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Surveillance tied to employee resignations

(May 25, 2017) The resignation of Ocean Pines Chief Financial Officer Mary Bosack last week is tied to the recent departure of several other senior employees who have alleged poor working conditions, according to several sources close to the association and the board.
A special meeting was apparently called last Friday when the directors learned of her resignation, but the meeting was not immediately scheduled. On Monday, Board President Tom Herrick set the meeting for this Friday.  
In addition, sources said the departure of former Beach Club Manager Lynda Huettner, Golf Course Superintendent Rusty McLendon, Facilities Manager Jerry Aveta and several others are the result of conditions related to management style of interim General Manager Brett Hill.
Several other high-level employees, including Recreation and Parks Director Sonya Bounds, Marketing, Public Relations Director Teresa Travatello and Yacht Club Manager Jerry Lewis either resigned or were let go during the last year.
Among the accusations are that video and audio surveillance has apparently taken place inside offices at the administration building and at other facilities in Ocean Pines, as instituted and monitored by Hill.
Sources said Bosack had reached out to Herrick and others for assistance, but no response was forthcoming. Bosack then resigned, effective immediately last Friday.
“The environment has become very toxic and the working conditions are very unhealthy and stressful,” one official said on condition of anonymity.
Last Thursday, security cameras at association facilities became the topic of discussion during a club advisory committee meeting at the country club.
Cameras at Mumford’s Landing, formerly the yacht club, are being monitored so closely that some employees have become too fearful to take a drink of water on the job, according to committee member Gary Miller
“There’s a lot of new cameras up,” Miller said during the meeting. “There’s two video cameras in the bar area over at Mumford’s downstairs and apparently – this is coming from one of the bartenders – they are not allowed to have anything to drink, including water or soda, behind the bar because somebody thought that they were drinking the alcohol.
“If a bartender wants to go get a drink, he actually has to go out from behind the bar, take a break, get something to drink, and then come back,” Miller continued. “When there’s an issue with them being crowded and they can’t leave because its busy, they’ve got a problem because the cameras are watching and if they take a drink they’re afraid they’re going to get fired.”
Board Vice President Dave Stevens, the liaison to the committee, said the issue was a “highly inappropriate thing for an employee to be talking about.”
Miller said he started the conversation about the cameras and was told at least one bartender had quit because “he had to take a break in order to get a glass of water.”
Stevens said security was an issue at the restaurant, hence the cameras.
“It is an issue and it was and has been an issue – a big issue. It wasn’t a little issue,” Stevens said. “Those security cameras are there [because of that].”
As for audio and video camera recordings in the administration building, Hill said in an email sent to the other directors they were installed at the request of Bosack, an assertion that Bosack has denied.
 According to Director Cheryl Jacobs, at least some members of the board were excluded from any conversations regarding the surveillance.
“I can respond that it was without the knowledge of some directors, myself included,” she said.