(June 23, 2016) Brett C. Hill is by far the youngest candidate running for the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors this year.
Born in Baltimore, the 37-year-old has owned property in the Pines since 2012 and moved to the area full time last spring. His company, FTS Fiber, provides Internet infrastructure services from its headquarters in West Ocean City.
“In the years we’ve been exposed to the community, it appears that there’s a select demographic, or a few people that seem to be pretty vocal and push their intentions, and the direction doesn’t necessarily align with what I feel is in the best interest of my family,” he said. “I think it doesn’t really represent the demographic – which is a fairly large population – of younger families moving into the neighborhood.”
His, he suggested, is a “voice that hasn’t been heard by the community” in some time.
“We make up a large portion of the homes and, at least among our peers, everybody just kind of gives up and says it is what it is,” he said. “I don’t have that attitude. It has been [like that], but it can change. I have a big mouth and I want my voice to be heard.”
Among Hill’s chief complaints are that board meetings, usually scheduled on Thursday mornings, are difficult for working people to attend. He said playgrounds in the community are falling apart, and the yacht club is a “complete disaster.”
“The old building was a great place to take my family to eat. It was a warm, inviting atmosphere. The food was good, the other patrons were talking to us and having conversations, and it was more of a communal atmosphere,” he said. “The communal atmosphere has disappeared and it’s just cold, on top of the quality going downhill.
“We moved to the community and bought in the community because of the amenities, and those reasons, which for us justified paying essentially a premium – they’re disappearing,” he continued. “I think for all the residents, the amenities should be something that increases the value of our house. Right now, in my opinion, it’s an HOA due that decreases the value and marketability because the benefit’s not there. They’re a financial drain, and it’s wrong.”
Hill called the current board of directors “lackadaisical,” and suggested many simply enjoyed having the title.
“It doesn’t seem like there’s any true management taking place from the board or the senior management staff that we employ,” he said. “It’s kind of just a happy-go-lucky attitude. We have millions of dollars to spend and we’ll just kind of do what we want to do, and the people who scream the loudest will get money spent.”
He said he has not personally met with or spoken to General Manager Bob Thompson, but is not impressed with the information he shares during monthly presentations to the board. The proposed food truck, for example, included quotes comprised of “scratched up notes on paper.”
“There’s no description of warrantee or what you’re actually buying, and they matched that up to two eBay listings,” he said. “I don’t know in what world that is a competitive bid process.”
Hill also brought up the recent example of the awnings on the tiki bar at the yacht club, which he said included two quotes simply taken from two websites.
“The website quote came in cheaper than the preferred, but the catch was labor wasn’t quoted. Well, that’s because we never asked for a quote,” he said. “If you’re a community the size of Ocean Pines with the buying power that a multimillion dollar budget dictates, picking up the phone and asking a vendor to come out and walk a job and provide a written quotation with a warrantee description and an ‘apples to apples’ comparison – that’s what management should do.
“If I were Bob I would be embarrassed to feed that back to the board,” he added. “Maybe that’s how Bob was directed. I don’t know how Bob works. I can’t speak to say it’s 100 percent his fault and everybody else is awesome and Bob’s the one screwing it up, which I think is what a lot of people would like to say because Bob’s the face that’s out there.”
Whether the issue is chiefly with Thompson or “across the board,” Hill said it is clear there is a problem with how things are done in Ocean Pines.
“The problem has to be fixed,” he said. “Looking at the way a lot of our amenities are run, it’s an issue of we don’t have the proper management in place to be running those amenities. I don’t know Bob well, but it appears he doesn’t have a lot of experience in running restaurants and hospitality – and the hospitality industry is a tough industry to work in.
“Perhaps the community would be better served by having a professional organization or an individual with the experience in handling hospitality – which is, at this point, a large portion of our losses every year – providing better experience and better guidance,” Hill added. “We’re, as an HOA, paying people to supposedly come in and manage us, and they’re not doing their job. I don’t think it’s a function of we have a failed amenity – we have the wrong people managing the process.”
Born in Baltimore, the 37-year-old has owned property in the Pines since 2012 and moved to the area full time last spring. His company, FTS Fiber, provides Internet infrastructure services from its headquarters in West Ocean City.
“In the years we’ve been exposed to the community, it appears that there’s a select demographic, or a few people that seem to be pretty vocal and push their intentions, and the direction doesn’t necessarily align with what I feel is in the best interest of my family,” he said. “I think it doesn’t really represent the demographic – which is a fairly large population – of younger families moving into the neighborhood.”
His, he suggested, is a “voice that hasn’t been heard by the community” in some time.
“We make up a large portion of the homes and, at least among our peers, everybody just kind of gives up and says it is what it is,” he said. “I don’t have that attitude. It has been [like that], but it can change. I have a big mouth and I want my voice to be heard.”
Among Hill’s chief complaints are that board meetings, usually scheduled on Thursday mornings, are difficult for working people to attend. He said playgrounds in the community are falling apart, and the yacht club is a “complete disaster.”
“The old building was a great place to take my family to eat. It was a warm, inviting atmosphere. The food was good, the other patrons were talking to us and having conversations, and it was more of a communal atmosphere,” he said. “The communal atmosphere has disappeared and it’s just cold, on top of the quality going downhill.
“We moved to the community and bought in the community because of the amenities, and those reasons, which for us justified paying essentially a premium – they’re disappearing,” he continued. “I think for all the residents, the amenities should be something that increases the value of our house. Right now, in my opinion, it’s an HOA due that decreases the value and marketability because the benefit’s not there. They’re a financial drain, and it’s wrong.”
Hill called the current board of directors “lackadaisical,” and suggested many simply enjoyed having the title.
“It doesn’t seem like there’s any true management taking place from the board or the senior management staff that we employ,” he said. “It’s kind of just a happy-go-lucky attitude. We have millions of dollars to spend and we’ll just kind of do what we want to do, and the people who scream the loudest will get money spent.”
He said he has not personally met with or spoken to General Manager Bob Thompson, but is not impressed with the information he shares during monthly presentations to the board. The proposed food truck, for example, included quotes comprised of “scratched up notes on paper.”
“There’s no description of warrantee or what you’re actually buying, and they matched that up to two eBay listings,” he said. “I don’t know in what world that is a competitive bid process.”
Hill also brought up the recent example of the awnings on the tiki bar at the yacht club, which he said included two quotes simply taken from two websites.
“The website quote came in cheaper than the preferred, but the catch was labor wasn’t quoted. Well, that’s because we never asked for a quote,” he said. “If you’re a community the size of Ocean Pines with the buying power that a multimillion dollar budget dictates, picking up the phone and asking a vendor to come out and walk a job and provide a written quotation with a warrantee description and an ‘apples to apples’ comparison – that’s what management should do.
“If I were Bob I would be embarrassed to feed that back to the board,” he added. “Maybe that’s how Bob was directed. I don’t know how Bob works. I can’t speak to say it’s 100 percent his fault and everybody else is awesome and Bob’s the one screwing it up, which I think is what a lot of people would like to say because Bob’s the face that’s out there.”
Whether the issue is chiefly with Thompson or “across the board,” Hill said it is clear there is a problem with how things are done in Ocean Pines.
“The problem has to be fixed,” he said. “Looking at the way a lot of our amenities are run, it’s an issue of we don’t have the proper management in place to be running those amenities. I don’t know Bob well, but it appears he doesn’t have a lot of experience in running restaurants and hospitality – and the hospitality industry is a tough industry to work in.
“Perhaps the community would be better served by having a professional organization or an individual with the experience in handling hospitality – which is, at this point, a large portion of our losses every year – providing better experience and better guidance,” Hill added. “We’re, as an HOA, paying people to supposedly come in and manage us, and they’re not doing their job. I don’t think it’s a function of we have a failed amenity – we have the wrong people managing the process.”