By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Jan. 17, 2019) Ocean Pines Board of Directors candidates this year will see a slightly modified version of the application form each is required to complete.

Director Colette Horn, who, as the association secretary, verifies candidate eligibility, said many of the alterations were made for ease of use and because she’s new to the job.

For one, association officials previously used “sticky notes” to mark when applications were received and who handled them.

“I thought that’s not a good way to go, so instead of sticky notes we have little boxes at the bottom [of the form]. It just shows every step and the person who handled it at every step,” Horn said.

Also new are separate spaces for property address and mailing address. Horn said that made it easier for her to mail election materials to each candidate. Last year, some materials were sent to a homeowner who did not primarily receive mail in Ocean Pines, she said.

Spaces for mailing, property and email addresses were also modified so applicants could type in entries, rather than hand-write them. Horn said some forms last year were difficult to read.

Additionally, she said the modified version more explicitly stated director eligibility requirements.

“That’s always been there, but I think the wording was changed a little,” she said.

Horn said the changes have little to do with the lawsuit filed by Brett Hill against her and the association after his application was rejected. The case was eventually dropped.

“It didn’t really have to do with that,” she said. “A lot of it was to make it easier for the secretary to be able to go through the process and not have guesswork as to where should I mail this [and] can I really read this handwriting when I’m out to make sure I have the address correct.

“When I went through the process last year, I didn’t like having the sticky notes and that kind of stuff. I just felt it was cleaner for me, as a new secretary that was new to the process,” Horn added.

She said some changes were recommended by members of the Ocean Pines Search Committee, which recruits candidates for office.

Elections Committee Chairman Steve Habeger on Friday said his group’s concerns “have been met by this.”

Horn said the new form must be approved by the board of directors before it can be employed. She said it would be considered during the Feb. 15 board meeting.