(March 24, 2016) Officially, the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors and Worcester County Commissioners have called off an annual dinner meeting, because some felt it was redundant and the commissioners were already stretched thin during budget season.
Unofficially, sources from both bodies said there could be a larger rift brewing, in part because some were put off by the Pines’ request for an 80 percent increase in county funds made earlier this month.
“I’ve heard, from impeccable sources, that [the commissioners] were really pissed off,” said one source, who asked to not to be identified. “And it was unanimous – it wasn’t just one or two.”
On the record, however, the party line is that there is nothing to see here.
“It’s a pretty simple answer,” Commissioner Bud Church said. “We get tons and tons of requests from everyone to meet with them to discuss their budgets, and it’s just overwhelming.
“We have Ocean Pines, Berlin, Ocean City, all of the cities and municipalities come in and tell us what they want. We hear that, and then Ocean Pines, for the last several years, has had us come to dinner and tell us the same thing over again. It’s just gotten beyond the point where we can honor all of the requests,” he added.
Church said he spoke with Pines General Manager Bob Thompson, and assured him there was no slight intended.
“There was no ulterior motive other than we just don’t have time,” he said.
As for the $1.8 million request itself, Church said it was too early to comment on specifics, although he said he was not offended by the dollar amount.
“Everybody knows that not everybody’s budget request is going to be budgeted in fall,” he said. “It’s too early to say what we really think about it until we get all the numbers. The good news is that we have a little additional revenue this year that we haven’t in the past, so, hopefully, we’ll be able to do a little better for everyone’s budget.”
Tom Terry, the second longest-serving director on the current board, at six years, said he was simply told the commissioners were “extremely busy.”
“I don’t think there is anything more to it than that,” he said. “Some of the players have changed down there, and they’re not used to necessarily doing this. They chose to delay it. Whether it’s put off permanently, that I don’t know. That would be a big change.”
Terry said he hoped the board and commissioners would be able to reschedule eventually.
“I think [the meetings] were good in the sense that some of the county commissioners who didn’t necessarily directly represent Ocean Pines were given an opportunity to know what was going on,” he said. “I think that was very valuable, but I understand. Sometimes schedules just don’t allow things to happen.”
Director Dave Stevens, who has served on the Ocean Pines Board for eight of the last nine years, guessed the dinners date back to around 2007 or 2008, when he first came on as a director.
This year, he said he was told, “in light of their schedule, the commissioners didn’t think they could arrange a time to meet.”
Stevens said the board of directors was not advised of this year’s budget request, which was presented by Thompson during a public meeting in Snow Hill, March 1.
“We had no idea what was happening, what was going to be asked for, who was going to give the presentation – or even that there was a presentation,” he said, adding that, in the past, there were at least discussions about each budget request in advance of the actual presentations.
Last year, when Stevens was president of the board, he remembers sitting in a county commissioners meeting with a “long shopping list” with Director Jack Collins. After watching the pitches by neighboring communities, he said he scaled back his own request.
“I told Jack, ‘I can’t go up with this shopping list. It’s stupid. It’ll make them mad,’” he said. “So what I did is, I changed it. I got up, I pointed out some of the highlighted areas in which we felt we were short and asked them to do whatever they could for us, but I didn’t put any dollars down, and I didn’t hand in the paper.”
Learning what he did last year, Stevens said this year’s request was probably “ill advised.”
“The right way to do it is to find some bar and get Chip Bertino and Jim Bunting together and talk about it, say, explain this to us. Why are we getting this and why do we continually seem to be shortchanged? Just give us the rationale for it,” Stevens said. “I’m not saying back off [on the dollar amount], but you don’t do it during a meeting with seven commissioners when they haven’t seen it before.”
The Gazette also made calls to several others on the Ocean Pines board and at the Worcester County Commissioners, who declined to comment, did not return calls, or did not wish to be named.
Unofficially, sources from both bodies said there could be a larger rift brewing, in part because some were put off by the Pines’ request for an 80 percent increase in county funds made earlier this month.
“I’ve heard, from impeccable sources, that [the commissioners] were really pissed off,” said one source, who asked to not to be identified. “And it was unanimous – it wasn’t just one or two.”
On the record, however, the party line is that there is nothing to see here.
“It’s a pretty simple answer,” Commissioner Bud Church said. “We get tons and tons of requests from everyone to meet with them to discuss their budgets, and it’s just overwhelming.
“We have Ocean Pines, Berlin, Ocean City, all of the cities and municipalities come in and tell us what they want. We hear that, and then Ocean Pines, for the last several years, has had us come to dinner and tell us the same thing over again. It’s just gotten beyond the point where we can honor all of the requests,” he added.
Church said he spoke with Pines General Manager Bob Thompson, and assured him there was no slight intended.
“There was no ulterior motive other than we just don’t have time,” he said.
As for the $1.8 million request itself, Church said it was too early to comment on specifics, although he said he was not offended by the dollar amount.
“Everybody knows that not everybody’s budget request is going to be budgeted in fall,” he said. “It’s too early to say what we really think about it until we get all the numbers. The good news is that we have a little additional revenue this year that we haven’t in the past, so, hopefully, we’ll be able to do a little better for everyone’s budget.”
Tom Terry, the second longest-serving director on the current board, at six years, said he was simply told the commissioners were “extremely busy.”
“I don’t think there is anything more to it than that,” he said. “Some of the players have changed down there, and they’re not used to necessarily doing this. They chose to delay it. Whether it’s put off permanently, that I don’t know. That would be a big change.”
Terry said he hoped the board and commissioners would be able to reschedule eventually.
“I think [the meetings] were good in the sense that some of the county commissioners who didn’t necessarily directly represent Ocean Pines were given an opportunity to know what was going on,” he said. “I think that was very valuable, but I understand. Sometimes schedules just don’t allow things to happen.”
Director Dave Stevens, who has served on the Ocean Pines Board for eight of the last nine years, guessed the dinners date back to around 2007 or 2008, when he first came on as a director.
This year, he said he was told, “in light of their schedule, the commissioners didn’t think they could arrange a time to meet.”
Stevens said the board of directors was not advised of this year’s budget request, which was presented by Thompson during a public meeting in Snow Hill, March 1.
“We had no idea what was happening, what was going to be asked for, who was going to give the presentation – or even that there was a presentation,” he said, adding that, in the past, there were at least discussions about each budget request in advance of the actual presentations.
Last year, when Stevens was president of the board, he remembers sitting in a county commissioners meeting with a “long shopping list” with Director Jack Collins. After watching the pitches by neighboring communities, he said he scaled back his own request.
“I told Jack, ‘I can’t go up with this shopping list. It’s stupid. It’ll make them mad,’” he said. “So what I did is, I changed it. I got up, I pointed out some of the highlighted areas in which we felt we were short and asked them to do whatever they could for us, but I didn’t put any dollars down, and I didn’t hand in the paper.”
Learning what he did last year, Stevens said this year’s request was probably “ill advised.”
“The right way to do it is to find some bar and get Chip Bertino and Jim Bunting together and talk about it, say, explain this to us. Why are we getting this and why do we continually seem to be shortchanged? Just give us the rationale for it,” Stevens said. “I’m not saying back off [on the dollar amount], but you don’t do it during a meeting with seven commissioners when they haven’t seen it before.”
The Gazette also made calls to several others on the Ocean Pines board and at the Worcester County Commissioners, who declined to comment, did not return calls, or did not wish to be named.