Admin responsibilities also on list of possible revisions

By Greg Ellison

(Feb. 3, 2022) The Ocean Pines Board of Directors will hold a hybrid meeting on Monday at 8 a.m. to consider a list of bylaws revisions that would affect board elections, candidate qualifications and director removals.

Originally scheduled for this past Monday, the meeting date was reset because of last weekend’s snowstorm.

Approximately 30 bylaws revisions are under consideration relating to petitions and referendums, voting rights, board candidate eligibility and verification, board meeting guidelines, general manager responsibilities, director responsibilities and resignation or removal of directors.

Changes to bylaws provisions would require a majority vote of association members via referendum.

Topping the list is a motion from Association President Colette Horn to revise bylaws sec 1.12 to define “eligibility to vote” as referring to a member paid up on annual charges that is not suspended from voting.

The board is also seeking to clarify the definition of “owner of record” to mean the name recorded on a deed filed with Worcester County government.

Director Frank Daly has proposed a dozen revisions regarding board candidate requirements and verification procedures.

Among those are nine changes to bylaws section 5.02a that would prohibit board candidacy for anyone convicted of a felony or anyone whose spouse has been convicted of a felony in the past decade, anyone involved in pending litigation against the association, and limiting directors, or their spouses, from seeking re-election after two terms.

Daly’s proposals would also require board candidates to be an owner of record of Pines property for a minimum of three years prior to the election year, with one-year service on an advisory board an acceptable substitute.

Looking at petition and referendum guidelines, another motion from Daly would revise bylaws section 4.07c to clarify signature requirements.

Daly’s proposal would require a minimum of 100 signatures of members eligible to vote for non-referendum issues, while also requiring signatures equal to a minimum of 10 percent of potential votes to trigger a referendum.

Also signatures equaling a minimum of 15 percent of total eligible votes would be needed for members to call a special meeting.

Director Doug Parks is proposing revising bylaws section 4.08c to require referendums to receive a majority vote of at least 40 percent of eligible votes for passage.

Other motions from Daly would revise bylaws section 5.12c to allow removal for cause of any director with a felony conviction in the past 10 years, which would also apply to spouses.

The hybrid meeting will be held in the administration building board room and also aired live online.

To access remotely, use the Microsoft Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YzdhNWMyMWMtMjJmYi00M2NkLThiZTAtMjhlOTMzZjljZmE0%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22625a6322-2b2f-40fa-94f8-d7dd44d78153%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%221bbee60b-d4e0-49eb-b4c6-d257cae7f063%22%7d.

For anyone who needs assistance to participate via MS Teams, a YouTube tutorial video can be accessed at https://youtu.be/AL-OD3_yaOA or they may contact info@oceanpines.org for assistance.”

The meeting video will also be posted later on the OPA YouTube channel.