Approved 2023-24 OPA Budget

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From Page 25

To Page 28 with 54 open work orders and received 71 new work orders during the month. On the customer service side of operations, the OPA received 109 contacts from residents in January via email at info@oceanpines.org or phone calls.

Linda Martin, OPA senior executive office manager, said there were 28 calls for amenities, 17 for CPI violations, 48 for general information, and 16 for Public Works.

Approved 2023-24 budget

From Page 26 at some of the pools last summer as Aquatics Director Kathleen Cook wrestled with staffing challenges.

In Viola’s initial budget draft from December, beach parking passes were slated to increase $35, from $215 to $250 for those with no other amenity memberships. That’s was a 16.3 percent increase.

For those who purchase other amenity memberships, the beach parking pass would have increased $25 from $140 to $165, a 17.9 percent hike.

Budget and Finance Advisory Committee members during their review noted the increase was much higher than the inflation rate, countering the staff’s initial position that supply and demand justified the higher rate.

At the recommendation of the committee, Viola subsequently lowered the proposed increase in parking fees, to $230 standalone and $150 with other memberships.

But in the final version of the budget, the directors went even further, eliminating the increase altogether.

The preliminary proposed budget had called for all amenity membership dues except for platform tennis to increase, in the range of 4.4 to 6 percent for swimming, about four percent for tennis, 3.4 to 3.9 for pickleball, and

Lot Assessment Rates

Approved 2023-24 Budget

Boat Slip Rates

Approved 2023-24 Budget

Amenity Membership Dues

Approved 2023-24 Budget

All golf membership categories would have been increased across the board by $50.

Boat slips rates at Ocean Pines marinas would have increased by 5 percent.

The directors in the end overruled all of those proposed increases, resulting in a subsequent need to increase the assessment slightly from Viola’s original proposal.

A majority of directors seemed to agree with the sentiment expressed by Director Stuart Lakernick, who said that many Ocean Pines households are facing budgetary and inflationary headwinds and that relief from amenity membership dues increases would be appreciated.

It is also true that historically when the OPA raises membership dues, membership numbers decline, as some OPA members opt instead to use community amenities by paying daily user fees.

Lakernick scored a budgetary win when a majority of the Board went along with his proposal for a new couples membership in aquatics, priced at roughly between the dues for individuals and families.

If this initiative proves to increase membership revenues, as Lakernick hopes and believes it will, then it might be introduced in other membership categories a year from now.

Lakernick also hopes that the Aquatics Advisory Committee will come up with additional membership initiatives next year, including a membership for grandparents who bring their grandkids to the pools.

In addition to the base assessment of $883, the Board approved a waterfront assessment of $1,498, $8 more than the $1490 Viola had proposed in his preliminary draft budget.

However, that slight increase maintains the $615 waterfront differential, which is the difference between the base lot assessment and the waterfront assessment paid by most owners of bulkheaded property in Ocean Pines.

OPA Treasurer and Director Monica Rakowski’s motion for budget approval called for an operations budget of $14.42 million, bulkhead spending totaling $1.15 million, and capital spending from the replacement, roads, drainage and new capital reserves of $1.024 million.

The approved budget is balanced at $16.593 million, which is actually an estimated $2.109 million less than projected revenue of $18.702 million this year.

Viola’s preliminary proposed budget was balanced at $16.635 million.

The revised iteration of the budget was $16.769, so each version of the budget resulted in modest decreases in projected revenue and spending.

To reach the approved budged of $16.593 million and assessment of $883, Viola made a number of last-minute adjustments, including eliminating $50,000 for an outside review of police department staffing and benefits.

The couples membership in aquatics resulted in an estimated erosion of $12,000 in membership revenue, despite Lakernick’s hope that it will have the opposite effect.

Viola also said he took $10,000 out of the Public Works budget for “equipment we don’t need.”

He also said he took some money out of $30,000 he had set aside to bolster lifeguard recruitment, which he said was made possible by three recent hires.

Together these modest changes made it possible to arrive at a base assessment of $883, which Viola said could be lowered further next year depending on factors to be determined over the coming year.