(Dec. 15, 2016) As hinted during a work session last Monday, the Ocean Pines Board of Directors formally dissolved its racquet sports advisory committee at its meeting last Friday.
Board President Tom Herrick proposed a motion to “give notice and first consideration” to repeal resolution C-14, terminating the committee and to allow each of the three sports formerly covered – tennis, platform tennis and pickle ball – to have “the ability to represent their own respective needs and interests separately.”
Director Cheryl Jacobs opposed the motion.
“This is not the appropriate way to deal with issues that present themselves within our committees,” Jacobs said. “I don’t see anything that prohibits [the] different racquet sports groups from presenting what they individually want … you don’t need to repeal or deactivate this resolution in order for that to happen, so I’m totally opposed to that.”
Herrick, who chairs the committee, argued that all three sports had “different needs, interests and wants,” and that the committee as a whole did not serve those interests well.
The individual committee members were also apparently not getting along. Herrick had previously described their disagreements as spiraling out of control and leading to “personal attacks [and] verbal abuse” during public meetings.
“In effect, [the nature of the committee] causes a compromise which actually doesn’t best represent the individual sport itself, and unfortunately it causes internal turmoil and problems within that committee,” he said. “Each sport does not have the full representation from that committee.”
Interim General Manager Brett Hill said terminating the committee would bring “responsibility back up to the board,” which needed to happen.
“The staff involvement [because] of the needs of solving three different sports has become very time consuming,” he said. “It’s leading to, I believe, a moral conflict of the staff trying to appease residents.”
Having a means for the individual sports to come directly to the board rather than working through staffers, he said, “would be in our best interest.”
“There are competing needs to be satisfied and there needs to be board involvement for discrimination as to what’s right – where is the best business case to allocate our money and where do our project go,” Hill said. “We’re not doing that right now at all.”
Board Vice President Dave Stevens said each sport had different requirements and used different facilities and were – essentially – “different.”
“There’s no reason to think that policy for one sport [would] be exactly the same as the policy for another,” he said. “What do they have in common? The answer is not very much, and to try and force-feed it … is not working for one thing, and there’s no reason to think it should work.”
Herrick said there were separate committees for each sport in the past, which he said were “managed very successfully.”
Each sport, he added, already had an individual board and a president. Herrick speculated that it would not be difficult to establish direct lines of communication between those bodies and the board of directors.
The vote to dissolve the committee was 5-1, with Jacobs voting no and Director Pat Supik abstaining.
Board President Tom Herrick proposed a motion to “give notice and first consideration” to repeal resolution C-14, terminating the committee and to allow each of the three sports formerly covered – tennis, platform tennis and pickle ball – to have “the ability to represent their own respective needs and interests separately.”
Director Cheryl Jacobs opposed the motion.
“This is not the appropriate way to deal with issues that present themselves within our committees,” Jacobs said. “I don’t see anything that prohibits [the] different racquet sports groups from presenting what they individually want … you don’t need to repeal or deactivate this resolution in order for that to happen, so I’m totally opposed to that.”
Herrick, who chairs the committee, argued that all three sports had “different needs, interests and wants,” and that the committee as a whole did not serve those interests well.
The individual committee members were also apparently not getting along. Herrick had previously described their disagreements as spiraling out of control and leading to “personal attacks [and] verbal abuse” during public meetings.
“In effect, [the nature of the committee] causes a compromise which actually doesn’t best represent the individual sport itself, and unfortunately it causes internal turmoil and problems within that committee,” he said. “Each sport does not have the full representation from that committee.”
Interim General Manager Brett Hill said terminating the committee would bring “responsibility back up to the board,” which needed to happen.
“The staff involvement [because] of the needs of solving three different sports has become very time consuming,” he said. “It’s leading to, I believe, a moral conflict of the staff trying to appease residents.”
Having a means for the individual sports to come directly to the board rather than working through staffers, he said, “would be in our best interest.”
“There are competing needs to be satisfied and there needs to be board involvement for discrimination as to what’s right – where is the best business case to allocate our money and where do our project go,” Hill said. “We’re not doing that right now at all.”
Board Vice President Dave Stevens said each sport had different requirements and used different facilities and were – essentially – “different.”
“There’s no reason to think that policy for one sport [would] be exactly the same as the policy for another,” he said. “What do they have in common? The answer is not very much, and to try and force-feed it … is not working for one thing, and there’s no reason to think it should work.”
Herrick said there were separate committees for each sport in the past, which he said were “managed very successfully.”
Each sport, he added, already had an individual board and a president. Herrick speculated that it would not be difficult to establish direct lines of communication between those bodies and the board of directors.
The vote to dissolve the committee was 5-1, with Jacobs voting no and Director Pat Supik abstaining.