(July 13, 2017) Several Ocean Pines Association Directors agreed on Sunday there were operational deficiencies that need to be addressed – and quickly – across their food and beverage operations.
Exactly what should be done, however, was not decided upon during the meeting, despite several suggestions and multiple exchanges that, at times, became heated.
Discussion on a motion to hire a food and beverage consultant was preceded by a comment from resident Joe Reynolds, who called the board one of the least transparent in three decades.
He noted the agenda topic mentioned a request for proposals for the consultant, but said that request was never posted publically. Further, he suggested prior discussion on the topic was done during a closed meeting.
“I think it’s without question that the food and beverage services in Ocean Pines are a controversial subject to say the least,” Reynolds said. “In my view, to approach that subject and request bids on someone from the outside who I assume we’re going to pay … with no input from the association members, not even telling association members that you were even thinking about it, first of all I think is a violation of the HOA Act.”
Board President Tom Herrick said the discussion was held during an open meeting that followed a closed meeting, on June 19.
“In my mind that makes it even worse from a deceptive standpoint,” Reynolds said. “When the board goes into closed session association members are not going sit around for two, three, four, five hours, waiting for you to see if you happen to go back into open session.
“Maybe you were legal, but I think it was [an] extremely deceptive, terrible move. It’s a lack of transparency and I see this board as one of the least transparent in the last 30 years,” Reynolds continued. “Doing stuff like you’ve just described, I think it’s bad for the community and I think it’s bad for this board and this board’s reputation. You need to give some thought to what you do before you go taking these kinds of actions.
“[It’s] very disappointing, especially from a board that was elected last year on the issue of transparency,” Reynolds said.
During the bulk of the discussion on the consultant, interim General Manager Brett Hill introduced a motion to hire Synergy Restaurant Consultants from Newport Beach, California. He said the firm would do an operational review of food and beverage operations at Mumford’s Landing, the Tern Grille, the beach club and the swim and racquet club.
Hill said a request for proposals went out to seven consulting firms on June 23. He said three responded.
Director Cheryl Jacobs said hiring a consultant from California was not what the board agreed to do on June 19.
“This is recent information that just came to us. This is action that was taken unilaterally by the interim GM,” she said. “The company that is being recommended is from the West Coast – why do we need to go to the West Coast and bring someone like that in?”
Jacobs said all of the directors had received emails about the poor performance of Ocean Pines food and beverage operations.
“They need to be addressed. We were all in agreement that they needed to be addressed. This is not the route that we expected,” she said.
She added that, although Hill said the hiring of a consultant group was within his powers as general manager, the board agreed during a previous meeting “that these kinds of actions would not be taken, going forward, until we had a new general manager in place.”
Jacobs called on the board to bring back former beach club manager Lynda Huettner, who resigned from that position earlier this year.
“We had one venue that was profitable for Ocean Pines. We don’t anymore. That’s because she felt the need to leave the Ocean Pines’ employment,” Jacobs said.
“I am not in favor of what the interim general manager has proposed,” she continued. “I’m not really sure, any longer, who is making the decisions about what’s occurring. Are people taking direction from the GM, who has no experience in the food and beverage arena, or are people being allowed to make decisions on their own? That’s an open question to me.”
Hill said a board member instructed him to hire a local person as a consultant, but that person had previously applied to work in Ocean Pines and “was not deemed to meet the credentials.”
“Having that individual as a consultant without any kind of comparison or evaluation to other options is not doing my job as the general manager,” Hill said. “So, I responded by putting out a request to organizations that met the qualifications to fulfill the services requested of evaluating our operations, finding deficiencies and seeking areas of improvement.
“I did what I would do for any other purchase as the acting general manager in finding competitive options that provide the best value to the association,” he added.
Director Slobodan Trendic said the notion that a director instructed him to hire a local consultant was “a fabrication of far-fetched truth.” Trendic said he had emails that would back that up.
“What the board asked for and what was agreed is to take immediate actions to get the food and beverage situation under control,” Trendic said. “I don’t want to get calls from people complaining about the beach club, stating that they almost ran out of food a week ago and all the other craziness that’s going on.”
Trendic said he agreed with Jacobs that Huettner should be brought back, and said a local consultant was needed.
He added that several members of the community offered to help with the food and beverage operations, but were turned down by Hill.
“Now, we as a board are faced with having to deal with this operational issue. Frankly, I’m really not happy because I don’t want the board to be accused that we are getting involved in the operational matters. But it appears that, for the last couple of months, that was a necessity,” Trendic said. “Let’s get the situation under control so we can have a decent summer season, with only a few weeks left.”
Herrick read from meeting minutes from June 19, written by Trendic, which stated the board decided to bring in an industry consultant as soon as possible to assist management.
“That was a directive to the acting general manager,” Herrick said. “You may not be happy with who he picked, but you directed him to do so and that’s what he did. If you, as a board, decided that that’s not enough … then we can direct the [general manager] to find someone local.”
Trendic countered that a request for proposals was not posted on the Ocean Pines website or published anywhere. He added that local companies were not contacted.
Hill said he came up with the list of seven consulting firms based on a Google search, and said the timeline was too short to reach out to others.
A heated exchange followed.
“Our bylaws state open procurement procedures. What’s so strange about ‘open’ that needs to be explained?” Trendic said.
“Well, you told me to hire one individual. So how open is that, Slobodan?” Hill said.
“I will produce the email on this subject to the media after the meeting so they can determine whether that is true or not,” Trendic said.
“And I’ll give them the rest of your emails that show where you are directing President Herrick to tell me to hire an individual. If you want to play, let’s play,” Hill said.
Jacobs said the board agreed on “a particular individual that had been suggested to provide assistance in the food and beverage arena.”
“When the interim GM chose to discount that person as qualified, what should have occurred, in my opinion, is that he came back to the board and the board would have discussed this matter about what would be the appropriate next course of action to take,” Jacobs said. “That’s not getting into operational issues – that’s called board oversight.”
She said the entire discussion goes back to the board agreeing a quick fix was needed in order to turn around several failing food and beverage operations.
She said a local person was discussed, but a different direction was apparently taken. Still, she said the suggestion to bring back Huettner was a quick fix – at least for the beach club.
Herrick asked if the board could at least agree to direct Hill to hire a local consultant.
Several directors instead called for a vote on Hill’s motion to hire Synergy Restaurant Consultants.
The vote was 5-2 against the motion, without only Hill and Vice President Dave Stevens voting in favor.
No further discussion on the topic was held.
Exactly what should be done, however, was not decided upon during the meeting, despite several suggestions and multiple exchanges that, at times, became heated.
Discussion on a motion to hire a food and beverage consultant was preceded by a comment from resident Joe Reynolds, who called the board one of the least transparent in three decades.
He noted the agenda topic mentioned a request for proposals for the consultant, but said that request was never posted publically. Further, he suggested prior discussion on the topic was done during a closed meeting.
“I think it’s without question that the food and beverage services in Ocean Pines are a controversial subject to say the least,” Reynolds said. “In my view, to approach that subject and request bids on someone from the outside who I assume we’re going to pay … with no input from the association members, not even telling association members that you were even thinking about it, first of all I think is a violation of the HOA Act.”
Board President Tom Herrick said the discussion was held during an open meeting that followed a closed meeting, on June 19.
“In my mind that makes it even worse from a deceptive standpoint,” Reynolds said. “When the board goes into closed session association members are not going sit around for two, three, four, five hours, waiting for you to see if you happen to go back into open session.
“Maybe you were legal, but I think it was [an] extremely deceptive, terrible move. It’s a lack of transparency and I see this board as one of the least transparent in the last 30 years,” Reynolds continued. “Doing stuff like you’ve just described, I think it’s bad for the community and I think it’s bad for this board and this board’s reputation. You need to give some thought to what you do before you go taking these kinds of actions.
“[It’s] very disappointing, especially from a board that was elected last year on the issue of transparency,” Reynolds said.
During the bulk of the discussion on the consultant, interim General Manager Brett Hill introduced a motion to hire Synergy Restaurant Consultants from Newport Beach, California. He said the firm would do an operational review of food and beverage operations at Mumford’s Landing, the Tern Grille, the beach club and the swim and racquet club.
Hill said a request for proposals went out to seven consulting firms on June 23. He said three responded.
Director Cheryl Jacobs said hiring a consultant from California was not what the board agreed to do on June 19.
“This is recent information that just came to us. This is action that was taken unilaterally by the interim GM,” she said. “The company that is being recommended is from the West Coast – why do we need to go to the West Coast and bring someone like that in?”
Jacobs said all of the directors had received emails about the poor performance of Ocean Pines food and beverage operations.
“They need to be addressed. We were all in agreement that they needed to be addressed. This is not the route that we expected,” she said.
She added that, although Hill said the hiring of a consultant group was within his powers as general manager, the board agreed during a previous meeting “that these kinds of actions would not be taken, going forward, until we had a new general manager in place.”
Jacobs called on the board to bring back former beach club manager Lynda Huettner, who resigned from that position earlier this year.
“We had one venue that was profitable for Ocean Pines. We don’t anymore. That’s because she felt the need to leave the Ocean Pines’ employment,” Jacobs said.
“I am not in favor of what the interim general manager has proposed,” she continued. “I’m not really sure, any longer, who is making the decisions about what’s occurring. Are people taking direction from the GM, who has no experience in the food and beverage arena, or are people being allowed to make decisions on their own? That’s an open question to me.”
Hill said a board member instructed him to hire a local person as a consultant, but that person had previously applied to work in Ocean Pines and “was not deemed to meet the credentials.”
“Having that individual as a consultant without any kind of comparison or evaluation to other options is not doing my job as the general manager,” Hill said. “So, I responded by putting out a request to organizations that met the qualifications to fulfill the services requested of evaluating our operations, finding deficiencies and seeking areas of improvement.
“I did what I would do for any other purchase as the acting general manager in finding competitive options that provide the best value to the association,” he added.
Director Slobodan Trendic said the notion that a director instructed him to hire a local consultant was “a fabrication of far-fetched truth.” Trendic said he had emails that would back that up.
“What the board asked for and what was agreed is to take immediate actions to get the food and beverage situation under control,” Trendic said. “I don’t want to get calls from people complaining about the beach club, stating that they almost ran out of food a week ago and all the other craziness that’s going on.”
Trendic said he agreed with Jacobs that Huettner should be brought back, and said a local consultant was needed.
He added that several members of the community offered to help with the food and beverage operations, but were turned down by Hill.
“Now, we as a board are faced with having to deal with this operational issue. Frankly, I’m really not happy because I don’t want the board to be accused that we are getting involved in the operational matters. But it appears that, for the last couple of months, that was a necessity,” Trendic said. “Let’s get the situation under control so we can have a decent summer season, with only a few weeks left.”
Herrick read from meeting minutes from June 19, written by Trendic, which stated the board decided to bring in an industry consultant as soon as possible to assist management.
“That was a directive to the acting general manager,” Herrick said. “You may not be happy with who he picked, but you directed him to do so and that’s what he did. If you, as a board, decided that that’s not enough … then we can direct the [general manager] to find someone local.”
Trendic countered that a request for proposals was not posted on the Ocean Pines website or published anywhere. He added that local companies were not contacted.
Hill said he came up with the list of seven consulting firms based on a Google search, and said the timeline was too short to reach out to others.
A heated exchange followed.
“Our bylaws state open procurement procedures. What’s so strange about ‘open’ that needs to be explained?” Trendic said.
“Well, you told me to hire one individual. So how open is that, Slobodan?” Hill said.
“I will produce the email on this subject to the media after the meeting so they can determine whether that is true or not,” Trendic said.
“And I’ll give them the rest of your emails that show where you are directing President Herrick to tell me to hire an individual. If you want to play, let’s play,” Hill said.
Jacobs said the board agreed on “a particular individual that had been suggested to provide assistance in the food and beverage arena.”
“When the interim GM chose to discount that person as qualified, what should have occurred, in my opinion, is that he came back to the board and the board would have discussed this matter about what would be the appropriate next course of action to take,” Jacobs said. “That’s not getting into operational issues – that’s called board oversight.”
She said the entire discussion goes back to the board agreeing a quick fix was needed in order to turn around several failing food and beverage operations.
She said a local person was discussed, but a different direction was apparently taken. Still, she said the suggestion to bring back Huettner was a quick fix – at least for the beach club.
Herrick asked if the board could at least agree to direct Hill to hire a local consultant.
Several directors instead called for a vote on Hill’s motion to hire Synergy Restaurant Consultants.
The vote was 5-2 against the motion, without only Hill and Vice President Dave Stevens voting in favor.
No further discussion on the topic was held.