(Aug. 3, 2017) Most of the time, meetings of the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors are sparsely attended affairs without much in the way of cheering, heckling and rounds of applause. That, however, was not the case last Friday, when all the above occurred.
A standing-room-only audience of perhaps several hundred broke into applause at least three-dozen times during the nearly four-hour session, which included a standing ovation for embattled Director Slobodan Trendic.
Interim General Manager Brett Hill, on the other hand, was a frequent target of derision by the audience, as was new Board President Dave Stevens.
Much of the audience appeared to support Trendic and clubs and aquatics committee member Gary Miller, both of whom have been targeted for removal. A motion to relieve Miller of his committee assignments was on Friday’s agenda, while a plan by Hill to call for a vote to oust Trendic was delayed once again.
Meetings to vote on whether to expel Trendic have been postponed several times and it is uncertain whether a special meeting will be called before the August election.
Trendic, less than two minutes into the meeting, attempted to add a motion to the agenda to remove Hill as general manager.
The crowd cheered loudly for more than 10 seconds, but Stevens abruptly halted the outburst by threatening to “clear the room.”
“If you don’t believe me, then you are very badly mistaken. Don’t try it,” Stevens said over a chorus of boos.
Trendic’s motion was rejected by a 5-1 vote, but that did nothing to stem the crowd’s criticism of Hill.
Director Cheryl Jacobs asked to have several other items deleted from the agenda, including a motion to hire a food and beverage consultant, a motion to purchase new accounting software and the motion to remove Miller, saying all three had been voted on and defeated during previous meetings.
She was successful on one item, hiring a food and beverage consultant, which was apparently identical to a motion discussed during a July 9 special meeting when Hill proposed hiring Synergy Restaurant Consultants from Newport Beach, California.
Jacobs fought unsuccessfully to kill the motion to remove Miller, as that vote ended in a 3-3 tie and remained on the agenda. One director, Doug Parks, was absent. Jacobs, Trendic and Director Pat Supik voted to delete the motion.
“The motion to remove a committee member [is] exactly the motion that was put forward by Mr. Hill at the last meeting [also on July 9],” Jacobs said. “There was a vote and how else can you interpret that vote other than we didn’t want that to happen when we voted 4-3 as a board.
“You don’t get two bites at the apple,” Jacobs said. “Other members have been criticized for not accepting what the board decides and this would be an example of not accepting what the board decided and, just because you didn’t like the outcome, trying to put it in front of us again. I’m totally opposed to that.”
The crowd applauded, but Stevens again spoke up.
“There is no applause. Stop it!” he said, inciting laughter from some members of the audience.
He added, “I can call a recess,” which drew yet another chorus of boos.
Trendic noted that Parks, on July 9, requested more time to consider the motion and said it was not appropriate to call a vote without him present. Stevens was booed again when he said Parks’ absence “has nothing at all to do with this vote.”
Later during the meeting, the board deadlocked 3-3 on whether to remove Miller.
A vote to remove the accounting software fell 4-2, with just Jacobs and Trendic in favor, but Stevens mistakenly skipped over the discussion when it came up on the agenda.
The directors again voted 4-2 on whether to approve the revised meeting schedule.
Hill elicited laughter and groans when, during the general manager’s report, he said Ocean Pines was about halfway through the summer season and the “amenities are running strong.”
Recently released financial reports show that losses in some areas are far greater than anticipated.
The next outburst came during discussion of who would fill the shoes of former Board President Tom Herrick, who resigned from the position earlier that week.
Herrick posted his resignation on the official Ocean Pines Forum (www.realopforum.com) on Wednesday, adding, “It was my pleasure to have had the opportunity to work with Directors Hill, Stevens, and Supik during my tenure in this position.” He did not mention Jacobs, Trendic and Parks.
When Stevens asked for nominations, many in the audience yelled Trendic’s name
Herrick nominated Stevens, who was serving as vice president and on two previous occasions served as president of the board.
“This would be a tribute to let him finish his last term as president,” Herrick said.
When the crowd booed yet again, Stevens said, “There is little courtesy and I don’t know what’s wrong with you people. We’re conducting business and if you don’t like it, leave.”
Jacobs noted that Stevens’ term ends in August and the board, at that time, will elect new officers.
“I hope you understand … we’re talking about a couple of weeks,” she said.
The board unanimously approved the nomination.
Supik then nominated Herrick to serve as vice president, but he declined. Jacobs nominated Parks, and the board unanimously agreed.
“Tough luck if he’s not here,” Stevens quipped.
“This has been discussed with him and I believe he would not decline,” Jacobs added.
About two-dozen homeowners lined up for public comments, including former board members Bill Cordwell, Les Purcell and Sharyn O’Hare, former candidates Tom Janasek, George Simon and Paula Robertson Gray, current candidate Colette Horn, and Miller and Trendic.
Janasek called the board dysfunctional and called on both Trendic and Hill to resign.
Cordwell, an outspoken critic of Stevens, Herrick and Hill, said the board majority “turned a blind eye to what some would describe as allowing the acting general manager to unilaterally change the entire structure of entire organization.”
The audience erupted into applause.
He blamed Hill for the policy change at the Oasis pool and said that vote was illegal because it occurred during a closed meeting.
“Now the board is trying to get rid of board member and a committee member,” Cordwell said. “Their only sin has been to describe things going on that are hurting the community. This board majority wants to control the message and anybody who deviates from that and doesn’t toe the majority line is the enemy. What is this? Russia? China? The White House?”
Again, the crowd applauded.
Gray said she was concerned about what she had seen in the community since recently moving there, including the secrecy of the board of directors. She said she reads the newspapers each week to see “who got kicked off this week because they had an opinion no one liked.”
“This is sad,” Gray said. “I moved here because Ocean Pines, according to recent reports, was one of the 10 best places to live. And then I come in and this is like ‘1984’ – let’s go see what they’re going to let us know this week.”
Gray added she filed to run for the board this year, but resigned from the race after people approached her “with every kind of insult on the planet.”
“I was not up to standing up to this kind criticism when I’m not even there yet,” she said. “Everyone on the board needs to remember – don’t clap, we’ll get kicked out – [that] we are the Pines.
“And Mr. Trendic, we elected you. If they’re going to get rid of you we need to know one, two, three, four, five [reasons] why,” Gray added. “Read Facebook. Read what people are saying about us now. It’s sad. People aren’t going to buy houses here. Your property values are going to go down.”
O’Hare said when she served on the board they were lucky to have 10 people attend a meeting.
“Instead of being intimidated by all the people, be thankful and don’t be angry at us, Dave,” she said. “We’re here because we really, really care about this community. It’s the best community in the whole area and we want it to continue to be the best community.”
She said a new board and general manager would be in place within weeks, adding, “God help him if he doesn’t have somebody that can work with him and compromise.”
“There’s a saying: if you can’t change the wind, change the direction,” she said. “Please take this to heart. You’ve gotta get together as a board and you’ve gotta heal this community.”
Again, the crowd applauded.
Trendic was among the last to speak. He stepped up to the microphone and then paused to collect himself, appearing to momentarily tear up.
“I feel compelled to address the membership. The only thing I’m guilty of is protecting the membership and the employees. I thought I was doing to the right thing, and if the membership thinks I did wrong I’d be happy to walk away,” he said.
He said he brought up the motion to remove Hill because “we’ve got another six weeks that [Ocean Pines] would have to deal with the acting general manager’s management style.”
“Frankly, a lot of people are not looking forward to that and I’m disappointed that the majority of the board, yet again, refused to take actions that I have tried to take, now, almost for three months,” Trendic said. “My actions were not intended to be personal in nature, but purely business.
“I believe what I was trying to do was the right thing to do,” he continued. “It only got worse from three months ago and it’s going to get worse unless this board realizes that we no longer have a choice, but to act. Otherwise it is a pure display of gross negligence.”
Trendic thanked those who came to the meeting.
“I hope the next board, in two weeks, will draw this much crowd again and that you will look forward to being more active in the day-to-day operations of this community and be more active and engaged with the future boards, because this is our community, after all.”
Trendic received a standing ovation.
A standing-room-only audience of perhaps several hundred broke into applause at least three-dozen times during the nearly four-hour session, which included a standing ovation for embattled Director Slobodan Trendic.
Interim General Manager Brett Hill, on the other hand, was a frequent target of derision by the audience, as was new Board President Dave Stevens.
Much of the audience appeared to support Trendic and clubs and aquatics committee member Gary Miller, both of whom have been targeted for removal. A motion to relieve Miller of his committee assignments was on Friday’s agenda, while a plan by Hill to call for a vote to oust Trendic was delayed once again.
Meetings to vote on whether to expel Trendic have been postponed several times and it is uncertain whether a special meeting will be called before the August election.
Trendic, less than two minutes into the meeting, attempted to add a motion to the agenda to remove Hill as general manager.
The crowd cheered loudly for more than 10 seconds, but Stevens abruptly halted the outburst by threatening to “clear the room.”
“If you don’t believe me, then you are very badly mistaken. Don’t try it,” Stevens said over a chorus of boos.
Trendic’s motion was rejected by a 5-1 vote, but that did nothing to stem the crowd’s criticism of Hill.
Director Cheryl Jacobs asked to have several other items deleted from the agenda, including a motion to hire a food and beverage consultant, a motion to purchase new accounting software and the motion to remove Miller, saying all three had been voted on and defeated during previous meetings.
She was successful on one item, hiring a food and beverage consultant, which was apparently identical to a motion discussed during a July 9 special meeting when Hill proposed hiring Synergy Restaurant Consultants from Newport Beach, California.
Jacobs fought unsuccessfully to kill the motion to remove Miller, as that vote ended in a 3-3 tie and remained on the agenda. One director, Doug Parks, was absent. Jacobs, Trendic and Director Pat Supik voted to delete the motion.
“The motion to remove a committee member [is] exactly the motion that was put forward by Mr. Hill at the last meeting [also on July 9],” Jacobs said. “There was a vote and how else can you interpret that vote other than we didn’t want that to happen when we voted 4-3 as a board.
“You don’t get two bites at the apple,” Jacobs said. “Other members have been criticized for not accepting what the board decides and this would be an example of not accepting what the board decided and, just because you didn’t like the outcome, trying to put it in front of us again. I’m totally opposed to that.”
The crowd applauded, but Stevens again spoke up.
“There is no applause. Stop it!” he said, inciting laughter from some members of the audience.
He added, “I can call a recess,” which drew yet another chorus of boos.
Trendic noted that Parks, on July 9, requested more time to consider the motion and said it was not appropriate to call a vote without him present. Stevens was booed again when he said Parks’ absence “has nothing at all to do with this vote.”
Later during the meeting, the board deadlocked 3-3 on whether to remove Miller.
A vote to remove the accounting software fell 4-2, with just Jacobs and Trendic in favor, but Stevens mistakenly skipped over the discussion when it came up on the agenda.
The directors again voted 4-2 on whether to approve the revised meeting schedule.
Hill elicited laughter and groans when, during the general manager’s report, he said Ocean Pines was about halfway through the summer season and the “amenities are running strong.”
Recently released financial reports show that losses in some areas are far greater than anticipated.
The next outburst came during discussion of who would fill the shoes of former Board President Tom Herrick, who resigned from the position earlier that week.
Herrick posted his resignation on the official Ocean Pines Forum (www.realopforum.com) on Wednesday, adding, “It was my pleasure to have had the opportunity to work with Directors Hill, Stevens, and Supik during my tenure in this position.” He did not mention Jacobs, Trendic and Parks.
When Stevens asked for nominations, many in the audience yelled Trendic’s name
Herrick nominated Stevens, who was serving as vice president and on two previous occasions served as president of the board.
“This would be a tribute to let him finish his last term as president,” Herrick said.
When the crowd booed yet again, Stevens said, “There is little courtesy and I don’t know what’s wrong with you people. We’re conducting business and if you don’t like it, leave.”
Jacobs noted that Stevens’ term ends in August and the board, at that time, will elect new officers.
“I hope you understand … we’re talking about a couple of weeks,” she said.
The board unanimously approved the nomination.
Supik then nominated Herrick to serve as vice president, but he declined. Jacobs nominated Parks, and the board unanimously agreed.
“Tough luck if he’s not here,” Stevens quipped.
“This has been discussed with him and I believe he would not decline,” Jacobs added.
About two-dozen homeowners lined up for public comments, including former board members Bill Cordwell, Les Purcell and Sharyn O’Hare, former candidates Tom Janasek, George Simon and Paula Robertson Gray, current candidate Colette Horn, and Miller and Trendic.
Janasek called the board dysfunctional and called on both Trendic and Hill to resign.
Cordwell, an outspoken critic of Stevens, Herrick and Hill, said the board majority “turned a blind eye to what some would describe as allowing the acting general manager to unilaterally change the entire structure of entire organization.”
The audience erupted into applause.
He blamed Hill for the policy change at the Oasis pool and said that vote was illegal because it occurred during a closed meeting.
“Now the board is trying to get rid of board member and a committee member,” Cordwell said. “Their only sin has been to describe things going on that are hurting the community. This board majority wants to control the message and anybody who deviates from that and doesn’t toe the majority line is the enemy. What is this? Russia? China? The White House?”
Again, the crowd applauded.
Gray said she was concerned about what she had seen in the community since recently moving there, including the secrecy of the board of directors. She said she reads the newspapers each week to see “who got kicked off this week because they had an opinion no one liked.”
“This is sad,” Gray said. “I moved here because Ocean Pines, according to recent reports, was one of the 10 best places to live. And then I come in and this is like ‘1984’ – let’s go see what they’re going to let us know this week.”
Gray added she filed to run for the board this year, but resigned from the race after people approached her “with every kind of insult on the planet.”
“I was not up to standing up to this kind criticism when I’m not even there yet,” she said. “Everyone on the board needs to remember – don’t clap, we’ll get kicked out – [that] we are the Pines.
“And Mr. Trendic, we elected you. If they’re going to get rid of you we need to know one, two, three, four, five [reasons] why,” Gray added. “Read Facebook. Read what people are saying about us now. It’s sad. People aren’t going to buy houses here. Your property values are going to go down.”
O’Hare said when she served on the board they were lucky to have 10 people attend a meeting.
“Instead of being intimidated by all the people, be thankful and don’t be angry at us, Dave,” she said. “We’re here because we really, really care about this community. It’s the best community in the whole area and we want it to continue to be the best community.”
She said a new board and general manager would be in place within weeks, adding, “God help him if he doesn’t have somebody that can work with him and compromise.”
“There’s a saying: if you can’t change the wind, change the direction,” she said. “Please take this to heart. You’ve gotta get together as a board and you’ve gotta heal this community.”
Again, the crowd applauded.
Trendic was among the last to speak. He stepped up to the microphone and then paused to collect himself, appearing to momentarily tear up.
“I feel compelled to address the membership. The only thing I’m guilty of is protecting the membership and the employees. I thought I was doing to the right thing, and if the membership thinks I did wrong I’d be happy to walk away,” he said.
He said he brought up the motion to remove Hill because “we’ve got another six weeks that [Ocean Pines] would have to deal with the acting general manager’s management style.”
“Frankly, a lot of people are not looking forward to that and I’m disappointed that the majority of the board, yet again, refused to take actions that I have tried to take, now, almost for three months,” Trendic said. “My actions were not intended to be personal in nature, but purely business.
“I believe what I was trying to do was the right thing to do,” he continued. “It only got worse from three months ago and it’s going to get worse unless this board realizes that we no longer have a choice, but to act. Otherwise it is a pure display of gross negligence.”
Trendic thanked those who came to the meeting.
“I hope the next board, in two weeks, will draw this much crowd again and that you will look forward to being more active in the day-to-day operations of this community and be more active and engaged with the future boards, because this is our community, after all.”
Trendic received a standing ovation.