By Jack Chavez, Staff Writer

(Sept. 22, 2022) The Ocean Pines By-Laws and Resolutions Committee settled on three resolutions to submit for first reading during its virtual meeting on Friday.

The committee drafted changes for resolutions M-05, B-07 and F-03, which the Ocean Pines Board of Directors will now review.

It will still be some time before changes could be enacted, outgoing chair Jim Trummel stressed after the meeting, adding that “these changes can’t be approved until a second meeting.”

M-05, the animal control resolution, is a declaration of the policy for associated fees regarding the custody of animals by the Ocean Pines Police Department, according to the association website.

Changes to the resolution are minor, Trummel said.

“There were two references to the Maryland code and one to the Worcester County code, which were (all) out of date. That’s the only thing that’s changed — it’s updated to show current references for why it says what it says,” he said.

B-07, the petitions resolution, defines the format and procedures for submitting petitions to the board of directors, according to the association website.

Trummel said the issue with this resolution is a matter of who can start a petition and who can represent a petitioner. He gave an example from June when a petition was circulated for a referendum.

“A question was raised dealing with the format of a petition for a referendum — the format as well as the circulation of a petition,” he said. “The question related to bylaws in particular, (who) will be representative of petitioners. The bylaws were unclear about this — if someone who isn’t a member of the association can be a representative (of the petitioners). The committee decided that B-07 could clarify that.”

“The draft identifies that the petitioner must be an eligible association member, (but) at any public hearing, the (petitioner) can have a non-association representative.”

The petition circulator must be an association member but at later times, if it becomes necessary to go to a public hearing or before the board, when it’s more than just simply circulating the petition, public representation of the petitioner can be taken up by someone outside the community, Trummel said.

F-03, the financial reserve accounts resolution, defines requirements for establishing financial reserve accounts to address long-term maintenance and/or replacement of capital assets owned by the association, according to its website.

The resolution has never been updated, Trummel said.

“Reserve accounts must be established by the board in a resolution that’s in the Book of Resolutions,” he explained. “There are five existing reserve accounts. Four of those accounts are now established within the text of resolution F-03. (Around) two years ago the board separated drainage from the roads maintenance reserve and established it as its own account. Now there’s five reserve accounts instead of four.”

“The simple, straight story is there is now a drainage account that is not established in the resolution. What the F-03 reading does is establish the reserve drainage account as required by the bylaws.”

Discussions of two other resolutions, C-01 and C-09, concerned whether they’re up to date.

These moves were thought to be further along the process than this, Trummel said. But the recent elections that shook up not only the board but also board liaisons led to the decision to go through these resolutions again so that new liaisons can be involved in the whole process.

It is the liaison’s responsibility to get these recommendations to the board for deliberation.

The new liaison for the committee is a familiar face: Steve Jacobs, who gave up his spot on this committee to serve as a director.

Pam Ferinde is replacing Jacobs on the committee.