JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
Ocean Pines Board members during an organizational meeting last Sunday plan out the agenda for an orientation meeting, Friday starting at 7 a.m. in the community center.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Aug. 23, 2018) The newly formed Ocean Pines Board of Directors appears to favor early starts, with two upcoming meetings scheduled to begin at 7 a.m.

They include an Aug. 24 orientation meeting and a Sept. 1 work session, both scheduled to occur at the Ocean Pines Community Center on 235 Ocean Parkway.

The orientation meeting this Friday will begin with a closed-session briefing on pending litigation against Ocean Pines.

Afterward, the board is scheduled to receive a roughly two-hour overview of governing documents from attorney Jeremy Tucker, followed by comments from General Manager John Bailey and an overview of Ocean Pines financials from Treasurer John Viola. After a break for lunch, the directors are set to tour several association facilities and meet department heads until about 3 p.m.

Director Frank Daly said several pressing issues the board would need to be addressed quickly, including whether to move the bulkhead staging ground away from the swim and racquet club park.

Daly also provided a sort of mission statement for the new board, which includes three freshman directors – Daly, Steve Tuttle and Esther Diller – along with returning members Doug Parks, Ted Moroney, Slobodan Trendic and Colette Horn.

Based on what he saw previously as an audience member during board meetings, Daly said the key to successful operations was improved board supervision and the performance of General Manager John Bailey.

“Our job is to provide oversight and strategic guidance based on input from the community,” he said. “We blend that with the strategic operational vision from Mr. Bailey and his team, and we make sure that when we approve a project it’s done correct, complete, on time and on cost.

“That’s what this whole discussion should be, so we don’t get people [on the board] trying to figure out … what the menu should be at some food venue,” Daly continued. “That’s not our job.”

Diller agreed and said the directors needed to take a more direct approach, using as an example the apparent struggle to set a date and time for the organizational meeting.

“We can spend days and hours talking – as our emails have shown – trying to get to one conclusion,” she said. “My goal here is to simplify and be strategic and be straightforward to get to the finish line – not to dissect it for 20 meetings … and I think we have a great group to be able to do that.”

She added, “We have a lot of issues to accomplish at this [orientation] meeting … hence why we’re going to start at 7 in the morning.”

Moroney said four critical issues the board must decide would require community input in the near future: country club renovations, financial software, the crabbing pier, and bulkheads.

Daly said the reserve study would also be of significant community interest, because of the potential impact on assessments.

Those five topics were slated for discussion during the Sept. 1 work session.

Upcoming regular board meetings, scheduled to start at 9 a.m., were set for Saturdays including Sept. 8, Oct. 20, Nov. 3, Dec. 1, Jan. 5, Feb. 16, March 9, April 6, May 4, June 1 and July 6.

Dates for three town hall meetings were not yet set.

To view a calendar of upcoming Ocean Pines Board meetings, visit www.oceanpines.org/calendars/calendar/cat_ids~13.