Slobodon Trendic finished third in the race for Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors last year, coming within less than 300 votes of earning a seat on the board.
The 61-year-old Belgrade, Yugoslavia native is running again this year – for the third consecutive time.
Trendic spent 30 years working in the information technology industry, and retired three years ago “for health reasons.” He moved to Ocean Pines in 2013.
“Over the course of the last three years, it’s been kind of a journey of reality checks as far as the Ocean Pines affairs goes,” he said. “There’s some great aspects of that and some very disturbing aspects – that’s why I became very active in different ways, writing to the newspapers and making public comments at the board meetings, and really walking the streets and talking to the owners.”
He joked that he “wanted to set a record” by running again.
“It’s not whether I want the job – it’s really stepping up as a community member,” he said. “There are two parts of my motivation. One, the community, as they learned about me, they began to motivate me to run for the board and get hands-on involved. Two, when we see something that’s not being done right – that can be done better – and we have the skills and the experience to bring out value, then we should do so.
“I really feel I have what it takes to do this ‘thankless’ job,” he added. “Anybody who steps into a public domain gets seldom credits of recognition. It’s often been heavy criticism, and hopefully that’s going to change in the future as we begin to do a better job as a board.”
Trendic said there are two key issues facing Ocean Pines, essentially “chaos” on one side, represented by the board of directors, and a “runaway train” on the other, represented by General Manager Bob Thompson.
He called the collision of the two a “perfect storm” in the making, with the biggest damage coming from Thompson himself.
“I think that’s what this election is about – can we stop this from becoming, truly, a situation where there’s some significant damage that can be done. It’s not just physical or financial, but it’s also the perception about us as a community,” Trendic said. “We’re beginning to get a bad reputation. Our property values are going down, not up. We’re being called ‘Pines Whinos.’ This is really not who we are and we should not be, really, perceived as such.”
The homeowners, he said, “need to do a much better job” of selecting candidates. Trendic urged voters to look further than individual resumes and instead look towards reform-minded people rather than those who favor the status quo.
“We need to change, really, the board – the way it functions – and we need to change the management of the community,” he said. “The performance speaks for itself – this is not my opinion. All you’ve got to do is look at the performance over the last six years under the leadership of Tom Terry as a board president and under the leadership of Bob Thompson there were some significant mistakes and failures that happened in the course of that time.”
Trendic used the issue of several bridges in the community that reportedly have serious structural issues that have not been addressed, as example of failure of leadership. He also said there is an overall lack of transparency as evidenced by the fact that the OPA Election Committee counts votes during a closed session. That, he said, is a violation of Maryland law.
“For years the board has used the following justification: this is done in closed session because it is a personnel matter. I’ve done extensive research – thank God for Google – the fact is that [neither] the candidates nor the directors are employees of the association. They are not personnel.
“This is one big issue that the board has continued to maintain in the eye of the public, and it’s controversial and it doesn’t need to be,” he added. “We should really make the public and the community and the homeowners part of the process. They should be in the meeting, cheering, clapping, enjoying a smooth transition of governance in our own democratic community.”
Trendic also took issue with Thompson’s salary, saying it ballooned from $110,000 to $165,000 “in a matter of four years.” Comparatively, he said that’s more than the city manager of Annapolis and the county administrator in Worcester, and is the same as the salary of Gov. Larry Hogan.
“Is that Bob’s fault? No. I don’t blame Bob,” he said. “If I was [him] I would take half a million dollars if the board wants to pay me. It’s the board’s fault – total fiscal irresponsibility and misuse of our money.”
He criticized the proposed food truck as another example of wasteful spending, and said the board, overall, was not using “best business practices.”
“We’ve got to be looking at outsourcing,” he said. “We’re just kind of nibbling at it with the golf course – and not doing a very good job – because we keep putting our fingers into the pot. The way the outsourcing model works the best is really hands off. Let the pros do it.
“I would expect that the new board should really be more open minded with using best practices, and if they don’t know what those are, we’re the members of the Community Association Institute. That’s a repository for best practices. We’re not the only 50-year-old community in the country that’s struggling with the issues that we have … and we can learn from those.”
When he ran two years ago, Trendic said he stepped down because he did not want to take away from two perceived “reform” candidates, Dave Stevens and Pat Renaud. It’s a decision he now regrets.
“We can’t rewrite history. We can only learn from it,” he said.
He also cited health reasons at the time. Trendic said he has had eight different surgeries during his 30-year struggle with Crohn’s disease and diabetes.
Last year, Trendic was found guilty of driving while impaired by alcohol and negligent driving stemming from an incident in Ocean Pines, which was reported in several local papers just months before the election deadline.
“They say any publicity is good publicity. I don’t know if I really agree with them. Being in the IT industry for 30 years, if you put something in the digital world it stays there forever,” he said. “But, we’re humans. We’re all vulnerable. We all experience moments in our life that test our ability to persevere and overcome controversies. The most important thing is to learn from that.
“I don’t want to disappear from something that I believe in very strongly. I still feel that I can really be a good member of the community and I can help in many ways. Whether I’m elected or not, I will try to help in any way that I can.”
Asked if he believed lingering health issues would prevent him from performing activities as a board member, Trendic said he hoped they would not.
“There are people with different handicaps and it doesn’t stop them from living, and I hope the voters will actually see that as a positive from me as opposed from a negative,” he said. “I don’t [expect health issues to be a factor] based on how I feel today, but we don’t know what the future has. If I reach a point where my health is impacting my ability to perform as a board member, I will be the first one to recognize that and I will not affect the board’s ability to perform because of my personal situation.”
The 61-year-old Belgrade, Yugoslavia native is running again this year – for the third consecutive time.
Trendic spent 30 years working in the information technology industry, and retired three years ago “for health reasons.” He moved to Ocean Pines in 2013.
“Over the course of the last three years, it’s been kind of a journey of reality checks as far as the Ocean Pines affairs goes,” he said. “There’s some great aspects of that and some very disturbing aspects – that’s why I became very active in different ways, writing to the newspapers and making public comments at the board meetings, and really walking the streets and talking to the owners.”
He joked that he “wanted to set a record” by running again.
“It’s not whether I want the job – it’s really stepping up as a community member,” he said. “There are two parts of my motivation. One, the community, as they learned about me, they began to motivate me to run for the board and get hands-on involved. Two, when we see something that’s not being done right – that can be done better – and we have the skills and the experience to bring out value, then we should do so.
“I really feel I have what it takes to do this ‘thankless’ job,” he added. “Anybody who steps into a public domain gets seldom credits of recognition. It’s often been heavy criticism, and hopefully that’s going to change in the future as we begin to do a better job as a board.”
Trendic said there are two key issues facing Ocean Pines, essentially “chaos” on one side, represented by the board of directors, and a “runaway train” on the other, represented by General Manager Bob Thompson.
He called the collision of the two a “perfect storm” in the making, with the biggest damage coming from Thompson himself.
“I think that’s what this election is about – can we stop this from becoming, truly, a situation where there’s some significant damage that can be done. It’s not just physical or financial, but it’s also the perception about us as a community,” Trendic said. “We’re beginning to get a bad reputation. Our property values are going down, not up. We’re being called ‘Pines Whinos.’ This is really not who we are and we should not be, really, perceived as such.”
The homeowners, he said, “need to do a much better job” of selecting candidates. Trendic urged voters to look further than individual resumes and instead look towards reform-minded people rather than those who favor the status quo.
“We need to change, really, the board – the way it functions – and we need to change the management of the community,” he said. “The performance speaks for itself – this is not my opinion. All you’ve got to do is look at the performance over the last six years under the leadership of Tom Terry as a board president and under the leadership of Bob Thompson there were some significant mistakes and failures that happened in the course of that time.”
Trendic used the issue of several bridges in the community that reportedly have serious structural issues that have not been addressed, as example of failure of leadership. He also said there is an overall lack of transparency as evidenced by the fact that the OPA Election Committee counts votes during a closed session. That, he said, is a violation of Maryland law.
“For years the board has used the following justification: this is done in closed session because it is a personnel matter. I’ve done extensive research – thank God for Google – the fact is that [neither] the candidates nor the directors are employees of the association. They are not personnel.
“This is one big issue that the board has continued to maintain in the eye of the public, and it’s controversial and it doesn’t need to be,” he added. “We should really make the public and the community and the homeowners part of the process. They should be in the meeting, cheering, clapping, enjoying a smooth transition of governance in our own democratic community.”
Trendic also took issue with Thompson’s salary, saying it ballooned from $110,000 to $165,000 “in a matter of four years.” Comparatively, he said that’s more than the city manager of Annapolis and the county administrator in Worcester, and is the same as the salary of Gov. Larry Hogan.
“Is that Bob’s fault? No. I don’t blame Bob,” he said. “If I was [him] I would take half a million dollars if the board wants to pay me. It’s the board’s fault – total fiscal irresponsibility and misuse of our money.”
He criticized the proposed food truck as another example of wasteful spending, and said the board, overall, was not using “best business practices.”
“We’ve got to be looking at outsourcing,” he said. “We’re just kind of nibbling at it with the golf course – and not doing a very good job – because we keep putting our fingers into the pot. The way the outsourcing model works the best is really hands off. Let the pros do it.
“I would expect that the new board should really be more open minded with using best practices, and if they don’t know what those are, we’re the members of the Community Association Institute. That’s a repository for best practices. We’re not the only 50-year-old community in the country that’s struggling with the issues that we have … and we can learn from those.”
When he ran two years ago, Trendic said he stepped down because he did not want to take away from two perceived “reform” candidates, Dave Stevens and Pat Renaud. It’s a decision he now regrets.
“We can’t rewrite history. We can only learn from it,” he said.
He also cited health reasons at the time. Trendic said he has had eight different surgeries during his 30-year struggle with Crohn’s disease and diabetes.
Last year, Trendic was found guilty of driving while impaired by alcohol and negligent driving stemming from an incident in Ocean Pines, which was reported in several local papers just months before the election deadline.
“They say any publicity is good publicity. I don’t know if I really agree with them. Being in the IT industry for 30 years, if you put something in the digital world it stays there forever,” he said. “But, we’re humans. We’re all vulnerable. We all experience moments in our life that test our ability to persevere and overcome controversies. The most important thing is to learn from that.
“I don’t want to disappear from something that I believe in very strongly. I still feel that I can really be a good member of the community and I can help in many ways. Whether I’m elected or not, I will try to help in any way that I can.”
Asked if he believed lingering health issues would prevent him from performing activities as a board member, Trendic said he hoped they would not.
“There are people with different handicaps and it doesn’t stop them from living, and I hope the voters will actually see that as a positive from me as opposed from a negative,” he said. “I don’t [expect health issues to be a factor] based on how I feel today, but we don’t know what the future has. If I reach a point where my health is impacting my ability to perform as a board member, I will be the first one to recognize that and I will not affect the board’s ability to perform because of my personal situation.”