By Greg Ellison

Staff Writer

(Dec. 12, 2019) In addition to reporting that the Ocean Pines Association has beaten its annual budget by $551,000 so far, General Manager John Viola last Wednesday brought the board of directors up to date on capital projects and the results of an employee compensation study.

Viola opened his report at the Dec. 4 meeting with completion dates and updated spending figures for the golf course clubhouse and cart barn construction, as well as well as the new craft building and police building expansion projects.

Viola said work on the clubhouse remains on track, while the less involved cart barn project is nearing completion.

“The concrete has been poured and the foundation is in,” he said.

Construction of the $1.6 million clubhouse is expected to be completed in May. So far, $256,000 has been spent on the job, he said.

The new cart barn at the golf course should be in place next month with about $118,000 spent of the $400,000 estimated cost.

Viola also said the new craft building, estimated to cost $85,000, should be wrapped up next month with about $71,000 spent so far.

“We have a transition plan with the [Pine’eer Craft] club,” he said.

Work is just getting underway to expand the police building at an estimated cost of $1.3 million. The building is expected to be ready by June, and $107,000 had been spent as of last week.

Turning to financial matters, Viola told the board the association is $551,375 ahead midway through this fiscal year, although that number is expected to drop during the next few months and balance out at year-end on April 30.

“Keep in mind, the next six months we do utilize cash,” he said. “We don’t have the revenue coming in that we normally do so this number will come down.”

Still, Viola said OPA Finance Director Steve Phillips agrees the association’s finances will end the year in the black.

“We do have an estimate … and I feel comfortable saying that we definitely will be favorable to budget for the year,” he said.

Viola also reported that October was a particularly profitable month, with revenue coming in $33,000 over budget, for a $10,000 gain over October 2018, which posted a positive variance of $22,000.

In large part, the half-million dollar positive budget variance is attributable to Ocean Pines amenities, where revenues have outpaced expenses by about $327,000. That nearly doubles the $166,500 variance at the same time in fiscal 2018, Viola said.

Viola also credited the departments for scrubbing their budgets clean of any excess expenditures.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2020, Viola said the budget process began in September.

“We’re actually a little ahead of schedule,” he said. “We are committed to handing over the binders and the proposed draft budget … Dec. 23.”

Phillips said studies of reserve funds (replacement, bulkheads and roads) to ascertain optimal funding levels are also underway.

“We’re working through the reserve balances to come out with a recommendation on the reserve spending and the balances in each of those for the budget,” he said.

Viola also reviewed the findings from a recently completed employee compensation study by the Sibson Group that involved 215 OPA staff members.

“I want to emphasize this was an objective, data-driven, independent study by Sibson,” he said.

In addition to updating job descriptions and analyzing performance reviews, the study was intended to construct target salary ranges.

“That’s what this whole study was about, a minimum, mid-point and a maximum for each range that the jobs were classified in,” he said. “Their recommendation is to get every employee to the minimum.”

As part of the compensation study, Sibson also reviewed medical benefits and retirement plans offered to association employees.

“We ourselves updated all the job descriptions [and] there was an overview from Sibson as far as format,” he said. “We also gave them our performance ratings which they needed as part of the study.”

Viola said the data helped Sibson prepare a salary range forecast.

“I now have everything at grade levels and all our different positions are within the grade levels,” he said.

The study found 22 non-seasonal employees were being paid under the minimum salary range of $34,162, with the compensation costs ranging from $74 to $9,680.

In the Ocean Pines Police Department, eight staff were paid below the minimum salary structure of $28,336, with the compensation costs ranging from $1,270 to $4,765.

“Basically the officers, as [Police] Chief [Dave Massey] has been telling us for years, did fall below the minimum,” he said.

OPA General Manager John Viola, center, provides a positive year to date financial picture, while Executive Secretary Michelle Bennett and Director of Finance Steve Phillips listen to the presentation during the board of directors meeting on Dec. 4.