Lakernick said.
Horn responded that in this case Clifford successfully served on the Search Committee last year and participated in the process that yielded a sufficient number of candidates for the Board election. She said the job on the Search Committee is essentially clerical, and Clifford has the skills necessary to carry it out.
“She has done a lot of work to better this community,” Horn said of Clifford. She in turn quoted Parks as having previously said, “We do not turn away volunteers.”
“I could have said the same thing last year,” Lakernick then said.
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From Page 13
Jacobs took issue with Lakernick’s assertion that it matters whether or not Clifford signed the petition to boycott the amenities.
He said he considered a boycott an acceptable form of social protest versus the use of violence.
Regardless, he said, the Search Committee has nothing to do with the OPA’s amenities.
He said the OPA is always seeking volunteers to serve on its committees and shouldn’t turn them away unnecessarily.
He said he “appreciated” Lakernick’s comments but “I just think it’s misplaced.”
Rakowski said she had an “an issue with all the negativity” that she said Clifford brings to the table.
She said Clifford has poked fun at Parks as OPA president, calling him a “king” and using Burger King imagery in her social media. “It just doesn’t give me the confidence that it would be in the best interest when we have to work so closely together,” she said of appointing Clifford to chair the Search Committee.
Daly supported the appointment, contending that Clifford is willing to serve and has the necessary skills. “There is no legitimate reason why they can’t serve on this committee,” he said.
Lakernick closed the discussion saying that words have consequences. “If you say things, you sign things, they have consequences. I can’t get behind a candidate that actively tries to denigrate our amenities when we’re trying to build them,” he said.
Earlier in the meeting, Clifford during the Public Comments segment made a case for her appointment as chair of the Search Com-
mittee. She said that she is an OPA member in good standing full time, very active in supporting Ocean Pines activities and the fire department, and participating in events like Bay Day, Arbor Day, and Light Up the Pines.
She said she managed a fund-raising effort and collected over $5,000 for a family that lost their home in a fire, and is a business owner that supports the OPA’s quarterly newsletter through paid advertising.
In 2022, she said she served as a member of the Search Committee and successfully worked with the team led by then-chairman Tom Piatti.
She said she spent a lot of time working with and being mentored by Piatti.
“I executed my duties correctly and on time,” she said, adding “I have recently submitted my application to chair the upcoming 2023 Search Committee and look forward to continuing my volunteer services within the community.”
In addition, Clifford said she submitted an application to participate as a member on the Elections Committee back in November 2022 but with the first come, first serve appointment policy for the revamped committee she didn’t make the cut. She said she was told she would be considered when there was a vacancy.
With a seat opening up on that committee, with the recent resignation of Elaine Brady, she said she should be in line to join the Elections Committee.
Clifford said she has the skills and experience required to assist “in restoring faith and confidence back into the Ocean Pines voting process. I can help to avoid the same issues and mistakes that occurred in the 2022 election.”
By TOM STAUSS Publisher
The Ocean Pines Association’s Search Committee tasked each year to help find candidates to run for the Board of Directors and process paperwork associated with applications most likely won’t be operating this year, OPA President Doug Parks has confirmed.
That was made clear when the Board during its March 18 monthly meeting voted 4-3 not to appoint Residents Oversight Community Facebook page founder and administrator Sherrie Clifford to the Search Committee as its chairperson.
Under OPA governing documents, the Search Committee needs at least three members to function, Parks said.
Clifford is the only Ocean Pines Association member who expressed an interest in serving and submitted an application to do so.
Even if Clifford had been appointed, it’s not clear that there would have been two more volunteers willing to serve.
On the other hand, it seems reasonable that the administrator of a Facebook page with 2,000plus members would have been able to recruit some volunteers to join her on the committee had she been appointed.
Parks told the Progress in a recent telephone interview that since an insufficient number of volunteers have stepped up to serve on the committee so far, and it’s getting late in the annual candidate application process, the chances of the committee functioning this year appears to be fading.
If there aren’t three volunteers who surface very soon, then the Search Committee will not be operational this year, Parks said, adding that “if we don’t have a Search Committee it is not a violation of governing documents.”
He said next year’s Board president can try again to populate the Search Committee for the 2024 Board election.
While Parks agreed with the notion that a Search Committee might be “obsolete” given that Ocean Pines is a mature community with a sufficient number of candidates emerging each year for Board vacancies, he said he would not be in favor of abolishing it, at least not now.
Last year’s Search Committee chair, Tom Piatti, suggested abolishing the panel in a year-end report to the Board.
The Board did not act on that proposal.
Parks said the committee mostly handles paperwork associated with candidate applications,
and that task can be delegated to the OPA’s administrative staff.
The committee also provides basic information to candidates on what is involved in running and serving on the Board if elected.
Parks also suggested that most years there haven’t been a lot a lack of candidates and that most step up without prompting from the Search Committee.
“It would require a by-laws change,” Parks said of Piatti’s suggestion to abolish the committee, adding that by-laws changes are time-consuming and expensive to implement because they require a community referendum and a majority of those voting to adopt.
Rather than do a single by-laws change to abolish the Search Committee, Parks said it’s more efficient to combine a series of proposed changes in a single referendum.
It might take some time to accomulate enough proposed changes to make conducting a referendum including abolishing the Search Committee worthwhile, he said.
A group of about 30 by-laws changes were approved by the OPA membership last year in a referendum, and there is no effort currently under way to propose another round of amendments.
Elaine Brady, an Ocean Pines homeowner since 2002 and a member of various Ocean Pines committees over the years, has announced her candidacy to the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors, the first OPA member to do so.
She resigned as a member the Ocean Pines Elections Committee shortly before announcing her candidacy.
Before resigning, she had participated in committee work sessions that resulted in recommendations to suspend on-line voting in this summer’s Board election, returning to a paper-ballot-only format, and to ensure that one ballot will be sent to each Ocean Pines lot whose owner or owners are eligible to vote.
“After much thought I have decided to run for the OP Board of Directors. I feel I can be an asset on the Board, as a having a long career in publishing community newspapers taught me the value of communicating, and to stay focused on issues,” she said in her announcement. “I also learned to not only voice my own views, but also the importance of respectfully listening to the views of others. Now retired, I have the time and desire to serve the community, and it would be my pleasure to stay connected to the community by serving on the Board.”
If elected, she would become the OPA’s first second generation director. Her father, Dick Brady, served on the Board for six years, three of them as president, in the 1990s.
Her parents brought a lot in Ocean Pines in the late 1970s, built a home and retired to Ocean
Pines in the 1980s.
She grew up and lived in Montgomery County until relocating to the Eastern Shore in 2021. She purchased a home in Ocean Pines in 2002, inspired by “the love my parents had for Ocean Pines.”
Before arriving in Ocean Pines to continue her newspaper career, she had been the publisher of community newspapers owned by the Washington Post Co., under contract with the Department of Defense, for the Pentagon and Washington D.C. area military installations.
She also served as vice-president of community newspapers for the Washington Post Co.
She was the publisher of the website DCMilitary.com.
She was the owner/publisher of the Bayside Gazette, a local weekly, before selling it and becoming associate publisher of the Ocean City Today weekly and the Bayside Gazette. She retired about two years ago.
Her Ocean Pines activities have included membership on the OPA’s 50th Anniversary Committee, the Communications Advisory Committee, and most recently the Elections Committee.
Other volunteer positions over the years included Board member of the Montgomery County YMCA, Board member and president of the Upper Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, Board member of the Maryland, Delaware, D.C. Press Association, Board member of the United Way of the Eastern Shore, and Board member and president of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce.
She will be competing for one of two seats on
the Board of Directors up for election, those currently held by OPA President Doug Parks and Director and former OPA President Colette Horn. Both are serving the last year of two consecutive terms and cannot run again because of term limits.
The deadline to file is 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 10.
Applications are available at the administration building or on the OPA Website.
The draw to determine ballot order and seating during candidate forums is scheduled for Friday, June 2 at 2 p.m. in the Blue Room of the Administration Building.
To be eligible to vote in this year’s election, OPA members must have paid their annual assessment by Wednesday, July 6. Ballots are sent out shortly after that.
Dates for two candidate forums have not yet been scheduled.
The deadline for returning ballots is Wednesday, Aug. 9 by 4 p.m.
Ballots will be counted and vote totals announced on Friday, Aug 11.
Election results will be certified at the annual meeting of the OPA on Saturday, Aug. 12, if a quorum of at least 100 OPA members is present.
If no quorum is present, results will be certified by the old Board of Directors.
Property owners will need to break out their pens if they want to vote in this summer’s Board of Directors election. During a March 18 meeting a majority of Board members voted to return to paper-only ballots for the 2023 election.
Director Rick Farr’s motion to conduct the election via paper ballots and do away with electronic voting was approved in a 4-2-1 vote, with Farr, OPA President Doug Parks, and Directors Stuart Lakernick and Monica Rakowski in favor, Directors Steve Jacobs and Colette Horn opposed, and Director Frank Daly abstaining.
Farr’s motion called for the Board to approve two recommendations from the Elections Committee. The first was to continue to research to obtain creditable scanning software, conduct end user testing and hire an independent contractor to perform ballot scanning under the committee’s visual supervision.
The second part of the motion
called for approval of the recommendation to suspend online voting for 2023, return to paper ballots, and continue research to find a contractor that has an alternative “control number” solution in order to eliminate “weighting” confusion experienced by multi-lot owners in the 2022 election. The projected reimplementation for online voting is 2024.
He said that those recommendations will “provide a level of confidence to all homeowners that voting procedures, when followed, can provide accurate and verifiable tabulations for each candidate and that every vote is properly counted and tabulated.”
Horn and Jacobs disagreed, and said the Elections Committee’s recommendations are based on the assumption that using the paper ballots has worked well in the past, yet all the problems with the 2022 election stemmed from the paper ballots, not the electronic voting.
“We’ve never looked backward at out paper ballot process to ensure that has indeed been flawless. So that’s a premise that I think doesn’t hold together logically,” Horn said. She said all of the committee’s work was in service of proving the hypothesis in that paper ballot voting is superior to electronic voting.
“It would have been far better if the committee invested as much time and effort and interest in issues of electronic voting with the same level of achievement that it found in addressing the paper ballot issue, which is where all the problems arose in the first place,” Jacobs said.
As background, Farr said in October 2022, the then-newly appointed Elections Committee received two charging documents consisting of 10 tasks: conduct a review of practices and procedures concerning ballot count errors and glitches in the 2022 election. The Elections Committee rendered an initial report to the Board in November and another in February. Both contained the recommendations replace the scanning software used in 2022, conduct user testing and outsource ballot scanning to an independent contractor, and suspend online voting in 2023 by returning to paper ballots.
Horn said Farr’s motion appeared
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to be prefaced on assertions that the paper ballot scanning software is flawed. But when she reviewed video of the Elections Committee’s meetings the discussion focused on two issues – that users were not properly training to use the scanners and that the software was known to have problems.
She said there was also an assertion that the online voting system is unable to be audited, but she saw no evidence in the committee’s discussion of that topic and no evidential support in the reports submitted by the committee. She said there was no indication that the manufacturer and developer of the electronic voting system had been contacted to determine whether there is a way to independently verified votes after the election.
“I feel that the logic that it’s premised on is flawed,” she said of Farr’s motion.
Jacobs acknowledged that the Elections Committee invested a lot of time and energy in moving forward with paper ballot voting, including addressing challenges with the paper stock, folding, bleed through of votes, the size and configuration of the traditional ballot, and reaching an agreement on how to handle scanning.
“But there are several other issues that were not resolved or addressed,” he said.
Among those issues is a perceived conflict of interest on the part of staff by having staff use the scanner to count the ballots instead of an outside vendor. He said no answer was ever provided by the committee regarding how the staff has a perceived conflict, or the cost of contracting with an outside vendor.
Jacobs said the committee also provided no follow up for online voting for this year’s election. He said the committee invested lot of time and energy on the paper side and very little on electronic voting other than identifying a potential vendor to handle the voting.
He said there has been no new information forthcoming from the committee to justify the elimination of online voting. contending that the committee simply raised concerns about some “potential issues” related to hacking and loss of private information. He said the logical next step would have been to go back to the vendor and inquire about privacy protection or seek another vendor who could address it.
“None of that happened, but we’re still left with the recommendation to take electronic voting off the table,” he said, adding that doing so will disenfranchise voters. “The fact of the matter is our governing documents provide a right to vote electronically,” he continued, saying people availed themselves of that right and there was no problem with electronic voting in the 2022 election.
Another issue with electronic voting cited by the Elections Committee was that it was a cumbersome process to verify that a member did not vote twice, using both paper and electronic ballots, Jacobs said. That’s because it required interaction between the vendors for the paper ballots and electronic voting, with the committee in-
Piatti says information produced by former committee last August is as accurate as it can be, and no examination of envelopes or ballots is going to produce a different number
By TOM STAUSS PublisherOcean Pines Association Director Frank Daly during the March 18 Board of Directors meeting once again asked the Elections Committee to produce the number of lots whose owners participated in last summer’s Board election.
Only with that number can property owners be sure that the election results as determined by a hand recount of ballots are accurate, Daly has said.
If the number of votes cast in the election exceeded the number of lots that participated in the election -- keeping in mind that some owners voted for three candidates, some two and some only one -- then the 2022 Board election was obviously flawed, according to Daly.
volved to facilitate that exchange of information. There’s no indication that system failed, he said.
Lakernick said there is a notion that some multi-lot owners were disenfranchised during past election because their ballots were weighted against all of their lots. To remedy that, the paper ballots system will ensure they get a ballot for every lot they own, he said.
“I have no problem at all with going forward for this election with a paper only ballot for everybody. This way everybody’s enfranchised. Because last time there were people that had multiple lots that didn’t know that they had to request multiple ballots, paper ballots if they wanted to do that,” Lakernick said.
He said the committee found solutions to the problems in the 2022 election with the paper ballots, including returning to a smaller ballot of heavier paper without a fold.
“If you can’t get it right, stay with paper,” he said.
Horn differed with Lakernick saying there was no proof of problems with electronic voting, but rather “hypotheticals” and “this committee came into this with a foregone conclusion.” That conclusion was that paper ballots should be used, she said.
Parks supported the motion because the election is coming soon and a lot of work needs to be done to prepare for it. He said it is best to return to paper ballots for 2023 because the committee is still trying to address concerns with electronic voting.
Elections Committee
Chairman Tom Piatti told the Progress in a March 24 telephone interview that the number Daly is seeking has already been determined and that no review of ballots or the envelopes with a ten-digit code printed on them is going to yield a different number of participating lots.
Frank DalyThe 10-digit code did not contain any information indicating the number of lots owned by the property owner, Piatti said.
An October report by the Elections Com-
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“Let’s just eliminate that from the equation and let’s move forward with something we know is gonna produce those kinds [accurate] of results,” he said.
Parks said the OPA shouldn’t abandon the idea of electronic voting but must have a reliable system in place before it tries it again.
Daly abstained from moving on Farr’s motion, saying he was fine with the committee’s recommendations but that it still hasn’t answered his primary question regarding the number of lots that voted in the 2022 election. “I’ve always been kind of agnostic on the electronic voting,” he said, adding there were problems with it in 2022.
The “fundamental bedrock” in the OPA’s election system is that each lot gets one vote. “What I don’t understand is why we can’t get the public specific information on the number of lots that voted,” he said, adding that the community’s confidence in the election system could be restored is the committee could simply show that the number of ballots cast in the last election was less than the number of lots eligible to vote.
“What I want to know is how many of the lots voted?” he said that should be easy to determine by scanning the paper ballot envelops and comparing them to the electronic voting roles. If a lot appears on both lists, then there is a problem, he said.
“Why can’t we do that? And why hasn’t that been done? And why hasn’t that information been made public to the Board and to the community?” Daly asked. [See article on this page for details.]
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mittee, whose members subsequently resigned en masse and were replaced by a new slate headed by Piatti, indicated that 2,906 lots voted, comprised of 811 ballots voted on line and 2095 scanned paper ballots.
Those 2,906 lots represented a total of 8,718 potential votes cast [2906 x 3].
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Results of the election after a Sept. 30 hand recount were Steve Jacobs, 1,894 votes; Stuart Lakernick, 1,682 votes; Monica Rakowski, 1,363 votes; Amy Peck, 1.348 votes; Josette Wheatley, 990 votes; and Paula Gray, 836 votes.
The number of votes counted for all six candidates totaled 8,113.
That’s 605 votes less than the owners of 2,906 lots potentially could have cast, meaning that under the Daly test for a valid or invalid election, the reported results after the hand-count were not flawed, or at least were within the realm of possibility.
“The election is over and we need to move on,” Piatti said. “The Board has done that by voting on Rick Farr’s two motions at the last Board meeting. Frank has no where else to go on this.”
and may be subject to review, suspension, reduction or withdrawal at any time by the assigning Rating Agency. Insurance pertains only to the timely payment of principal and interrepresentation is made as to any insurer’s ability to meet its financial commitments. Ratings and insurance do not remove market risk since they do guarantee the market value of the bond.
In a March 17 email to the OPA, Clifford had requested all Board of Director emails relating to the controversial 2022 election and those relating to the resignation of the Elections Committee members who oversaw the election, and who conducted a hand-count of ballots cast in late September. The hand-count confirmed the winning candidates in the election but by margins modified from the tallies in a count of the ballots in early August.
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By TOM STAUSS Publisher
From Page 24
According to an email from Tucker obtained by the Progress, Clifford subsequently withdrew her request for the emails, leaving ballots and the envelopes among the documents she wants to review.
The Progress has been unable to confirm if there are additional documents that she wants to inspect. Clifford did not return a phone call for comment.
“Based on my conversation with her attorney, Ms. Clifford believes there was a concerted effort/conspiracy involving the Board and the Election Committee to rig the vote count,” Tucker wrote in a recent email to OPA President Doug Parks. “She also believes that the vote count was incorrect despite the fact that there was a second vote count which confirmed the outcome of the election.”
Clifford did not return a Progress phone call intended to confirm the allegation that she believes there was a concerted effort or conspiracy
to rig the election, and that the former Board and Elections Committee was part of it.
According to the emails obtained by the Progress, two OPA directors, Rick Farr and Monica Rakowski, said Clifford’s motivations for requesting the documents were suspect.
“So let me get this right. Clifford believes the previous board that included [Colette] Horn, [Larry] Perrone, [Amy] Peck and [Josette} Wheatley made a concerted effort [conspiracy] to rig the last election along with the previous election committee??? I have no words,” Farr said.
Peck and Wheatley are former appointed directors who ran for the Board last summer, coming up short.
Peck was only 15 votes behind Rakowski for third place in the election that brought three new directors to the Board, including Rakowski, Stuart Lakernick and Steve Jacobs.
Rakowski said she found it “incredulous [that] Sherrie would accuse the former Board and Election
Committee of conspiring to rig the election. Seems this need to provide oversight of OPA has taken a very negative turn.”
He said that on advice of counsel Clifford has been asked and has agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement that would prevent her from making public any personal information such as how someone voted in the election.
That most likely couldn’t happen even without a non-disclosure agreement, as ballots were separated from the outer envelopes during the counting process and can’t be returned to them.
The NDA would not prevent her from disclosing her findings and conclusions from the review.
Ocean Pines Forum administrator Joe Reynolds told the Progress that he understands from various sources that Clifford does not intend to conduct another hand-count of the ballots, but will focus on the bar-coded envelopes in which the ballots were returned.
The intent will be to review the envelopes to determine the actual
number of lots whose owners participated in the 2022 election, he said, a number that was included in the former Election Committee’s initial report on election results.
Reynolds and others have said they believe that the reported number for lots participating in the election is incorrect because owners of multiple properties received only one ballot despite owning multiple properties.
He said the former committee’s lot count may have failed to account for these additional properties.
He contends that the new committee under the chairmanship of Tom Piatti did not conduct a review of the barcoded envelopes to determine the actual number of lots participating in the election.
OPA Director Frank Daly in both the March and February Board meetings also called for a review of the envelopes to determine the number of participating lots.
A Board majority has not formally acted on Daly’s request but generally is of the view that at this point
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From Page 26
the hand-count of ballots is the only meaningful measure of election results.
Piatti said in a March 24 telephone interview that inspecting the envelopes and the ten-digit code on them will not produce any new count of lots that participated in the last election. The code on these envelopes do not refer to the number of lots that a property owner might own, he added, contrary to the “stubborn” belief by some that they do.
He said a “poorly worded” letter from the former Elections Committee sent out with the ballots last summer told OPA members that if they owned multiple lots and wanted paper ballots for each of those lots, they needed to go to the Administration Building to obtain them.
Those who owned multiple lots and voted on-line were treated differently. On-line ballots were “weighted” for the number of lots owned, Piatti said, without having to request that the OPA’s on-line
vendor, VoteHOANow, do so.
That on-line ballots would be “weighted” for the number of lots owned was included in the former committee’s election instructions, though it’s possible if not probable that this concept was not fully understood by voters.
If property owners voting by paper ballot didn’t avail themselves of the option to request and obtain ballots corresponding to the number of lots owned, and presumably many did not, then they only voted one ballot, Piatti said.
“To that extent, they were disenfranchised,” he said.
In this summer’s election, one paper ballot for every lot owned will be sent to property owners, eliminating the possibility of the same kind of disenfranchisement repeating itself. There will be no on-line voting this year because of committee concerns that on-line voting can’t produce a paper trail needed in a recount.
Administrative challenges involving the local vendor and the on-line vendor to ensure that property owners don’t vote twice also contributed
to the decision not to do online voting this summer.
Piatti said there is no reason to doubt that the former committee’s count of participating lots included in its initial report on the election is accurate, again acknowledging that an unknown number of multiple lot owners did not have all of their lots included in the lot tally.
According to the committee’s initial report, 2,906 lots voted in the election, comprised of 811 ballots voted on line and 2,095 paper ballots scanned.
Piatti said he has no idea what Clifford hopes to accomplish by reviewing ballots and envelopes. He said that there is no chance at all that the former committee chaired by Carol Ludwig engaged in a rigged election.
“If she [Clifford] wants to do a recount of ballots, it’s going to take a long time because she’s only one person,” Piatti said.
He added that the former committee knew there was a spotlight on it as it conducted a recount, so members would have been very careful to ensure that the hand-count results were accurate.
In his March 20 email to Parks, Tucker responded to questions put to him by Parks and Horn.
In response to a question about Clifford’s motivation for requesting the documents, Tucker said that under Maryland law “we cannot condition access to the books and records on the member providing a reason for the inspection.”
He followed that up by quoting Clifford’s Baltimore attorney about Clifford’s alleged election conspiracy theory.
Tucker also opined on the potential impact of allowing Clifford to inspect the requested documents.
“Without knowing which documents exist and what story they
may tell, it is difficult to determine how the information learned from the documents may be used and how the information could impact the upcoming election,” he wrote. “We will know more, once we look at the requested documents.”
Tucker said it was his understanding that the Elections Committee “is implementing changes to reflect lessons learned. It is possible if Ms. Clifford is able to determine that there were vote count irregularities beyond what has been made public, Ms. Clifford could file a complaint in the Circuit Court or Maryland Attorney General to overturn the election results.”
With respect to the non-disclosure agreement that Clifford has agreed to sign, Tucker said it would include a “relatively large liquidated damages provision and an indemnification provision.”
He acknowledged that there is no way to guarantee that Clifford would comply with the NDA.
“But if OPA is able to confirm a breach of the NDA, OPA could file a lawsuit to seek to recover the liquidated damages,” he said.
Horn had expressed concern about the optics of requiring that Clifford sign an NDA.
Parks had wondered about the enforceability of an NDA.
“ I am sensitive to how the use of NDAs may be perceived,” Tucker wrote. “But I am also trying to balance this with the blow-back from a member if there is a chance that Ms. Clifford may learn from the records how someone voted and share that information.”
The attorney said his office “generally always seeks to require NDAs when a members seeks to review ballots. If the Board is confident that there is no way to tie a member to their votes based on the infor-
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1,445
From Page 28
mation in the records, then we can forge the NDAs,” he wrote.
According to another email from Tucker, the review agreed to by the OPA will not include a review of online ballots processed and counted by VoteHOANow, the on-line vendor.
“I do not believe we are required to obtain from VoteHOANow any [election] documents,” Tucker said.
The attorney said the OPA is entitled to charge a “reasonable fee” for the time it will take staff to provide the requested documents, noting that previously the OPA has charged $40 per hour for that kind of assistance.
A$500,000 project to replace fuel lines and a dock at the Ocean Pines Association’s Yacht Club marina is underway and should be completed in time for the busy summer boating season.
General Manager John Viola told the Board of Directors during his March 18 report that work on installation of the fuel supply lines is in progress and the dock will be installed once that work is completed.
“We will have a top notch marina dock when done,” Viola said, adding he believes the projects are on track to meet the goal of being completed be early May.
pensers for the season.
Replacement of marina fuel dock C will follow installation of the new fuel lines and is being required by the Maryland Department of the Environment to comply with new laws. The Board approved the work in October 2022 at a cost of $330,596. The dock is being manufactured by Florida-based company of Gator Dock and Marine Inc. and will be shipped to Ocean Pines for installation once fabrication is complete.
The problems at the marina began last year when the fuel pumps were shut down because of mechanical issues after the price of gas soared about first $5 and again at $6 per gallon and then a pipe developed a leak. The OPA had to update the gears in the marina gas pumps because they did not go to a $5-plus price point. and then they have to be updated again after the price topped $6 per gallon.
The project includes installing new fuel lines to replace those that developed a leak in 2022. The contract with Petro Supply Inc. for the work was approved by the Board in September 2022 at cost of $169,520.
“We had to replace the gas lines. We did have a problem down there last year. It was contained. The team did a great job on it,” Viola said regarding the leak that closed down many of the marina’s fuel dis-
Shortly after the gear adjustments were made, there was a line leak associated with the piping of the above the ground storage tank system. OPA staff act-
Tucker said that if the Board agreed to the inspection, he would forward a letter to Senior Executive Office Manager Linda Martin and Piatti asking them to confirm the existence of the requested documents. “Then I can work with Linda and [General Manager John Viola] to make arrangements for the inspection and the signing of the NDA,” Tucker wrote. To Page 33
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Armed with results that show that 61.35 percent of 401 Ocean Pines Association members participating in an on-line poll support replacing legacy marquee signage throughout Ocean Pines with new digital electronic signs, the Communications Advisory Committee appears ready to try again in its quest to persuade a majority of the Board of Directors to approve them.
Conversion to digital signage would probably start out at one location only, the North Gate.
The committee held its monthly meeting March 16, during which it reviewed the survey results.
There was no reported vote to recommend that the Board proceed with installing digital signs, but published minutes of the meeting suggest there continues to be support on the commitee for that.
From Page 30
ed quickly to contain the leak, placing booms around it, and contacted the outside company to come in for cleanup.
The marina had just two gas pumps in operation following the leak that spilled gas into the water and had to be cleaned up by an environmental contractor.
Filling vacancies within various OPA departments continues to be a priority, and the OPA is aggressively looking to fill open positions before the busy summer season, Viola said. “Obviously this has been a big item the last couple of weeks,” he said.
The OPA held a job fair on March 11 that was attended by about 50 people and as a result about 25 applications were received. The association also plans to attend a job fair at Stephen Decatur High School on April 27.
Currently, aquatics has 30 seasonal positions still open but has only received four applications and filled one position. The membership department has one seasonal position open at the front desk. Public Works has six positions still open
In addition to a survey question asking about support for electronic signage, there was a question about how useful survey participants find the marquee information boards to be.
Of the 401 respondents, 17.21 percent regard the legacy signage to be extremely useful, 29.93 percent very useful, and 38.4 percent somewhat useful.
That left 8.73 regarding the current signage to be be not very useful and 4.99 saying not at all useful.
Another question asked respondents what they thought of the current signage, with five answers choices listed.
Of the 401 responses, 43.1 percent said the marquee signs are hard to see at night or in dim light, 28.18 said they were a key source of information, 50.12 percent said they need to be updated more frequently, 43.64 said the posted information is sometimes out of date, and 31.42 percent said there’s too much text to read while
and has received 25 applications. Six applicants were interviewed for the open racquet sports manager position and Recreation and Parks has six other positions open, including five senior counselors and one junior counselor.
At the Ocean Pines Police Department, there are six positions for officers open and one opening for a dispatcher. There have been 20 resumes with 10 also including applications for employment.
Viola said the OPA is enhancing the current 401K plan to make it more competitive with other police force retirement plans and has increased salaries to be competitive with other agencies.
Additionally, Viola said the OPPD will be including both written and physical testing in its application process in the future. “So that when they go to the academy they would be more prepared,” he said.
In response to member concerns voiced during the Public Comments segment of the Board’s February meeting, the OPA’s public works crews made repairs and improvements to the dog park, and the Recreation and Parks department plans to install an agility course for the
driving at a safe speed.
The survey was the result of a decision by the Board back in January not to approve a committee proposal to begin installing electronic signs. Instead the directors sent the proposal back to the committee for further study.
Complicating the board’s discussion about whether to move forward with the long-debated shift to electronic signs is a reported Worcester County requirement that all of the decades-old marquee signs that decorate Ocean Pines would need to be removed.
“If we do these electronic signs, part of the agreement with the county was that we would take down all those other signs that are there,” General Manager John Viola said at the January Board meeting, referencing a county code amendment that allows communities like Ocean Pines to have electronic signs for internal messaging to its residents.
That requirement was a game changer for some Board members, who wanted the committee to explore member communication preferences and the number of signs necessary to provide needed information.
The committee’s March 16 meeting minutes do not report any discussion of the county’s requirements for removing legacy signs.
During the January Board meeting, Viola presented three quotes for electronic signs of sizes u
canines.
“We have done a lot,” Viola said
The improvements included replacing a dilapidated tool board with a vinyl storage shed, repairing the fencing, and filling in the entryway way with gravel and mulching the area to reduce mud. “I think Public Works did a great job on it,” Viola said.
Additionally, he said the OPA has received a quote of about $5,000 for a four-piece canine agility course and the equipment is on order.
Viola said that additional pieces of equipment can be added in the future to expand the agility course.
Saying the facility had been neglected for seven to ten years, Viola highlighted improvements that have been made to the Racquet Sports Complex e since 2019 and discussed plans for a new warming hut. Recent improvements include court repairs and new pickleball courts last year; court and fence repairs and new junior tennis courts in 2021, court repairs, fence replacement, shade awning in 2020, screen replacement in 2019.
For 2023, repairs to the inside of clubhouse started on March 10 and include fixing walls, the base, paint-
ing the sun-room wall, ceiling, and cabinets, and landscaping. Additionally, towel racks have been ordered for all sports and ruts in the ground near new the new pickleball courts are being smoothed out. The shed near the dog park was cleaned out to accommodate larger equipment like court rollers.
Shade structure is being built and will be installed in April and resurfacing of Har-tru tennis courts, at a cost of $19,580, and crack repairs are scheduled for this spring.
Viola said the OPA is also working on preliminary sketches for a new building and warming hut.
An automated external defibrillator, AED, has been purchased at a cost of $2,900 and installed outdoors at the Ocean Pines racquet center and will be accessible to staff and members during regular hours of operation. Linda Martin, OPA senior executive office manager, said staff will unlock the AED case each day and lock it when the center closes.
And additional AED is being ordered for the police department, Martin said. She said recreation staff, camp counselors, marina staff and other Ocean Pines employees will be certified in use of the AED.
Two years ago, member Richard Malone asked the Ocean Pines Association to do something about a problem property where derelict vehicles litter the yard near his home on Nottingham Lane.
With nothing having been done to address the issue since he spoke up 2021, he was back to address the Board of Directors again during the Public Comments section of a March 18 meeting, where he encouraged publishing the names of those who violate the restrictive covenants as a way to encourage compliance.
“I’ve got properties around me that are pulling my property down. Gross violations,” Malone said of lots where the residents have disabled vehicles and motorcycles.
He said one car has been there 2008 and it’s visible in Google Earth photos. There are also two motorcycles, bicycles, trash, a golf cart in the back yard that can be seen from Route 589, he said. “You ride down 589, that’s what people see...” he told the Board.
Malone said he has sent emails and photos of the violations and previously brought it to the attention of the OPA but nothing appears to have been done to address it.
He said he was told the courts are backed up due to delays from the pandemic, but was then later told the case was just forwarded to legal counsel.
He said there seems to be selective enforcement of the restrictive covenants. He said a neighbor was forced to remove a children’s playset from the
front of their home, but yet the derelict vehicles on another property remain.
He added that if the OPA charges him with a violation related to the height of a fence he will sue for discrimination.
Malone said he moved to Ocean Pines because there are supposed to be rules that will ensure the protection of property values by enforcing the declaration of restrictions. “I don’t like being the bad guy,” he said, but added that it appears as though there is no way to enforce the rules in Ocean Pines.
He called for changing the enforcement procedures to “get some teeth into the rules.”
He suggested publishing a list of properties and their owners who have continuing violations. That could be done in local newspapers or the quarterly OPA newsletter, he said.
OPA President Doug Parks seemed to like that idea and said the OPA would follow up on Malone’s complaint about his neighbors and on the possibility of posting a list of ongoing violations.
Linda Martin, OPA senior executive office manager, said the list is included in the Architectural Review Committee’s minutes after every meeting and those are available on the association website.
Parks said he didn’t know that and probably most members don’t either. He suggested posting the information in a more prominent location.
Malone said “the more public it is the more power it has.”
Director Colette Horn, Board liaison to the
ARC, agreed that Malone made a good point about enforcement but said the association is trying new ways to address the problem. She said the ARC recently started asking the Board to restrict property owner rights for those found in continuing violation of the restrictions.
That means they can’t vote in elections or use the paid amenities, which may not matter to some OPA members.
“That is effective to the extent that those people care about that,” she said.
Horn pointed out that the declaration of restrictions for some sections of Ocean Pines allow the OPA to fine owners for non-compliance, but not all of them do.
Most of the sections with continuing violations are those sections without that authority, she said.
The ARC is asking the Board to use the fining authority to address continuing violations of the restrictions when it can, Horn said.
As a next step, Horn said the OPA could consider amending the DRs to include fining authority in other sections, a process that requires a vote in favor by the majority of members in each individual section.
“I know it looks like nothing is being done but we are doing what is at our disposal to do per our governing documents,” Horn said.
Also during Public Comments, Lora Pangratz, a member of the OPA’s Bylaws and Resolutions Advisory Committee, encouraged the Board to overrule a recommendation from the committee and extend the time the association retains video recordings and meeting records.
Pangratz said she was speaking for herself only and not as a member of the committee, which recommended only retaining the materials for two months as part of a resolution to be discussed later in the same meeting.
She suggested amending the proposed Resolution B-09 to extend the retention time for video recordings and records because it sometimes takes much longer than that for issues to be fully vetted
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ranging from four feet by five feet, to four feet, five inches by eight feet, three inches and in cost from $34,399.50 to $45,000 each.
Viola said the Communications Advisory Committee recommended installing two of the larger signs from Phillips Signs of Seaford, Del., at an estimated cost $38,446.76 each, for a total $76,893.52. Apparently a revised proposed will focus initially on the North Gate.
He said there would be additional costs of $1,500 per sign for permitting and $7,500 per sign for labor, bringing the total estimated expense for two signs to $94,893.52.
. Installation of eight electronic signs, at a discount price of $31,936.24 each, to replace all of the marquee signs in Ocean Pines would total about $255,489.
and decisions made.
“Sometimes it takes many more months than two months just to get a topic here at a directors meeting,” Pangratz said. She said when there is a need for further discussion on an issue it would be beneficial to be able to go back and see a committee’s discussion was on that topic to be able to understand why members may have made a certain recommendation.
Pangratz said the Bylaws and Resolutions Committee has chosen to record its meetings so community members can watch them if they chose to do so.
She said that committee, and some others, have extensive discussions and it would be helpful to be able to revisit their meetings sometimes.
Further, she said minutes are supposed to be taken at committee meetings and made available for interested parties to read. Some committee secretaries take detailed minutes and some take only basic minutes.
The policy calls for retaining minutes for three years. She said it can be problematic if a committee doesn’t have a set of minutes that really documents its discussions and decisions, but retaining video can also help with that challenges.
She suggested changing the proposed resolution to retain video recordings for six months to a year.
Additionally, Pangratz said the Bylaws and Resolutions Committee has been meeting every two weeks instead of once per month to try to catch up on its backlog of work reviewing and updating resolutions and other documents.
She encouraged other committees to meet more frequently as well.
Also during Public Comments, dog park proponent Jack Levering thanked the OPA for making requested improvements at the facility in Manklin Meadows.
Last month he spoke during public comments and asked for repairs to the tool storage, fence, walkways, and installation of mulch and gravel to address muddy areas at the dog park.
“The dogs are happy,” he said, adding that he is looking forward to installation of a new agility course for the dogs as well. “It’s really gratifying,” he said of the OPA’s quick response to his request for improvements.
Levering brought one more issue to the attention of the Board, that of accessibility for wheelchairs. He
said he has seen the challenges people using wheelchairs have in accessing the dog park.
Recently someone in a wheelchair almost tipped over in their wheelchair. He suggested the association install some concrete pads or other materials to provide more stable area for accessibility.
Another resident asked for clarification about the OPA’s new policy of leaf removal and wanted to know if lot owners are now responsible for cleaning out the drainage ditches
since the association will not be using the vacuum truck to pick them up any more.
Martin responded that in the past property owners could rake leaves from ditch up to the ditch bank and the OPA would vacuum them up into the truck for disposal.
That practice has been eliminated. Instead residents will have to rake the leaves from the ditches, bag them, and then dispose of them by having Ocean Pines pick them up, putting them out with their trash,
or taking them to the public works yard.
General Manager John Viola added that the OPA has had problems in the past with residents be raking leaves from their yards into the ditches for the vacuum truck to pick up. “If it’s in your yard you really need to take care of it,” he said.
Martin said the OPA is implementing a free sticker system, whereby residents can get stickers from Public Works for disposal of their bagged leaves.
Unclear what the legal requirements are, the Board of Directors agreed to seek advice from legal counsel prior to a second reading of a new resolution setting parameters for retention of video recordings and documents by the Ocean Pines Association.
During its March 18 monthly meeting, the Board held a first reading of Resolution B-09 to establish a policy regarding the retention of video recordings and minutes of Board meetings and committee meetings, and set time limits for the retention of each.
Director Steve Jacobs presented the proposal drafted by the Bylaws and Resolutions Committee, but said the committee asked for input from legal counsel. Specifically, the committee wants an opinion from counsel as it applies to “books and records” requests as well as whether minutes need to be kept in the county repository and for what period of time per the Maryland Homeowners Association Act.
The bylaws state that “except as otherwise provided by the laws of the State of Maryland, the books and records of the Association shall be kept at such place or places as the custodian thereof selects within the State of Maryland.
All such books and records or copies thereof shall be made available on request to members of the Association or their agents at any reasonable time.”
The committee recommends that legal counsel review the language to ensure that an interpretation of “records” and “shall be made available on request” does not conflict with any state statutes or the resolution’s restrictions on archival of minutes or video recordings provided in this resolution.
As background, Jacobs said there is concern about retaining video recordings for extended periods of
time and how long minutes should be retained as well. The committee’s draft resolution seeks to answer those matters while still preserving each individual OPA committee’s options regarding whether to record and whether to archive such recordings for the stated two-month period.
All open Board meetings and all member meetings would be recorded and archived unless the Board votes not to do so.
OPA President Doug Parks said the Board needs to understand whether committee meetings need to have consistent retention like Board meetings.
“For every piece of information that the attorneys and the organization wants to keep, there’s also information they want to delete and its kept and protected by a retention policy,” he said.
Parks noted that how long video or documents are retained is mandated by the type of data and legal
counsel can help determine those parameters. For example, he said alcohol serving amenities may require a longer video surveillance retention period that committee meetings.
Director Frank Daly said he has a concern about ensuring adequate video retention as related to any potential legal action. “I think we need from counsel what we need to retain to protect the corporation for what length of time,” he said.
Daly added that due to Board and staff turnover the OPA would be hard pressed to provide testimony on a matter that occurred years’ prior, but adequate video surveillance retention could help.
The OPA’s bylaws simply specify that cooperate records be kept and made available on request to members or their agents.
The policy requires that any Board and committee meeting recorded videos and their associated meeting minutes be preserved us-
ing appropriate storage technology. This may be either on site at the OPA or on systems supplied by a cloud services provider. Any Board and committee meeting recorded videos and their associated meeting minutes will be made available on the Ocean Pines Association’s Website unless decided by a majority vote of the Board.
The proposed resolution states that meeting videos will be retained for a period of 5 years after which time they will be removed from the web site and deleted from the identified storage location. Meeting minutes will be retained for a period of 5 years after which time they will be removed from the web site and delete from the identified storage location.
Each committee will decide whether it will record their meetings inform the general manager, through its Board liaison, of that decision.
The proposed resolution calls for committee meeting videos to be retained for a period of 2 months after which time they will be removed from the web site and deleted from the identified storage location.
Meeting minutes will be retained for a period of three years after which time they will be removed from the web site and deleted from the identified storage location.
The general manager is charged with ensuring the archive is maintained and a log of all such records archived is maintained including when such records were posted.
ing the topic was brought up last year but no formal action was ever taken.
“It shouldn’t be ignored. We’ll have to make a decision because the annual meeting’s coming up,” Jacobs said.
Last year, he said, the Board discussed the topic but never made a decision how to proceed or passed a resolution. Jacobs said at that time there was lot of discussion regarding counting members virtually u
Contributing Writer
With the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Ocean Pines Association just four months away, the Board of Directors is pondering how to best incorporate members attending virtually. Director Steve Jacobs, liaison to the Bylaws and Resolutions Advisory Committee, presented a draft of Resolution B-03 regarding meetings of Association members during the March 18 Board meeting, say-
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for purpose of obtaining a quorum at the Annual Meeting.
“Ultimately no action was taken,” he said. Jacobs said it is unclear where the proposal was formally tabled by the Board. So, the committee thought it pertinent to bring it to the Board’s attention again since the Annual Meeting is looming. “I think it’s a significant matter to be considered,” he said.
The draft Resolution B-03 states that meetings of the association may be held as virtual or a hybrid of a virtual and in-person meeting as directed by the association’s president.
To hold a virtual or a hybrid meeting, the equipment or system used must permit any member, Board member or committee member in attendance to hear and be heard by all others participating in the meeting.
The committee added language to the draft resolution stating that the general manager will report to the Board not less than 30 days prior to the annual meeting that the equipment or system is able to ensure that only qualified members may be counted toward a quorum, to vote and to fully participate in the meeting.
“I think that would go a long ways to addressing the concern that was raised in the summer,” Jacobs said.
The resolution calls for a link or instructions on how to access the virtual meeting in the notice of the meeting. Any member attending a virtual meeting will be deemed present for quorum, voting purposes and full participation, as applicable in the particular meeting.
The inability of a member to join a meeting due to technical difficulties with the member’s telephone, computer or other electronic device does not invalidate the meeting or any action taken at the meeting.
Virtual participants at a meeting of the association may be able to vote on any matters requiring a vote but would need to use a ballot delivered with the notice of the meeting.
Only those members present at the virtual meeting would be authorized to vote a ballot.
Members who are not present at the meeting may vote by electronic transmission or vote by proxy in accordance with the requirements of the bylaws and be considered present for quorum purposes through their proxy.
The president may set a reasonable deadline for return of a ballot to the association, including return by electronic transmission, but they must not be returned later than 24 hours after the conclusion of the meeting.
OPA President Doug Parks suggested the committee determine what the by-laws require to ensure the language in the resolution in in line with the governing documents.
The Board can hold a first reading of the resolution in April, he said.
Director Colette Horn asked why the Board couldn’t consider the discussion at the March 18 meeting as a first reading, Parks said it wasn’t listed on the agenda as such so it couldn’t be a first reading.
As part of an ongoing effort to attract and retain qualified officers to the Ocean Pines Police Department, the Ocean Pines Association is creating a new retirement program for law enforcement. During its March 18 monthly meeting, the Board of Directors agreed to fund the $175,000 cost of the OPPD pension equivalent program using realized retained earnings.
OPA President Doug Parks offered a motion to approve a defined pension equivalent contribution for officers with the OPPD so the agency can be more competitive with other agencies that offer pension plans to their law enforcement officers.
The OPPD’s current plan makes a safe harbor non-elective contribution of 5 percent that is 100 percent vested.
Based on a recommendation from General Manager John Viola, the Board agreed to amend the plan to remove the safe harbor non-elective contribution provision and add an employer match of 5 percent with 100 percent vested after five years, and add a 6-year vesting schedule for new hires effective May 1, 2023.
The plan also allows for a discretionary contribution up to 15 percent equally provided at the end of each fiscal year and a profit-sharing provision with a 6-year vesting schedule. Overall, the plan will allow for up to a 5 percent deferral per fiscal year.
“This will make us competitive other police departments,” Viola said.
When asked by Director Frank Daly how the OPPD plan compared with the Law Enforcement Officers Pension System (LEOPS) and the separate system offered by the Ocean City Police Department, Viola said it is comparable.
“It puts us right there,” he said.
Director Steve Jacobs pointed out that the reason the OPA needs to create a separate program for the OPPD is because it cannot access LEOPS because Ocean Pines is not a municipality.
“That’s correct. We’ve tried over the years,” Viola said.
Jacobs said there are very few homeowners associations the size of Ocean Pines in Mary-
land that provide police coverage. He wondered how many there are and if there would be an opportunity for a change in the state statute to allow them access to LEOPS.
Viola said he doesn’t know the number of large homeowners associations with police departments that may be interested in accessing LEOPS.
Director Rick Farr said since homeowners associations don’t qualify for LEOPS at the current time, it may be worth exploring a change through the legislative process to see if they can be recognized.
He acknowledged that the plan presented by Viola is a “very good plan.”
Farr said Ocean City chose not to go into LEOPS because it developed an enhanced program for its officers to support retention. “They wanted to do something better than what even LEOPS had to offer,” he said. “This type of a plan that has been presented here is very, very good, very, very attractive for new staff that will be coming on board.”
Parks said the OPPD is currently down eight officers and both recruitment and retention have been issues for the department, especially at the entry level.
He said the Board decided it’s in the best interest of the OPA to stimulate interest in potential recruits by enhancing the retirement benefits.
“We’re aggressively trying to address that in order to continue to make Ocean Pines one of the safest in the state,” he said.
Director Colette Horn asked if funding for the new pension equivalent program is included in the budget.
Viola said it was not.
His recommendation is to transfer the funding of $175,000 from realized retained earnings for the budget year 2023-24 starting May 1.
Horn supported the proposal and said public safety is exactly for what realized retained earnings should be dedicated. In addition to support for the OPPD, she said the Board must keep in mind the proposed new south side fire station because it isn’t clear yet how much of that cost the OPA will need to fund.
“We need to be stingy with our retained earnings in my opinion,” Horn said.
Updated procedures on petitions, animal control, reserves, meeting rules and more approved on second reading
By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing WriterBased on the recommendation of the Bylaws and Resolutions Committee, the Board of Directors on March 18 approved on second reading a series of updates to resolutions that help govern operations of the Ocean Pines Association. Director Steve Jacobs, committee liaison, presented updated to resolutions on petitions, animal control, reserve accounts, rules for Board meetings, and more.
Language was added to Resolution B-07, Petitions, to clarify who may represent petitioners in addressing the Board on the topic of the submitted petition. Petitions requiring approval by referendum must contain the specific question, proposal, or action to be presented to the association members in the referendum, suitable for an affirmative or negative response. The petition must identify the person initiating the petition and the person who will represent the petitioners.
As background, Jacobs said the revised Resolution B-07 explicitly states that a person making a presentation on behalf of petitioners must be a member eligible to vote on the petition. It also allows for the representative of the petitioners be assisted by others. Any person who assists the representative of the petitioners need not be a member of the association.
An update to Resolution M-05 clarifies that enforcement of animal control issues and disputes rests with Worcester County, but that the Ocean Pines Police Department may assist when called on to do so “in those cases where Worcester County Animal Control is unable to take custody of an animal, Ocean Pines Police may have to act. In those cases, there should be a schedule of fees in place to account for the impoundments of the animal in question,” it reads.
When county authorities are not available to take custody of an animal from OPPD, the animal may be placed in OPA facilities until such time as custody can be turned over to the county. The OPA will establish a schedule of fees for the impoundment of animals as well as the process for collecting such fees.
Lt. Greg Schoepf said several years ago Worcester County adopted an ordinance allowing the OPPD the authority to address animal control issues and to immediately issue a $100 citation to people found in violation of the county code. “It doesn’t have to go to the county first,” he said.
Schoepf said the OPPD does pass those animals along to Worcester County as quickly as possible if they cannot immediately locate the owner because the association does not have space to house them long term.
Director Stuart Lakernick asked if the OPPD has the technology to scan animals with embedded tracking chips.
Schoepf said no, but the county does.
A revision to Resolution F-03, Financial Re-
serve Accounts, formally establishes a separate Drainage Reserve Account to aid in funding future expenditures for drainage in Ocean Pines. Jacobs said adoption of the revision allow for better multi-year planning and to offset expenditures over a longer period of time for drainage projects. Previously, drainage was included in the road maintenance reserve account.
A Drainage Reserve has been included in OPA documents such as the annual budget and the monthly reserve summary for quite sometime, so this resolution brings the resolution into accord with actual practice.
Overall, the resolution provides for the establishment of the various reserve accounts necessary to ensure that the association provides funding to maintain or replace, as necessary, capital assets and to provide for future capital assets.
Resolution B-02 addresses Rules of Order for Board Meetings. The committee didn’t have any recommended changes but wanted input from the Board.
Director Colette Horn said the resolution does need to be updated to address a policy implemented by OPA President Doug Parks preventing members attending virtually from speaking during the Public Comments section of Board meetings.
The resolution currently states that any member desiring to address the Board during Public Comments shall be recognized and doesn’t provide for the exclusion of members who are partic-
ipating virtually. Currently, Parks has told people participating virtually that they may not participate in Public Comments.
“If we’re going to continue that practice, this resolution I believe needs to be revised to codify that,” Horn said.
Parks agreed and the committee should be directed to draft a revision to the resolution for consideration by the Board.
Jacobs also asked the Board input on a document listed in the OPA’s Book of Resolutions with the title “Convenience Fee Resolution” and dated in 2017. He said document is not assigned a resolution number, and does not contain the typical formatting or required signatures of a resolution. The committee does not have a record of this “resolution” and was not tracking it.
Jacobs said the committee speculates that this document may have been intended to be part of the OPA Financial Management Procedure Manual. However, it was the Board’s intention that this become a new Resolution, it will need to be properly formatted, assigned a number, contain the proper signatures, and be added to the committee’s records.
Parks said he will investigate the status of the document and inform the committee how to proceed with it.
The committee recommended, and the Board agreed, to send Resolution B-05, Conflicts of Interest, and Resolution B-06, Indemnification, to legal counsel for review.
Details are murky, but former Ocean Pines Association Director Amy Peck recently confirmed on the oceanpinesforum.com Website that a job offer that had been extended to her previously had been rescinded.
The job offer was for a position she had previously held prior to an appointment to the Board as a pool check-in person in the Aquatics Department. She lost her bid for a seat on the Board this past August.
Peck did not respond to a telephone inquiry from the Progress about the reason given for the job rescission.
Speculation abounded on the Forum that Peck critics on the Board had intervened, but OPA Vice-president Rick Farr in a text message said that Board members don’t interfere with management decisions and had nothing to do with Peck not getting the job.
Ironically, OPA General Manager John Viola said during the March 18 Board meetings that 30 positions in Aquatics remained to be filled for the summer, with four applications in hand. Presumably most of the vacancies are for lifeguards, however.
Viola said “no comment” to a Progress inquiry on the reasons for Peck not getting the job.
One informed source told the Progress that while it’s unclear what prompted the decision, and who made it, Peck has been outspoken in her criticism of recent Board decisions, citing a recent podcast of the ROC (Residents Oversight Community) organization in which criticism of the Board majority was pointed.
ROC founder and administrator Sherrie Clifford has been publicly supportive of efforts to boycott OPA food and beverage venues managed by Matt Ortt Companies, and Peck has not distanced herself from that position. Several months ago she told the Progress that she opposed voiding the contract that OPA has with MOC, but she declined to take a position on the boycott.
Peck teased a possible run for the Board of Directors this summer now that she won’t be an OPA employee. Employees are precluded from running and serving on the Board by OPA bylaws.
Rakowski says 210 property owners owe $763,000 in dues, interest and fees, which is about 9 percent of the total billed
By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing WriterAbout 2.5 percent of property owners, representing 210 lots out of 8,482, are behind in paying their annual Ocean Pines Association assessments for the 2022-23 fiscal year and owe $763,156.51 in assessments, interest, and fees as of Feb. 28. Director Monica Rakowski, who serves as OPA treasurer, presented an update on the number of delinquent accounts to the Board of Directors during its March 18 monthly meeting.
Historically, the OPA’s delinquency rate has hovered around the 2 percent mark.
The $763,156.51 owed in assessments, interest and fees is about 9 percent of the $8,511,831 billed in assessments in 2022-23, Rakowski said.
If the interest and fees are removed from the calculation, the total owed is $141,628, which is
only 1.7 percent of the amount billed.
Directors wanted to know what’s being done to collect those past dues fees.
“Is there a mechanism in place for us to actually secure the payments that are due to us?” Director Steve Jacobs asked.
OPA President Doug Parks said the OPA levies interest on the delinquent payments and sends out reminder notices to delinquent property owners.
“It’s been an issue for a very, very long period of time,” he said and added that he and Director Frank Daly did a study of delinquencies several years ago.
The OPA’s Declarations of Restrictions and Articles of Restatement cite actions the Board is authorized to take for collection of delinquent annual assessments including the establishment of the annual rate of interest to be assessed on
unpaid charges from the date of delinquency.
In February the Board set that annual interest rate at 6 percent for delinquent accounts.
Parks said there are people who get behind on their assessments for purely economic reasons, and there are those who just haven’t paid them in ten years because they don’t want to.
“Obviously as each year goes by the chances of collecting that money diminishes,” he said. “So the focus was to see what can be done to prevent people from getting on that list.”
Aside from charging interest and eventually filing a lien on the property, there isn’t much the OPA has done historically. Traditionally, it’s just been very difficult to collect those outstanding fees, although not for lack of trying on the OPA’s part, he said.
He noted that some communities such as Captain’s Cove move aggressively to foreclose on delinquent properties after liens have been filed, and that perhaps the OPA needs to adopt that approach.
Parks suggested some people may be able to pay their assessments if the fees are waived and suggested General Manager John Viola and the Budget and Finance Committee look into that option.
For the 2022-23 fiscal year that began May 1 of 2022, the OPA billed its members for $8,511,831 in total property assessments.
The OPA has filed liens against 197 of the propu
General Manager John Viola said he and his staff are looking at U.S. treasury bills or T-bills as they’re known as possible Ocean Pines Association investments.
He made that announcement during his General Manager comments at the March 18 Board of Directors meeting.
He said he would run the idea by the Budget and Finance Advisory Committee before deciding whether to proceed.
T-bills have been become more attractive investments in the current environment of rising interest rates.
Viola offered assurances that OPA deposits at the Bank of Ocean City are secure, noting a few bank failures in California and in Europe. CDARs are the OPA’s preferred investment vehicle, as deposits are spread across numerous banks with no one deposit exceeding the $250,000 threshold for insured accounts. Viola said no individual OPA CDAR account exceeds $240,000.
He said that conditions are more stable locally and with the Bank of Ocean City, the Association’s primary banker.
“I assure everybody that we have met with our bankers. They were in the GM’s office first thing Monday morning,” he said. “And everything is secured.”
To further spread out risk, Viola said the OPA is opening up another account in another bank, without identifying it.
“We are transferring some money there, working with the Bank
The Ocean Pines Association notched a $33,731 operating surplus in February, about $9000 less than in January, but continuing the trend of surpluses throughout the year, even in a monthly historically known for operating deficits.
The cumulative surplus for the 2022-23 fiscal year through Feb. 28 was $1,112,745, with two months remaining in the fiscal year.
The positive operating fund variance in February resulted from revenues under budget by $1,312 and expenses under budget by $35,043.
The cumulative positive operating fund variance through Feb. 18 resulted from revenues over
budget by $945,306 and expenses under budget by $167,439.
In remarks during the March 18 Board of Directors meeting, General Manager John Viola said while the surplus reflects some savings from staffing shortages in certain departments, most of the surplus is attributable to what he called “organic” growth in the amenities, shorthand for increased revenues. He cited golf operations as a particular success story.
For the year through February, all amenity departments except tennis and platform tennis are in the black, with tennis $8,654 in the red and platform tennis a negative $1,883.
Compared to budget, all amenity departments except for the Clubhouse Grille are in positive ter-
ritory as of the end of February. The Clubhouse Grille’s negative variance to budget was $12,546 but it remains a profitable amenity.
Through Feburary, beach parking was the OPA’s top producer, with net revenues of $509,202, followed by golf at $373,333, the Yacht Club at $246,730, marinas at $242,864, the Beach Club at $218,230, Aquatics at $173,171, and the Clubhouse Grille at $34,739. In the aggregate, racquet sports are in the black through February, led by pickleball’s net income of $55,518.
For the month of February, all amenities except beach parking were in the red, and all but golf missed their budget targets.
Golf operations had a positive variance to budget of $18,818.
Reserve summary -- The Feb. 28 reserve summary indicated total reserves of $7.62 million, down from $7.9 million in January, $8.254 million in December and $8.814 million in November. The replacement reserve balance at the end of February was $5.75 million, with bulkheads and waterways at $730,217, roads at $843,506, drainage at $183,506, and new capital at $113,382.
Balance Sheet -- The OPA’s balance sheet as of Feb. 28 shows total assets of $46,867,089, up from $45,797,479 at the same time in 2022.
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erties and has written off $18,777 for last year.
Across the board the numbers are down from the 2021-22 year, which saw billings of $9,343,383 with 392 open accounts with a delinquent balance of $873,612.16.
Rakowski pointed out that the delinquencies almost topped $1 million in 2017-18. She noted that the delinquencies are trending downward, but still “it absolutely is a lot of money.”
Director Frank Daly recalled that when he and Parks reviewed delinquencies a few years ago, there were about 52 properties that accounted for 98 percent of the outstanding balances and some had outstanding balances in excess of $25,000.
While some of them may be on a payment plan, “nobody in this room” will be around to see the last payment, he said. He said he would like to see that type of breakdown of delinquent accounts again.
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of Ocean City so that we have money in another place, as we cover operations throughout [the year],” he said.
Also at the March Board meeting, OPA Director and Treasurer Monica Rakowski reported that as of Feb. 28, the OPA had about $13 million cash in hand. That was $700,000 more than the same time last year and $900,000 less than in January.
She said that $11.1 million is invested in CDARS, with another $1.9 million in an insured cash sweep, money market and operating accounts.
Worcester County is beginning the process of adjusting its election districts in response to population changes identified in the 2020 Census, including in Ocean Pines. The all-Ocean Pines District 5 experienced enough of a population gain that it will have to “lose population” before the next election to comply with state election law.
During a March 7 meeting, Jennifer Keener, development review and permitting director, asked the Worcester County Commissioners how they would like to proceed with a redistricting in response to the Census data.
“Some changes are going to have to be made. Some districts will have to lose population and others pick it up,” she said.
In the Ocean Pines District 5 the population grew by 8.8 percent to 8,179 people, and the Northern District 6 grew by 7.6 percent to 8,083 people. District 6 includes a portion of Ocean Pines east and north of Ocean Parkway, from Wood Duck Isle to the North Gate, and extends northward including communities along Beauchamp Road north of Ocean Pines and Showell to the Delaware line.
The rest of Ocean Pines comprises District 5.
The only other district to grow was Sinepuxent District 3, up 6.6 percent to 8,009 people.
Districts 1, 2, 4, and 7 each lost population, according to Census data. District 1 in Pocomoke dropped by 3.9 percent to 7,224; District 2 in Berlin/Central by 4.2 percent to 7,197, Western District 4 down 7.1 percent to 6,981; and the Ocean City District 7 saw the largest reduction, 7.7 percent to 6,934 people.
Based on the overall county-wide Census data, the ideal population per district would be 7,515.3 people. The population disparity between the districts is at of 16.6 percent, higher than the recommended 10 percent disparity.
Commission President Chip Ber-
tino, who represents District 5, asked what impact reducing the population in that district will have on other districts. “How do you see that rippling into the other districts?” he asked.
Keener said there could be options for addressing that impact. But, she pointed out that District 5 is surrounded [on two sides] by District 6.
She said District 5 would need to lose population to District 6. Further population adjustments from District 6 into other districts may then be necessary as well, she said. “There could be options.”
The result could be a District 6 that becomes even more Ocean Pines-centric than it already is, with District 5 remaining exclusively Ocean Pines.
Keener said the county would need to look at the individual Census blocks using specialized software to determine if the population adjustments by district are meeting the redistricting requirements, and also maintaining the minority-majority election District 2 in Berlin.
Commissioner Ted Elder questioned the integrity of the 2020 Census data. “I think this last census was tremendously off.” He said it is
not realistic that his election district, District 4 would have lost the 4.5 percent of population identified in the Census when many new homes are being built there. “This is all going to be based on faulty Census figures,” he said.
Commissioner Joe Mitrecic agreed that there is a problem with the data. He pointed out that the Town of Ocean City has more than 6,000 registered voters. Yet the Census data shows the town only has a population of 6,934 people.
Weston Young, county administrator, said the challenge with Census data is that it requires residents to actually respond to the Census in order to be counted. “If people don’t fill out the form they’re not necessarily getting counted,” he said.
Keener said she believes the county achieved more accurate Census counts in 2020 than it has in the past, but still not as much as it would like.
The commissioners directed Keener and her department to begin the process of developing a few mapping options for the redistricting for their consideration. County law does not require that the com-
missioners appoint a redistricting commission but does require public hearings on any proposed new maps.
“Public hearings are required anyway. Whether you want to present one or more options at those public hearings you can certainly do that,” Keener told the commissioners.
Worcester County experienced population growth and a shift in population across the existing election districts. The county’s goal will be to maintain the existing boundaries to the extent practicable; however, some districts will need to lose population, while others gain.
As the analysis associated with this process is a complex task, the planning department has software that can be used to develop map options. Parameters for redistricting are as established from case law regarding voting rights that specify that districts should be of nearly equal population, with minimal deviation between the highest and lowest total population by district to ensure equal representation.
A majority minority district must be maintained by a decades court settlement, and contiguity must be maintained with districts being compact where possible.
Once the draft maps have been finalized, the commissioners will need to schedule one or more public hearings. Any public comments received will be reviewed and may be incorporated into the final product. A bill will then be prepared to describe the district boundaries in great detail. It will be adopted with the redistricting map at another public hearing.
Members of the Nature Adventurers 4-H Club on a windy and cold day in early March helped collect trash at White Horse Park in Ocean Pines. The club is a nature and public-service focused group based in Berlin and predominantly made up of homeschool students. Club members range in age from 6-14 years. This is the second time the group has done a cleanup in White Horse Park, with the first being in fall 2022.
Here’s some context for why a group calling itself Eastern Shore Citizens Against Bullying was recently founded.
Facebook pages have sprung up or built their memberships after the tragic death of Ocean Pines teenagers Gavin Knupp last summer, some dedicated to raising funds for good causes and others more negatively oriented, with some members urging a boycott of restaurants owned or operated by a former business partner of someone with tangential knowledge of the event.
Matt Ortt, the business owner, has said he has no knowledge of what happened that night.
He owns businesses nonetheless that have been targeted by those who believe or apparently believe he is somehow complicit in or knowledgeable about in the events leading to Gavin’s death.
There have been calls for the boycott of Matt Ortt Companies-managed restaurants in the Greater Ocean City area, including three venues owned by the Ocean Pines Association, especially the Ocean Pines Yacht Club.
The anti-MOC campaign is more than just a call for OPA members not to patronize the Yacht Club, however.
It also includes efforts to pressure organizations who have scheduled events at the facility, or who have booked weddings there, or who have contracted to perform there not to do so -- and if they have, to cancel.
An Ortt family member has been bullied at school, according to the family, and Ocean Pines Association President Doug Parks recently cited an incident in which a young worker at the Yacht Club was told that he should kill himself.
The OPA Board has been subject to what could be called hate mail for continuing to stand by MOC.
The Veterans Memorial Foundation was warned in an anonymous phone call not to hold an event at the Yacht Club or the memorial itself would be vandalized.
Two live entertainment contracts, one a solo act and the other a band just hours before the event, fell through, forcing Matt Ortt to hire a deejay at the last minute.
Eastern Shore Citizens Against Bullying sees itself as a bulwark against the bullying of MOC, but its
mission statement, still in the process of being drafted, will go beyond support of MOC and Matt Ortt and his family in particular.
“This group has been created to work together to stop the hate and they bullying on the Eastern Shore,” one of the organizers, Colby Phillips, writes on the Facebook page of the group that already has more than 800 members.
“Whether through social media or in person, bullying is becoming even worse as each days passes, and we are so much better than that. It’s time for a change. A change to promote kindness and love,” she adds.
Phillips, a Berlin resident who was a popular department head in Ocean Pines for more than ten years and is now Senior General Manager of Captain’s Cove Golf and Yacht Club, is one of those active in the group.
Another is Esther Diller, founder and administrator of the Get Involved Facebook page.
She’s also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Ocean Pines Association.
In recent communication with the Progress, Diller made it clear that she doesn’t want the anti-bul-
lying site to be seen as a project exclusively of Diller and Phillips.
“It’s very much a team effort,” she said. “The original group was started by me and a few vocal members of the Get Involved page. It was called Ocean Pines Citizens Against Bullying.”
Diller said that there was interest expressed by some of its members to expand outside of Ocean Pines.
“Colby had a group page that was named something else but really wasn’t being used,” she said. “So she let us change the name of that page to Eastern Shore Citizens Against Bullying.”
Diller said she has been in contact with a friend in Florida who has a non-profit group that focuses on anti-bullying.
“He is guiding me on how to bring the anti-bullying program into the schools,” she added.
The anti-bullying campaign will expand beyond the schools. More details on how the group intends to get its message into the community will be forthcoming as they are developed.
“We also have a core group of people from this group who are very involved in bringing this awareness to our community,” she said. “The spotlight shouldn’t be on me or Colby, as several people worked hard with me to get the initial group up and running.”
The active core of the group has been meeting to discuss future plans and Diller said announcements will be made as these plans gel.
Coastal Drug, the local independently owned pharmacy tucked into a corner of the Manklin Station commercial complex inside the Ocean Pines South Gate for the past six or so years, has relocated to a more prominent location across Manklin Creek Road in the Manklin Meadows commercial complex.
Ray Patel, owner of the pharmacy with his wife Arti, said there a number of reasons for the move.
“It was the fact that a great property came up for sale,” he said. “It comes with ten parking spaces, and it is more visible” from the four-way Ocean Parkway-Manklin Creek Road intersection.
“Just to be in our own building, from our own blueprints,” he added, noting that he has spent several months remodeling the space formerly occupied by electricians.
The new space is compact and built for efficiency, at 1300 square feet roughly the same square footage
of his former home, not including an ice cream parlor that he decided not to bring to the new location.
Among his new offerings are reclining “lift” chairs that make it easier for someone with mobility issues. “I’ve sold three of these already,” he said. “Nobody else in the area are offering them.”
He is offering more durable medical equipment, DMEs for short, including commodes, wheelchairs, and 50 varieties of canes.
“We’re also continuing to do Medicare billing for wheelchairs,” he said, a service which in effect means that someone on Medicare can obtain a wheelchair at no cost. “We do the insurance billing, which others won’t do.”
In the past month, Patel said he’s sold three wheelchairs, with one pending. “We’re getting more referrals from satisfied customers,” he said.
With the more visible location, he hopes even more customers from Ocean Pines will find his new home.
Since 1976, the Ocean Pines Garden Club has played a major role in how the community looks and feels.
The group of volunteers first formed to help plant flowers, shrubs and trees around community signs, buildings and parks, and in the median along Ocean Parkway.
In the more than four decades since, the Garden Club has run a series of elaborate garden tours and collaborated with local artists, and have helped to maintain Ocean Pines parks and the Worcester County Veterans Memorial grounds.
The Garden Club hosts an Arbor Day ceremony each year, and their gifts and donations have included the Civil War era anchor at the Yacht Club in 1995, the gazebo at Pintail Park in 1998, the two stone benches at the community center in 2009, and two plaques for the Gold Star Program of the Veterans Memorial Foundation in 2014.
Co-presidents Ann Shockley and Patti Lookner collaborate with Ocean Pines General Manager John Viola on new projects, and Gail Philippi puts out a robust regular newsletter, cataloging the club’s many activities.
All three helped to plan the garden tours that once doubled as an annual club fundraiser.
“People would let their gardens be used for the tour, and we would advertise it all over the county,” Shockley said. “People could buy tickets and get a map in the morning of all the different properties, and then we usually had a luncheon afterwards with a silent auction. It was a big, big production.”
Shockley said the event was scaled back during the pandemic. It’s no longer ticketed, and now features a handful of member gardens and gardeners.
“Although the Garden Club loved showing off the gardens in Ocean Pines and the funds it raised for the club, we decided that we would rather not continue to take it on,” she said. “It’s still fun to see people’s gardens and what they’ve been doing, so it’s worked out really nicely on a smaller scale.”
Along with the tour, club members collaborate each May to cre-
ate dozens of floral arrangements, which are then sold for Mother’s Day at the Ocean Pines Farmers & Artisans Market.
“We sell those arrangements on the day before Mother’s Day. It’s been very profitable, and people are excited that we’re there – especially those who forgot to get something for their mother!” Shockley said.
All three women said there are unique growing challenges in Ocean Pines, from the saltwater air to the local wildlife out looking for a tasty snack.
“The soil is one of the biggest challenges, but you find things that work here,” Philippi said. “A lot of us are getting really into pollinators and native plants, and maybe moving away from some of the older varieties that we had used.”
She said the climate can be different “year to year, plant to plant, yard to yard,” and there’s a lot of trial and error involved.
“I just read that you don’t plant tomatoes in the same spot every year – which is what I’ve been doing and it’s probably why my tomatoes don’t look that good anymore,” Shockley said. “It’s also the salt air. And right now we’ve been having amazing water, but this summer we’ll probably go through a dry spell.”
Lookner said last year, for the first time, she had to deal with a vole invasion in her garden.
“I lost all my hostas and some
coneflowers,” she said. “For years, I would hear people talking about mole and vole problems and would think, ‘Oh that’s terrible’ – and then I found out it is terrible. You just never know.”
Lookner said many people who move to Ocean Pines look for insights on what works and what doesn’t, and which kinds of challenges they might face in a local garden.
“You can’t guarantee anything, really,” she said. “But you can focus on the natives [plants] – and then you cross your fingers.”
Philippi said club activities have included bus trips to tour major gardens and garden centers such as the Hillwood Estate in Washington, D.C., Winterthur in Delaware, and Longwood Gardens and the Philadelphia Flower Show in Pennsylvania. The group also visits many local and regional gardens.
“There’s quite a big educational component to what we do,” she said. “We also have speakers who come in to talk to our members about a number of topics.”
That includes regular appearances by Ginny Rosenkranz, who since 1994 has served as the University of Maryland’s commercial horticulture educator for Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset counties.
Lookner said she’s championed the educational component of Garden Club meetings.
“We really try to focus on learn-
ing something about gardening at our meetings,” she said. “That’s why I joined the club – to give to the community and to learn. Because there’s always a lot to learn.”
Shockley said there has also been a big emphasis on conservation and proper environmental practices.
“We have talked a lot about what are good practices in gardening –like recycling and composting – and all those things that we can do to help the earth and ourselves and our community,” she said.
Along with the club’s mission statement of stimulating interest in gardening while encouraging friendship within the community, Philippi said there’s an unstated goal of providing community service.
In the past, the club has offered scholarships to local high school students. More recently, the club has given back to the Association in the form of donated plant materials and help with beautification projects.
That has included annual Christmas decorations at the entrances of each neighborhood in Ocean Pines and on street signs along Ocean Parkway. It’s a big task that Lookner said is accomplished with plenty of help from Eddie Wells, Clint Parks, and others from the Ocean Pines Public Works Department.
Each April, the club hosts an Arbor Day ceremony at Pintail Park to honor former club members, friends and relatives who passed away in the previous year, and to plant a tree in their honor.
Shockley said the club also helps to manage Pintail Park.
“Ocean Pines Public Works, with Tony Howard and his crew, are the main caretakers of Pintail Park, but we also lend a hand with clearing gardens, weeding, some light pruning and setting up a watering schedule with volunteers in the summer,” she said.
“This year, our gift is going to be to donate money to do the plantings at the North Gate, and we’re working with John Viola on that,” Shockley continued. “We’re going to help with plant materials, and we’re actually going to go with Tony and the Public Works staff when they go to pick out the plants.” She said perennials and other plants grown by club members would be added to the North Gate plantings.
Doug Parks’s commentary at the March 18 Board of Directors about efforts to cancel the Matt Ortt Companies, or at least make their doing business in Ocean Pines and elsewhere as difficult as possible, was well-timed, honest, appropriate and a service to members of the Ocean Pines Association.
Deservedly, it was covered extensively in the local media, in some cases printed verbatim. At the risk of committing redundancy, it’s also printed in its entirety in the Opinion section of this month’s Progress.
It turns out that the language in the statement generated a fair amount of back-and-forth among the OPA directors, with a super majority, 5 of 7, in support of an amended version of Parks’s original draft.
The dissenters thought the statement more inflammatory than it needed to be and a missed opportunity to lower the temperature on a divisive issue.
Easy to say, and while lowering the temperature is a laudable goal, the best way for that to happen is for the anti-MOC vigilantes to stop their campaign of bullying and harrassment,
Rick MenardEveryone is aware of the terrible tragedy that occurred last summer regarding 14-year-old Gavin Knupp. No one can imagine the grief and suffering being endured by the parents at the loss of their child. As the investigation into this tragedy is ongoing, it is no surprise that frustration is growing as the time passes without official action by the State Attorney and the State Police conducting the investigation.
Beyond the foundation that was created in Gavin’s honor and the wonderful things that have been accomplished, a Facebook group named Do It For Gavin was formed to among other things, share information and opinions regarding the issue. We have been told that for the most part the group discussed things in a reasonable manner but at some point, the tone changed from sharing information to targeting businesses and conducting protests and boycotts. Quite frankly, while some may disagree, we see no issue at all with that course of action. However, their actions also included bullying of the business staff, bullying of children at school and threatening organizations, customers and OPA board members. Their actions demonstrated a move away from justice to a support for vengeance.
What we have issue with is, given that the
targeted business has been sold, the group has now turned its attention to Ocean Pines. Their tactics have been to bully and threaten organizations and entertainment providers from having events at our Yacht Club. As an example, because of the harassment that was going on the in the community by this group the Ravens Roost organization decided to move their planned fundraising event from the Yacht Club to another location.
The Veterans Memorial Fund-Raising event was disrupted by this group as the planned entertainer backed out from performing. Organizers were told if the event was held at the Yacht Club, that the Memorial was going to be vandalized.
On another note, the band that was scheduled to perform at the St. Patrick’s Day event backed out at the last minute due to being harassed by this group. Do these actions convey a desire for justice or vengeance?
When will they stop? I can answer that –they won’t!! This is a call to all Ocean Pines Association members – raise your voices and be heard. We cannot let this vigilante group run roughshod over our community. By their actions and social media posts, they have demonstrated they care nothing about Ocean Pines and will go to whatever lengths it takes to dis-
rupt our community and our livelihood.
We would welcome a conversation with representatives from the Do It For Gavin group with the hope of understanding why they want to disrupt the Ocean Pines community and how their actions would serve to move forward with justice. Trust that justice regarding this case is what all of us want. Perhaps we could convince them that their anger should be directed towards those who are in charge of the investigation.
Talk to your friends, talk to your neighbors and talk to other Association members to let them know these situations are taking place and that this group is promoting a level of disruption to our community that at some point will affect us financially, which in turn will most likely lead to an increase in annual assessments. We must continue to do what it takes to protect our community and the amenities we have paid to enjoy.
I ask the members of the Association to continue to support our amenities and fund-raising events as together we can maintain the things that make our community what it is for us. We all want justice for Gavin and our hope is that the case is resolved as soon as possible.
Doug Parks Ocean Pines Association presidentFrom Page 43
itemized in some detail by Parks.
That Director Colette Horn was one of the directors calling for a lowering of the temperature was richly ironic. The previous month she had been highly critical of the Elections Committee for not performing to her expectations, in effect saying its members should be replaced. This was not a call to lower temperatures, but to inflame.
Statements in opposition to the anti-MOC vigilantes is not only morally defensible but morally obligatory.
To let this sort of intimidation continue without spirited and uncompromising pushback is a form of complicity. Yes, there will come a time of reconciliation and community healing -- one hopes for that sooner, not later -- but that time is not now.
Parks’s comments generated some pushback on local social media, including his statement that continued targeting of MOC’s operations in Ocean Pines would have negative financial consequences for the OPA including an increase in the annual lot assessment.
In a subsequent conversation with the Progress, Parks softened this dire prediction somewhat. Instead of a definitive declaration that assessments will increase if the anti-MOC campaign continues, which some interpreted as a threat, Parks said negative affects could occur.
In other words, more of a hypothetical than an absolute guarantee.
He also raised some eyebrows when he suggested that rather than directing their ire at
MOC, those engaged in the anti-MOC campaign might instead direct their anger at the slow pace of the investigation and those who are conducting it. A defensible and understandable position, to be sure, but no amount of public pressure is going to speed up a process that, in the end, might not even result in an indictment and prosecution of anyone intimately or tangentially involved in the tragic death of Gavin Knupp last July.
The wheels of justice grind slowly, and those who want immediate indictment and prosecution need to remember that the case to be brought must be based on evidence and not emotion, and there’s been enough leakage from the investigation to date to suggest that convicting anyone for Gavin’s death is not going to be a walk in the park.
To wit: there have been unconfirmed reports that the state police determined that the cause of death was pedestrian error.
If this is true, a competent defense lawyer will do what competent defense attorneys always do: Poke as many holes, create as much reasonable doubt in the state’s case as possible.
The state’s attorney handling decisions related to this case, Kris Heiser, is by reputation a measured, deliberate prosecutor who is between the proverbial rock and hard place: She’s under considerable pressure from the Justice for Gavin partisans to not only indict, but to convict, or at least negotiate a plea deal that has some teeth. On the other hand, what if the evidence collected by the investigators is weak and exculpatory?
With that as a backdrop, Parks’s suggesting a redirect of anger to the investigators and prose-
cutors is perhaps a bit wide of the mark. Perhaps a better approach would have been to direct concern at the slow pace of the investigation but also to point out that there may be reasons why it’s been taking so damned long.
With that said, Parks is to be commended for bringing this matter to the attention of OPA members, including the anonymous call to the Veterans Memorial Foundation threatening vandalism to the memorial in Ocean Pines should a fund-raiser proceed at the MOC-managed Yacht Club.
It is doubtful that everyone who has signed up on Justice for Gavin or Do It for Gavin Facebook pages is complicit in such a tactic, and might not even support boycotts of MOC-run venues or other tactics used, such as attempting to persuade entertainers not to perform at the Yacht Club.
But nor have the organizers and administrators of the Justice for Gavin movement disavowed these tactics, and until they do Parks’s call for dialog with the Justice for Gavin folks most likely won’t be happening anytime soon.
That would be a shame.
As Matt Ortt makes clear in a front page interview published in this edition of the Progress, neither MOC nor any of its employees has any knowledge of what occurred that fateful evening, and no longer has a business relationship with an individual who might have some knowledge of what happened.
Targeting Matt Ortt, his family and MOC is an injustice that is not going to bring justice for Gavin any closer to reality. Doug Parks and four of his colleagues understand that. ~ Tom
StaussYou may have read recently that the Worcester County Commissioners oppose state legislation that would, without parental consent, allow for questionable curriculum regarding social and sexual education for all grades starting with Kindergarten.
This legislation is yet another effort to remove from our County local control. Further, and more egregiously, it demonstrates a perverse influence by many in the Maryland Legislature over parents on how best to rear children. Such condescension is alarming and it is wrong. Parents know what is best for their children. And, elected Boards of Education know what is best for their communities.
Our county should not be victimized by state legislators who espouse dependency on the state over self-reliance of the family and who celebrate, promulgate and legislate wrong-headed ideas about how best to educate our children.
Education priorities should not obsess over whether little Johnny and little Janie are white or black or Asian or Hispanic or all of the above. They should not focus on making them feel guilty about being white or black or Asian or Hispanic or all of the above. Nor should they concentrate on or encourage how little Johnny and little Janie identifies him or herself.
Such thinking may be fashionable in the high couture circles of self-righteous state legislators but I prefer my fashion off the rack, not
off the wall.
Education priorities should ensure that little Johnny and little Janie are respectful, tolerant, productive, successful, disciplined, confident individuals, equipped to take on the challenges of their generation and of future generations.
Worcester County taxpayers pay more than taxpayers in any other state jurisdiction to educate each child in the public school system, close to $20,000 per student. County taxpayers fund about 84 percent of the Worcester County school system budget. For generations, County government has prioritized education, accepting its obligation to provide students with an optimum learning experience.
It will continue to do so.
However, we are not obligated to suffer gladly the interference of misguided Annapolis legislators who, by their actions and comments, pander to a far-fetched ideology that mocks loving parents who want instilled in their children the values of family, community and decency. When you read about state efforts to hijack the prerogatives of our local school board, when you believe parental and taxpayers rights are being suffocated, raise your voices in discontent, write our state delegation, and, if you are a parent, remain engaged in your child’s education. Because if you don’t, who will? As a community, as a society, we have no greater responsibility than to teach our children well.
Bertino represents District 5 on the Worcster County Board of Commissioners.
There has been a bit of a kerfuffle in the local social media spaces over some recent personnel decisions by the OPA, one by the Board of Directors and the other by the OPA Administration. Some would say both decisions reflect Board politics, but speculation doesn’t make something true.
The first personnel decision involved Sherrie Clifford, the founder and administrator of the Residents Oversight Community, once known as Residents Oversight Committee (ROC), who was seeking to chair this year’s OPA Search Committee. Her application was rejected by a 4-3 vote, with the usual fault lines of the current Board evident.
The second decision involved Amy Peck, one-time appointed OPA Director and friend and confidant of Clifford’s, who had been hired for her previous job as a summer pool check-in host.
She went on Ocean Pines Forum to announce that her employment offer had been rescinded, without providing any reasons proffered by the OPA HR department for the rescission, but she did tease that losing the job means she can be a candidate for the OPA Board this summer. Stay tuned for that one.
One commentator on the Forum called this decision a low point in the history of Ocean Pines, and that it had the Board majority’s finger-
When all of this is over, and it will be over eventually, what will we be left with?
Gavin Knupp will still be gone, the outside agitators will return to their sad, little lives, the Knupps will have the Foundation to run, and Ocean Pines will be left with reconstructing what remains of our beautiful little town.
Here is what I understand to be factual:
1. Matt Ortt knew nothing about the incident until six days after it happened.
2. Anything he did learn would not be admissible in a court because it’s hearsay. He has no factual, firsthand knowledge of what happened that night or in the days following.
3. Angie Ortt reached out to Ray
An excursion through the curious by-ways and cul-de-sacs of Worcester County’s most densely populated community
By TOM STAUSS/Publisherprints all over it.
Director Rick Farr told the Progress that the Board had absolutely no role in the decision to revoke Peck’s job offer, and there’s no reason not to believe him. As for this decision’s status in the pecking order of Ocean Pines’ history of low points, this one hardly qualifies.
Somebody obviously felt that Amy wasn’t a good fit for the position, and this is saying a lot, since there are a lot of vacancies in the Aquatics Department, and she did the same job previously.
What has happened in the meantime that might make an OPA manager hesitant to have Amy on the front lines of dealing with pool users? It’s not all that complicated.
She’s an activist, a property owner with opinions, and she’s not shy in sharing those opinions, which is certainly her right as an OPA member. She is a no-holds-bared critic of the current Board majority, particularly of OPA President Doug Parks, and she has staked out positions that put her odds with that majority on a number of high profile issues.
That in and of itself wouldn’t be a disqualifer for a job with the OPA,
Knupp to extend her sympathies and offer support for the Do It For Gavin campaign from Matt Ortt Company.
4. Tiffany Knupp initially was receptive to a meeting, then she posted a nasty rebuff on Facebook.
5. There is nothing we can do to convince people who believe otherwise. They feel that they are just and anyone not with them is pure evil.
6. If the police had enough evidence to bring charges, they would do it immediately.
7. No State’s Attorney would take a case to court, unless they were sure they could prove the charges.
On the other side:
1. There is a duly formed Gavin Knupp Foundation.
2. It has the potential to be an effective memorial to Gavin.
3. The Knupp family are justly grieving, and we must give them
but it might put her on a watch list of those who might not be a good fit as an OPA ambassador of good will.
What may have doomed her prospects this summer -- and this is a guess, as no one from OPA is talking about a personnel matter -- is her recent guest appearance on a ROC podcast with Clifford. An informed source says this podcast was a pointed, unfriendly verbal attack on recent Board decisions and by extension an attack on the decision-makers.
A cynic might speculate that this podcast appearance was designed to cause the job rescission in order to make a case for victim-hood and a reason d’etre to run for the Board this summer.
That’s the thing about speculation -- it’s a parlor game and should not be confused with fact. Seems plausible though, doesn’t it?
Let’s put it this way. Management in any organization looks for team players, not prone to drama, not prone to bashing the organization’s policy-makers at almost every turn.
As for Clifford’s failed application to serve on and chair the Search Committee, she made a valiant at-
tempt to make the case for her appointment during the Public Comments segment of the March 18 Board meeting.
That one felt the need to lobby for a position on a volunteer committee, one whose role is more clerical in the OPA election process than anything substantive, suggests that she was well aware her application was on thin ice when she filed.
Opponents of her appointment cited her signing of an on-line petition calling for a boycott of OPA food and beverage operations managed by the Matt Ortt Companies as a reason for voting against her.
Another reason could have been her self-appointed role as a “watchdog” over the affairs of the OPA through her ROC Facebook page and other media, most recently that infamous podcast.
There’s no rule that would prevent her from serving on a volunteer committee or even running for the Board given her role with ROC, but it does seem like a conflict of interest.
You can be a quasi-journalist/ pundit in social media in a self-appointed watchdog role or you can participate directly in OPA affairs by serving on volunteer committees or running for and serving on the Board. Yes, it’s possible to do both, but push-back is to be expected.
space to work through the emotions.
4. Facebook pages are being used for nefarious purposes to advance someone’s personal agenda and thirst for power.
So, when the dust settles what will we have left? Will Matt Ortt’s business survive? I certainly hope so! Will this small community be able to reunite for our common good? I don’t know. But one thing I do know is that we will still be neighbors. We will still see each other in the grocery store. We may even meet in church.
Only one person can help us end this evil – God! Please, if you have a faith in God, sit in a quiet place somewhere for 15 minutes and listen to His voice. Ask Him to speak to your heart and help us all find a way to mend our own hearts.
Steve Ransdal Ocean PinesPublisher
It took a year and eight months after the Accomack County Board of Supervisors voted in July of 2021 to use surplus funds to pay for ensuring a paid emergency medical crew at the Greenbackville firehouse, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, before Board President Ron Wolff announced that it’s about to happen.
He made the announcement that 24-hour coverage was imminent in remarks during a constituents meeting March 13 at the Marina Club’s banquet room.
He said it would begin March 25, when the Greenbackville firehouse will be staffed 24 hours a day with emergency medical technicians, who are also trained firefighters.
Senior General Manager Colby Phillips later disclosed that full seven-days-a-week coverage wouldn’t begin on that date, that initially ten days per month would have 24-hour coverage.
The rest of the month there will be EMTs on staff during normal business hours.
Wolff informed her that full 24-7 coverage will as soon as the next class finishes, “hopefully by July.”
The announcement of imminent 24-7 coverage was the fulfillment of an objective that began shortly after Phillips assumed her new role in Captain’s Cove about two years
ago. She met with Wolff and C. Ray Pruitt, director of public safety for Accomack County, and a task force set up to work the issue, bringing along Ocean City Fire and EMS Chief Richard Bowers to vouch for how crucial 24-7 ambulance service is to any area.
The meeting resulted in a con-
sensus that the county should work toward providing this service to Captain’s Cove and the surrounding area through the Greenbackville Fire Department.
The Board of Supervisors voted 9-0 on July 21 of 2021 to allocate surplus funds to the GVFD.
It turned out the supervisors
weren’t quite ready to make the final, official vote in favor of 24-7 service, as it was mentioned during the July 21 meeting that prior to doing so the county code required a public hearing.
But the 9-0 vote was an indication that they conceptually supported the proposal for increased staffing in Greenbackville as presented by Pruitt.
He proposed 12 new full-time equivalent positions to staff the Greenback firehouse including buffer employees, more human resources help and a training position.
Pruitt presented statistics that show that Greenbackville at the time was able to meet the county’s response time guidelines on 17 percent of its emergency calls.
With Additional staffing, that response time will be significantly reduced.
The supervisors’ 9-0 vote was an early success for Phillips, who Wolff credited for jump-starting efforts to address what has been a difficult challenge.
Phillips in turn lauded Wolff for his help in finding money for the service.
Phillips’ bringing in Bowers to meet with the task force set up to work the issue was a key factor in persuading him how crucial 24-7 ambulance service is to any area, Wolff said at the time.
Approval by the supervisors were a critical first step, but Pruitt also made it clear that it would take time to hire and train additional EMTs to staff the Greenbackville firehouse.
“It’s taken so long [to find, hire and train EMTs],” Wolff said in his March 13 comments. “We couldn’t find the people. We just now have finished the first class. Twelve people passed the class and are now out in the field. Keeps your eyes open. It’s a good day for EMTs.”
During the March 13 meeting, Captain’s Cove Golf and Yacht Club Vice-President Mark Majerus praised Wolff, whose district in-
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cludes Captain’s Cove, for his persistence in delivering this service to his constituents.
In a statement after the meeting, Phillips also lauded Wolff and said Majerus’ comments were timely and appropriate.
She echoed comments she made in 2021 that the presence of Bowers at the task force meeting was a major factor in persuading county officials that 24-7 coverage in Greenbackville was needed.
“Thank you, Ron, for making this happen,” she said.
CCGYC President Tim Hearn credited Phillips for her role in bringing about the milestone.
“This is why we are so fortunate to have her,” Hearn said. “Without her, this would not have happened. Of course, we all appreciate the efforts of Ron Wolff and others. It was a team effort.”
A longer term goal for the GFD is to build a new firehouse closer to Captain’s Cove. CCG Note has proffered acreage on State Line Road near the main entrance to Captain’s Cove.
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The Board of Directors of Captain’s Cove Golf and Yacht Club recently authorized corporate officers to execute loan documents associated with financing the Marina Club roof replacement project.
the authority to exempt Stonewall Capital from paying assessments on 30 lots it purchased from CCG Note in Sections 1, 7 and 10 in 2019. The suit quoted Jim Silfee, a CCGYC director and investor in CCG Note, as “falsely” stating that Stonewall Capital was exempt from paying assessments.
Hearn acknowledged that the declarant/developer can’t delegate the dues exemption it enjoys to a buyer of lots in multuple sections of Captain’s Cove, and could only do so if a buyer purchases an entire section.
Approval of the loan came in a Consent Agenda motion unanimously adopted by the Board Feb. 2 and is now in effect.
The loan is for $500,000 with Taylor Bank, and carries an interest rate of 6.2 percent with a five-year term. The consent agenda motion approved an interest rate of 6.75 percent.
Hearn said no such charge and that “bulkheads on the gut required for any of the hundreds waterfront. In addition, there the Army Corps of Engineers such a bulkheading activity into
In a memo to his Board colleagues in early February, Hearn said that “after reviewing the December 2022 financial statements, it appeared that the AR [Accounts Receivable] collection issue, while progressing, is not generating cash as quickly as had been budgeted” for the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2022-23.”
He said that stormwater, erosion control permits have been obtained from Accomack County in anticipation ing Seaview Street at some date But CCGYC is still awaiting U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, whether and when that might
Hearn said the roof project is progressing and “we do not want any delays for that.”
But he said the plaintiffs seem to be unaware that CCGYC is billing Stonewall Capital for the annual dues of the 30 building lots it owns.
“They’re not exempt,” Hearn said.
He added that while it’s not a long-term issue, “CCGYC has less cash available than we anticipated at the time the MC renovation project was approved.”
Indeed, the Cove Currents has been informed that Stonewall Capital appears on an accounts receivable list of property owners who are delinquent in paying annual dues to the CCGYC.
Collateral for the loan is a $500,000 certificate of deposit that CCGYC has with Taylor Bank.
There is no governing document Cove that obligates the declarant/developer complete road construction in 13 in the community, and it’s 2002 that CCGYC is responsible provements according to an Declaration in that year.
The Board motion authorized CCGYC Secretary Pat Pelino, Treasurer Sara Shifflett, who’s also the Cove’s controller, and Vice-president Colby Phillips, the Cove’s senior general manager, to execute the documents.
CCGYC President Tim Hearn told the Cove Currents that the decision to finance the project was made in order not to draw down the cash needed for operations.
The plaintiffs allege that CCGYC does not have the authority “to charge assessment-paying members the cost of constructing a bulkhead along Starboard Street, a cost that should be paid by CCG Note.” According to the suit, the association is proposing to install a bulkhead along the edge of Starboard Street abutting CCG Note lots at the expense of the Cove association.”
“We approached Taylor Bank, and they continue to be both impressed with CCGYC business practices, and overall financial health. They have offered a $500,000 five-year term loan to assist with supplying additional cash. The collateral would be same as the existing loan with Taylor Bank,” he said.
Hearn said that interest payments will be about $20,000 for the balance of the fiscal year, which,
The suit repeats a complex earlier suit, alleging that CCG in violation of restrictive covenants Captain’s Cove numbered residential lots to the former Captain’s pany operated by Hearn, which to Aqua Virginia.The lots, consisting acres, were set aside for possible rapid infiltration basins (RIBs)
To
The CCGYC deed restrictions
Publisher
When the moment came during Supervisor Ron Wolff’s constituent meeting March 13 to take questions, he said he knew what topic would be the first to be brought up. He said it would be the slow roll-out of broadband Internet service in Captain’s Cove, and he proceeded to update Cove residents who attended the meeting in person and virtually.
Wolff said he had tried but was unsuccessful in an effort to reach Robert Bridgham, executive director of Eastern Shore of Virginia
Broadband Authority, earlier in the day.
Instead he discussed the status of broadband roll-out with county administrator Mike Mason.
“They’re moving as fast as they can,” Wolff said of ESVBA. Captain’s Cove remains “a top priority,” he continued, and one and a half of five designated areas for service have been completed.
Weather has been an issue, he added, as well as some issues with Aqua Virginia, the Cove’s water and wastewater treatment utility.
Mark Majerus, Captain’s Cove Golf and Yacht Club vice-presi-
dent, said that the installation of of broadband services to 189 out of 1500 homes in Captain’s Cove “isn’t a great metric” to measure the pace of broadband roll-out.
Even if ESVBA is able to lay 1000 feet of fiber optic cable in a day, it doesn’t seem to result in service availability, he said.
“My concern is that next April 80 percent of the Cove will be completed with fiber conduit; however, they [ESVBA] may be missing up to 500 of the current homes at the same time.
“The simple metric of linear feet of conduit installed the critical point of serving existing residents,” he said.
He expressed concern that ESVBA “could run out of money to complete” fiber installation in Captain’s Cove.
Majerus suggested that Wolff continue his oversight of the roll-out “and maybe change the performance metric” used to measure progress.
Senior General Manager Colby
From
“while unbudgeted, is not a challenge for the income statement. Amortization would be $60,000 and that amount is within the approved capital budget allocation.”
The project is well under way. The Marina Club restaurant and the rest of the building with the exception of the indoor pool reopened Feb. 24.
The project began in early February, and the pool closure could last for up to 90 days.
Gillis Gilkerson of Salisbury is the general contractor firm on the project, assisted by sub-contractors
The not-to-exceed cost of the project is $650,000, according to agreed upon contract language.
An original cost estimate of $400,000 was for the roof only, and ancillary costs not included in the original estimate is the reason for
Phillips said she had a meeting the previous week with ESVBA and Aqua Virginia officials to deal with complaints by residents of Blackbeard Road that fiber cable installation had stopped in that area because of water line issues. It turned there were no such issues, she said later.
She said it was a good meeting and that work on Blackbeard Road would be resuming.
Meanwhile, there has been no news of late about the progress that another provider of broadband in Captain’s Cove is making in installing fiber and making service available to residents.
That company is Spectrum/Charter Communications, which intends to offer both high speed Internet and traditional cable services available to Captain’s Cove.
In response to another issue raised during the meeting, Wolff acknowledged that portions of the county’s 49-mile Rails for Trails system follows rather closely to Route 13, but that “a lot of it doesn’t.”
He said there’s a “pretty good setback” between the highway and trails, and that plans are to plant foliage along the trail to provide more of a buffer as a way “to block the view [of the trail] from the highway.”
He said that the program has had a beneficial economic impact, bringing new businesses such as bike shops, restaurants and breweries to old railroad towns in the county.
the expected higher final cost.
The project includes removal of all the HVAC equipment, gas lines and vents from the roof, using a crane, and then putting it all back. During the estimated 22-day closure of the building, refrigeration trucks were moved on site to protect inventory from spoiling.
With the reopening of the Marina Club restaurant, that phase of the project is complete.
Works continues on the roof above the pool, where most of the deterioration occurred.
An additional protective ventilation layer is being added to the substructure under the roof, to prevent the sort of moisture build-up that caused much of the roofing in the indoor pool area to deteriorate.
Adjustments will be made to protect equipment with moisture control, with 50 to 60 percent humidity the target, along with a pool temperature of 82 degrees.
Accomack County Board of Supervisors
President Ron Wolff, whose district includes Captain’s Cove, outlined details of the just approved county budget of 2023-24 during a constituents meeting at the Marina Club banquet room March 13.
The budget calls for $79.7 million in spending, but no increase in the property tax rate of 59.5 per $100 of assessed property valuation, with an additional 2.5 cents tacked on for mosquito control for Captain’s Cove and nearby Greenbackville.
Wolff said the largest portion of county funds goes to public schools, at $28.3 million, and $24.3 million for public safety, including fire and emergency services.
He displayed a dollar bill showing the percentages allocated to various public services.
“We do a good job of providing services while keeping taxes low,” he said.
Key features of the approved budget according to Wolff include:
• An allocation of $867,000 to the county’s rainy day fund, toward the goal of reaching a reserve of 17 percent of the county budget by 2026. He noted that payments into the rainy day fund were suspended during the covid pandemic.
• A doubling of the county’s cigarette tax from ten to twenty cents a pack, still substantially lower than nearby jurisdictions in Maryland.
• A five percent reduction in debt service expense, with the savings going into the general fund.
• A salary study for county employees. He said that such a study has not been done since 2008.
• Matching funds for the five percent increase in teacher salaries contained in the governor’s budget.
• Funding for a person to go around the county six days a week to pick up trash along county roads and highways.
Wolff also said the two Eastern Shore of Vir-
ginia counties had received an $8.4 million to upgrade its outdated radio center, with no matching funds needed.
Virginia’s Common Interest Community Ombudsman, Heather Gillespie, has dismissed Captain’s Cove resident Jim Hayes’ complaint regarding his two-month suspension from access to Cove amenities that stemmed from an encounter with Director of Security John Costello several months ago.
In a March 13 letter, Gillespie said she had no authority under Virginia’s Property Owners’ Association Act to rule on whether the suspension constituted a violation of the act. She said the matter was a “civil law issue outside the scope of authority of this office.”
In her letter, she said that it appeared to her that Hayes “believes that the incident was not a matter that is addressed under the governing documents of the Association [Captain’s Cove Golf and Yacht Club], and the Association did not provide any information that would suggest otherwise.”
Based on his belief that the suspension is not addressed under the
Declaration [a document setting out restrictions and covenants in the community] or rules and regulations, Gillespie said that Hayes “believes that the Association had no authority to suspend his privileges.”
She disagreed with that conclusion
Subsection 55.1-1819 of the Act is only applicable in those situations where an owner has allegedly violated the Declaration or rules of the Cove association, she said.
“The statute is only applicable in a situation where an association is attempting to enforce the Declaration or its rules and regulations,” she said. “The action taken by the Association ... is not addressed by the ... Act,” leaving her in no position to decide the issue.
Gillespie noted that the decision to suspend Hayes was not made by the Board of Directors, which might bring it under the scope of the Act, but rather by the Property Management Team, which includes Senior To Page 56
The first batch of interrogatories sent by the lawyer hired by a group of seven Captain’s Cove residents headed by Theresa Birckhead dealt with three of the
From Page 54
General Manager Colby Phillips, General Manager Justin Wilder, and certain department heads.
In its response to the complaint, the Association wrote that it had an obligation “under federal law to provide a workplace for its employees and vendors that is free from
most salient issues in the case.
The responses by the lawyer for CCG Note, which along with Captain’s Cove Golf and Yacht Club is a defendant in the case, were consistent with previous positions staked out on these three issues. CCGYC
abuse and harassment,” Gillespie said, adding that, according to the Association “the behavior at issue included abusive language directed at an employee [Costello].”
In her letter, she said that the Association believes the suspension “was equitable and proportional and consistent with steps an employer would take to protect its employees under federal law.”
responses were recently scheduled for submission to the Court but have not yet been disclosed.
The issues covered include ownership of Captain’s Corridor near the site of a planned townhome development at State Line Road and the back entrance into Captain’s Cove, a disputed $50,000 non-payment to CCGYC by CCG Note related to the 2012 Settlement Agreement, and allegations that Stonewall Capital, to whom CCG Note sold lots in Captain’s Cove, has not been paying annual dues on those lots.
Initially, CCG Note lawyer Mark Baumgartner responded with a global rejection of most of the inter-
rogatories, requests for production of documents and admissions as “overly broad, unduly burdensome” and “duplicative to the extent that they seek identification or production of documents or information that are or should be within the possession, custody, or control of the Plaintiffs and/or their agents or attorneys.”
Then he got more specific.
In response to a request from the plaintiff’s lawyer Douglas Kahle for the names of expert witnesses or others with knowledge about the case that CCG Note intends to call at trial, Baumgartner said the list is not yet available.
But he said that he reserves the “right to call the plaintiffs and/or other persons identified by the plaintiffs” in the discovery process.
To Kahle’s question for the names of persons “supporting the decision” of CCG Note not to remit the disputed $50,000 in annual payments, Baumgartner objected on the grounds “it implies the existence of a present legal obligation” to make the payments.
He responded the same to a question about the amounts and dates that CCG Note has paid each year.
“By way of further response, de-
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From Page 54 spite having no obligation to do so, CCG Note, has on various occasions, voluntarily provided funds for CCGYC to maintain and improve the roads within Captain’s Cove,” he added.
Kahle then asked Baumgartner to identify all persons participating in discussions about the disputed $50,000.
Repeating that the question implies the existence of a legal obligation, Baumgartner then acknowledged that “there were discussions between CCG Note and the Association, which occurred following the execution of the 2012 Settlement Agreement in which the Association revealed for the first time that ‘the Association’s loan to build roads within Sections 1 through 13 of Captain’s Cove’ referenced in Paragraph 3 of the 2012 Settlement Agreement did not exist.’
“CCG Note recalls that [Cove President Tim] Hearn participated in those discussions but does not presently recall all persons participating,” Baumgartner said.
Kahle then asked about the Stonewall Capital lot purchases, including the location of the lots purchased and the dates of acquisition. Baumgartner replied that the deed is publicly available.
Under the title of requests for request for production of documents, Kahle asked for copies of monthly bank statements since the 2012 agreement, non-privileged minutes of meeting when the issue of the $50,000 was discussed, and portions of CCG Note’s general ledger “reflecting the accrual of Note’s obligation to make the payments.”
Baumgartner’s response: CCG Note objected to these questions because it “implied the existence” of a legal obligation that does not exist and CCG further objected because the request “is not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.”
Kahle also asked for copies of all deeds, documents, or plats that establish any portion of Captain’s Corridor is not a private street “pursuant to the Declaration’s Paragraph 11A.”
Baumgartner said the question “seeks to have CCG Note, in essence, prove the existence of something that does not exist. It is also vague and ambiguous what Plaintiffs mean by a ‘private street pursuant to the Declaration’s paragraph 11.4.’
He went on to say that CCG Note is “unaware of any ‘Declaration’ that purports to impose create any ownership interest in or impose any restrictions upon the disputed stretch of Captain’s Corridor.”
But he then said that CCG Note would be providing copies of the Declaration for Section 14, which abuts the disputed portion of Captain’s Corridor, as well as relevant deeds from the 1970s.
In a section of the interrogatories titled requests for admission, Kahle asked Baumgartner to concede points that the CCG Note lawyer was not about to admit.
With respect to the disputed $50,000, Baumgartner said “CCG Note admits that the Association has not made a demand of CCG Note or filed suit against CCG Note for payment of
$50,000 per year under Paragraph 3 of the Agreement. CCG Note denies the request as stated as ‘legal action’ is vague and ambiguous.
“The fact that the Association has not made a demand of CCG Note or filed suit against CCG Note is consistent with the Association’s rights under Paragraph 3 of the Agreement. The Association does not have a present right to receive $50,000 per year from CCG Note pursuant to Paragraph 3 of the Agreement, because the conditions present in that section have not yet been satisfied.
“Until such time as the conditions have been satisfied, CCG Note does not have a legal obligation to make such payments,” Baumgartner summed up.
Finally, Kahle asked Baumgartner to admit
that Stonewall Capital has not acquired all of CCG Note’s lots it was contracted to purchase.
“Admitted, in part,” Baumgartner responded. “Stonewall acquired an equitable interest in all of Note’s lots in Sections 1, 7 and 10 pursuant to the terms set forth in the Stonewall Agreement, copy of which is being produced ... Stonewall subsequently defaulted on its obligations and its equitable interest, and contractual right to acquire all of Note’s lots in such Sections was terminated.
“Subsequent to the termination, Stonewall promptly paid all assessments due on the lots ac quired from CCG Note,” he said.
assertion in the plaintiffs’ case, that assessments have not been paid on the lots acquired by Stone wall.
Senior General Manager Colby Phillips is excited about a new sport coming to the Captain’s Cove golf course this month. “Golf has long been considered a sport for the wealthy and the elite. But with the advent of Fling Golf, a new form of the game, that perception is rapidly changing. Fling Golf is a more family-friendly alternative to traditional golf, offering a fun and accessible way for families to bond while enjoying the game,” she said in a recent press release.
“One of the biggest advantages of Fling Golf over traditional golf is its ease of learning. While traditional golf can take years to master, Fling Golf can be picked up in a matter of minutes. This is because the equipment used in Fling Golf is much simpler than traditional golf clubs, consisting of a single FlingStick, which can be used for both driving and putting. As a result, Fling Golf is much less intimidating for beginners, making it a perfect activity for families looking to spend quality time together.
Another advantage of Fling Golf is its affordability, she said. Traditional golf requires a significant investment in equipment, green fees, and other costs, which can be prohibitive for many families.
“In contrast, Fling Golf’s FlingStick can be rented or purchased at a fraction of the cost of a set of golf clubs. This makes Fling Golf a more accessible activity for families on a budget, who may not be able to afford the high costs of traditional golf,” she said.
According to Phillips, the biggest advantage of Fling Golf over traditional golf is its fun factor.
“Fling Golf is a more laid-back and relaxed version of the game, with a greater emphasis on having fun and enjoying the experience, rather than obsessing over perfect technique and scores. This makes it a perfect activity for
Fling golf is notable for the mutli-purpose fling club that is used on fairways and greens for putting.
families, who can bond over the shared expe rience of playing a fun and enjoyable game to gether,” she said.
Cove is the same for that of traditional golf.
conducting two beginners clinics in the sport in April, one on Wednesday, April 5, at 4 p.m. and another on Saturday, April 22, at 11 a.m.
mons, 2062 Captain’s Corridor.
email at proshop@captscove.com, or by calling 757-824-3454. Ext. 118.
Captain’s Cove Golf and Yacht Club President Tim Hearn told the Cove Currents in a March 31 telephone interview that the ongoing forensic audit of Captain’s Cove Golf and Yacht Club finances for the first six months of the 2021-22 fiscal year ending this past October is taking longer than had been expected.
The Cove Board of Directors hired the regional auditing firm CohnReznick to conduct the forensic audit of Troon’s Captain’s Cove books, a process that has been under way for several months.
A Troon-affiliated company managed CCGYC finances from April through September of 2021 before being removed by CCGYC for alleged non-performance of key duties, including preparation of monthly financial reports.
The association is engaged in litigation with Troon in any effort to discover the status of about $1.2 million in unaccounted for cash.
Hearn said the latest timeline has the auditors completing their work by April 30, with Troon auditors then having 30 days to review the findings. Once that process is complete, Hearn said the association’s new auditing firm, Rosen, Sapperstein and Friedlander, will be able to complete a 12-month audit for 2021-22, perhaps as early as June.
Completion of the audit does not mean that the ongoing litigation will be dropped, as Hearn has said previously, because of the issues over the $1.2 million in unaccounted for funds.
Previously Hearn has said that the auditors are reviewing individual cash line items to produce an accurate schedule of accounts receivable
activity for the six months at issue.
In addition, Hearn said the auditors are trying to identify whether there were any operating losses during this period and will be producing a statement of cash flows.
Hearn has said it’s not necessarily true that $1 million or more is truly missing, but he expressed doubt that the problem lies simply with unaccounted for accounts receivables.
“If it was in AR, they wouldn’t have been able to operate in Captain’s Cove as long as they did,” he said.
His interpretation of what’s been learned so far during the audit is that the accountant in charge of the CCGYC may have been trying to shift blame for errors in cash accounting to others working for Troon.
If that’s the case, then getting to the bottom of the unaccounted for more than $1 million will prove to be more elusive than Hearn had hoped it would be.
The audit is being conducted on the premises of Troon Golf offices in Reston, Va.
Documents that are being examined include general ledgers, bank reconciliations, balance sheets and income statements.
By a 6-1 vote, the Operating Committee is recommending to the Board of Directors changes to Environmental Control Committee solar guidelines.
These guidelines pertain to rooftop installations.
In remarks during the committee’s March 31 meeting, Chairman Mark Majerus said there is an issue with state law pertaining to these rooftop installations that affects Captain’s Cove.
“There is no distinction between [traditional] flat rooftop panels and collectors and rooftop solar water heaters,” he said. “We don’t want to see them [solar water heaters], but state law permits them.”
He later explained that “it isn’t that we want to discourage solar water heaters in total, but we would prefer, from an ECC perspective, that they be mounted on the rear of a house and not readily visible from the street-side of the house,” he said. “There was general consensus of members at the meeting that members would prefer not to see these collectors on the front-side of homes after seeing pictures of some of these commercially available units.”
It’s not difficult to see why. They’re bulky, and not very attractive.
The guidelines provide for a variance process that applies to traditional, flat-panel solar installations as well as bulkier hot water heaters.
The variance process will allow homeowners, assisted by an expert, to maximize the electrical output of their solar installations but in a way that reduces potential rooftop eyesores.
The recommended guidelines say that the Captain’s Cove Golf and Yacht Club members must have an approved application from the ECC to install solar panels/collectors.
Unless a variance is obtained, the proposed solar project:
• Must have a minimal visual effect on the immediate neighborhood
• Must not include extraneous equipment or devices other than required wiring and brackets
• Must lie flat on the unit’s roof
• Must be located on the rear roof and not be visible from the street
on which the unit is located, and
• On a home where the gable faces the street, must be located on the side with the minimum visual effect on the immediate neighborhood.
The proposed guidelines establish an appeal process if “the owner is of the opinion that a compliant installation will not provide the desired energy production.”
That language suggests that if homeowners believe the proposed guidelines are overly restrictive, preventing them from maximizing benefit, they can seek a variance.
The request for a variance would require homeowners to provide documentation prepared by an independent solar panel design specialist not affiliated with the designer, seller or the installer, and who is certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners and is licensed in Virginia.
This specialist on behalf of his client would need to show that a compliant proposal increases the cost of installation of the solar energy collection device by five percent over the projected cost of an alternate roof installation or reduces the energy production by the solar energy collection device by 10 percent below the projected energy production of an alternate roof installation.
This seems to suggest that homeowners might be able to obtain a variance for a rooftop installation that is positioned more in the front of the roof and is visible from the street, but only if the solar expert hired by homeowners meets these requirements.
The proposed guidelines say that homeowners must include a copy of the certification and license of the independent designer who may not be employed by the sale or installation company as part of the application.
“Recognizing that there may be multiple possible configurations and designs for placement of solar panels/collectors on a unit, the Board or ECC may require an interview with the designer in order to arrive at a decision on a variance from the rule that is necessary to achieve acceptable energy production,” the proposed guidelines conclude.
The point of the proposed ECC guideline change is to bring current rules into compliance with the latest updates in Virginia law.
Dates: May 5th, 6th & 7th
Get certified to be an American Red Cross Lifeguard
May 5th: 5-9pm
May 6th and 7th: 9am-5pm
Location: Marina Club Indoor Pool at Captain's Cove
Cove Residents & Members: $50
Non-Cove Residents: $100
Must be 15 by the end of the class
Sign up at the Marina Club front desk by emailing marinaclub@captscove.com or calling 757-824-3465
Get Certified and work for us Summer of 2023 starting at $15 an hour.
Although Captain’s Cove Golf and Yacht Club had a negative variance to budget in February of $192,560 and for the year of $207,914, the association is slightly in the black in net operations by a few thousand dollars.
In a financial report delivered during the joint property management team and Operating Committee meeting March 31, Senior General Manager Colby Phillips reported the results in a graphic presented at the meeting.
She attributed the negative variance in part to almost $190,000 in legal expenses from four law suits, when only two were anticipated.
Other factors include higher than expected overtime expenses and health insurance and workman’s compensation expenses, she said.
In a follow-up interview, CCGYC President Tim Hearn said he believes the negative variance
to budget will “normalize” in the remaining seven months of the fiscal year.
“Food and beverage revenues will triple in the coming months from where they are now,” he said, and there will be unbudgeted cash infusions from the sale of two homes the association obtained in foreclosures.
In addition, he said that there will be two foreclosure auctions in coming months, one in June and another six or eight weeks later.
Before auctions of individual properties occur, some delinquent property owners will pay what’s owed in late dues along with interest and fees.
The result will be additional infusions of cash favorable to budget, he said.
Hearn acknowledged that some negative variances to budget will “stay negative” for the rest of the year.
“Health insurance premiums and expenses associated with the ongoing workman’s com-
pensation audit are going up,” he said. “Waterfront account expenses attributable to repair the dredge boat will get worse. Unbudgeted legal expense won’t help.”
But other than these areas where actual expenses already exceed the budget, Hearn said he believes the budget will perform “as expected” for the remainder of the year.
He said that if collections on delinquent accounts proceed as expected, it could result in $30,000 to $50,000 a month in “fresh cash,” that could substantially offset the negative year-todate variance to budget.
He noted that there are two ways to measure financial performance, actual net performance and the variance to budget.
“We’re still in the black [in net operations] by a few thousand dollars,” he said, and food and beverage operations could do better than budgeted for the seven months that remain in the fiscal year, he added.
Also during the March 31 meeting, Phillips underscored key dates in 2023-24 budget preparations.
The draft template that she and Controller Sara Shifflett are working on should be complete by May 19.
Departmental reviews are scheduled for review from May 22 to June 22, and a final budget draft should be completed by Aug. 1 for presentation and approval by the Board of Directors.
Keefer. Sea otters on Assateague, by TimThe Operating Committee during a March 31 meeting voted unanimously to recommend to the Board of Directors that all commercial signage on a rented pedestal at the intersection of State Line Road and Fleming Road be eliminated and that only information about Captain’s Cove and Cove amenities be allowed.
A working group formed by Senior General Manager Colby Phillips has already removed a portion of the sign that promotes new homes by Gemcraft Homes, after committee members during their February meeting raised questions about it.
During the February meeting, committee member George Finlayson offered a motion to remove Gemcraft from the sign, but he later withdrew it pending creation of the working group, its findings and recommendations.
He offered the same motion at the March 31 meeting, and it passed unanimously.
He said that there already is ample signage in the area promoting Gemcraft Homes and other builders and Realtors.
During the March meeting, Captain’s Cove Golf and Yacht Club President Tim Hearn said that the parcel where the association pays $2400 a year to rent space for the pedestal will be sold in coming months.
He said it’s possible that the new owner won’t be interested in renting space to CCGYC.
At the February meeting, Hearn, who is not a member of the Operating Committee, told members that Gemcraft at no cost to CCGYC rebuilt the sign about five years ago. It was similar in design to a 1970s-era sign on site that was in poor condition.
The March 31 meeting was a joint session of the Operating Committee and the Property Management Team.
In other announcements or disclosures during the meeting:
• Phillips announced that the annual golf cart inspections would take place on May 6, May 27, and June 10 from 9-11 a.m. The inspections are for carts owned by CCGYC members who want to drive them on the Cove golf course or on streets in the community.
• Phillips said there were 32 security calls in February, 11 related to safety, six related to violations or complaints, and 15 related to community service.
• Committee chair Mark Majerus said announced that the dumpster replacement project had been delayed until the fall, and that the Ma-
rina Club roof project is about two third done, with the most expensive and time-consuming portion of it remaining. That’s the section of roof above the indoor pool, with extensive moisture damage cause by pool ventilation of the original construction.
• Majerus said that a very complex wetlands delineation in Sections 1,7, and 10 is nearing completion, with several lots in Section 1 requiring new surveys. The new delineation is necessary before CCGYC can obtain permits necessary to complete the roads in the affected sections.
• On the legal front, Majerus said there’s been “fairly good response” from homeowners who are delinquent in their annual dues and who have been contacted by Pender and Coward, the Cove’s law firm, in an ongoing collection campaign.
“This effort doesn’t cost us anything,” he said, adding that two foreclosure auctions will occur in coming months, with one likely in June and another eight weeks after that. He mentioned that Accomack County’s court system can only handle about 30 foreclosures per month.
He said the Cove owns two houses obtained through the foreclosure process, with one expected to go to settlement in the next 30 days.
• There is no change in the water level in Lake Ernie, again saying that only lots of rainfall will change that.
• The dredge that CCGYC rented to complete this year’s dredging program was removed by crane on March 30, after relocating about 4,122
cubic yards of silt and other debris from Cove canals, Majerus said.
Had CCGYC hired an outside contractor to do the dredging, the cost would have been $390,000, equivalent to $1200 in the waterfront assessments, he said.
Looking ahead, Majerus said that the community’s vandalized dredge boat would be repaired on-site, and that there is only a year remaining before Treasure Island, the Cove’s dredging spoil site, will reach capacity.
It either will have to be dug out with the fill transported off-site or the Cove will have to find some other solution for disposal of dredge material, he said.
In response to a question during the Members Forum portion of the meeting, Majerus said there has been no update from the Sheriff’s office on the status of the investigation related to the vandalism of the dredging boat, and he is not expecting any.
• New golf rates recommended by the Operating Committee in February omitted rates for people 18 or younger, and Majerus itemized those fees.
Member dependent children 12 and under with an adult will play free, while non-member dependent children will get 50 percent off member rates.
Member dependent children 12-17 will get 50 percent off.
Golfers aged 16 and 17 will pay full golf cart fees.
• Majerus in response to a question in the Member Forum said that attendance at Operating Committee meetings is roughly the same whatever time and day the meeting is held.
Accordingly, the practice of setting the meeting when most committee and Property Management Team members can attend will continue, he said. There will be no committee meeting in April, while the Property Management Team has its next meeting set April 21.
A joint meeting between the two is scheduled for May 19.
The Captain’s Cove Currents is looking for a motivated sales representative to sell advertising to businesses in Pocomoke City, Snow Hill and Accomack County who are interested in promoting services to the growing Captain’s Cove market.
The position is ideal for a retiree who is looking for extra income, who can work at his or her own pace, part-time or full-time depending on individual circumstances.
Publisher will provide leads and a monthly minimum to cover transportation expenses. It’s a wide open territory with a lot of potential for someone not afraid to make cold calls.
The Captain’s Cove Currents is a monthly print and an on-line publication distributed to newsboxes and by email to more than 2,000 Captain’s Cove property owners.
Call Publisher Tom Stauss at 443-359-7527 for details
