By Greg Ellison

(Feb. 11, 2021) The Ocean Pines Bylaws and Resolutions Committee, which held its first meeting since coronavirus impacted society last March, reconvened last Wednesday to discuss governance documents updates.

Committee Chair Jim Trummel said a bylaws review work group was instituted in November, which consists of himself and Directors Doug Parks and Camilla Rogers, along with Jenny Cropper Rines.

During the committee meeting on Feb. 3, Trummel said the current bylaws verbiage was approved by referendum in 2008 following a multi-year vetting launched in 2005.

“It’s now the 13th year since bylaws were approved without revisions, amendments or a comprehensive review,” he said.

To this point the bylaws work group has held a pair of initial meetings and identified August as a soft target date to develop recommendations for updates on referendums.

“Amendments to the bylaws require a referendum and public hearing,” he said.

Trummel said the work group, which meets again this week, has proposed delivering recommendations to the Bylaws Committee that would then present the proposals to the Board of Directors.

“We would take them to the board to consider for potential referendums,” he said.

Prior to that step, other procedural issues for the work group to consider include either proposing precise amendment language or earmarking provisions for the Bylaws Committee to review.

“Even with wording from the work group we would have to take it as a recommendation and develop our own thoughts about how resolutions be amended,” he said.

Conversely, Trummel said the Bylaws Committee might want to communicate potential revisions to the work group.

Committee member Keith Kaiser said extraneous back and forth between the committee and work group should be avoided.

“I think the assessment group should make a draft final product, even if it’s just bullet points,” he said. “It will also help the work group formalize thoughts.”

Committee member Bob Hillegass concurred.

“If they give us a good draft we’ll get a good basis,” he said.

The committee members also agreed it would be preferable to receive work group feedback in sections versus one giant document drop.

Trummel said the insights would be shared with the work group at its next meeting.

“We would prefer as the work group develops recommendations on provisions communicate to us so we can get rolling,” he said.

The hope would be to avoid an entire bylaws package review in one lump sum, Trummel said.

The committee also highlighted several points of contention with resolution M06 that outlines election and referendum procedures.

The first issue surrounds the election process and methods to avoid having duplicate or multiple ballots cast from the same address.

“It’s a cumbersome process,” Trummel said. “The committee has to exam duplicate envelopes and confirm no original ballots were returned from the same address.”

Bylaw requirements mandate any duplicate ballots requested be marked accordingly.

The contractor hired to print and mail election materials is responsible for opening returned envelopes and removing ballots, but also retains entries marked duplicate unopened.

Revisions to ballot materials for the 2020 Board election included adding matching numbers on ballots and envelopes to aid traceability.

Trummel said the Maryland HOA Act does not require an anonymous ballot process.

Kaiser said resolution M06 provides a certain level of anonymity but in light of recent ballot revisions that intent should be articulated stronger.

Trummel also noted there are numerous effective dates listed among the governance documents that need updating to reflect revisions to resolutions.

Trummel said one current item of interest involves resolutions B05 conflicts of interest and B08 director and officer ethics and conduct.

“The board has formed a work group to review B08 and its provisions, in particular complaints about directors,” he said.