OPA says it’s making election documents available

Sherrie Clifford hopes to conduct her review on June 28

By TOM STAUSS

Publisher

After months of delay, it finally appears that the Ocean Pines Association will be accommodating the request of the founder of the Residents Oversight Community (ROC) Facebook page for access to various documents related to the 2022 Board of Directors election.

OPA Director Rick Farr said he recently concluded the whole process of accommodating Sherrie Clifford was taking too long.

So he asked to have newly appointed general counsel Bruce Bright take over from former counsel Jeremy Tucker.

That tranfer of responsibility happened, according to OPA General Manager John Viola. Four possible dates were set aside for the review.

The first proposed date was June 23, and then on Monday, Wednesday or Friday of the following week.

In a June 25 text to the Progress, Clifford said she had heard from her attorney about the OPA’s offer of four possible dates.

She said she hopes to be able to review the docu- ments on Wednesday, June 28.

Farr said it is his understanding that the Board of Directors will have a representative in attendance during the review, in addition to someone from the OPA administration.

He said that no photography will be allowed in the room, and that Clifford will need to review the documents by herself, as she was the applicant, is a property owner, and access was granted to her alone.

Then there’s the matter of cost, which Farr said he believes should include both the administrative and legal expense involved in handling the request from Clifford. He said he believed an invoice would be presented to Clifford after the review is concluded.

Farr said he had “no clue” about how much Tucker and now Bright’s legal expenses would add to the invoice amount.

Clifford in her June 23 remarks said that she never should have had to hire an attorney to get a response to her document request. The attorney has been on the job since February on Clifford’s behalf.

Her initial request for documents came last year.