Daly still pressing for vote on amendments to DRs restricting short-term rentals

Wants Board decision on sending out ballots within 30 days Feb. 18 Board meeting

By TOM STAUSS Publisher

The Board of Directors didn’t get around to tackling the shortterm rental issue at its Feb. 15 monthly meeting, but Ocean Pines Association Director Frank Daly wants his colleagues to settle the issue on how to proceed within 30 days.

The issue facing the Board is whether to authorize a section-by-section vote to change the Declaration of Restrictions to regulate short-term rentals in Ocean Pines, adopting county statutory language and giving the OPA the ability to fine violators.

It’s a matter that’s been hanging over the Board since last year, with the OPA staff prepared to send out ballots to property owners.

During discussion at the Board’s Feb. 18 meeting concerning this summer’s Board election, Daly said the voting to change the DRs does not involve the Elections Committee, with the sending out of ballots and compiling results handled by OPA staff. Nor does it include the option of electronic voting to complicate matters further, Daly said.

He described the ballots in the DR amendment election as proxies, that would be transported down to Snow Hill after they’re counted by staff. DRs can only be amended if a majority of property owners in each section approve them in a process that is different than the usual ref-

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erendum process outlined in OPA governing documents.

The OPA can lobby those who haven’t submitted ballots to do so in follow-up correspondence. The vote could result in some sections amending the DRs, and others declining to do so.

“There’s no reason to hold up the DR voting [because of issues related to the Board election],” Daly said, asking the Board to make a decision to proceed with the DR voting within the next 30 days.

It’s not clear that there are four votes to proceed.

Director Stuart Lakernick has posted a message on oceanpinesforum.com that he opposes a community vote on short-term rentals, and

Director Rick Farr has also said he’s reluctant to proceed.

OPA President Doug Parks recently said that the possibility of a mixed result concerns him, suggesting that a patchquilt of a different rules in sections throughout Ocean Pines could present administrative challenges in enforcement

If Parks ends up joining Lakernick and Farr as no votes, that leaves Monica Rakowski as the director who could be the deciding vote. She’s not made any public pronouncements on the issue, but she often has joined Parks, Lakernick and Farr as part of a Board majority.

Daly and Director Collette Horn were part of a majority on last year’s Board in favor of giving the OPA more tools to enforce rules on shortterm rentals. Daly told the Progress in a recent email that the issue isn’t dead, that there was an approved motion that the general managerwas to act upon.

“At one time the delay was to determine if the vote could be done via email. As I understand it, legal, as well as technical reasons, have eliminated that possibility,” he said.

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