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Doug Parks joins OPA Board after appointment vote

(Sept. 15, 2016) Doug Parks, who finished ninth in the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors election last month, now has a seat on the board, following his appointment last Friday to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of board member Pat Renaud in August.
Parks was nominated for the position by newly elected Director Slobodan Trendic and received four votes from the then six-member panel. The other nominee, Frank Daly, received two votes.
Director Cheryl Jacobs, who nominated Daly, gave a spirited defense of her selection, arguing that he was the next-highest vote getter during the election, finishing fourth with 1,028 votes. The top-three vote getters, Trendic, Brett Hill and Pat Supik, were seated on the board.
“Between he and Mr. Parks, he has twice as many votes by the members of the association,” she said. “It’s important that we recognize what the membership has said in their voting.”
Parks received 576 votes.
“I think ignoring the will of the people and the votes that were cast is not the way to go in this case,” Jacobs said. “I think Mr. Daly proved himself to be intelligent an independent thinker and somebody who would serve the membership well. Had Mr. Renaud chosen to relinquish his position as director the day before the votes were counted, there’s no question Frank Daly would be the person sitting in [his] seat.”
Trendic replied that Ocean Pines bylaws did not require the board to fill vacancies based on election results, and said Parks would bring a background in information technology to the board, “which is one of the things that the board has been lacking.”
“I think the board has a duty to the membership to elect a member of the association that brings the best skills and assets and will compliment the current board in the most-effective way possible,” Trendic said. “I think Doug Parks has demonstrated all of those assets and values.
“It’s not about the vote – I believe it’s about the confidence of the board,” he added. “I have absolute confidence that Doug Parks will provide exactly what this board needs.”
Trendic added that Parks represented “the will of the people” because he aligned with the “reformist-minded candidates” – he and Hill – who finished first and second in the voting.
Jacobs noted that Hill had, in an interview in another newspaper during the election, said, “the board of directors, regardless of individual opinions, needs to be open to the feedback from the community.”
“I would suggest that is the feedback from the community, as Daly being the next vote getter,” Jacobs said.
She went on to invoke “group think” and the Bay of Pigs in the nomination of Parks.
“When you get a group of people who think in the same way all the time … you eliminate the creativity and the individual opinions of other people who don’t agree with that line of thinking,” she said. “There’s danger in doing that, from a psychological perspective based on this group-think phenomenon, [and] we want to have individual thinkers who can weigh the facts for themselves and not just go along with what the majority would want.”
Addressing “the will of the people,” Hill argued that the “people clearly spoke” when they voted for him, adding that he received 25 percent more votes than the next candidate.
“Mr. Parks and [Tom] Janasek were the two candidates that ran with me and during the election were the closest in line to my views, which was overwhelmingly the view of the population,” he said. “I feel Mr. Parks has already demonstrated his dedication to the community in his service to the bylaws committee. Professionally, he brings a level of leadership to this board that we desperately need.
“If the will of the people was spoken through the vote for me, [then] Doug Parks, by qualifications, is the next person that should be there with me,” he added.
Board President Tom Herrick said he understood the logic in Jacobs’ argument, but that the last election was “unique in that it stirred much interest in change,” as partially evidenced by the record number of candidates involved.
“The fact that so many candidates expressed interest in that change diluted the votes among them,” he said. “I really believe that the bylaws understand that each election is unique, and the bylaws do not mandate that we do pick the next-highest vote getter for that particular reason.
“I think we just have to understand what the will of the people was, what they actually voted for, where the majority of the votes went,” he added. “Although it wasn’t for a specific candidate, it was an actual mandate for change.”
Trendic, Hill, Herrick and Dave Stevens voted for Parks. Jacobs and Supik voted for Daly.
Parks declined to be interviewed further, stating in an email last week, “My immediate focus is to get up to speed on current board issues and integrate myself with the team so we can work to move forward.”
The board will meet again, during a special work session, on Monday, Sept. 19 at 9 a.m. in the boardroom of the administration building. The next regular board meeting is Saturday, Sept. 24 at 10 a.m. in the community center.