September early october 2014 ocean pines progress by Ocean Pines Progress

September-Early October 2014

Vol. 10, No.6

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www.issuu.com/oceanpinesprogress Stevens moves quickly for board procedural changes

THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY COVER STORY

OPA waiting on Harkins to complete Yacht Club Construction implementation team is negotiating with contractor on change order that would reduce the amount owed in final payment. Team member Ted Moroney has already identified $49,000 in charge-backs but said much more will emerge before a final agreement is reached. Meanwhile, the Yacht Club is not yet complete. Still to be done: cupolas on the roof, installation of a flagpole, and replacement of the warped second floor decking, along with a punch list of relatively minor items. By TOM STAUSS Publisher

o the untutored eye, it appeared as though the new Ocean Pines Yacht Club was complete when it opened for business full-time Memorial Day weekend. In fact, it really wasn’t, although it was in good enough shape to pass inspections and serve the public. Even so, three months later, there are three key items that have yet to be done, Yacht Club implementation team member Ted Moroney told the Progress in early September. Those items are the roof cupolas that were prominently featured in the promotional drawings of the Yacht Club, a flag pole, and replacement decking on the second floor of the facility overlooking the harbor. None of these items had much to do with how customers experienced the Yacht Club this summer. “It’s warped,” Moroney said of the second story decking. “No one really knows why. So Harkins has agreed to replace it, probably with a completely new material.” Harkins Construction of Salisbury has a contract to build the Yacht Club for a cost that is currently worth about $4 million, but that’s a flexible number that will be changing be-

fore the contractor receives its final payment, Moroney said. There’s more than $700,000 in additional Yacht Club costs that aren’t part of the Harkins contract. As anyone in the construction business knows from experience, change orders can work both ways. In the case of the new Yacht Club, change orders generally have cost the OPA money while another one in particular, change order seven, is doing the reverse. That’s the one that is a current subject of discussion between the OPA and the contractor In addition to the three major items that remain, Moroney said the contractor is working through a punch list of relatively minor items. With the Yacht Club going to a five-day schedule post-Labor Day – the amenity is closed Monday and Tuesday, with Wednesday likely to be added by the end of the month – it will be easier for contractors to work through the punch list without disturbing customers, Moroney said. As for change order seven, it reflects $49,009 in items in the original contract that the contractor did not perform. The To Page 27

Newly elected Ocean Pines Association President Dave Stevens has some ideas for improving the functioning of the Board of Directors and of General Manager Bob Thompson in his interactions with the board. One of his first actions out of the box as president was to craft a motion putting those ideas into effect. ~ Page 8

Golf course leasing on track despite board changes

Although one member of the three-member team of Ocean Pines Association directors that has been looking into the possibility of leasing of the Ocean Pines golf course is no longer participating, having been defeated in his reelection bid this summer, the effort is alive and well. With the departure of Jeff Knepper and OPA director Tom Terry no longer serving as OPA president, the nominal leadership of the group has passed to Director Jack Collins. Terry remains as a member of the group. ~ Page 16

Board approves new rolling extension of Sandpiper contract With the Ocean Pines Association and Sandpiper Energy apparently at an impasse over a new franchise agreement allowing the company to continue providing propane and natural gas services to Ocean Pines through its underground pipeline system, it’s not at all clear when the long-anticipated roll-out of natural gas conversions will begin in Ocean Pines. With conversions already having taken place in Berlin and the nearby Glen Riddle development, Ocean Pines under normal conditions might be the next logical target for Sandpiper. ~ Page 23

2 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September - Early October 2014

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OCEAN PINES

September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

County seeks new bids for water line replacement project OCEAN PINES BRIEFS terruptions to water service while completing the work and notify all affected property owners 48 hours in advance. Water outages will only occur between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on weekdays. The total cost for the project is estimated at $250,000. Funding for the work was included in a recent county bond issue. In March the commissioners approved the sale of consolidated capital improvement bonds of a total $48.3 million to finance various improvements to the Ocean Pines water and wastewater system and renovations and additions to Snow Hill High School. The portion of the bond allocated for the Ocean Pines Service Area’s improvements totals $5.3 million, while SHHS accounts for the majority of the funds at $43 million. In addition to water line replacement, the proposed OPSA improvements include $300,000 for pump station B wet well replacement, $800,000 for the force main replacement from Station A to the treatment plant, $400,000 for pump station A rehabilitation, $300,000 for pump station E rehabilitation, $400,000 for pump station F rehabilitation, and $400,000 for reconstruction of pump stations S and P.

Proposed wastewater treatment plant facility improvements include $400,000 to repair treatment unit 3 aeration system, $400,000 for a new operations center, $150,000 for repairs to the sludge greenhouse, and $50,000 for generators at stations I and G. Other estimated expenses include $600,000 for engineering and other soft costs and $800,000 for project contingencies.

Board schedules orientation sessions

In an effort to learn as much as possible about the current state of the operations and finances of the Ocean Pines Association, the newly reorganized Board of Directors has scheduled a twoday orientation with a program to be organized and presented by OPA staff. During a Sept. 3 special session, the directors debated whether or not the orientation sessions and accompanying tour of OPA facilitieis was necessary, particularly for the full board since there is only one truly new member as a result of the August election. Pat Renaud is a first-time OPA director but Dave Stevens served previously on the board. OPA General Manager Bob Thompson presented two sets of potential dates

for the orientation but the board settled on holding the sessions on Oct. 1 and 2. Stevens thought that was a lot of time to spend on the orientation. “Does it really require two days? I don’t know wasn’t here last year,” he asked, but said that when he served on the board in the past it seemed to take less time. Director Sharyn O’Hare said last year’s orientation sessions were two very valuable days. She said she learned many new things about the OPA’s operations. It also gives the board the opportunity for a “melding together” of topics to discuss at a later time. O’Hare said the tour of all association facilities was very valuable. “It was really an eye opener for me that tour of the facilities,” she said. The orientation will also involve meetings with all OPA department heads and legal counsel.

OPA posts monthly financials online

Complying with a directive from the Board of Directors, Ocean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson has posted Controller Art Carmine’s complete monthly financial report on the OPA Web site. It normally runs about 15 pages, and includes a breakdown for each amenity department, a reserve summary, and

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aving received no bids the first time the project was posted, the Worcester County Commissioners are once again soliciting for contractors to replace water lines in the Ocean Pines Service Area. The commissioners agreed to post a request for proposals for replacing about 250 water service lines in the community. John Tustin, county director of public works, during a Sept. 2 meeting submitted bid documents for the review and approval of the commissioners. The project was originally advertised for bid in March with no response from potential bidders. Tustin said that in discussing the work with interested contractors, it appears that the bid timing was not good for them, and the contractors hoped it would be put back out for bids at a later date. Bids are due back by the end of September, and the county hopes to get the work under way in the October to November timeframe. The winning bidder will be replacing the 250 water lines from the stop on the water main to the water meter pit. All of the services lines slated for replacement are on Ocean Parkway The contractor will be responsible for the restoration of all surfaces disturbed for the work including pavement and grassed areas. The bid documents specify that the contractor minimize in-

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4 Ocean Pines PROGRESS September - Early October 2014 Police respond to OCEAN PINES BRIEFS From Page 3 the current balance sheet. As the August report has not yet been completed and release to the board, only July, June and May reports appear on the Web site. Under the recent board directive, the financials are supposed to be posted on the Web site a day after they’re distributed to board members. The report appears under “monthly financials” under administration in the documents and forms section. The search function on the site for some reason doesn’t pull up the material upon entering “monthly financials,” financial reports or similar key words.

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On Sept. 7, the Ocean Pines Police Department received information of a threat of possible violence from a suspected explosive device. The threat was made via texting and social media among juveniles. A picture of a suspected explosive device was transmitted along with the threat. The suspect was identified, and a search warrant was obtained for his Ocean Pines residence. The Ocean Pines Police Department, with the assistance of the Worcester County Sheriff ’s Department and the Worcester County Fire Marshall’s Office, and the Ocean City Bomb Squad responded to the suspect’s residence.

Upon execution of a search warrant and subsequent search of the residence, a homemade hoax device, incapable of being detonated, was discovered. The juvenile who, is 13 years of age, was charged with threat of arson, manufacture or possession of a destructive device, and possession of drug paraphernalia. All charges were referred to the Department of Juvenile Services.

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The Worcester County Commission for Women, in conjunction with the Friends of the Worcester County Commission for Women, will be celebrating the lives of five Worcester County women at a special Tea Oct. 19 at the Ocean Pines Yacht Club. The event takes place from 3-5 p.m. The tea honors local women whose exemplary lives have influenced others to contribute to Worcester County’s history in various ways. This year, honorees are honoring Patricia Dufendach of Berlin, Suzanne Hurley of Ocean City, Laura Morrison of Pocomoke City, Janet Simpson of Snow Hill, and Mary Yenney of Ocean Pines. These honorees will share their life

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awards and installation dinner Oct. 9 at the Marlin Club in West Ocean City. Also to be honored will be the Chamber’s non-profit of the year, the Kiwanis Club of Ocean Pines-Ocean City, and Terri Mahohey, of WMD-TV of Salisbury as citizen of the year. Officers for the coming year will be installed during the dinner, which is scheduled for 6-9 p.m. Tickets for the buffet dinner cost $60 per person, available by calling the Chamber at 410-641-5306 or online at the Chamber Web site, oceanpineschamber.org. The buffet will include prime rib, carved turkey and ahi tuna, a variety of side dishes and desserts.

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From Page 4 experiences at the event, resulting in a DVD that captures their interviews conducted by Jack Barnes. This History DVD will be presented to all branches within the Worcester County Library system and may be viewed in the future to serve as an inspiration to other women. For reservations, checks should be made payable to FWCCW and mailed to Kay Hickman, P.O. Box 1422, Ocean Pines, Md. 21811 by Oct. 14. The cost is $25 per person. Call 410-600-0552.

Hospitals to host health fair Oct. 4

Atlantic General Hospital and Peninsula Regional Medical Center are collaborating with the Ocean Pines Association and its Communications Advisory Committee to offer its fifth annual free health fair on Saturday, Oct. 4, from 8 a.m. to noon in the Ocean Pines Community Center. Atlantic General Hospital will be providing various health-related screenings including hearing, foot checks for neuropathy, carotid, and bone density. Other information specialists will be there from the Endoscopy Center, Mental Health Services, Health Literacy, Orthopedics , Advance Directives, Palliative Care, Patient Portal, Hospital Quality

and Patient Safety. PRMC providers will be on site performing blood pressure checks, pulse oximetry, body composition screenings and heal dexa screenings. On board the PRMC Wagner Wellness Van will be physicians conducting skin cancer screenings. There will be information available on ortho/joint replacement, healthy spines, ALS, osteoporosis, stroke, cardiac rehab, home scripts, Lifeline, wound care, and an interactive lab exhibit. Information on other health and personal safety topics will also be available, including the Affordable Care Act/Lower Shore Health Insurance Assistance Program updates. There will also be community health related vendors from the area providing additional screenings and education. This year AGH will be offering free flu shots for participants over the age of 13 from 8 a.m. to noon during the event. The free health fair will also include hot dog sales by the Kiwanis of Ocean Pines/Ocean City.

Ocean Pines to host flea market Sept. 27

Vendors are needed for Ocean Pines’ annual fall indoor/outdoor flea market on Saturday, Sept. 27, from 8 a.m. to noon to sell gently used clothing, household items, collectibles and more. Indoor spaces are available inside the Community Center gymnasium and

include an eight-foot table and chair. Outdoor spaces are in the parking lot in front of the Administration Building (bring your own table). Concession items such as coffee and baked goods will be available for sale. Spaces for Ocean Pines residents are $15 for indoor and $10 for outdoor. Spaces for non-residents are $20 for indoor and $10 for outdoor. To register, use the registration form in the fall activity guide, visit the Parks and Recreation Department in the Ocean Pines Community Center, or visit www.oceanpines.org for a registration form.

Rec Department to host pre-schooler programs

The Ocean Pines Recreation and Parks Department has scheduled several programs for pre-schoolers this fall. Toddler Time, for children ages 18 months to 3 years and their caregivers, offers socialization through playtime, music and movement. Children will play with balls, hula hoops, tunnels, games and slides. This program, held at the Ocean Pines Community Center, is offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. for 12 classes beginning Sept. 16. A second session is scheduled to begin Nov. 4. The cost is $45 for Ocean Pines residents and $55 for non-residents.

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Music and Movement with Mr. Don will allow children from 1 to 4 to experience the joys of music with an award-winning children’s musician. This interactive program includes singalongs, hand and body motions, handheld rhythm instruments, dancing and more. The program, held at the Ocean Pines Community Center, is offered on Wednesdays from 6 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. for six sessions beginning Sept. 17. The cost is $30 for Ocean Pines residents and $35 for non-residents. Happy Cleats, Ocean Pines’ preschool soccer program, gives children ages 2 and 3 the opportunity to learn soccer fundamentals in a non-competitive environment. The 2-year-old class is offered on Tuesdays beginning Sept. 16; the 3-year-old class is offered on Thursdays beginning Sept. 18. Both are held at Somerset Park in Ocean Pines from 5-5:30 p.m. for six classes. The cost is $35 for Ocean Pines residents and $45 for non-residents. These programs are open to public and registration is required. For more information or to register, call the Ocean Pines Recreation and Parks Department at 410-641-7052.

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6 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

September - Early October 2014

OCEAN PINES BRIEFS From Page 5 3 meeting officially accepted the resignation of a long-standing community volunteer from an Ocean Pines Association advisory committee. John Wetzelberger tendered his resignation from the OPA’s aquatics advisory committee because he is relocating from Ocean Pines to Florida permanently. Director Sharyn O’Hare, who serves as the board liaison to the aquatics advisory committee, thanked Wetzelberger for “all the good work he has done in Ocean Pines.”

Pines Farmers Market welcomes new vendors

Volunteer spirit

Worcester County Volunteer Spirit Awards were given to 12 outstanding men and women recently, including two from Ocean Pines based Star Charities. Volunteers were honored on Aug. 19 in the historic Atlantic Hotel in Berlin. Left to right, President of Star Charities, Anna Foultz; Star Charities’ volunteer Nancy Engelke, Worcester County Commissioner Bud Church; honoree Sharon Sorrentino; and Director of the Volunteer Spirit Awards, Kelly Brinkle.

The Ocean Pines Farmers Market has added several new vendors to its current roster. The market is open every Saturday year-round from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in White Horse Park. Great Shoals Winery, of Kensington, Md., joins the market’s growing list of vintners. It offers wine, sparkling wine and hard cider. The winery uses apples, pears, peaches, grapes, and other fruits from local and regional sources to create dry sparkling wines using the traditional méthode champenoise.

Brews Up, located in Berlin, sells brewing and wine-making supplies for use at home and in the Brews Up shop. Classes and gifts are also offered. Beginning Sept. 13 and continuing through the fall and winter, Alaska Wild Seafoods, of Seaford, Del., will be selling wild-caught salmon, cod, halibut and ling cod. All of the seafood is caught and flash-frozen in Alaska, where the owners spend their summers fishing. Other recent vendor additions include Thank God It’s Gluten Free from Berlin, offering a range of gluten-free products, and Tout de Suite Patisserie from Milton, Del., offering French pastries and bread. This fall, local businesses Dolle’s Candy and Little Miss Lovely, who will be returning with handcrafted floral arrangements, will be among the vendors at the market. The Ocean Pines Farmers Market continues to offer seasonal fresh produce, meat, eggs, baked goods, kettle corn, soaps, handcrafted furniture and jewelry and more. The market also features occasional cooking demonstrations as a part of its “Chef@Market” series of culinary events. Its “Meet Me at the Market” series features craftsmen, local celebrities, farmers and more. The next “Meet Me at the Market” event will feature a yoga demonstration on Sept. 27 at 10 a.m. under the White Horse Park pavilion.

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September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS 7

Dave Stevens takes over OPA helm Former president Tom Terry accepts parliamentarian role, but other remaining members of former board majority decline officer roles

By TOM STAUSS Publisher bit of the summer campaign season carried over to the organizational meeting of the new board of directors Aug. 15, as Dave Stevens formally was elected president of the Ocean Pines Association, and other officers were selected to serve for the coming year. While outgoing OPA President Tom

Terry accepted the down-ticket role of board parliamentarian, the other remaining members of the former board majority bloc – Bill Cordwell and Sharyn O’Hare – declined to accept nominations for the vice-presidency when they were offered. It was clear there were some lingering resentments from this summer’s board elections that carried over into the organizational meeting. Terry in

particular was working on behalf of the reelection bid of defeated Director Jeff Knepper, who finished third in the balloting for the board this summer, and the other incumbent seeking reelection, Terri Mohr, who finished fourth. Pat Renaud and Stevens were elected to the board in that order by property owners, with roughly 300 votes separating the victorious challengers from the losing incumbents.

Renaud and Stevens ran on a joint ticket supported by returning directors Marty Clarke and Jack Collins. Together, they constitute a new majority bloc on the board. Even if Terry, Cordwell or O’Hare had agreed to serve as Dave Stevens officers of the association for the coming year, it’s difficult to see how they would have been elected by their colleagues had they competed against the majority bloc for any particular position. Clarke seemed willing to avoid that

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8 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

September - Early October 2014

Stevens out of the box quickly with board procedural changes By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer ewly elected Ocean Pines Association President Dave Stevens has some ideas for improving the functioning of the Board of Directors and of General Manager Bob Thompson in his interactions with the board. One of his first actions out of the box as president was to craft a motion putting those ideas into effect. Whenever possible members of the board of directors are now being asked to submit motions that they want to have considered at OPA meetings at least three days prior to the meeting date. The change in procedure for making motions is part of Stevens’ attempt to reduce spur-of-the-moment motions

OPA president From Page 7 situation when, after Stevens was elected president with no opposition, he nominated Terry for vice-president. Terry declined, saying he couldn’t accept the role because he said the “vice-president needs to be in synch with the president,” clearly implying that he was not in synch with Stevens. O’Hare, the vice-president in the previous board term, also declined Clarke’s nomination for vice-president. She said “I’m not sure I’m on the same page” as the newly elected president. Cordwell followed suit. “I decline,” he said, without explanation. Cordwell opened the process of selecting officers by nominating Clarke for president. “You’re running the show,” he said of Clarke, who declined the nomination in

New OPA president wants supporting documentation at least three days prior to requested board action and to ensure that directors are better prepared to discuss topics on meeting agendas. During a Sept. 3 special session, Stevens presented for discussion his proposed plan for conduct of board meetings, saying one of the objectives is to have as much information as possible to board members prior to meetings so they can make informed decisions. Additionally, he said having the motions in advance will help facilitate member understanding of issues being discussed. He said it is just as important that OPA members understand what the board is talking about as it is to have an

informed and prepared board. From now on the board meetings will focus on issues that require board decisions or actions, not items that are purely informational. Stevens asked, if there is no board decision to be made or action to be taken, why an item would even be on the agenda. Finally, he said other goals of the new process are to provide continuity from meeting to meeting and to reduce the duration of the meetings. As part of the process, he proposed that all motions, discussion topics, presentations, reports and supporting material “shall be provided to the board in

favor of Stevens, who accepted. He became the president by acclamation. After Terry, O’Hare and Cordwell all rejected the vice-presidency, Cordwell nominated Clarke for the position. There were no other nominees, so Clarke became the new vice-president by acclamation. Other key positions were filled without apparent acrimony or even much discussion. Stevens nominated Renaud as secretary and Renaud nominated Collins as treasurer. When no other candidates were nominated, Renaud and Collins were elected to those positions by acclamation. Collins’ election as treasurer was in stark contrast to a year ago, when the then newly elected director nominated himself to the position, citing his many years in the banking business. He was defeated in a contested ballot by Cordwell, whose working career was in com-

munity policing. Collins had been the top vote getter in the 2013 board election, but it was not enough to get him the treasurer’s job last year despite his background in financial management. This year, given the outcome of the summer’s board election, Collins’ selection as treasurer was almost a given. OPA General Manager Bob Thompson was then appointed to the position of assistant treasurer, a role traditionally held by the general manager. In recent years, former OPA Director Pete Gomsak had been chosen by a board majority as a second assistant treasurer, which gave him an outsized role in financial affairs of the OPA. For instance, it was Gomsak, not Cordwell, who presented detailed information about the OPA’s financial performance during the August annual meeting of the association. Gomsak was not reappointed assistant treasurer during this year’s orga-

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the board packet at least three days prior to the meeting.” To the extent possible, those materials would also be made available to members of the media. “At a very minimum, they should be made available as handouts on the day of the meeting,” he said, but added that they can be posted on the OPA’s Web site as well. As for requiring submission of all motions at least three days in advance of a meeting, other directors had some concerns. Director Tom Terry asked if that requirement would apply to Compliance, Permits and Inspections issues brought before the board for resolution. If so, then the board will need the CPI case To Page 10 nizational meeting. His name was not mentioned. Collins has said he will seek to restore the treasurer’s traditional role as the board’s liaison with OPA Controller Art Carmine. It is customary at most board organizational meetings to reappoint the OPA’s general counsel and auditing firm, but that did not occur at the Aug. 15 meeting. Stevens said he wanted to defer discussion of those positions to the board’s special meeting scheduled for early September. Local attorney Joseph Moore has been the OPA’s general counsel since 1983 and the OPA’s auditing firm, TGM Group, of Salisbury, has had the auditing role since the 1990s. A year ago, Clarke opposed the reappointment of TGM on grounds that it was time for the OPA to shop the auditing function to competing firms; but the reappointment was passed on a 6-1 vote of the board. Cordwell said after researching the issue that he believed changing auditing firms can cause disruption in OPA financial management. This summer, Clarke’s position seems to be getting a more sympathetic reception from a board majority. At the Aug. 15 meeting, he said he would like to see a bid package assembled for both the attorney and auditor positions. No one offered a competing point of view. Clarke is usually quick to say that shopping the positions does not mean in the end that the board will be making any changes. The general counsel and auditing firm appointments were not on the public meeting agenda at the board’s special meeting Sept. 3. Stevens later said he now expects to see the matter addressed at the board’s regular meeting in late September. “There’s no rush,” he said, mentioning that in both cases the current appointments continue absent any board action to the contrary. Stevens said he agrees with Clarke in at least one key respect. “We’re not going to rubber-stamp anything,” he said, adding that even if the decision is made to solicit alternatives to Moore and TGM, it is by no means certain or even likely that a change will be made.

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Procedural changes From Page 8 materials well in advance of the board meeting so someone, likely him as CPI liaison, can draft the appropriate motions, he said. Instead, he said it would make sense to exempt CPI from that three-day rule. Stevens agreed, saying that the board really needs to work in improving the CPI processes and procedures. “To that extent, I think they might be exempt. I’m not concerned about the (the timing of the CPI) motion. I’m concerned about the information we’re going to decide on and that’s what you want in advance,” he said. But Terry said Stevens’ proposal says that all motions “shall be submitted at least three days” before a board meeting. He said as written that means it would have to be done for CPI issues, as well as items like purchasing matters. “I’m just trying to make sure we all know what we’re going to need to do in order to live up to this,” Terry said, adding that he didn’t say it isn’t doable but just wants to make sure he understands how the rule would apply. Stevens said other than CPI issues, the directors should be given detailed reports on topics by the general manager at least three days in advance of a meeting so the directors can be prepared to discuss and vote on the issues. On CPI motions, Director Marty Clarke said having the motions in advance isn’t really necessary because the CPI package itself “tells you where you’re going.” As long as the board has that package well before its meeting, then there should not be any surprises during the discussion of CPI issues, Clarke said. But for issues other than CPI, Clarke said the three-day rule should apply. Stevens said his proposed rules for conduct of board meetings do not supersede the OPA bylaws or Roberts Rules of Order. “You can still make motions at the meetings” and in the case of CPI violations the board can make motions on the

day of the meeting, he said. Clarke said the same should apply to procurement issues as long as the board has been provided with a packet of information on each proposed purchase prior to the meeting at which a vote is expected. Director Sharyn O’Hare said that really means that not all motions “shall” be required in advance but simply as many as possible. “I think there are cases just like what we’re talking about where things come up and we need to have a discussion. And if a motion is proposed it may not be what we really want to do after we’ve discussed it,” she said. Clarke responded that in those cases “then the motion fails.” O’Hare said that would mean a director could not make another motion at the same meeting because it had not been submitted in advance. “That’s not true,” Clarke said. Stevens agreed and said that motions still can be made at meetings as appropriate, and the board just named a few cases when that would be appropriate as related to CPI and procurement actions. “The materials that will support the decision are what’s important. Not the motion itself. The motion itself is just an administrative thing,” he said. He added that what is inappropriate is for a director to make a motion on a significant issue where all of the materials have not been presented and the board is being asked to make up its mind without that benefit. “And as I’ve seen many times in the past, where the motion is just scribbled down,” he said. Clarke added that Roberts Rules of Order does require that motions be written down before consideration by the board. Stevens’ proposed rules for meeting conduct also addressed keeping track of pending items and tasked the board secretary, Pat Renaud, with doing so. He said that at the end of each board meeting the secretary should review any motions made that require board actions

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Board regular meeting dates shift to end of the month

By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer fter more than 40 minutes of discussion and debating individual meeting dates for the coming year, the Ocean Pines Association’s Board of Directors set a schedule of Thursday and Saturday monthly meetings. During a Sept. 3 special meeting, the board elected to generally hold monthly meetings on either the last Thursday of the month at 3 p.m. or the last Saturday at 9 a.m. OPA President Dave Stevens, returning to a role he held for one year when previously serving as a director, proposed the schedule of meetings, shifting the series of Wednesday dates set by the previous board to Thursdays and moving them all to the end of the month. Stevens said having the meetings on a regular day and time will make it easier for OPA members to attend them. Director Tom Terry, who was OPA president when the previous meeting schedule was set, said he didn’t have a problem with shifting Wednesday meetings to Thursdays or with moving them to the last week of the month. He said the new schedule will allow OPA staff to have all of the previous month’s financial data gathered and available for board review before the meeting. Terry said the board has already tried it all – morning, afternoon, evening and Saturday meetings – and it doesn’t seem to matter when meetings are held; those members who want to attend do and those that don’t, far and away a vast majority of property owners, don’t bother.

“I don’t know that any evening meetings frankly raised the level of attendance from my experience,” he said in response to one proposal to hold some meetings at 7 p.m. Director Marty Clarke said the meeting schedule should be set to accommodate the membership. “This isn’t about us. It’s about the membership. That’s why we’re doing this.” He argued that more members attended meetings when they were regularly held on Saturdays at 10 a.m. OPA General Manager Bob Thompson said staff studied meeting attendance from September 2012 to August 2014 and found that on average 19.75 people attended weekday meetings and

16.3 people attended Saturday meetings. But Clarke still supported holding some Saturday meetings, saying it gives members an opportunity to participate in their association. The first regular meeting of the board is set for Saturday, Sept. 27, at 9 a.m. The October meeting will be held on Thursday, Oct. 23, a week earlier that originally proposed, to accommodate a vacation by Director Sharyn O’Hare. Other meeting dates are Nov. 22, and in 2014 they are Jan. 29, Feb. 21, March 26, April 30, May 28, June 25 and July 30. No regular board meeting is scheduled for December 2014. The board also set several special

meeting dates, including a tentative Oct. 17 special meeting on the capital improvement plan, a November executive committee meeting, and a July 16 review of the general manager’s contract. Also on April 30 at 6 p.m. the board will hold a volunteer appreciation night. The board also set its advisory committee liaison assignments for the next year. The liaisons are O’Hare to aquatics and recreation and parks, Jack Collins to budget and finance, Terry to architectural review committee and racquet sports, Bill Cordwell to clubs and marina activities, Pat Renaud to comprehensive plan and elections, Marty Clarke to communications and environment and

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Procedural changes From Page 10 and maintain a list of the status of those actions. That pending action list will be used to help set future board meeting agendas. The meeting rules also reiterate a long-standing policy of keeping public comments to a five-minute maximum for each property owner addressing the board during that segment of its meeting. Stevens further stated that the basic rules of decorum apply during meetings and that board members and the general manager may respond to requests for information from property owners but should not engage them in debate. “As long as it’s information exchanging, it’s fine,” he said. Stevens plans to update his rules for meeting conduct based on comments made at the Sept. 3 meeting, and the full board will vote on accepting them via an email distribution.

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OCEAN PINES Board meetings

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From Page 11

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advance of the meeting, preferably at least three days before. Then at the meeting Thompson simply will present items that require board action and updates directors on anything that has changed since he submitted the written document. Stevens said the general manager’s report has been taking up too much time at board meetings, sometimes more than an hour, and directors have no idea what Thompson will be talking about in advance. He wants that process simplified so that there are “fundamentally no surprises. There’s too much buried” in the general manager’s report, he said. Director Sharyn O’Hare asked “so basically then the general manager will not make a report except for any procurement requests that he has or specific things he needs board advice on?” Stevens said that isn’t exactly correct. There will be space on meeting agendas for board members to ask questions about the written general manager’s report and for Thompson to highlight any areas of importance. He can also make specific points that might not be in the narrative.

“We’re not trying to slow down or reduce the amount of information that the board gets,” Stevens said, adding, “What’s the reason for doing this? It’s faster. It’s faster and zeros in on information that we need.” Director Marty Clarke said some of Thompson’s past general manager’s presentations “were really great,” but board members didn’t have time to digest all of the information before being asked to make decisions. “I want to see the stuff in advance,” he said. Director Tom Terry said he has never served on a board or worked with a corporation that didn’t have executives make presentations on current topics and issues. “My experience has been that you get an overview of what’s going on in the community from the guy who’s running it day-to-day,” he said. Director Jack Collins pushed back. “I don’t know what board you served on, but you know, I’ll tell you what, if you’re saying that critical issues are brought to a board for a board to make a decision that day, I would say that that corporation had a hard time getting a decision done,” he told Terry. Terry said Stevens is correct that during the last few years the board has

By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer n an effort to shorten and streamline the monthly board of directors meetings, new Ocean Pines Association President Dave Stevens has proposed a revised process for the conduct of those meetings that severely cuts back on the general manager’s report. Instead of having free reign to discuss whatever he likes for however long he chooses, General Manager Bob Thomp-

OCEAN PINES GM report From Page 14 had general discussions about different topics during board meetings and did not just have items on the agenda that required action. “There was a purpose behind it,” he said, adding that it was an attempt to ensure that the board of directors would have a sense of what was happening in the community. He said he is not opposed to requiring a written general manager’s report but would be against having no presentation at all at board meetings. “It’s a good idea. I’m not against that at all,” he said of a written general manager’s update. Clarke said Stevens’ proposal doesn’t say that there will be no presentation from the general manager. It just says that a presentation is not required, but the board can ask Thompson questions about his written report or other issues. Stevens said the board isn’t there to review the general state of the community. “We’re there to look at specific information and have specific discussions which will lead at some point to specific actions,” he said. By focusing on action items, he said the board will be able to “get more things done and spend less time doing it.” O’Hare said she is fine with having a written report in advance but wanted to know how those watching meetings online will know what board members are talking about. “

September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS 15 They don’t have the benefit of this written report in front of them,” she said. Those written reports should be provided to both property owners and the media at the same time they are given to the board, Stevens said. They can be published on the OPA’s website and made available at the door at meetings. “So Bob can’t make any comments that are not written down?” O’Hare asked. “As a matter of fact, I just said the opposite,” Stevens quickly retorted. He said the problem currently is that the pace of the meetings is controlled by the presenter, in this case the general manager, and comments that are made by the presenter are not written down. Terry, the OPA president for the past four years, said he is willing to give Stevens new approach a shot. “Every board decides how it wants to operate,” he said. “You guys want to function this way, we’ll try it.” Regarding other types of presentations and reports, Stevens said they will have to be approved by the board and submitted in advance in order to be placed on a meeting agenda as well. Terry asked if the board would have to give its approval to every potential presentation, even though requested by other board members. “You’re not proposing that agenda items need to be accepted by the board?” he asked of Stevens. Right now agenda development is

the province of the secretary and president, Stevens said. There could be any number of people who want to present things to the board, and that diverts the board’s attention from other issues. “It’s still a board meeting, and you have to try and focus in on what is important,” he said. As president, he said he will try to get a sense of what presentations the board may or may not be interested in hearing. Clarke said the bottom line is that there should be “no surprises” at board meetings. Stevens concurred that is one concern but another is whether or not the board actually wants to have certain presenta-

tions made at its meetings. “Do we really want to hear it? That can and will come up,” he said, adding that certain presentations simply may not be appropriate. Terry asked for clarification regarding agenda topics requested by OPA directors. “If a member of this board of directors wants to bring a topic to the agenda of this board of directors, they have a right to do it?” he said. Stevens responded “Yes.” Terry said “as long as we’re all in agreement with that, I’m good.” Stevens added that any agenda topics submitted by an OPA member must have a director as a sponsor in order to be placed on a meeting agenda.

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OCEAN PINES

September - Early October 2014

Golf course leasing option on track despite change in OPA board composition Jack Collins quietly assumes leadership of three-member team that will be vetting proposals from interested groups By TOM STAUSS Publisher lthough one member of the three-member team of Ocean Pines Association directors that has been looking into the possibility of leasing of the Ocean Pines golf course is no longer participating, having been defeated in his reelection bid this summer, the effort is alive and well. With the departure of Jeff Knepper and OPA director Tom Terry no longer serving as OPA president, the nominal leadership of the group has passed to Director Jack Collins. Terry remains as a

member of the group. Collins told the Progress in early September that he is prospecting from among the Ocean Pines golf community for a third individual to join the team. Collins assumed a leadership role in the Jack Collins effort in part because he’s been reappointed as the board’s liaison to the Golf Member Council and is a member of the Ocean Pines golf

club. The subtle change in his role was made evident in early September, when he submitted a progress report on the leasing effort to his colleagues. He confirmed that he become the board’s “point man” on the leasing effort after Terry advised OPA President Dave Stevens that he was relinquishing the role following this summer’s board election. Collins said there hasn’t been any significant change in the situation regarding the possibility of leasing out the golf course over the summer. He said he was in the process of as-

sembling a detailed financial package about golf finances in Ocean Pines that will be forwarded to the four groups who have expressed in leasing the golf course from the OPA. He said he expected that the package would be in the hands of the interested parties by mid-September. Collins said the process he foresees would involve potential lessees “investigating” Ocean Pines golf operations in detail and then the OPA team doing the same kind of detailed vetting when lease proposals are submitted. “I believe the interest is serious among those I’ve talked to,” Collins said. “I believe we can get this done” in a way that benefits current members of the Ocean Pines golf club “as well as the entire OPA membership.” OPA Director Marty Clarke said recently that he hoped the effort to lease out the golf course would cast a wider net than has been evident thus far. He said he believed the best way to do that is for the OPA to draft a formal request for proposals (RFP) that would be posted on the OPA Web site and sent out to golf management companies that have leased golf courses in their portfolio.

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From Page 16 Clarke also said he saw no reason why Billy Casper Golf, the current Ocean Pines golf course operator, could not be invited to bid on a lease package. There remains the possibility that the OPA could decide simply to keep BCG on as a fee-based management company should no lessee emerge from the process. BCG, hired by the OPA to manage the course for it more than three years ago, has been given a relatively short period of time to meet or exceed budgetary targets for the current fiscal year that began May 1. If it manages to do so, Terry said earlier this year that a new three-year contract that began May 1 will be honored, but if not, he has said the OPA board will be prepared to consider alternatives by November. Terry has said there is language in the agreement that allows the board of directors, on its sole authority, to cancel the contract if BCG fails to meet financial objectives. “I certainly hope they succeed and they deserve to have every opportunity to do so,” Terry said of BCG. “But if it doesn’t happen, language in the new

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September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

From Page 18 contract allows the board in its sole authority to get out of the contract.” While the targeted loss to stay in the good graces of the OPA is $95,000, the budgeted golf loss for the new fiscal year that began May 1 is $73,300. The contract in effect says that the board will tolerate a loss that falls short of the budgeted goal by $21,700. Through July, the financial results for golf do not bode well for BCG meeting its budget targets for the year. While golf and golf-related food and beverage operations are in surplus in the amount of $57,180 for the fiscal year through July, the approved budget called for a surplus of $123,787. The negative variance to budget is $66,607, according to OPA Controller Art Carmine’s summary for July. This less than encouraging news is offset partially by the fact that through July of last year, golf operations were actually in deficit by $10,069. As a practical matter, it’s what a board majority would decide at the conclusion of the calendar 2014 golf season that will tell the tale on how much of a loss will be tolerated. As one director, Terry said he is prepared to ask the company to depart in the November-December time period if the $95,000 loss target for the fiscal year appears to be out of reach.

While golf and golfrelated food and beverage operations are in surplus in the amount of $57,180 for the fiscal year through July, the approved budget called for a surplus of $123,787. He also said there’s an understanding that the company will assist in any transition to new management and that there is no non-compete provision in the new contract that would prevent the OPA from hiring any current BCG employee. That would seemingly allow the OPA to offer jobs to golf pro John Malinowksi or superintendent Rusty McClendon should the OPA elect to tender either or both men an employment offer. That could be an option should BCG fail to meet budgetary targets and should the ongoing efforts to explore a lease alternative fail to produce an acceptable lease proposal that can win majority board support. While extending the Casper contract is the way management of the golf course will be handled over the summer and fall months, Terry has said previously that the OPA will continue to build on recent discussions with parties

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September - Early October 2014

Golf course From Page 19 who have expressed interest in leasing the course. “While we attend to the current season, we must continue to build a positive alternative should our golf usage not return to trends that could lead us having a much improved financial story,” Terry wrote in a document released March 19 that summarized discussions he had with those parties. The decision to sign a new contract with BCG in April was a political and management victory for OPA General Manager Bob Thompson, who had argued strenuously against exploring any lease option, expressing concerns that it would send the wrong message into the marketplace at a critical time of the golf season, just as it was about to enter the important spring months of April and May. As it turned out, neither month was particularly positive for golf relative to budget. Indeed, the results were such that it really made it difficult to dig out of the budget hole in subsequent months. With operations now entering the critical fall shoulder months of September and October, BCG has a relative short timeframe to reverse some of the early negative variances to budget and perhaps put itself in a better position to keep the OPA as a client for the duration of the current three-year agreement.

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September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Committee member questions size of waterfront reserve

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Seeks separate accounting for waterfront differential and $19 assessed every property for upkeep of bulkheads and canals in common areas

said. The difference in the base assessment that everyone pays, and the higher assessment that most owners of waterfront property owners in Ocean Pines pay, is called the waterfront differential. It’s the primary source of funding for the bulkhead and waterways reserve, established years ago by the OPA to pay for the ongoing bulkhead replacement program as well as canal dredging. In addition, Ringsdorf noted that roughly $19 of every assessment is collected each year from every property owner and allocated to waterfront and waterways reserve, under the theory that there is a substantial amount of bulkheading in areas of the community owned by the OPA and that to that extent, all property owners should contribute to the cost of maintaining it. In addition, those who established the $19 contribution years ago noted that the Ocean Pines’ canal system is open to all and that keeping the canals accessible to boaters is another responsibility of the OPA for which everyone should be assessed. Even so, the bulk of

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By TOM STAUSS Publisher ecent reporting in the Ocean Pines Progress noted the uncommonly large amount of assessment dollars parked in the bulkhead and waterways reserve -- $1.494 million as of July 30 – giving rise to questions whether the Ocean Pines Association is quietly taking more money than is needed from owners of bulkheaded waterfront property in Ocean Pines in the so-called waterfront differential. It turns out that at least one member of the OPA’s Budget and Finance Advisory Committee has similar concerns. Committee member Gene Ringsdorf, during the committee’s regular monthly meeting in August, told his colleagues that to the best of his recollection, the waterfront and waterways reserve historically has contained roughly $800,000 at the beginning of each fiscal year on May 1, which is spent throughout the year as bulkhead replacement occurs. Roughly the same is spent each year that’s raised from owners of bulkheaded waterfront property in Ocean Pines, he

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22 Ocean Pines PROGRESS September - Early October 2014 present bulkhead replacement or a caWaterfront reserve

nal dredging program anytime soon is not known. In short, despite the theoretical need at some point for funds to pay for bulkhead replacement and canal dredging, there is simply insufficient information available in which to conclude definitively that the OPA is collecting about what it needs to or substantially more than is needed for those purposes. With very little expenditure from this reserve budgeted or planned in the current fiscal year, on May 1 of next year this reserve could easily grow by another $822,367, which was the amount allocated to it on May 1 of this year. That would increase its balance to more than $2.3 million, and at that point probably many more individuals than Ringsdorf will be asking how the OPA can justify extracting these kinds of dollars from waterfront property owners. While it was unclear that a majority of committee members believe the fund currently is too high, Ringsdorf told the Progress in a September telephone interview that they seem more receptive to a change he proposed in the way the monthly reserve summary presents the two revenue streams that flow into the bulkheads and waterways reserve. Currently, the reserve summary (published in every edition of the Progress) allocates both funding sources together as a contribution from assessments. Ringsdorf said he wants that contribution divided into its constituent

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From Page 21 the revenue stream into the bulkheads and waterways reserve is derived from the waterfront differential that burdens waterfront owners in Ocean Pines with OPA-maintained bulkheads. In some sections, such as 14B (Terns Landing), property owners maintain their own bulkheads. Not much bulkhead replacement has occurred in the past year – most of Ocean Pines’ original bulkhead has already been replaced as part of the program and the board has not authorized another round of replacements – and there has been no canal dredging in the Pines in recent years. That apparently has allowed the reserve set up to deal with these issues to build up cash. OPA Controller Art Carmine, the OPA administration’s representative at the meeting, defended the build-up of the reserve, telling members that the money will be needed in coming years to pay for canal dredging as well as bulkhead replacement once a new phase of replacement begins. What Carmine didn’t mention, however, is that there are no plans in place for a new phase of bulkhead replacements, nor has any plan or proposal for canal dredging been presented by the OPA administration to the board of directors for review. The 2011 capital improvement plan, the last one approved by the board, is silent on the need for canal dredging. Whether OPA General Manager Bob Thompson intends to

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OCEAN PINES

September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Board approves new ‘rolling extension’ of Sandpiper contract

Waterfront reserve From Page 22 parts and shown separately on the reserve summary. He further wants the moneys collected from the collective $19 restricted to common-area maintenance only, not to be touched for replacement of bulkheading on individual properties. Ringsdorf sparred with former OPA assistant treasurer Pete Gomsak on the merits of splitting the revenue components. Gomsak was attending the budget committee meeting one day after the newly reorganized board of directors chose not to reappoint him to the influential post of assistant treasurer. Gom-

Sides still far apart on new agreement that would govern natural gas conversion roll-out in Ocean Pines; directors may push for franchise fee Riddle development, Ocean Pines under normal conditions might be the next logical target for Sandpiper. But with the OPA and the energy company unable to reach a contract agreement by a previous Sept. 1 deadline, it’s essentially anyone’s guess when conversion work will begin in Ocean Pines.

sak, Ringsdorf said, opposed changing the reserve summary format but that some accommodation is still possible. Ringsdorf told the Progress that he was drafting a resolution on the issue for committee consideration in September. Carmine told the committee that changing the summary to include the two revenue streams is achievable, Ringsdorf said. Indeed, it would simply involve creating an additional line in a spreadsheet and plugging in the appropriate number under each revenue stream. “We’ll see how the committee feels about it when I present them with a draft recommendation,” Ringsdorf said.

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That probably won’t sit well with Sandpiper customers who were told more than a year ago that conversions could begin as soon as fall of 2013. That didn’t happen, and one year later it hasn’t happened either. This past June, then OPA President Tom Terry told the Progress that the previous extension would “absolutely” be the last one and that the two sides would be able to come to terms before the Sept. 1 deadline. It didn’t happen. OPA President Dave Stevens said it’s his understanding that lawyers for Sandpiper and the OPA informally agreed to extend the old contract for an indefinite period of time pending formal board approval, which occurred in executive session following a Sept. 3 meeting. This latest approval is for a so-called “rolling extension” that remains in force until such time as the sides agree on a new contract. This is the fifth, and presumably the last, such extension in the protracted discussions between the parties. Stevens said in a recent interview

with the Progress he did not want to paint Sandpiper as “the bad guy” as the sides try to resolve a number of prickly issues. But he also said the OPA, in doing its due diligence in obtaining the best deal possible for OPA property owners and Sandpiper’s gas customers, should not be blamed for blocking a new agreement and “preventing OPA gas customers from obtaining lower cost natural gas.” He said understands that retiring county commissioner Judy Boggs has been making such claims about the OPA’s intentions and actions in the protracted negotiations. Stevens said that under the blended rate structure for propane and natural gas approved for Worcester County by the Maryland Public Service Commission, a multi-year conversion process in Ocean Pines will yield only modest cost savings for Sandpiper customers in Ocean Pines and elsewhere in the county in the near term. “I’m not sure most people will notice much of a difference,” he said. “It’s better that we get the contract right than get it done fast,” he added. Just voted back onto the board after a one-year voluntary lay-off as a director, the newly elected president of the OPA said he’s been spending some time tryq

By TOM STAUSS Publisher ith the Ocean Pines Association and Sandpiper Energy apparently at an impasse over a new franchise agreement allowing the company to continue providing propane and natural gas services to Ocean Pines through its underground pipeline system, it’s not at all clear when the long-anticipated roll-out of natural gas conversions will begin in Ocean Pines. With conversions already having taken place in Berlin and the nearby Glen

OCEAN PINES

company, Eastern Shore Gas Co., an easement to bury gas lines in Ocean Pines on rights-of-way owned by the OPA, giving the company exclusivity with respect to propane, and eventually natural gas, pipeline delivery. The exclusivity rights did not prohibit competitors from delivering propane to buried or screened storage tanks. There was no franchise or easement fee involved in the agreement with Eastern Shore Gas. Clarke, a critic of Sandpiper’s stance on the franchise and franchise fee issue, told the Progress recently that he believes Sandpiper’s lawyers are doing everything possible to avoid the imposition of a franchise fee on the company. Any such fee would probably be passed on to customers in the same way that the Mediacom franchise fee is, as a separate line item that appears on monthly bills. Stevens said he’s still giving the issue of a franchise fee some thought, not sure whether he will ultimately embrace it or decide it’s not an issue that the OPA should insist on in a final contract. “I need some time to consider that,” he said. Clarke has been advocating for a franchise fee for some time behind the scenes. Clarke said the OPA board should be looking out after the interests of all OPA property owners, roughly a third of whom don’t buy propane from Sandpiper or some other supplier and who

nonetheless have a de facto ownership share in easements conveyed to the energy company in the original agreement. Clarke said these easements are valuable and that imposing a franchise fee on Sandpiper is one way to extract that value for the benefit of all property owners. Clarke said a franchise fee would give the OPA another revenue stream, which Stevens agreed probably could be put to good use, such as paying for costs associated with converting OPA appliances to natural gas. Stevens said he has learned that Sandpiper wants to tighten language in a new agreement with the OPA so that it grants the company exclusive rights to provide propane and natural gas in Ocean Pines, consistent with the company’s interpretation of a countywide natural gas agreement negotiated with Worcester County several years ago. Stevens said he’s not sure, based on his initial reading of competing versions of the agreement, whether the exclusivity is written in a way that could prohibit other companies from offering propane or natural gas products in Ocean Pines, via pipelines and or through other means, such as delivery to screened or buried tanks. He said his initial reaction after reading Sandpiper’s marked up version of the contract is that the issue of exclusivity will need to be clarified in order to be acceptable to him. Earlier this year, Terry, then the OPA president, said that the OPA would be seeking an end to the “exclusive” right of Sandpiper Energy, as successor to the former Eastern Shore Gas Co., to provide propane and natural gas to Ocean Pines via underground pipelines. Individual homeowners in Ocean Pines have always had the right to obtain propane from Sandpiper competitors, and Terry said then that definitely would not change in a new contract, so long as storage tanks are either underground or screened from view. But Terry said the OPA negotiating team, in its initial contract draft submitted to Sandpiper, eliminated the exclusivity language with respect to pipelines. Stevens said exclusivity language was added back in a counter draft submitted by the energy company. “I don’t think we’ll agree to that,” he said. Stevens also said his initial perusal of contract documents suggests that it’s silent or not sufficiently precise in requiring Sandpiper to restore OPA-owned or privately-owned property to its original condition should it be disturbed during conversion activities. “This will need to be addressed” in a final contract document, he said. The new OPA president said the OPA has incurred considerable administrative and legal expense in the protracted negotiations over a new agreement. Last year, the board hired Salisbury attorney Steve Smethurst to represent the OPA in dealing with Sandpiper lawyers. Stevens said he thought it reasonable for the OPA to ask Sandpiper for com-

September - Early October 2014

Sandpiper contract

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From Page 23 ing to get up to speed on the issues which continue to divide the two sides. He’s had one-on-one discussion with members of the board’s task force on the contract, which includes Terry, who remains an OPA board member; OPA Vice-president Marty Clarke; former OPA Director Jeff Knepper, who lost his reelection bid to the board this past summer; and OPA General Manager Bob Thompson. Stevens said he has asked Knepper to stay on as a task force member. “He said he’d think about it,” Stevens said. Clarke said he understands that Knepper has declined the invitation to continue his participation. In his early research into the state of negotiations, Stevens said he has been able to identify a number of issues which separate the sides, including a previously undisclosed dispute over whether the old contract is effectively a franchise agreement and a related issue over whether the OPA can then charge Sandpiper a franchise fee as part of a new agreement. Clarke is an ardent advocate of a franchise fee, and he recently said he believes he will be able to persuade a majority of directors to insist it is part of a final agreement. The original agreement that dates back to the 1990s did not specifically use the term franchise. It essentially granted a predecessor

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September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

From Page 24 pensation to cover OPA costs in negotiating a new agreement. Previously, Terry said the draft of the new agreement calls for a 20-year term in addition to the non-exclusivity provision. He said the OPA is seeking details on how Sandpiper intends to transition out of propane to natural gas in Ocean

Pines, a roll-out that he said could begin as early as this fall. “We’ll probably agree to that (the 20year term),” Terry said. Back in June, Terry signaled that the OPA was no longer seeking a separate rate structure for propane and natural gas customers in Ocean Pines, concluding that Ocean Pines is covered by a so-called “blended” rate structure for Worcester County approved last year by the Maryland Public Service Commis-

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sion. “It (a separate Ocean Pines rate structure) is not part of the negotiations,” Terry said. “We’re not fighting that battle” any longer, adding that when Sandpiper files another rate request with the PSC, the OPA could decide to revisit the issue on behalf of Sandpiper customers. Terry said in June that the OPA is still “talking about” the possibility of free or lower cost natural gas for the Sports Core indoor swimming pool with Sandpiper. But Clarke, a member of the three-member board negotiating team, said then he was unaware of such discussions and that the draft agreement submitted to Sandpiper from the OPA did not include it. The existing contract has now been temporarily extended five times, the latest a “rolling extension” formally ratified by the board in a meeting Sept. 3. Previous extensions this year were approved in executive session June 4, for three months, and in mid-April, for roughly a month and a half. The board of directors in late June of last year voted to reaffirm the temporary extension of ESG’s contract that governs the delivery of propane and natural gas in Ocean Pines by six months. That initial extension contract expired Nov. 13. A second temporary extension added another five and a half months to that. It expired in mid-April. A third tem-

porary extension lasted until around June 1. The fourth temporary extension lasted until Sept. 1. Chesapeake Energy Co. acquired assets of the former Eastern Shore Gas Co., in late May of last year. Following the sale, a new Chesapeake subsidiary, Sandpiper Energy, emerged to manage ESG’s former Worcester County assets, including gas lines in Ocean Pines. During discussion of the Sandpiper contract at General Manager Bob Thompson’s town meeting in October of last year, a number of details of what the OPA hopes to obtain in negotiations emerged. Thompson told property owners who assembled for the town meeting that one objective the OPA hopes to achieve is a commitment by Sandpiper to have a full-time company employee on staff in Ocean Pines to handle issues with the natural gas conversion, once it begins in earnest. It’s just that no one really knows when that will happen. “We don’t know their conversion plans,” Terry said back in April, and the same is true today. Under the blended rate structure approved for Worcester County by the Maryland Public Service Commission, no community in the county benefits from an earlier roll-out schedule in the form of lower rates. That, at least, is the common explanation given for the

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OCEAN PINES Sandpiper contract

26 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September - Early October 2014

Sandpiper contract From Page 25 blended rate structure. Smethurst, the lawyer hired by the OPA to represent its interests in dealing with Sandpiper lawyers, had been asked to research whether, despite the PSC’s approval of a rate structure for Worcester County earlier this year, it might be possible for the OPA to negotiate a rate structure for its residents that is lower than that approved by the PSC.

OCEAN PINES

Clarke has said that he believes that the PSC approved rates represent a ceiling, and that Sandpiper could be persuaded to offer Ocean Pines residents lower rates. Terry indicated earlier in the year that lower rates are not likely to result from the current negotiations, but Clarke said then he was not ready to concede on that point. More recently, Clarke said he still believes a new contract should contain lower rates than that approved by the PSC.

Tennis bash

Ocean Pines Platform Tennis players celebrated the Labor Day weekend with a bash. Almost sixty people gathered at the courts for play, music, games and a variety of food until nightfall. An inter-club tournament is planned for Sept. 13. The group will be hosting its first ever regional tournament on Oct. 11. Players from the area of New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland have been extended an invitation. Ocean Pines residents are welcome to watch this competition and root for their teams. For anyone interested in learning how to play platform tennis can call Mike Petito at 410-208-0654 or email oppaddle@hotmail. com. The instructors will get anyone started with a free lesson. Balls and racquets will be supplied and protective eye wear is recommended. The platform tennis courts are located at the Manklin Meadows Racquet Complex located in Ocean Pines on Manklin Creek Road.

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OCEAN PINES

September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Yacht Club

From Page 1 July “dashboard” of Yacht Club construction activity, published below, subtracts this amount from the total Harkins contract cost from an earlier version of the dashboard, published in March. “That’s just what we’ve identified so far, but I can guarantee you that we will be identifying more than that,” Moroney said. “The $49,000 is just a floor of what we will be seeking in charge-backs to Harkins.” According to the dashboard, a large chunk of the $49,000 reflects work performed by the OPA Public Works Department, including about $20,000 in paver, stormwater, building and grading work. Another $10,000 charge-back is $10,000 in parking lot paving done by Goody Hill, another local contractor. Moroney said the extent of the chargebacks the OPA will be asking of Harkins will become clearer in the next iteration of the dashboard, which will include an updated number for change order seven. Meanwhile, Moroney has cleared up some confusion regarding the total cost of the Yacht Club as shown in the July

The $49,000 (already shown in change order #7) is just a floor of what we will be seeking in charge-backs to Harkins.”

Ted Moroney, implementation team member dashboard. It seemed to show two different numbers for “total other costs” that exceed the $4 million already obligated to the contractor in the base contract and change orders. Ocean Pines Association director and vice-president Marty Clarke said he’s been frustrated that he has been unable to obtain an updated dashboard since the one dated July 20 and posted on the OPA Web site for some time. He also said he found the July dashboard difficult to understand, a criticism he has leveled against previous dashboards that have been made

available by OPA General Manager Bob Thompson in various times during the construction process. Moroney conceded that the July dashboard could have been clearer. The dashboard indicates that the value of the Harkins currently is $4,034,474, including change orders, notably number seven, which backs out $49,069 in costs in the base contract but reflecting certain tasks handled by OPA Public Works and others. Section IV of the dashboard indicated $820,652.80 in total “other” costs. Added together, the result is $4,855,126.80. This compares to the total approved

SHAMROCK REALTY

The July Yacht Club dashboard showing current estimated and actual construction costs of the new amenity.

project value of $4,770,297 shown elsewhere in the dashboard, including a $186,095 contingency. Moroney said he could understand why someone trying to decipher the dashboard could have concluded that the Yacht Club has produced a cost overrun of $84,829.80, the difference between $4,855,126.80 and $4,770,297. But he pointed out that the summary in the dashboard, Section IV, shows $729,508.40 in remaining other costs (actual/estimated), reflecting costs included in change orders to Harkins. That is the correct number, Moroney said. He said the list of Section IV “other costs” includes about $91,000 in items that are part of the current $4 million owed the contractor. One of those items is the kitchen’s ancel/hood listed at $81,000 that was covered in change order five. It’s the sixth item listed in Section IV. “By trying to be transparent and include as much detail as possible, we ended up duplicating some of the items that were already dealt with in the approved change orders,” he said. “We’ll definitely clean that up in the next” version of the dashboard .

28 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

September - Early October 2014

Audit report contains a few golden nuggets of hidden information

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items that one might think would add to a deficit actually work the other way, and vice versa. For instance, depreciation expense of $1,654,738 is shown here as a positive number, as is a principal payment on the Sports Core loan of $55,107. Similarly, a current year asset addition (it’s not described) of $36,081 is shown as a negative number, as is a $220,000 transfer of casino funds to the roads reserve. When all those negative and positive numbers are added together, the result is $1,343,613, a mere $14,746 more than the actual deficit of $1,328,867 before operating transfers and other changes in reserve fund balances are thrown into the mix. Confused? It gets better. Then Exhibit B helpfully adds back $447,409, described as a transfer of funds for the Ocean Pines operating deficit, of which, according to some OPA officials, there’s only been one in the last five fiscal years. OPA has been collecting funds from property owners for a number of years to wipe out deficits that occurred in the woebegone years of 2007 through 2009 or maybe that was 2006 through 2008 (does it really matter?). Since this $447,409 is described in Exhibit B as a non-recurring item – to the layman, that means a one-time event – presumably that means that property owners will no longer have to hear about, and pay for, deficits that occurred back in the dark ages. Even so, when that $447,409 is added to the aforementioned $14,747, the new, and presumably, authoritative excess of revenues over expenses for the year is … wait for it ... $462,155. In one of the notes that comprise the audit report, the condition of OPA’s accounts receivable more than 90 days old – presumably the amount owed the

By TOM STAUSS Publisher ew Ocean Pines property owners attended the annual meeting of the Ocean Pines Association in early August to hear former OPA Assistant Treasurer Pete Gomsak wax eloquent on the state of OPA finances, or to listen as a representative of the OPA’s longtime auditing firm, TMG, of Salisbury, informed the assembled few that it used standard accounting principles in evaluating the accuracy of the numbers provided to it by the OPA. Fewer still have bothered to check the 2013-14 audit report posted through various layers of murkiness on the OPA Web site. Assuming that the report can be found on a Web site that seems as clunky and as user-unfriendly as it ever was, before it was redesigned to look prettier and more accessible, property owners can discover for themselves some golden nuggets of information on the state of OPA finances that heretofore have gone unrevealed. (Helpful hint: Use the Web site’s search feature, if you know what that is. Type in audit report and the latest report for the 2014 displays itself.) Some may recall that $14,746 is the declared operating surplus for the year that ended April 30 of this year. According to Exhibit B of the audit report, however, before operating transfers and other changes in fund balances (which can cause eyes to glaze over) the OPA actually recorded a $1,328,867 deficit for the year. That’s based on revenues of $10,333,083 and expenses of $11,661,950. Didn’t know that now, did you? Exhibit B then helpfully displays a series of transactions that wiped out that deficit and created that slight surplus. In the odd way the accounting profession sometimes displays numbers,

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From Page 28 OPA in delinquent lot assessments and accrued interest and related expenses – is detailed. That number increased from $885,000 on April 30 of 2013 to $1,108,000 one year later, a rather significant increase that no amount of spin can explain away. The auditors didn’t try. They just presented the numbers. In the same note, the auditors said the delinquent member assessments increased from $621,000 to $729,000. Perhaps these are the new delinquencies that occurred in the fiscal year that ended on April 30, 2014; the note isn’t clear on that point. This particular note leaves the reader confused as to relationship of the first set of numbers presented to the second set. The larger point, however, is not lost in translation: The OPA receivables situation is worsening, not improving. The audit report in another note recorded the significant fact that the OPA is now virtually debt-free, except for money that it owes itself. The auditors make no attempt to explain why the OPA has seen fit to borrow from itself, considering that the OPA is flush with cash and short term financial instruments (as the latest balance sheet makes abundantly clear).

September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS The good news, though, is that Sports Core enclosure loan from SunTrust bank has been retired. The old loan that carried an interest rate of 7.19 percent has been replaced with an in-house loan from reserves (which reserve is not specified) that carries an interest rate of 1 percent. There are obviously some savings from that bit of financial wizardry, but paying off the loan once and for all from reserves might be the simpler thing to do. Schedule 1 shows how much various amenity departments really cost OPA property owners, depreciation included. Depreciation is the poorly understood mechanism by which the OPA extracts dollars from property owners to pay for future capital expenditures, presumably to repair and replace aging assets. It’s a large number. A summary distributed during the annual meeting indicates that, last year, $189 in depreciation expense out of every annual $915 assessment went into the OPA’s major maintenance replacement reserve. That depreciation expense, which is never shown in any of the monthly financial reports prepared by OPA Controller Art Carmine, does show up in the audit report’s departmental summaries and, helpfully, in Schedule 1. When depreciation is included, golf and Tern Grille operations lost $761,391 last year, a real improvement over Fiscal

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Year 2013, when the loss was $957,293. Aquatics lost $387,962, the Yacht Club dropped $245,262, and tennis lost $52,653, all with depreciation included. On the positive side, some amenity departments produced surpluses for the OPA even with depreciation included. Beach Club parking generated a $374,874 surplus, proving conclusively it remains OPA’s most lucrative cash cow. Marina operations were $65,995 to the good, while the Beach Club food and beverage operation had a $43,525 surplus. While the amenity departments traditionally receive most of the attention in Ocean Pines, departments funded entirely or mostly out of lot assessment are also summarized in Schedule 1. The Ocean Pines Public Works Department, together with general maintenance, cost the OPA more than $2 million last year -- $1,593,664 attributed to Public Works and $495,863 attributed to general maintenance. Makes one wonder: Is there a less expensive way for the OPA to provide

for all that maintenance? Privatization, anyone? The Ocean Pines Police Department cost the OPA $1,137,655 to run, followed by Parks and Recreation at $606,911, the finance department at $472,027, and fire and emergency medical services at $360,130. The Fire and EMS number was $577,332 a year earlier, before the Pines’ EMS began billing insurance companies for the cost of ambulance runs. Schedule 1 lists other assessment-funded departments and their costs: General Manager’s office, $258,792; public relations and marketing, $233,964; and Compliance, Permits and Inspections, $74,821. According to Schedules 2 and 3, the OPA doesn’t seem to be on a spending binge. Schedule 2 indicates that total revenues dropped to $14,113,276 in 2014 from $14,447,810 in 2013. Schedule 3 indicates that total expenditures dropped to $12,096,127 in 2014 from $13,027,646 in 2013.

OPA FINANCES

Helped by solid Yacht Club numbers, July operations exceed budget target By TOM STAUSS Publisher y almost any measure, July was a solid month for the Ocean Pines Association, notable for an operating surplus at the new Yacht Club in the amount of $67,319 and golf and golf-related food and beverage operations that missed their budget target by a scant $754. Controller Art Carmine’s financial report for the month ending July 30 showed a positive operating fund variance of $82,544, based on revenues that were over budget by $79,980 and total expenses that were under budget by $2,564. Year-to-date, the results are modestly positive, with an operating surplus of $12,756, on revenues that are over budget by $14,757, expenses under budget by $2,556, and new capital expenditures

(funded directly out of this year’s assessments rather than allocated reserves) over budget by $4,475. All amenity departments with the exception of the three racquet sports clubs were in the black for the month, led by the Yacht Club’s surplus of $67,319, the Beach Club restaurant surplus of $56,358, and Aquatics’ $23,430 surplus. Golf operations were in the black in the amount of $13,898, followed by marina operations with an $8,687 surplus and Beach Club parking permit’s $8,285 surplus. The racquet sport losses were modest. Regular tennis lost $1,898, platform tennis lost $1,776 and pickleball lost $355. Relative to budget, the Yacht Club, marina operations and Beach Club food and beverage produced positive varianc-

OCEAN PINES Audit report

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30 Ocean Pines PROGRESS OPA finances

OCEAN PINES

September - Early October 2014 OPA Net Financial Operations through July 31, 2014

From Page 29 es. The Yacht Club led the pack with a $62,723 positive variance, followed by marinas’ $3,631 and the Beach Club’s $2,910. Other amenity departments produced negative variances to budget, but all in modest amounts. Aquatics missed its budget by $4,065, followed by tennis (-$1,406), golf (-$754), pickleball (-$188), Beach Club parking (-$187) and platform tennis (-$135). Year-to-date, for the first quarter of the 2014-15 fiscal year, all association amenity departments are in the black, while six of them are behind budget and three are performing better than budget. Beach Club parking, a perennial cash cow, is in the black by $380,223, followed by marinas ($148,084), aquatics ($98,800), Beach Club restaurant ($67,059), golf ($57,180), tennis ($24,284), Yacht Club ($23,922), platform tennis ($6,762), and pickleball ($5,568). Relative to budget for the first quarter, golf operations lead all the amenities with the largest negative variance to budget, with a negative $66,607, followed by Aquatics’ negative variance of $17,718, tennis’ negative $7,230, and marinas’ negative variance of $5,910. Platform tennis through three months

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From Page 30 has a $2,100 negative variance and pickleball is behind its budget by $1,406. Three amenity departments have positive variances to budget – the Yacht Club ($16,346), Beach Club parking ($1,220), and Beach Club restaurant ($1,220). The new Yacht Club is far and away July’s most notable success story, highlighted by gross revenues of $380,766 and net revenues of $279,522, both of which exceeded budget by $65,656 and $74,440, respectively. For the month, this amenity’s management seemed to be doing a better job than earlier in controlling labor expense, beating its budget by $4,520. That was somewhat offset by service and supply costs that exceeded budget by $13,925 and utility expense that missed budget by $2,298. Because of a cumulative deficit of $43,397 for the first two months of the fiscal year, July’s robust numbers for the Yacht Club means that the amenity is ahead of budget by only $16,346, with a year-to-date actual surplus of $23,922. Depending on how well August does – those numbers are due out in mid-September – the Yacht Club could be heading into the colder months with only a relatively modest surplus cushion. That could be dissipated relatively quickly unless management acts to reduce days and hours of operation in the fall months. The cumulative numbers for golf are not particularly positive for the three months of the fiscal year. While the July golf surplus was $13,898, missing its budget by a scant $754, for the first quarter the surplus is only $57,180. That’s $66,607 behind budget for the year. Still, a year ago, golf was in the red by $10,069, which means the turn-around in golf year-over-year for the first quarter is roughly $67,000. On the revenue side, golf actual revenues were remarkably close to budget in July, missing the target by a mere $584. Greens fees were off budget by $12,047, offset almost dollar for dollar by cart fees that exceeded budget by $12,615. Cumulatively, for the fiscal year’s first quarter, the golf budget’s main revenue drivers have all fallen behind budget, even while showing solid growth over the same time last year. Greens fees, the user fees paid by non-members to play the course, are $192,767 through July, compared to the budgeted $246,224 surplus. A year ago, the golf course had generated only $156,237 in greens fees, so by that measure golf operations are improving. The same holds for cart fees, which generated $180,854 in revenue against its budget of $192,981. A year ago, cart fees had generated only $142,090 in revenue through July 30. Golf membership for the year so far has produced less than optimum results, missing its budget for the quar-

September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS ter by $2,677. Cumulative membership dues through July were collected in the amount of $44,534, but a year ago that number was $53,186, indicating that golf membership erosion is continuing. Aquatics’ financial performance is similar to golf ’s, showing a healthy improvement over 2013 year-over-year. While aquatics membership isn’t doing as well as hoped – member dues revenue of $194,737 is $31,263 behind budget through the end of July – it’s doing much better than last year, when the first quarter had produced only $178,222 in member revenue. Cash fees and swim lessons are strong pluses in aquatics’ performance so far this year. Cash fees of $85,875 through July 30 were $12,785 ahead of budget and ahead of last year’s first quarter numbers by roughly the same amount. Swim class revenue of $43,683 in the first quarter beat budget by slightly more than $11,000. Last year through July, swim classes had generated slightly less than $30,000 for the aquatics department. Status of reserves – The reserve summary released as part of the July financial report shows that the OPA’s allocated reserve balance dropped in the month to $5,519,149, compared to $5,786,683 in June and $6,003,165 in May. The annual contribution from assessments traditionally is recorded in May, the first month of the fiscal year. [See separate story for details] Status of balance sheet – According to the July 30 OPA balance sheet, the OPA has total assets of $33.361 million matched by total liabilities of $1.732 million and owner equity of $31.63 million. The balance sheet indicates the OPA is flush with operating cash ($1,777,944) and short-term investments ($6,044,911).

OPA reserves take a hit to $5.519 million in July Waterfront reserve has higher than normal balance of $1.5 million By TOM STAUSS Publisher he reserve summary released as part of the July financial report shows that the Ocean Pines Association’s allocated reserve balance dropped in July to $5,519,149, down from June’s $5,786,683 balance and May’s $6,003,165 balance. The May reserve summary reflects the annual contribution from assessments that traditionally is recorded in the first month of the fiscal year. Most of the reduction reflected in the

July report is attributable to activity in the major maintenance and replacement reserve, which as of May 31 had a balance of $4,754,531, reflecting the full annual transfer from lot assessments into this fund. By the end of July, the balance in this reserve had declined to $4,296,457, down from June’s $4,554,081 balance, reflecting capital spending so far this fiscal year of $769,292. All of the other OPA reserve funds – bulkheads, future projects, road, golf drainage, and operating recovery -were unchanged or only insignificantly changed from June. The bulkheads and waterways reserve balance stood at $1,494,308, the q

OCEAN PINES OPA finances

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32 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

September - Early October 2014

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is very high by historic standards. The $1,494,308 balance compares to roughly $800,000 or so in annual bulkhead replacement costs paid out of this reserve. Controller Art Carmine told members of the OPA’s Budget and Finance Com-

From Page 31 future projects reserve had a deficit of $60,180, the roads reserve totaled $293,858, the golf drainage reserve had a deficit of $640,590 and the operating recovery reserve had a surplus of $135,296. The operating recovery reserve had been zeroed out last year, on the theory that previous year deficits had been sufficiently offset by subsequent surpluses, but the OPA Board of Directors earlier this year, perhaps without realizing it, authorized $135,152 from the current year’s assessment to be allocated to this previously zeroed out reserve. The purpose of resurrecting this fund and adding money to it purportedly involves the possibility that funds will be needed to address certain tax liability issues in future years. Last year, according to audited financial reports, the OPA produced a $14,000 operating surplus. This year, the OPA is budgeted to break even. Had the directors scrapped the operating recovery reserve after it had been zeroed out, rather than adding $135,152 to it this year, the OPA assessment could have been reduced by about $16 or more than the $5 decrease that actually occurred. The bulkhead and waterways reserve also appears to contain a balance that

OCEAN PINES

September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

First quarter’s financial report sparse on meaningful details

t’s September already, and it would appear that the first quarter’s financial summary, covering the months of May, June and July, is a bit late. Last year’s board advised General Manager Bob Thompson that it wanted a detailed summary of OPA finances delivered in a timely fashion after each quarter was complete, along with a forecast on how well the OPA would be doing budget-wise for the remainder of the fiscal year. For the most part, Thompson complied with the board’s request, sometimes a little late, usually with an excuse that seemed to pass muster with his overseers. He would present the summary in a single page in a PowerPoint presentation, with departmental breakdowns included; the report was labeled “By the Numbers,” and it generally seemed to satisfy directors who had requested it. It was always possible to glean from the report a sense on how well golf and Yacht Club operations were faring at the time, for instance. For the first quarter of Fiscal 201415, however, there has been no “By the Numbers” summary presented to the board. The newly elected board, even more than the old one, seems intent on receiving more, not less, from Thompson

in the area of financial reporting. The directors want it submitted in a timely, detailed fashion, and a majority of them seem to want it posted on the OPA Web site almost as soon as it’s given to the directors. As of the first week of September, there was no “By the Numbers” report for the first quarter (May through July) on the OPA Web site. What appears is a brief summary of revenues and operating expenses, with amenities grouped under a line item. Anyone wanting to know how the Yacht Club fared in those first three months of operation would be out of luck. (In fact, monthly financials currently posted on the OPA Web site indicate that the Yacht Club is roughly $17,000 in the black through the first three months of the fiscal year.) August might have been the month when Thompson would present his By the Numbers chart for the first quarter, but the board generally does not meet except for organizational purposes after the annual meeting early in the month and announcement of winners in the annual OPA election. A special meeting of the board occurred on Sept. 3, when the directors considered a proposal by newly elected OPA President Dave Stevens for revamped procedures to govern interac-

SUMMARY FINANCIAL REPORT THREE MONTHS ENDED 7/31/2014 OPERATING ACCOUNT SUMMARY UNAUDITED BUDGET VARIANCE ACTUAL (AMOUNTS IN THOUSANDS)

REVENUES Assessments Grants (County/State) Amenities Net Revenue Recreation & Parks Other fees and Income

$8,391 11 2,272 194 248

$8,387 10 2,291 184 229

$4 1 (19) 10 19

Total Revenues

11,116

11,101

Less transfers to reserve accounts

(3,968)

7,148

7,133

Administration & Management Amenities Recreation & Parks Police Fire/Ambulance Public Works / CPI General Maintenance

424 1,460 257 400 71 316 125

455 1,402 269 390 71 344 124

(31) 58 (12) 10 0 (28) 1

Total Operating Expenses

3,053

3,055

(2)

Net Operating Revenues OPERATING EXPENSES

EXCESS OF REVENUES OVER EXPENSES

4,095

TRANSFERS (New Capital, Loan Principal, etc.)

4,078 (77)

(81)

NET

$4,014

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September - Early October 2014

By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer o one disputes that major repairs are needed at both the Swim and Racquet Club and Mumford’s Landing swimming pools before next summer, but the Ocean Pines Association’s general manager and Aquatics Advisory Committee have slightly differing opinions about just when the work should begin. To resolve the matter, the Board of Directors instructed Bob Thompson to get the opinion of pool contractors on the issue and report back his findings at the board’s next meeting in late September. Ginny Reister, Aquatics Advisory Committee chairman, presented an update on problems at three OPA pools during a Sept. 3 board special meeting. Both the Swim and Racquet Club and Mumford’s Landing pools have issues with spalling, the peeling off of large chunks of pool surface. The committee’s recommended solution is a complete abrasion of existing surfaces down to the cement base, followed by an application of a new bond coat and a Diamond-Brite finish coat. The Mumford’s pool also has some severe cracks that were patched this past spring in a temporary fix. The Sports Core pool has problems, too. It’s an old pool, in many areas with a surface already worn down to the concrete base, some malfunctioning skimmers, and unlevel concrete decking. Reister mentioned the Sports Core pool in the context of needing about a

Board considers timing of Swim and Racquet, Mumford’s pool repairs Aquatics committee, Thompson at odds over when work should begin month’s time in August and September next year to redo the decking and resurface the pool with a new bond coat and Diamond-Brite finish coat. But the committee’s priority is clearly the Mumford’s and Swim and Racquet Club pools, which the committee has recommended should be combined into a single project covered by one request for proposals (RFP) that area pool companies could bid on. Afraid that all the work will not be in time to have the pools open by Memorial Day weekend 2015 if work on pools doesn’t start until next spring, advisory committee members want to get started this fall. At the very least, they hope that an RFP will be sent out this fall. If time allows, they have suggested that full abrasion of the pools could occur this fall with the resurfacing to occur in the spring, well before the pools are scheduled to reopen Memorial Day weekend. They suggested that fall is a better time for such work to occur because pool companies are busier in the spring and

presumably will charge more for their services than they might in the fall. The committee said the pool surfaces could be stripped and prepped this year and then in the spring all the contractors will need to do is apply the bond coat and a new Diamond Brite surface. Thompson, however, said it may be better to wait until the spring to do all of the work. He said it may not be a good idea to remove the existing plaster surface in the fall while delaying the resurfacing until the spring. He also wasn’t sure if the pools could or should be partially filled for the offseason if the surface is stripped. “We’re in agreement that the work needs to be done. Our timing is a little bit different,” he said. “Our goal is to start in the spring.” He justified putting off the work because the OPA hasn’t budgeted for a cover for that pool, yet the board made the decision that as pools are resurfaced they should be covered. Also he said splitting the work between winter and spring may have an impact on the contractor’s willingness to warranty the job.

“They have to strip the coating off the pool down to the base or the shell of the pool,” he said. “And then start over with redoing it.” Thomson said his intent was to put out a request for proposals this winter and have the work on the pools start as early as March. That will allow plenty of time to complete the projects before the summer season, he said, adding that he preferred to have the pools open right after they are refinished so staff can monitor them during the summer months. Advisory Committee Member John Wetzelberger said the committee has a different opinion. The committee would like the work to start before the winter months because it is concerned that the pools will not be open in time next year. He said the grinding down of the plaster to the shell can be completed this winter and then the contractor can attach the bonding and the plaster in the spring. That will negate the need for the pool covers until next fall when the pools are closed for the year, he said. “Then we have more confidence that the pools will be ready by Memorial Day,” Wetzelberger said. “Where if we wait and start the whole project in the spring, I’m not sure they’ll be ready.” Thompson said he doesn’t want to rush to do the projects and not have them done properly. “There’s no intent to delay the project,” he said, adding, “expediency does not mean we do it right.”

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OCEAN PINES Pool repairs From Page 34 Reister said there is a large crack in the surface of the Swim and Racquet Club pool and “lots of broken chips of plaster” near the lifeguard stand at the pool entry point. Another crack is forming at the deep end of the pool. “We all know that Swim and Racquet’s plaster job that was performed in 2010 was not the best and we have had problems with it every year. And every year we have repaired it and it has not made it through the season,” Reister told the board. Plans were to repair the Mumford’s Landing pool this past spring, but when contractors started the job they realized the problems were much more extensive than originally anticipated so the work was postponed. The advisory committee subsequently suggested combining the two pool projects in order to get better pricing from contractors on both jobs. OPA President Dave Stevens said he doesn’t know anything about pools but that common sense dictates that the more work that can be done early the less risk of something happening that would prevent the pools from being open on time in the spring. “Nobody wants us with Memorial Day coming and not a pool open,” Director Sharyn O’Hare, Aquatics Advisory Committee liaison, said. “I think we’re all pretty much saying the same thing.” O’Hare made a motion to direct the general manager to develop an RFP for the Swim and Racquet Club and Mumford Landing pool project, but it was voted down as premature. Some directors felt it was unnecessary because Thompson is going to do that anyway. Instead, they told Thompson to gather information from contractors relative to whether or not the work could be started in the fall with removal of the existing surfaces and completed in the spring. He is to report that information to the board at its Sept. 27 regular meeting, when O’Hare’s motion could be reintroduced in some form. Reister agreed that pool contractors should be asked whether starting the work in the fall and finishing it in the spring would cause any unforeseen problems. At the Sports Core pool, there are now four holes in the epoxy decking surface along the window wall where water collects, Reister said. The epoxy was used to try to address problems with cement work in that same area. But Reister said the surface was never properly leveled or pitched to drain. She said the Sports Core pool surface is the same that has been on the amenity since before it was covered in 2007. “The plaster in the Sports Core is in very good condition considering that it is visibly wearing away,” she said, adding that the bond coat is exposed as is the base concrete in some places. The committee is still working on its recommendations for that pool, with decisions still to be made on the preferred decking material.

September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Terry gives final report as outgoing OPA president Touts modest $20 subsidy of OPA amenities through lot assessment By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer utgoing Association President Tom Terry told the assembled property owners at the Aug. 9 annual meeting that life is good in Ocean Pines, but it is not without challenges for the future. In a ten-minute overview, Terry summarized the state of the OPA as he sees it after four years leading the OPA as president. “We clearly are on strong financial ground,” he said, adding that the OPA has reduced a $500,000 deficit when the golf course was under reconstruction to a $100,000 deficit during a five-year period. He said the capital expenditure program is working, the OPA has been on budget for four of the last five years, the board has chipped away at inherited deficits prior to that time, and last year the amenities only cost property owners $20 out of their $900-plus annual assessment. Terry said that like the OPA, businesses assemble an annual budget that forecasts how much money they will win or lose. But, he said, “At the end of the year, what really counts is where did you end up.” All of the amenities combined cost the association’s 8,000-plus property owners a total of about $167,000, or $20 per property last year, according to Terry. He said that figure includes supporting the golf course, the Yacht Club and all of the other amenities, some of which lose money while others are net revenue generators. Regarding those annual lot assessments, Terry said the data shows that the OPA has increased the total assessments an average of 3.3 percent per year during the last seven years. He said 81 percent of that increase was to fund capital needs “which we desperately needed.” The operational portion of the assessment increase generated a total of $34 per property over seven years, he said, which equates to about $5 per year more that each property owner is paying to operate the OPA exclusive of capital expenditures. As a result they receive more support services, he said, citing the new drainage team, an updated Web site and activities like movie nights. In the area of amenities, he said it costs property owners about $2 a month to have all of the amenities available. They still have to purchase additional memberships or pay fees in order to use most of them, however. “This is what makes Ocean Pines different from simply living on a street somewhere in Worcester County,” Terry said. “We have all of these amenities available.” Still, he said, it is not “all is happy and wonderful in Ocean Pines. We do

have challenges.” Topping the list of problem areas is the golf course and how to best operate it. “We still have to make a decision on what will happen there regarding course management,” he said, adding that golf rounds are up and things are going better at the course, but the board is considering its options for retaining a new firm to manage the amenity. While a work team has been created to immediately tackle long neglected drainage issues in the community, the OPA still needs to develop an overall drainage plan, Terry said. “This is a big

challenge but it is certainly not being ignored.” Another priority and major challenge for the OPA is finding funds for roads maintenance since pass-through funding from the state has been significantly reduced. The OPA had traditionally used gas tax revenue that was given back to Worcester County and then passed along to Ocean Pines for road work. With that resource reduced to less than $50,000 annually, the OPA has been using local impact money derived from the proceeds of the Ocean Downs Casino to fund its roads program.

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‘Hard and fat’ crabs are store’s specialty By Nathan Brunet Staff Writer BERLIN — Country Barn Seafood, co-owned by “Speedy” Voss, sells quality carryout seafood. Maryland Blue Crabs are Voss’ specialty, which he promises will be more “hot ‘n’ heavy” and “hard and fat” than the crabs served at more popular venues around town. The specific blue crab sold at Country Barn Seafood is bigger and sweeter than most crabs served at restaurants in the area, according to Voss, who got his nickname after being born within minutes of reaching the hospital. Not only is the quality of crabs notable, but also the process in sorting crabs for purchase. Voss measures the crabs individually and separates them into baskets by size and weight. Crabs deemed large enough are put in the regular pile to be sold by the bushel or dozen, while the smaller crabs are- sold at a discounted price. “I’m the last person I know of that does that,” said Voss, who claims no one has ever complained about the size or weight of his crabs that were purchased by the dozen. He admits some small crabs may be added to bushels accidentally because of the large quantity of crabs being processed, but it does not happen often. Surrounded by crabs since he was a little kid, Voss has been a major part of local seafood businesses since the early 1970s. He has either owned or managed a number of seafood

NATHAN BRUNET/BAYSIDE GAZETTE

"Speedy," Voss, owner of Country Barn Seafood, poses with one of his "hard and fat" Maryland Blue Crabs. Voss individually measures each crab and separates them into baskets by size and weight. According to the owner, he is the only seafood place in the area that still does so.

restaurants through his career, including Crab Alley, The Crab Bag, City Fish Co. and Supreme Seafood. After getting tired of the increasing population in Ocean City, Voss settled into the now 80-year-old barn in the late 1980s with Ken Jaworski, who is still a co-owner even though Voss performs all of the labor. In the mid-2000s, Country Barn Seafood was rented out and operated by different families at times, but it is now back to the man who started it all. “I retired five times and I’m still working,” said Voss, who is helped every day by his nephew, Marty, who began working at the restaurant in 1998 when he

was 13. Little neck clams, jumbo shrimp, scallops, fresh Maryland crabmeat, tuna and salmon accompany Voss’ crabs, as well as his crab spice that comes from a recipe that has been in circulation since 1946. Beer and wine is also available to take home. Country Barn Seafood is open daily each summer from noon until dusk. There is no set time of closure, as Voss chooses the closing time depending on how busy the market is that day. For more information, or to place an order, call 410-6415164.

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36 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

September - Early October 2014

Stevens heads off more sparring between Thompson, Collins By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer ou could almost hear the bell ring for the start of round 3 in the ongoing – and very public – verbal boxing match between two Ocean Pines Association officials during a Sept. 3 Board of Directors meeting, but the new OPA President, Dave Stevens, quickly intervened in the escalating conversation. Seemingly on the defensive yet again, OPA General Manager Bob Thompson bristled when Director Jack Collins indicated that a proposal regarding the posting of financial reports was an attempt to help out the general manager. As part of his plan for the conduct of board meetings during the next year, Stevens proposed that the general manager make quarterly financial presentations to the board and that he make the monthly financial reports available to both board members and all property owners and media at the same time, including their posting on the Web site. Thompson said he holds the financial reports for a few days after he provides them to board members before making them available to other interested parties. He said he does so as a courtesy to directors so they have an opportunity to review the financial data before property owners ask them questions about it. “I’ve never worked anywhere where the board has not been given information a little ahead of time,” Thompson said. But if the board does not want that courtesy, he said he will go ahead and post the financial documents on the OPA Web site and make them available to the membership at the same time that he does for the board. “The report’s the report no matter who gets it and when they get it,” he said of the monthly financial update, adding, “We can do it any way the board wants.” Other directors wanted to know Collins’ opinion on the proposal since he was recently elected as OPA treasurer. “I think that the important thing that we’re trying to accomplish is informing the membership as to what is happening in terms of the numbers, in terms of progress, in terms of the finances of the organization,” Collins said. He said he appreciates Thompson’s point that he’s trying to be courteous to board members in not releasing the information publicly until they see it and review it. “However, I also agree with David (Stevens) that it is in the best interest of most people within this community to put that information out to the public,” Collins said. The best way to do that is through the OPA’s Web site, he said. As for when to release the information publicly he deferred to Thompson and Stevens, saying just that it should be released in a timely fashion. That’s when Collins made a comment that seemed to confuse and irritate Thompson.

Directors tell general manager to post detailed monthly financial reports on-line one day after they’re released to board members “He’s probably trying to be convenient to you, Bob. He’s probably trying to not put pressure on you and the many jobs that you have,” Collins said of Stevens’ proposal for posting the monthly reports online. Collins’ language was eerily similar to words he used at previous meetings that produced sparks between the two. Thompson looked at Collins quizzically and responded, “I’m sorry I don’t understand.” “It doesn’t matter,” Collins then told the general manager. Thompson in turn said, “I wasn’t being rude” and repeated that he didn’t understand the point that Collins was trying to make. Collins said again of Stevens, “I think he’s trying to be accommodating to you, Bob.” That’s when Stevens piped up. “I’m actually not,” he said, quickly adding, “I’m not trying to be unaccommodating” either. In fact, posting detailed financial reporting on the OPA Web sites – later defined as the same ten-plus page financial report prepared for the board by OPA Controller Art Carmine – probably won’t add to Thompson’s work load all that much. It will be a task left to one of Thompson’s department heads, Public Relations Director Teresa Travatello, who maintains the OPA Web site. Carmine probably will have to convert a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet into an Adobe PDF (portable document file), which can be posted on-line, or some staffer will have to scan the documents by hand if Carmine can’t quite master the fine art of document conversion. Stevens effectively shut down that

part of the conversation with his borderline humorous response and returned to the original topic of when the OPA’s financial documents should be released to its members. Thompson and Collins have already gone toe-to-toe twice. In July, Thompson took on Collins during a discussion of master planning for the Manklin Meadows Recreation Complex.During the discussion Collins asked Thompson if he would allocate that project out to staff. That’s when Thompson called out Collins, saying “that’s a dumb question.” The general manager ultimately apologized to Collins for that comment. The previous month, the two got into a tiff about drainage issues during a board meeting. Collins said he felt like he was personally attacked by the general manager at the meeting during a discussion of drainage issues in the community. During the Sept. 3 meeting, directors ultimately agreed to a one-day delay between when staff provides board members with the monthly financial reports and when they are publicly released. Director Tom Terry wanted to know if the general manager would just be providing a written financial report to the board or if he would also make a presentation during board meetings. Stevens responded that quarterly presentations would occur at board meetings. In lieu of taking up time at the monthly meetings to review financials, Stevens said they should just be distributed to board members and be made available to property owners via the Web site and request at the association office. Stevens said he understands Thomp-

son’s justification for holding the public release for a day or two but doesn’t necessarily think it’s necessary. If a director is asked a question to which they don’t know the answer because they haven’t yet read the report, they simply need to say that to the property owner, he said. Director Marty Clarke supported distributing the information as soon as possible, saying he doesn’t remember ever being asked a question by a property owner that caught him unawares. Stevens responded, “That is because nobody has been able to access the financial reports.” Director Tom Terry, former OPA president, bristled at that comment. “That’s not correct. That’s not even close to being right.” Clarke then said Terry’s comment is not accurate, either. “That’s not true.” He said there were at least two meetings during the last year at which no financial reports were presented. Director Sharyn O’Hare said the reports were available though, even if they were not formally presented at board meetings. The board finally agreed to build in a one-day delay on the public release of the financial reports after board members have received their copies. “It just doesn’t make that much difference,” Stevens said, adding that the important thing is that the data is made available to the public. “Right now the numbers aren’t there (on the Web site), period.” In response to a reporter’s question, Clarke and Stevens said that Carmine’s complete monthly financial reports, with separate departmental breakdowns, a reserve summary and balance sheet, would be posted on-line, and not a single-sheet “by the numbers” summary that Thompson has sporadically prepared over the past year.

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September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

School system receives $1 million grant for students with disabilities By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer orcester County Public Schools have received a more than $1 million state grant to focus on increasing academic achievement for students with disabilities. The county is the only recipient of the competitive 2014 Bridges for Systems Change grant awarded by the Maryland State Department of Education. “The effort to secure this grant is a great testament to the internal leadership of Special Education and their work around strategic planning and the alignment to our vision for the academic success of all students,” Jerry Wilson, superintendent of schools, said. The grant seeks to improve outcomes for children up to age 21 through the use of evidence-based and innovative practices to enhance student learning, Rae Record, supervisor of special education for the school system, said. “The goal is to eliminate the existing gap between students with disabilities and their

non-disabled peers,” she said. The process of creating and implementing a framework of system change has already started and will serve as the state model. The efforts will be supported by MSDE’s Division of Programmatic Support and Technical Assistance. “This effort also reflects the drive of our school system to be leaders in innovation with excellence. We are immensely proud that a committee of educators sought this grant. Their commitment and hard-work will greatly benefit the children of Worcester County,” Wilson said. A grant-writing committee worked on every aspect of the grant application. The committee consisted of a variety of educators and stakeholders including parents, special education teachers, general education teachers, and administrators. The committee researched, gathered data, developed a budget, and focused on innovative practices that could improve services and outcomes for students with disabilities.

“When educators have an opportunity to affect system changes that will increase equity and success for all children, it enhances motivation,” said Wilson. “People become teachers to enable children to become the best they can be. This grant provides resources to change many lives.” During its Aug. 19 monthly meeting, the Worcester County Board of Education reviewed the results of the 2014 communications survey designed to solicit parental input on the methods of communications used by the schools. The primary objectives for the communications survey are to measure the quality of the school and school system communication sources in the area of interpersonal, electronic, multi-media, social media, and publications; identify the most effective communication sources for school and school system information; identify other communication sources which parents find or would find helpful; refine school and school system goals and strategies based on the survey’s sta-

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tistical analysis, written suggestions, and feasibility; and increase parental involvement in school activities and in school improvement efforts in order to enhance student achievement. Overall ratings for each survey category of school communications, school system communications, parent involvement, and school system website received high favorability ratings of 95 percent or above. The most favorable communication source, having the highest favorability rating of all survey items, is the student handbook and calendar at 99 percent. Based on the survey results, the school system set goals for 2014-2015 of continuing to strengthen social media and the school system website as key communication tools; encouraging digital participation with the online survey; offering the 2015 communications survey earlier in the school year to increase survey returns; and increasing opportunities for information to be delivered by text message.

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September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

By Dale Cathell

Reviewed by: Tom Stauss

cean Pines is home to a lot of retired people who made it big in the real world, however that might be defined. One such individual is retired Maryland Court of Appeals Judge Dale Cathell, who rose from humble and self-proclaimed “bad boy” origins in nearby Berlin to the state’s highest court, with quite a few stops, many not strictly legal, in between. Cathell has written of his experiences in a new book, Wading Through the Swamp: Memoirs of a Bad Boy, available on most online book retailers such as Amazon.com or through special order at area bookstores. As noted in the summary on the front flap of the book, the story moves from his troubled boyhood years in Berlin to black market years in North Africa and a time as an outlaw hunter and poacher, and then onto his experiences in the local sport fishing industry. Somehow he summoned the strength of character to put himself on a course that led to a successful legal and judicial career, 34 years at the time of writing, highlights of which are chronicled in this breezy narrative that bears no resemblance to a dry, tedious legal brief that might be expected. As much a commentary on evolving cultural mores as it is a memoir, the book also is somewhat of a murder mystery and even makes news, as it purports to solve a rather famous 1970s era case involving the death of Rosemary Moon McIntyre, a local young woman kidnapped and murdered on her way back home from Christmas shopping in Salisbury in late Decem-

ber, 1969. It’s a tale of political abuse and cover-up by a notorious Worcester County state’s attorney by the name of John Sanford, abetted by his equally notorious acid-tongued and gun-packing wife, Elizabeth, known for shooting out street lights and abetting her husband’s misdeeds. In his era, before finally suffering an ignominious

defeat at the polls and indicted on perjury charges, Sanford wielded considerable political and judicial power in Worcester County. By selectively prosecuting his enemies and dropping charges when it suited him, Sanford was, in Cathell’s estimation, the very personification of a corrupt and even evil public official. He even writes of a Sanford-inspired plot to hire a hit man to kill him and the late mayor Harry Kelley, with whom Cathell had worked closely for many years as city attorney, but with whom he later had a well-publicized and irreconcilable falling out. He details a confrontation in the courthouse in Snow Hill involving Sanford and Cathell’s wife, Charlotte, then an assistant clerk and now the county’s Register of Wills. Most of the principal players in this sordid tale other than the Cathells are long dead, which apparently is why he feels it’s OK to come forward with details of this case that only long-time county residents will recall. The case and Sanford’s and Elizabeth’s various misdeeds dominated headlines in local newspapers in the 1970s. Some of the players have relatives who live in the area. Kelley’s son-in-law, Jack Collins, is a member of the Ocean Pines Association’s board of directors. The local attorney who defeated Sanford at the polls was none other than Joseph E. Moore, currently the OPA’s general counsel, who has held that position since 1983, long after he decided not to seek reelection to the state’s attorney’s post after a single term in office. Cathell presents compelling evidence that the kidnapping and murder of McIntyre was committed by Leroy Tyler, a convicted murderer who, for reasons not exactly made clear other than that Elizabeth took a shine to him, had become the butler and gopher of the Sanfords, who lived in a stately home on Baltimore Av-

LIFESTYLES Wading Through the Swamp: Memoirs of a Bad Boy

40 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

LIFESTYLES

September - Early October 2014

Dale Cathell From Page 39 enue in Ocean City but also had a home in Berlin. It was there at the unoccupied Berlin home that Cathell believes Tyler held the kidnap victim, murdering her and dumping the body in a local stream. The investigation into the McIntyre murder was, according to Cathell, thoroughly corrupted. Compelling evidence identifying Tyler, in the hands of a state police investigating unit, apparently was countered by a letter from Sanford advising the state police that he had been with Tyler when the murder allegedly occurred and that therefore Tyler could not have done the deed. At least one of the officers in the investigating unit apparently had corrupt ties to Sanford, while another member apparently was the anonymous source who informed Cathell that the investigating unit had lots of evidence in its possession pointing to Tyler as the killer. Cathell writes that he believes he knows the identity of his informant but doesn’t name him, believing that it’s up to that individual to come forward if and when he sees fit to do so. The case against Tyler was essentially dropped, never again to be pursued. Tyler was never arrested and tried for a murder that Cathell believes he committed. The case, technically, remains open but with no one alive who could be prosecuted in relation to it. According to Cathell, there’s plenty of evidence in the case file at the state police barracks in Salisbury that persuasively points to Tyler as the murderer. Or at least there was when he read the file several years after the case had fizzled. The evidence included an alligator wallet found in the stream near where the body was found. Tyler reportedly had stolen the wallet from Sanford sometime prior to the kidnapping and murder. Why did the Sanfords go to such lengths to protect Tyler and cover up his foul deed? According to Cathell, political expediency. Elizabeth allegedly told Jack that if Tyler were arrested and charged with the crime, Sanford’s reelection prospects would plummet. In the end, he lost anyway, with a reputation thoroughly tarnished by controversy. The perjury case against him was quietly dropped by the state after Elizabeth suffered a mental breakdown and was institutionalized, unable to testify. Cathell’s memoir details quite a few other cases of interest, none with the notoriety of the McIntyre case. He recalls quite a few political battles of note when he served as city attorney, from the battle to establish public access to the beaches to a novel idea to capture large amounts of revenue for Ocean City by selling beach umbrella franchises. He fast forwards to some notable cases on the Court of Appeals as well, including those that involve the death penalty, which he opposes as a matter of public policy but which he regards as constitutional.

“I have become convinced that (the death penalty’s) presence (in the court system), and the activities of its opponents, do serious damage to the criminal justice system and especially to the judicial branch of government,” he writes. “As a practical matter, we are better off without it.” Cathell also does rhetorical battle against the so-called war on drugs, which he says was “lost” decades ago while continuing to consume prodigious amounts of time and money to wage. If it were up to Cathell, he’d legalize most drugs even if the result is to create dependency among users and abusers. “My answer (to that) is simple,” he writes. “The dependency already exists … how much worse can it possibly get? Over the last 30 or 40 years we have spent a large portion of the country’s wealth trying to keep citizens away from drugs: law enforcement costs, public advertisements warning of the problems of addiction and treatment programs. It hasn’t worked!” As a retired judge who occasionally is still called into action to preside over cases in the state, Cathell is obligated to continue to apply drug laws despite what he regards as their ineffectiveness. “Ineffectiveness, generally, does not equate to constitutionality,” he writes. “So the charade continues.” But Cathell’s memoir is no charade. It’s an honest look at a life led from both sides of the law – as someone who broke it in his early years to someone who, in his later years, enforces and applies it, even when he doesn’t agree with it. Perhaps a little of that “bad boy” lives on in the more mature version of Dale Cathell.

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September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

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42 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September - Early October 2014

Trish Tingle, store manager, and Jimmy Deangelis, owner of the Barley, Hops and Grapes beer and wine store on Route 589, located about one mile south of the Ocean Pines South Gate.

Southside Deli co-owner buys, expands ‘beer and wine’ business on Route 589 Barley, Hops and Grapes’ now stocks specialty craft beer that locals won’t find anywhere else By TOM STAUSS Publisher outhside Deli inside the Village Square shopping center at the Ocean Pines South Gate is an Ocean Pines institution, with a legion of regular customers and a business model that has worked to build a very successful enterprise for Ocean Pines resident Jimmy Deangelis and his partners. The deli has been in business since 1998. About ten years ago, they expanded into West Ocean City’s Teal Bay shopping center, opening the Southside Grill as a year-round full service restaurant. Not one to rest on his laurels, Deangelis and his wife Jill earlier this year saw another opportunity to do what entrepreneurs do, even in a local economy struggling to regain its footing after the Great Recession of the late 2000s. They bought a five-year old business called Barley, Hops and Grapes, located on Route 589 in Taylorville, in a strip shopping center located a mile or so towards Route 50 from the Ocean Pines South Gate. The business, according to Deangelis, was not well known and faced a lot of competition for beer and wine customers in the immediate vicinity of Ocean Pines. The owners wanted out, and Deangelis took advantage of the opportunity by acquiring the business at an attractive price, with an added bonus: Long-time store manager Trisha Tingle agreed to stay on to run the store day-to-day. That was a key to Deangelis’ business

model. Tingle, under the previous store owners, had begun to develop relationships with distributors who specialize in marketing craft beers, and she had been educating herself on the complexities and nuances of this growing homegrown industry. She has taken that interest to a new level with the active encouragement of Deangelis, who from the start knew he needed to do something to distinguish Barley, Hops and Grapes from his competitors. “I know a lot about craft beers, so he decided to keep me,” is the way Tingle explained it during a recent interview. After a brief closure of the business in April for remodeling and fresh paint, Barley, Hops and Grapes reopened in May with a lot of new product, most of it a much higher quality, and a lot of it craft beer that can’t be found anywhere else in the area. “You can’t make money selling $5 bottles of wine,” said Tingle, who appreciates Deangelis for giving her the latitude to purchase a higher end product from sources she had cultivated under the previous ownership. It was the greater buying power that enabled Tingle to take relationships with distributors of craft beer to a new level – essentially it meant that she was in a position to secure scarce product, strictly rationed on the Eastern Shore, for Barley, Hops and Grapes. Whereas before the ownership change she could only make contact with key distributors,

under Deangelis’ ownership she is in a position to snag a case of higher end craft beer, usually the minimum order, and often the maximum order, that can be purchased at one time. “We have a very large craft beer selection,” she said, pointing to shelves with product ranging in price from $5.99 a bottle to $29.99. While supply and demand are contributors to prices of craft beers, the main drivers are the amount and quality of yeast, hops, water and drains used in the brewing process. Higher alcohol content results in a higher price per bottle. Cheaper grains of barley mean lower prices but also lower quality. More yeast is needed for beer with higher alcohol content. The type of hops chosen can be more or less costly depending on their use. As an example of a $29.99 bottle of craft beer, Tingle selects a bottle of Sucre brewed by the Brewery of Orange County, Cal. It’s a blended beer and an anniversary year to boot, and it has a 16.9 percent of alcohol content, all contributors to cost. “This isn’t a bottle of beer you’re going to drink alone,” she said. “You’ll drink it in a group like you would a bottle of wine. You’ll pour it in a glass and take your time.” The store is constantly changing its product line to fit the season – seasonal beers are something of a specialty at Barley, Hops and Grapes. Customers who come into the store

in September will see the new pumpkin flavored brew to usher in the fall season. By featuring product that some people won’t be familiar with, Deangelis is well aware that he is taking a risk that some of it won’t move off the shelves as quickly as he would like. “Then we simply discount it until it does,” he said. “Eventually, everything sells.” Deangelis is pleased with the response to his enterprise but realizes that there are still people in the area who don’t know where the store is located. “It takes time, but we’re moving in the right direction,” he said. In a year or two, Deangelis said he hopes to expand the operation to include some sort of food service, perhaps even a full service restaurant, an idea he’s talked to his landlord about. His landlord is receptive, but there are challenges ahead. Currently, there is one vacancy in the shopping complex that houses Barley, Hops and Grapes, but it’s one unit over from the end unit that his store occupies. His immediate neighbor is Coastal Hospice, so he might have to negotiate some sort of relocation deal if he wants to have a food operation next to his beer and wine store. To enable a full service restaurant, his landlord will have to obtain public water and sewer service from the county. That is theoretically doable given that the nearby Casino at Ocean Downs has tied into the Ocean Pines wastewater collection and treatment system by running a force main parallel to Route 589 not very far from Barley, Hops and Grapes. “Maybe in the next year or two we’ll be able to do food service,” says Deangelis, with a very entrepreneurial glint in his eye. In the meantime, he invites everyone with a taste for craft beer to check out what Barley, Hops and Grapes has to offer.

CAPTAIN’S COVE

September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Two resignations roil this fall’s board election By TOM STAUSS Publisher he resignation of two directors from the Captain’s Cove property owner association’s board of directors, reportedly out of opposition over the way Cove President Tim Hearn is running association affairs, provided a backdrop for a debate over developer representation on the board at the directors’ Aug. 21-22 monthly meeting. Directors Buz Williams and Tom Nagle resigned from the board in mid-August, with no reasons given in their letters of resignation. The resignations left a six-member board, with alternate Jan Marish filling one of the vacancies pend-

As a practical matter, it may not matter much in the day-to-day administration of the community, which Hearn effectively controls as Cove president. His former business partners in Captain’s Cove Group Note, Michael Glick and Jim Silfee, serve on the board with him. By casting developer-owned lots in Cove board elections, CCG Note can generally determine the outcome of annual Cove board elections, much to the distress of some, but not all, year-round homeowners who don’t like the fact that their community is run by those who don’t live there full-time. That they’re based in Maryland probably doesn’t help matters, either.

ing the fall election. Speculation in the community ran rampant in the days following, with some saying Williams and Nagle resigned because they don’t like the pending increase in the annual lot assessments and others saying they don’t like the fact that the board of directors is effectively controlled by developer interests. Still another possibility: the fact that, after the next board election later this year, the board could become even more developer-centric, with four directors of allied business interests, rather than the current three, serving on the board together.

In Captain’s Cove, where relatively little development is occurring, developer interests are really declarant interests. The declarant, currently Captain’s Cove Group Note LLC, is the entity which purchased the remaining lots once owned by original developer Calvin Burns and subsequently sold to Worcester County developer/Realtor Robert Warfield in the early 2000s. CCG Note arrived on the scene when it acquired Warfield’s Cove holdings in a bankruptcy proceeding. One notable result: Hearn, who had been battling the then homeowner-dominated board of directors for the right to run for the board, emerged out of the fray first as a director, and then president, in 2012. CCG Note votes determined the outcome but not before litigation was settled in his favor. Hearn has some supporters among homeowners and non-resident owners of Cove lots, who like the fact that Cove finances have improved in recent years, with a much reduced rate of delinquent lot assessment accounts and a more solid balance sheet. The improved balance sheet is particularly important to owners of unimproved Cove lots in areas without roads or utilities.

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44 Ocean Pines PROGRESS Hearn holding firm

CAPTAIN’S COVE

September - Early October 2014

From Page 43 A better-looking balance sheet means lenders will be more likely to lend the Cove the money needed to build new roads in the years ahead. To homeowners already served by roads and utilities, the price for build-out of the Cove means higher lot assessments, currently set at $950 per year and scheduled to increase to $1,050 in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Hearn has said the assessments really need to be at $1,200 in order to fully fund depreciation of Cove assets and have the money available that would generate funds to put the Cove on a sounder financial footing. Politically, he met resistance to raising the assessment that much in a single year, and he has accepted that his goal of a $1,200 assessment has to be postponed, at least until a new budget process begins less than a year from now. Hearn, who sold his interest in CCG Note some time ago, remains as majority owner and managing partner in Captain’s Cove Utility Co. After selling his Cove home earlier this year, causing some in the community to question whether he could vote in Cove elections let alone continue to serve as the Cove POA president, Hearn is in the process of acquiring new property in the Cove, which would seem to settle the eligibility issue once he closes on his new property. He had taken the position that ownership of the utility company made him eligible to serve, because numbered lots in the Cove can be owned by individuals and corporations according to community bylaws, but ownership of a numbered lot in the Cove as an individual would seemingly make his position unassailable. The conflict between declarant interests and some year-round homeowners flared up recently when it became known that one of the three candidates for the Cove board this fall, Roger Holland, has ties to CCG Note. Assuming that he is elected, that would appear to make it conceivable that three CCG Note-affiliated candidates, along with Hearn, could serve on the board at the same time, in contravention of a January, 2012 agreement that ended litigation over whether Hearn could run and serve on the Cove board. Tom Reidy, president of the Concerned Citizens of Captain’s Cove group, read a letter into the record at the August meeting protesting Hollands’ candidacy and the potential that four directors with ties to the declarant could serve on the board. Reidy is running as a candidate for alternate member of the board in this fall’s election. Reidy’s letter prompted an extended debate over the issue of eligibility to serve on the board. Hearn acknowledged that majority ownership of the utility company was “not good enough” for some people, so he

decided to acquire some lots in the Cove to settle the eligibility issue. He said he was not a stockholder in CCG Note, having sold his shares to his business partners, so he no longer can be considered a declarant. In addition, he argued that should Holland be elected to the board this fall, it’s possible that someone like Silfee could resign, rendering the issue moot. Hearn said the issue raised by Reidy and others should only be taken up after the election results are known, when it becomes clear how many declarant-affiliated directors intend to be seated as directors. Hearn said he was prevented by a former board in 2009 to run for the board

and to have CCG Note-owned lots cast in board elections. He said that the lawsuit he filed to force the issue “was settled to my benefit,” and he had no intentions to allow those who don’t like the way he is managing the Cove as president to prevent him from continuing to serve. He also put his opponents on notice that should litigation result in his classification as a so-called “affiliate” member of the association with no voting rights, he would immediately file legal action against the Cove POA demanding refunds of ten years’ worth of assessments. Dave Kieffer, one of the remaining homeowners continuing to serve on the board, said the eligibility issue should

not be framed as “a question of who’s running” in this fall’s election. “I’m concerned about perception,” he said. “I’m concerned that we have a potential applicant (Holland) who’s a declarant.” He urged his colleagues as a board to ask the Cove’s legal counsel to determine the definition of a declarant and whether Hearn “is one (a declarant).” Kieffer’s suggestion that legal counsel be asked to research the issue seemed to generate no support among his colleagues. Had Nagle and Williams still been on the board, Kieffer probably would have had at least two directors to support his proposal.

OPINION

September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

COMMENTARY Leasing out the Yacht Club would maximize member benefit

Revenue ideas for the OPA

I would like to express my thanks and appreciation to all members of the Board for your service to our community. I’m sure you all have agendas for continuing to make Ocean Pines a great place to live, but I would like to offer a few ideas for your consideration, particularly in the area of increasing our revenues. You are probably aware of the legislation extending gambling in the Maryland casinos to include table games. The legislation distributes 80 percent of the table game revenue to the Casino Operators and 20 percent to the State Education Fund. However, a little known provision in the legislation changes the distribution in 2017 to 15 percent to the State Education Fund and 5 percent to local jurisdictions. That can all change with a stroke of the pen between now and 2017. So I ask the Board to monitor the issue to ensure Ocean Pines continues to get their fair share of the revenue and to ensure the revenue continues to be distributed directly to us and not through the County as was originally proposed for slots revenue distribution. When the Ocean Club next door to our Beach Club closed, it resulted in a void in available alcoholic beverage ser-

years has not been so horrible that it could not submit a lease proposal for consideration. If the company was suddenly forced to make a profit on the course, instead of relying on fees paid to it by the OPA, then it’s possible that episodes in the pro shop recorded in a letter published elsewhere on this page would no longer occur. The imperative of profitability compels improvement in service and attitude that don’t always happen when a management fee is guaranteed. OPA Director Marty Clarke would like the OPA to go further in its solicitation effort. According to Collins, four groups have indicated serious interest in leasing the course. Clarke would like to expand the potential number of lessees by posting a request for proposals (RFP) on the OPA Web site, and taking other steps to get the word out that the OPA is serious, really serious, about leasing out the golf course and related food service business at the Country Club. He’s right. There’s no reason to be tentative in pursuing this very worthwhile effort. While they’re at it, the directors would be well advised to do something similar with the Ocean Pines Yacht Club. The good news is that the amenity had an all-right month in July and probably will do the same in August, proof that the Yacht Club can be a money-maker in the summer months. Historically, that’s been the norm, so there’s nothing here to get too excited about. For the first quarter of the fiscal year, though, financial results at the Yacht Club were underwhelming: The operating surplus through July 30 was less than $17,000. If the OPA can manage a modest operating surplus in the summer months, probably driven mostly by a

robust banquet business, imagine how well the Yacht Club could do in the hands of an experienced and successful entrepreneur with a real gift for the business. Aside from financial performance, which is barely acceptable given the fact that the facility is brand new, the Yacht Club food and beverage operation today is only so-so, not horrible, merely average if that and sometimes mediocre. Some people might like this or that entrée, just enough to come back another time for more, but aside from a few diehards and intrepid cheerleaders, can any among us really say that the Yacht Club is an absolute must dining-out destination? OPA members who have shelled out almost $5 million for this brand new amenity can be forgiven, if not applauded, for wanting more, for not being willing to embrace a sometimes acceptable and occasionally mediocre experience. The simple fact is that, given its location and captive potential base of customers, especially in the summer months, the Yacht Club could be so much more than it is. For that to happen, the OPA needs to let the world know it is willing to entertain serious lease proposals from experienced and gifted restaurateurs, especially those that allow the OPA to benefit directly from future banquet business already on the books. If the OPA is willing to engage in this process for the golf course, why not the Yacht Club? If the OPA can find a way to more or less permanently erase Yacht Club losses and subsidies, while making a truly extraordinary dining experience possible for its members, that is something worth pursuing. Those who made it happen would be heroes, with plenty of glory all around. – Tom Stauss

LETTERS vice for the beach goers in the area. By not modifying our Beach Club liquor license to an unlimited license to take advantage of that void and to enable us to serve alcoholic beverages not only to OPA members and their guests, but all adult beach goers, I believe our Association has allowed tens of thousands of dollars to slip through our fingers. Now is the time to modify our liquor license to increase Beach Club revenue because currently there is no nearby competition on our side of the street that can object to our license application. That situation can change at any time. For example, our next door neighboring Condo has restaurant space for sale or lease. That restaurant will surely have a license to serve alcoholic beverages. I also believe that we should endeavor to protect our interests. If the licensing authority was to discover that one of our employees served alcoholic beverages to someone other than an association members or guest of a member, even inadvertently, at the very least we would be subjected to fines and it would jeopardize our current liquor license as well. Ocean Pines being Ocean Downs close neighbor puts us in a unique position to jointly promote our facilities. The own-

er of Ocean Downs also owns Delaware Park and a nearby golf course. Delaware Park offers casino, golf, restaurant and hotel packages. Ocean Downs only has a casino and Ocean Pines has the rest, golf, restaurants, swimming, tennis, and even rentals. We should be partnering with Ocean Downs for our mutual benefit. This is an opportunity for new revenue and we should expedite that before other facilities and/or municipalities beat us to it. For the past 2 or 3 years OPA has requested a recreation grant from the County. That’s something we richly deserve with all of the facilities we make available to the general public. I hope the Board will continue to pursue a recreation grant in the next budget period, and going forward as well. Some would say that the fees the general public contributes to our amenities subsidize our Association, while others would say that the Associations assessments are subsidizing our amenities for the general public. Either way you want to look at it, I think it is only fair that the general public’s fees should represent our actual cost of their participation in each specific amenity. It appears to me that the general public now

pays a very nominal fee, slightly higher than our Association member’s fees. With that in mind, I suggest we study our amenities and develop an allocation of the actual individual’s operating cost for all of our amenities. That would also be valuable information to have for controlling costs and developing all fees. Norman Katz Ocean Pines

Why golf membership is declining in Ocean Pines

It is not a surprise to me that the membership is experiencing a decline. I can only speak of my experiences with Ocean Pines Golf so I don’t know if management has declined in their hospitality or not, but here is my story. We moved into the Pines in August 2013. After a few weeks of unpacking, I visited the Ocean Pines Golf Club pro shop and introduced myself as a new member of the community and interested in membership information. The person behind the counter looked at me a few seconds, reached under the counter and tossed a packet of information on the counter, turned his back on me and busied himself with something behind the counter. I couldn’t believe the cold reception so I wandered around the shop a few

efore year’s end, it’s very possible that the Ocean Pines Association will have moved decisively to lease out Ocean Pines’ Robert Trent Jones 18hole golf course and the first floor of the Country Club to seasoned entrepreneurs, who will assume most if not all of the cost burdens of operating the golf course in exchange for the opportunity to turn a profit. Much remains to be accomplished before that scenario can unfold, but there is reason for optimism. There are indeed serious suitors out there who, once they have received and digested reams of financial data, will be in a position to submit reasonable lease proposals to the OPA for consideration. OPA Director Jack Collins has quietly assumed the role of “point person” for lack of a better term of the three-person team that is the investigating the lease option, and continuity is served by the willingness of former OPA President Tom Terry, now an OPA director, to remain as a team member. That speaks well of Terry, who could have adopted an attitude of petulance after this summer’s board elections, which didn’t turn out exactly the way he had hoped. Collins is searching for someone within the golf community in Ocean Pines to replace Jeff Knepper, a former director who opted off the team when his re-election bid to the board didn’t go as planned this summer. Together, team members will be charged with vetting the proposals when they come forth later this fall and early winter. Even though it would appear that Billy Casper Golf is falling behind budget to an extent that makes its continued management of the course difficult to contemplate, its stewardship of the course these last three

46 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September - Early October 2014

OPINION

Thompson quiet so far in the opening chapter of new board

cean Pines Association members who were hoping for some early clues on how well General Manager Bob Thompson will be getting along with a new majority bloc of directors didn’t really come away with a clear sense of where things are headed if they attended the new board’s first two meetings in August. In short, this is a narrative yet to be written, and it’s largely Thompson’s choice about whether this tale will have some real longevity and maybe a happy ending or whether it will come to an abrupt halt over some irreconcilable difference of opinion. At the Aug. 15 meeting, in which officers were chosen for the year, Thompson was largely a spectator, as he should have been. Any sparks that were visible at this meeting had nothing to do with him, at least not in any overt sense, but instead involved the apparent residual hard feelings between the remaining former majority bloc of directors – former OPA President Tom Terry and directors Bill Cordwell and Sharyn O’Hare – and the new majority bloc, comprised of new OPA President Dave Stevens and colleagues Jack Collins, Marty Clarke and newcomer Pat Renaud. Stevens and Renaud were elected this summer by defeating incumbent directors Jeff Knepper and Terri Mohr, backed by the Terry and, presumably, by Thompson, who never got along well with Stevens during his previous term on the board that overlapped Thompson’s tenure as GM. Terry, Cordwell and O’Hare took

LETTERS From Page 45 minutes to see if he would open up a conversation. After about 5 minutes I left leaving the information packet on the counter, went home and told my wife what happened, and we thought maybe someone was just having a bad day and I would go back in a few days. Two days later I returned to find a different person behind the counter and had a duplication of the first visit. I can’t remember experiencing such poor customer service in my life. I drove around the corner to River Run and was welcomed by a friendly staff member who asked me when I wanted to play, then suggested that I sign up for a nine-hole event they call TGIF and be matched with other members of the community and golf club. Everyone was so friendly I joined the club and my wife has taken up golf and is now a member. I spent my entire career in satisfying customers and the Ocean Pines golf club has no idea what that means. Larry Bohanan Ocean Pines

LIFE IN THE LIFE INPINES THE PINES

financial reports, with no one really advocating for it. An excursion through the curious cul-de-sacs An excursion through theby-ways curious and by-ways and cul-de-sacs At one point during the meeting when it seemed that the GM and Collins of Worcester County’s County’s most densely community. of Worcester mostpopulated densely populated community. were about to engage in a contretemps By TOM STAUSS/ By TOM Publisher STAUSS/Publisher over whether what Stevens was proposing was “helpful” to the general manager their best shot against the new majority name on the cover page of the person – Thompson said he didn’t understand when they each declined to accept nomi- who prepared it. what Collins was trying to say – Stevens nations for the vice-presidency after SteThe short version is that, at the Aug. jumped in to cut off the debate. vens, not unexpectedly, was voted in as 15 meeting, Gomsak was not reappointActually he wasn’t trying to be helpthe new president. ed assistant treasurer, and Stevens did ful, Stevens said, adding that he wasn’t They more or less all said – actual- not even find it necessary to open the trying to be unhelpful, either. ly Cordwell didn’t, but then he really possibility of a Gomsak reappointment The meaning of all this is hard to didn’t have to – that they didn’t think for discussion. fathom. Clearly, Thompson seemed to go they would be in synch with the new It was an elegant way to handle what out of his way not to be confrontational, president or his way of doing things. could have led to some fireworks or an and nothing that Stevens proposed is so Whether this actually turns out to be awkward moment. Stevens avoided all onerous that it should add to the genertrue is hardly a given. Stevens ran the that by simply sliding to the next item al manager’s work load or make his life meeting professionally, collegially and on the agenda. There would have been more difficult. Unless, of course, Thompinclusively. It’s hard to imagine that in nothing to be gained by a discussion, son decides to let it. the end Terry is going to find much to ob- maybe even acrimony and a split vote, Previous general managers have opject to in Stevens’ style, even if its differs over whether to reappoint Gomsak. erated under similar procedures and in some respects from Terry’s. No two Collins, a former banking executive, there is no particular reason why this OPA presidents have ever been exactly no doubt feels he can handle the trea- one can’t if he chooses to. alike in style and temperament. sure’s role without the need for Gomsak’s Even Terry, who had a different opIn the end, Clarke accepted the coaching, guidance or presence. Whether erational style than the one preferred vice-presidency while Collins, who spent Gomsak will fade into the background by Stevens, seemed willing to give the considerable time in the wilderness with going forward is yet to be determined – Stevens’ way of doing things a chance to Clarke this past year on the board, was he showed up to the budget and finance work. elected treasurer. Not surprisingly, Re- advisory committee meeting the next If the former president can give it a naud was elected secretary, completing day and dominated it, according to some try, then there’s no reason why Thompthe new bloc’s sweep of the primary cor- who were there – but he won’t be doing son can’t as well. porate offices. whatever he chooses to do as an officer of Perhaps presaging a future thawing the corporation. out of hard feelings that helps no one, Thompson observed all this without Terry in the end agreed to accept a role saying a word, and that reticence carthat is mostly ceremonial, if that: board ried over when the board met in late parliamentarian, which doesn’t nor- August for a special meeting to consider mally require any synching with board some of Stevens’ ideas for streamlining, members but only a passing acquain- that is, shortening, board meetings. The Ocean Pines Progress, a journal of news tance with Roberts Rules and the OPA When Stevens said he no longer and commentary, is published monthly bylaws. wanted the GM to preside over a lengthy throughout the year. It is circulated in Ocean It’s was a start on the path of full en- PowerPoint presentation of goings-on in Pines, Berlin, Ocean City, and Captain’s Cove, gagement with the new reality on the the OPA at monthly board meetings, Va. board. but instead wanted a written report Letters and other editorial submissions: Please Thompson, as is traditional in Ocean delivered three days prior, Thompson submit via email only. Letters should be origPines, was appointed the lone assistant didn’t protest. Nor did he object to the inal and exclusive to the Progress. Include treasurer. over-arching Stevens’ objective of avoidphone number for verification. The silence was deafening on what ing surprises and to deliver supporting could have been a fascinating if conten- material on behalf of initiatives well 127 Nottingham Lane tious debate: whether or not the OPA’s before board meetings in order to give Ocean Pines, MD 21811 other assistant treasurer for the past the directors time to reflect and consider two years, former director Pete Gomsak, them before being asked to make deciPUBLISHER/EDITOR would be reappointed for a third year in sions. Tom Stauss that role. Moreover, he didn’t even resist the tstauss1@mchsi.com Because the elected treasurers for the idea of posting monthly financial reports 410-641-6029 past two years had very little financial on the OPA Web site. That happened alAdvertising Sales background – Gomsak on the other had most immediately after the meeting. Frank Bottone a career in accounting – Gomsak had an Finally, though, he spoke on a timing 410-430-3660 outsized, influential role on OPA finan- issue. cial affairs over that time without fear of He was extremely polite in telling ART DIRECTOR contradiction by the OPA treasurer. the board his reasoning behind a multiRota Knott At the annual meeting of the OPA in day delay in allowing the media to pick early August, it was Gomsak who held up materials distributed to the board CONTRIBUTING WRITERS the floor summarizing the OPA’s finan- or posting it on-line: It was a matter of Rota Knott cial condition; the representative from courtesy to directors, so they wouldn’t be InkwellMedia@comcast.net the OPA auditing firm said a few words, blind-sided by OPA members knowing 443-880-1348 of little consequence, and surrendered more about a particular subject than a the microphone to the assistant treasur- director. He said he was willing to susPROOFREADER er. pend that courtesy at the direction of Joanne Williams No one paying attention to Gomsak’s the board. In the end, the board seemed PowerPoint dissertation missed the to agree to a one-day delay, at least on

September - Early October 2014 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

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48 Ocean Pines PROGRESS 32 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September - Early October 2014

December 2012

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