(April 7, 2016) Frustration was palpable during the most recent meeting of the Ocean Pines Comprehensive Planning Committee on March 31.
Still reeling from a difficult meeting with the board of directors two weeks earlier and hoping to regroup, the committee had trouble accomplishing much.
Gail Blazer worried the directors were looking at the committee “like we’re the devil.”
Frank Daly said the group was suffering from a lack of understanding by the board, including Director Bill Cordwell, who has made repeated reference to the committee’s collaboration with Salisbury University group BEACON, suggesting the comprehensive plan would be “written by college kids.”
“The damned plan is not going to be written by college kids. It’s going to be written by the people on this committee,” he said. “We’re going to write the damned plan.”
Daly said he had experience sitting on boards similar to the one in Ocean Pines, and admitted he would not have been pleased with what he saw from his own committee.
“If I was sitting on that board and a committee came in and gave a presentation that they did last time, you’d either be DOA or you’d be on a list where you get one more mistake before you’re out,” he said.
“I think we’re there,” Facilities Manager Jerry Aveta said.
Daly went on to say the committee needed to clear up misconceptions and reign in BEACON head Dr. Memo Diriker.
Diriker was not present during the meeting, and did not attend the committee’s last meeting with the board.
“Dr. Diriker should not say one damned word unless we ask him to. It’s our presentation,” Daly said. “Dr. Diriker’s role is to provide us advice, counsel, statistical analysis and computer software to do that analysis that we don’t have. If he comes into that thing and starts up that presentation [of his computer program], we will not survive that meeting.”
Aveta said the committee had lost its way and gone “off the rails.” The board, he suggested, did not have a good sense of the history of the committee, and the committee, in turn, had not been able to describe its goal or vision in a succinct enough manner.
Blazer introduced Ocean Planning and Zoning Director Bill Neville during the meeting. Neville is also an Ocean Pines resident, and offered his assistance.
“He not going to be a silver bullet [but] he’s probably going to make us think,” she said.
Neville said the normal procedure in crafting a comprehensive plan was to follow a standard guideline provided by the state. Because Ocean Pines is not a municipality, however, he suggested the association could look at the county plan as a roadmap, or try something different altogether, moving towards a “facilities master plan,” or a general marketing plan.
“I think there’s a change that’s being recommended in all the planning journals … to get away from this dry, statistical summary approach, and to make it more of a marketing plan,” he said. “If you consider your audience is the new resident who comes to the community, or a new member of the board, you want the document to tell the story of the community.”
If the committee were asked to present something to the board again in the near future, Neville suggested it condense information into a “one-page vision statement,” along with a simple plan of action.
About 45 minutes in, Chair Steve Cohen excused himself to go to another meeting. Aveta said he was “in shock.”
If the committee could not “calm down emotions and explain the value [the plan] the whole project is at risk,” Aveta said. “[The board] is upset with the lack of communication.”
The committee concluded the open portion of the meeting and went into closed session at about 5:30 p.m. According to meeting minutes, released April 1, the meeting ended at 6:15 p.m.
The comprehensive planning commission will meet again on April 14, at 4:30 p.m. at the Ocean Pines Library.
Still reeling from a difficult meeting with the board of directors two weeks earlier and hoping to regroup, the committee had trouble accomplishing much.
Gail Blazer worried the directors were looking at the committee “like we’re the devil.”
Frank Daly said the group was suffering from a lack of understanding by the board, including Director Bill Cordwell, who has made repeated reference to the committee’s collaboration with Salisbury University group BEACON, suggesting the comprehensive plan would be “written by college kids.”
“The damned plan is not going to be written by college kids. It’s going to be written by the people on this committee,” he said. “We’re going to write the damned plan.”
Daly said he had experience sitting on boards similar to the one in Ocean Pines, and admitted he would not have been pleased with what he saw from his own committee.
“If I was sitting on that board and a committee came in and gave a presentation that they did last time, you’d either be DOA or you’d be on a list where you get one more mistake before you’re out,” he said.
“I think we’re there,” Facilities Manager Jerry Aveta said.
Daly went on to say the committee needed to clear up misconceptions and reign in BEACON head Dr. Memo Diriker.
Diriker was not present during the meeting, and did not attend the committee’s last meeting with the board.
“Dr. Diriker should not say one damned word unless we ask him to. It’s our presentation,” Daly said. “Dr. Diriker’s role is to provide us advice, counsel, statistical analysis and computer software to do that analysis that we don’t have. If he comes into that thing and starts up that presentation [of his computer program], we will not survive that meeting.”
Aveta said the committee had lost its way and gone “off the rails.” The board, he suggested, did not have a good sense of the history of the committee, and the committee, in turn, had not been able to describe its goal or vision in a succinct enough manner.
Blazer introduced Ocean Planning and Zoning Director Bill Neville during the meeting. Neville is also an Ocean Pines resident, and offered his assistance.
“He not going to be a silver bullet [but] he’s probably going to make us think,” she said.
Neville said the normal procedure in crafting a comprehensive plan was to follow a standard guideline provided by the state. Because Ocean Pines is not a municipality, however, he suggested the association could look at the county plan as a roadmap, or try something different altogether, moving towards a “facilities master plan,” or a general marketing plan.
“I think there’s a change that’s being recommended in all the planning journals … to get away from this dry, statistical summary approach, and to make it more of a marketing plan,” he said. “If you consider your audience is the new resident who comes to the community, or a new member of the board, you want the document to tell the story of the community.”
If the committee were asked to present something to the board again in the near future, Neville suggested it condense information into a “one-page vision statement,” along with a simple plan of action.
About 45 minutes in, Chair Steve Cohen excused himself to go to another meeting. Aveta said he was “in shock.”
If the committee could not “calm down emotions and explain the value [the plan] the whole project is at risk,” Aveta said. “[The board] is upset with the lack of communication.”
The committee concluded the open portion of the meeting and went into closed session at about 5:30 p.m. According to meeting minutes, released April 1, the meeting ended at 6:15 p.m.
The comprehensive planning commission will meet again on April 14, at 4:30 p.m. at the Ocean Pines Library.