Clock on ballot mailing will start ticking on March 27

By Greg Ellison

(March 18, 2021) Sorting out details for an upcoming referendum on whether to limit the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors’ spending authority dominated discussions during the Elections Committee meeting last Friday.

The board has scheduled a public hearing on Saturday, March 27 at 9 a.m. related to a petition to amend association bylaws to require membership approval for any capital expenditure costing more than $1 million.

Next Saturday’s hearing stems from a Worcester County Circuit Court ruling supporting past Director Slobodan Trendic’s suit against the OPA last fall challenging the directors’ rejection of his petition calling for a referendum on spending restrictions.

Trendic filed suit in November 2019 after the board declared that his petition submitted to the directors that August did not meet the required standards.

Committee Chairman Steve Habeger said meeting notices were in the midst of being mailed to association members on Friday.

“They should start to arrive Monday in people’s mailboxes,” he said.

Habeger said time had nearly evaporated to provide the mandated 15 days for meeting notice.

“Basically, it has to go today,” he said.

After the meeting mailing was proofread last week, copy quickly went into production.

“They started printing at 5 a.m. yesterday,” he said.

Habeger said the legal notice states that within 30 days after the March 27 hearing the referendum ballots have to be mailed to members.

“On the 27th, we start a 30-day clock to get out the mailing with the return envelope,” he said

Referendum ballot mailings will include the proposed amendment, with an explanation from the petitioner, along with a position statement from the board.

“After the public hearing we’ll have to send out and then collect back the ballots, count them and report the results,” he said.

Habeger said while a 30-day timeframe has been established to mail referendum ballots, the response deadline has yet to be firmed.

“We don’t want it to be two days, but we don’t want it to be six months,” he said.

“With the election ballots, our goal is that people can have them for 30 days,” he said. “This is a simpler, straightforward issue.”

Committee member Mark Heintz, noting past incidents of late mail, asked when the allotted time would need to be determined.

Habeger expressed optimism the committee would have referendum ballots in transit in less than the 30 days allotted.

“All mail which is posted on the Eastern Shore goes to Baltimore to be postmarked, sorted and sent back to the destination,” he said. “Due to Baltimore processing, we need to put about a three-day buffer if I’m in Ocean Pines.”

Committee member Carol Ludwig asked if there were time restrictions on counting the ballots.

After being told those specifics had yet to be determined, Ludwig suggested allowing one week for materials to arrive and 10 days for members to return replies.

Habeger proposed the committee schedule a special meeting after the March 27 public hearing to finalize details.

“Let’s plan March 31 to figure out the referendum mailing and response time,” he said. “We should have the product that needs to go out by then.”

In one order of new business, the committee made a motion to accept the sole response for a bid contract for 2021 election printing and mailing services.