(Dec. 22, 2016) Despite some hiccups during a meeting last Thursday, plans are still moving forward to release a comprehensive planning survey to Ocean Pines homeowners when assessments are mailed in March.
Before that meeting with the comprehensive planning committee, Board Vice President Dave Stevens, also the committee liaison, said he and the other directors had trimmed a list of survey questions from about 40 to just 10.
He sent the committee members an email saying as much with a note that read, “The following questions were judged to be irrelevant, of little value, too complex for the average member to answer, or a duplicate of things that the board currently invested in.”
“Twenty-eight questions fall into that category out of 38,” he said, adding that the board “mostly agreed” on which questions to eliminate. “If we get down to, say the 10 questions that’s left, do we have a meaningful survey? Is it really worth mailing out those 10 questions?”
During the meeting, one long-time member of the committee walked out, apparently in frustration, but Committee Chair Frank Daly said he still viewed the session mostly as a positive.
“It went OK,” he said on Monday. “The board came back to us and they gave us exactly what we asked for – that was the very good thing.
“There were a list of questions that they felt could be eliminated for one reason or another, or modified,” Daly added. “I broke that down into two lists that I sent out to the committee – we couldn’t do it at the meeting – one of which was questions that they wanted eliminated, there were modifications and there were some that were accepted without any kind of question.”
Daly said that left potentially 23 questions in the survey, which he resubmitted to the board for approval.
“I will tell you one of the committee members really had a problem with [the board’s] response,” he said. “The bottom line is [the board] did what we asked for [and] we had a really good meeting with Stevens in talking about it.
“Some of the questions that were eliminated were eliminated because there were issues that trailed back for as much as two years and two boards, and they’ve been addressed,” Daly added. “If the issue has been addressed, there’s no reason to ask the question.”
The committee has tentatively scheduled three meetings in January, when Daly said work would be done to refine the comprehensive plan outline based on the remaining questions.
“The board has done exactly what we asked in regards to the questions and they did it in a timely manner,” Daly said. “[Committee member Steve] Cohen said we have never had this kind of response, this detailed and this fast from the board since he’s been on the committee. They’ve actually moved us closer to being able to conduct that survey and to do the comprehensive plan.”
Daly said he believed the timeline to release the survey to the public in March was still “very reasonable.”
He added that he hopes the departed committee member returns to the advisory group soon.
“Everything that came out of this meeting was positive and should have been taken as a positive thing, and the committee as a whole took it as a positive thing,” Daly said.
Before that meeting with the comprehensive planning committee, Board Vice President Dave Stevens, also the committee liaison, said he and the other directors had trimmed a list of survey questions from about 40 to just 10.
He sent the committee members an email saying as much with a note that read, “The following questions were judged to be irrelevant, of little value, too complex for the average member to answer, or a duplicate of things that the board currently invested in.”
“Twenty-eight questions fall into that category out of 38,” he said, adding that the board “mostly agreed” on which questions to eliminate. “If we get down to, say the 10 questions that’s left, do we have a meaningful survey? Is it really worth mailing out those 10 questions?”
During the meeting, one long-time member of the committee walked out, apparently in frustration, but Committee Chair Frank Daly said he still viewed the session mostly as a positive.
“It went OK,” he said on Monday. “The board came back to us and they gave us exactly what we asked for – that was the very good thing.
“There were a list of questions that they felt could be eliminated for one reason or another, or modified,” Daly added. “I broke that down into two lists that I sent out to the committee – we couldn’t do it at the meeting – one of which was questions that they wanted eliminated, there were modifications and there were some that were accepted without any kind of question.”
Daly said that left potentially 23 questions in the survey, which he resubmitted to the board for approval.
“I will tell you one of the committee members really had a problem with [the board’s] response,” he said. “The bottom line is [the board] did what we asked for [and] we had a really good meeting with Stevens in talking about it.
“Some of the questions that were eliminated were eliminated because there were issues that trailed back for as much as two years and two boards, and they’ve been addressed,” Daly added. “If the issue has been addressed, there’s no reason to ask the question.”
The committee has tentatively scheduled three meetings in January, when Daly said work would be done to refine the comprehensive plan outline based on the remaining questions.
“The board has done exactly what we asked in regards to the questions and they did it in a timely manner,” Daly said. “[Committee member Steve] Cohen said we have never had this kind of response, this detailed and this fast from the board since he’s been on the committee. They’ve actually moved us closer to being able to conduct that survey and to do the comprehensive plan.”
Daly said he believed the timeline to release the survey to the public in March was still “very reasonable.”
He added that he hopes the departed committee member returns to the advisory group soon.
“Everything that came out of this meeting was positive and should have been taken as a positive thing, and the committee as a whole took it as a positive thing,” Daly said.