The problem with government is that most people don’t care who’s in charge, as long as they get what they want, while elected officials concern themselves first with who’s in charge and then worry about the results.
Were that not the case, the nation wouldn’t be witnessing the huge mess that is Congress, which devotes almost all of its time to developing strategies to do nothing, or this year’s presidential campaign, which has swung so far to extremes that more pragmatic Republicans and Democrats must be wondering exactly when it was that their parties moved on without them.
On the local level, however, nothing illustrates the procedure-versus-results debate more than last week’s meeting of the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors.
It’s difficult to tell whether anyone was right or wrong in the discussion of building new bathrooms at White Horse Park or the recommendations regarding the association’s investment strategy. That’s because the debate was more about how this information was presented instead of the information itself.
In addition, the strong perception that this is a contest of wills between the administration and some board members and between the individual board members themselves colors every disagreement.
As a result, it’s easy for the parties involved — and the public — to conclude that any miscommunication, mistake, oversight or bad timing was really done on purpose, or that any questionable argument involves personal animosity between some of the participants.
Meanwhile, most Ocean Pines property owners probably don’t care. All they want is to keep their assessments reasonable, their streets safe and their amenities (or most of them, anyway) in shape and accessible.
How this happens is not foremost on their minds, as long as it happens.