(March 16, 2017) The Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors began the process of finding a new general manager in January, when it hired the Novak Consultant Group to lead the search.
The question that won’t be answered for some time, however, is whether that contract – reportedly $20,300 plus an unspecified amount for advertising, background checks and travel – pays off. As Board Vice President Dave Stevens said during a phone interview Friday, paraphrasing a line from Mark Twain’s
“Huckleberry Finn,” “you pays your money and takes your chances.”
The board met with Novak Executive Search Practice Leader Catherine Tuck Parrish last Thursday in closed session. Stevens said Parrish also talked to Ocean Pines staff before briefing the directors.
Only four of the seven board members, Stevens, Cheryl Jacobs, Doug Parks and Slobodan Trendic, were able to attend the meeting.
Parks said Thursday that Novak had given a 90 to 120-day timeline during the bidding phase, but that could be somewhat nebulous.
“It was well understood that was an estimate,” he said. “It could go shorter than that – it could go longer than that based on how many qualified candidates we look at and the number of qualified candidates that we really want to talk to. If it’s only two or three, obviously, it would be shorter.”
Jacobs, on Friday, said she was impressed by what she had seen from Novak.
“I think it’s certainly fair to say that the directors received a lot of good information and felt good about what was discussed, and the timeline going forward,” she said.
Stevens, who was involved in two previous general manager searches, also spoke highly of process thus far.
“In my opinion [Novak] were very professional,” he said. “They have a specific process they implement and – baring the accommodation for individual schedules – it’s fairly rigid. I was impressed by that … I can’t speak for the other directors, but I thought we all came out with a fairly comfortable feeling.”
He said he hoped the process would be finished by early summer, before the next board election.
However, a potential sticking point in the negotiations – and a frequent sore spot during the previous general manager’s tenure – is the issue of salary.
“There are issues that we’ve got to sit down and talk about and resolve,” Stevens said. “The most qualified [candidates] to run a fairly large operation are likely to be in metropolitan areas, which have higher costs of living and higher salary levels and benefits. If you look locally, you’re not going to have the same crop to pick from.”
He expected Novak would pull from the eastern region of the United States, including Baltimore, Montgomery and Howard counties in Maryland, Fairfax and Renton counties in Virginia, and parts of southern Pennsylvania.
“The fundamental problem is where do you get the candidates from?” Stevens said. “You gotta realize that the better candidates – the ones that have the most experience – they come from [those areas]. In those areas, you’ve got a significant difference in the income levels of the people … between here and there. So if the best candidates are all there, what exactly are we going to do to attract them to come here?
“How much can we tie the hands of the search firm that we’ve hired to do this and ignore the actual people that they get? We’ve going to have to give them a broad range [of salary]. I don’t know any other way to do it,” Stevens added.
One thing Ocean Pines would not do, according to Stevens, is hire interim General Manager Brett Hill.
“That’s not an option,” Stevens said. “Brett doesn’t want to manage. He said he doesn’t want to do it, which is why I think he doesn’t want to do it. Could he change his mind? I don’t think so.”
Stevens said this process differs greatly from the approach Ocean Pines used when it hired its last two general managers.
“It’s certainly different from what we did for hiring [Tom] Olson, and very different from how we hired [Bob] Thompson,” Stevens said. “I suspect it’s different than we did for hiring any of the ones that preceded us.
“For Thompson, there was no process – not even what I would call the very minimum things you needed to do for any kind of legitimate hiring,” Stevens continued. “It was predetermined by a small number of board members the day before Olson was fired. The next thing was we would offer Bob Thompson [the job] as replacement manager. I didn’t even have a resume at that point. If there was an application filled out … I never saw it.”
According to Stevens, a committee of homeowners did the search for Olson.
“There’s no comparison,” he said. “I think this is the right way to do it. Whether or not it ends up in the best answer – who knows?”
The Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors will hold a public work session in the community center on 235 Ocean Parkway at 9 a.m. on Monday, March 20. A regular board meeting will follow on Saturday, March 25 at 10 a.m., in the same location.
The question that won’t be answered for some time, however, is whether that contract – reportedly $20,300 plus an unspecified amount for advertising, background checks and travel – pays off. As Board Vice President Dave Stevens said during a phone interview Friday, paraphrasing a line from Mark Twain’s
“Huckleberry Finn,” “you pays your money and takes your chances.”
The board met with Novak Executive Search Practice Leader Catherine Tuck Parrish last Thursday in closed session. Stevens said Parrish also talked to Ocean Pines staff before briefing the directors.
Only four of the seven board members, Stevens, Cheryl Jacobs, Doug Parks and Slobodan Trendic, were able to attend the meeting.
Parks said Thursday that Novak had given a 90 to 120-day timeline during the bidding phase, but that could be somewhat nebulous.
“It was well understood that was an estimate,” he said. “It could go shorter than that – it could go longer than that based on how many qualified candidates we look at and the number of qualified candidates that we really want to talk to. If it’s only two or three, obviously, it would be shorter.”
Jacobs, on Friday, said she was impressed by what she had seen from Novak.
“I think it’s certainly fair to say that the directors received a lot of good information and felt good about what was discussed, and the timeline going forward,” she said.
Stevens, who was involved in two previous general manager searches, also spoke highly of process thus far.
“In my opinion [Novak] were very professional,” he said. “They have a specific process they implement and – baring the accommodation for individual schedules – it’s fairly rigid. I was impressed by that … I can’t speak for the other directors, but I thought we all came out with a fairly comfortable feeling.”
He said he hoped the process would be finished by early summer, before the next board election.
However, a potential sticking point in the negotiations – and a frequent sore spot during the previous general manager’s tenure – is the issue of salary.
“There are issues that we’ve got to sit down and talk about and resolve,” Stevens said. “The most qualified [candidates] to run a fairly large operation are likely to be in metropolitan areas, which have higher costs of living and higher salary levels and benefits. If you look locally, you’re not going to have the same crop to pick from.”
He expected Novak would pull from the eastern region of the United States, including Baltimore, Montgomery and Howard counties in Maryland, Fairfax and Renton counties in Virginia, and parts of southern Pennsylvania.
“The fundamental problem is where do you get the candidates from?” Stevens said. “You gotta realize that the better candidates – the ones that have the most experience – they come from [those areas]. In those areas, you’ve got a significant difference in the income levels of the people … between here and there. So if the best candidates are all there, what exactly are we going to do to attract them to come here?
“How much can we tie the hands of the search firm that we’ve hired to do this and ignore the actual people that they get? We’ve going to have to give them a broad range [of salary]. I don’t know any other way to do it,” Stevens added.
One thing Ocean Pines would not do, according to Stevens, is hire interim General Manager Brett Hill.
“That’s not an option,” Stevens said. “Brett doesn’t want to manage. He said he doesn’t want to do it, which is why I think he doesn’t want to do it. Could he change his mind? I don’t think so.”
Stevens said this process differs greatly from the approach Ocean Pines used when it hired its last two general managers.
“It’s certainly different from what we did for hiring [Tom] Olson, and very different from how we hired [Bob] Thompson,” Stevens said. “I suspect it’s different than we did for hiring any of the ones that preceded us.
“For Thompson, there was no process – not even what I would call the very minimum things you needed to do for any kind of legitimate hiring,” Stevens continued. “It was predetermined by a small number of board members the day before Olson was fired. The next thing was we would offer Bob Thompson [the job] as replacement manager. I didn’t even have a resume at that point. If there was an application filled out … I never saw it.”
According to Stevens, a committee of homeowners did the search for Olson.
“There’s no comparison,” he said. “I think this is the right way to do it. Whether or not it ends up in the best answer – who knows?”
The Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors will hold a public work session in the community center on 235 Ocean Parkway at 9 a.m. on Monday, March 20. A regular board meeting will follow on Saturday, March 25 at 10 a.m., in the same location.