A more harmonious Board in our future?

Frank Daly’s departure from Ocean Pines and resignation from the Board of Directors sets up an opportunity for a era of cordial governance in Ocean Pines. By himself he has not been a divisive influence, but when he teamed up with soon-to-be-retired director Colette Horn and former directors Larry Perrone, Amy Peck and Josette Wheatley, the result often was contrary to the best interests of Ocean Pines.

Legal fees from unfortunate decisions made by these directors in recent years probably added up to somewhere close or even in excess of six figures. There was the Janasek litigation, the Rick Farr litigation, among other entanglements, but even more than the monetary waste was the damage done to cordial relationships on the Board.

The adverse effect on Ocean Pines from an era of bad feelings and poor decisions has not been lasting. The election last August of Directors Stuart Lakernick and Monica Rakowski changed the dynamic on the Board, reducing the influence of Daly and Horn, respectively the vice-president and president of the Board prior to the election of Lakernick and Rakowski.

Voting blocs shifted, with carry-over directors Doug Parks and Farr forming a new majority bloc with their new colleagues Lakernick and Rakowski. New director Steve Jacobs has often found common cause with the former majority bloc members Daly and Horn, but three directors do not make a functioning majority.

Daly had been on a path to the OPA presidency this past year, but essentially was eclipsed by the new Board majority that opted for Parks as president in the current Board term. Jacobs had lobbied for the top position but soon discovered that the new sherrifs had Parks in mind.

The new majority had as one of its agenda items the hiring of a local attorney to replace fiveyear veteran Jeremy Tucker. That recently was accomplished with the hiring of Ocean City lawyer Bruce Bright in that role, over the mean-spirited opposition of Horn, more nuanced, initial opposition of Jacobs, and the grudging acquiescence of Daly, whose legal positions in his second term as director were roundly defeated by Bright in the Farr and Janasek litigation.

True, Daly’s key vote in the initial decision to hire Bright was an abstention, but he at least had the good sense to praise the OPA’s new general counsel and former combatant as a “brilliant” litigator. The ability to read and apply the OPA’s governing documents in a sensible, straight-forward way may or may not be brilliant, but to be sure Bright made mincemeat of dubious legal theories propounded by Daly and some of his Board colleagues when they were litigated in court.

Daly’s 11th hour acceptance of Bright’s “legal brilliance” was hardly an apology for wasting OPA resources on hair-brained legal theories. Nonetheless his early departure from the Board was honorable in that it was implicit recognition that his political and legal posturing in concert with some of his colleagues had not prevailed. It’s old-school to be sure, but resigning after one’s preferred choices fail spectacularly is worthy of praise and emulation.

Daly at least had the good sense to realize that the final year and a half of his second threeyear term was not going to result in any policy victories. And he certainly was not likely to ascend to the OPA presidency, which would have given him reason to hang around Ocean Pines for another year.

It would be unfair to say that Daly was a poor director. He was not. One memorable accomplishment: He led the way on getting rid of the poorly drafted Board B-08 ethics resolution that had so many defects the only way to deal with it was to get rid of it. This Daly understood.

He took some wrong turns in his second term, but he began his first three-year term with a strong sense of what needed to be done to bring about an Ocean Pines functioning on eight cylinders. He set out an ambitious agenda at the getgo -- a clarion call to end what he called a culture of mediocrity, acceptance of poor financial and performance outcomes. He established a goal of amenities breaking even operationally or better, a goal achieved during his tenure on the Board.

When politicians resign or opt not to seek office because they want to spend more time with family, there almost always is more to the story.

That applies to Daly. His record as a director was mixed, but it opens up a vacancy on the Board likely to be filled by a replacement who will work well with the current majority bloc.

Indeed, an era of a Board working successfully together without acrimony is likely to get a substantial boost whoever is elected this summer.

-- Tom Stauss

B-08: Toothless virtue signaling

The Board of Directors at its June monthly meeting considered on first reading a new B-08 ethics and conflict of interest resolution, yet another attempt to fill a perceived void in Ocean Pines governance. As resolutions go, this one seems relatively harmless, but it’s also little more than virtue signaling without any enforcement mechanism.

Former OPA Director Frank Daly did the Board and community a favor some time ago - seems like yesterday - when he spearheaded an effort at the Board level to repeal an earlier version of B-08 that failed because it had been spectacular- ly abused in its real-world application.

All it accomplished was Boards whose members bickered among themselves on who was in violation of B-08 and what should be done about it. It was always unproductive, a waste of time and energy, but it’s pointless to revisit instances that led to its timely demise.

Lacking an enforcement mechanism that can be abused and misapplied, even if it is adopted by the Board sometime in the coming months, there is little likelihood that a revised and streamlined B-08 will have any impact on the real-time