By Jack Chavez, Staff Writer

Several resolutions have been looked at and debated over the past two weeks by the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors following the years-long efforts of the Bylaws and Resolutions Committee to update the association’s governing documents.

During the June 23 OPA board meeting, the docket included reviews of Resolutions M-01 and B-04 and rescinding altogether Resolution M-08.

The first resolution, M-01, establishes policy, assigns responsibilities and provides procedures to be followed by the Architectural Review Committee (ARC), the general manager, and the board for enforcing compliance with the association’s Declarations of Restrictions and ARC guideline violations.

The board decided to hand the resolution over to ARC with the advice of the directors and the charging document related to the review. The resolution will then go to Bylaws and Resolutions before coming back to the board.

This resolution was revised “significantly” in May 2020, said Association President Colette Horn, and its implementation has been affected by “public health considerations related to covid-19, in particular the limited availability of the court system to resolve issues.”

The Bylaws and Resolutions Committee recommended attention be given to the resolution’s language related to appeals procedures, court enforcement and general manager notification.

Horn recommended that the board turn the resolution over to the Architectural Review Committee for review and recommendations.

Director Doug Parks pointed to language about appeals and closing a loophole that might allow a homeowner to appeal in perpetuity.

“That kind of thing could make sure that they can’t follow through on … (and) just keep appealing, appealing, appealing until they get what they want,” Parks said.

He also talked about clearing up the protocol for suspending certain rights of association members who run afoul of the Declaration of Restrictions (DRs), as it pertains to the general manager’s request of the board to do so.

“Perhaps (we need) a reference to what section of the DRs that they’re referring to,” Parks said. “There’s not a detail here to make sure, because the GM will want to know what we’re referring to when we get to this point. So I’d ask ARC to look at that and go back and ask Bylaws and Resolutions if they have any more advice on that particular aspect of it.”

Director Amy Peck recommended that an asterisk under a sub-step of the resolution that refers to repeat offenders and forfeiting their rights to appeal should be a regular part of the sub-step, not an asterisk.

Director Larry Perrone said that ARC will need to consider an appeal process to the board.

“I think that I know that we want to give (ARC) the power to do what they need to do but I think we’ve seen some circumstances where they’ve … wondered if the homeowner could’ve come to the board … we may want to consider adding a (one-time appeal process to the board),” Perrone said.

The second resolution reviewed, B-04, states that its purpose is to guide agenda development with the parameters of “Robert’s Rules of Order.”

The Bylaws and Resolutions committee recommended no amendments to the resolution and after unanimously passing the board, it will be considered “reviewed” by the committee on July 22.

Finally, the board tabled a decision on resolution M-08 until July.

The resolution states that it establishes the policy for originating and maintaining manuals used by the various departments of OPA in the performance of the responsibilities of the departments.

It was written and adopted in 2008 and has never been updated.

“Instead of these requirements being part of a board resolution, it is asked that consideration be given to allowing this process to be addressed through the normal work assignment and performance review process,” Horn said.

Parks agreed with the concept, saying there’s no reason the board should be that involved with intervention with regards to operations.

He added that the board needs to pay careful attention to one item — the OPA financial management policy manual.

“Remember the board is a policy-making entity,” Parks said. “The idea here is that in that document, even though it hasn’t been updated since (2008), it declares the spending limit for the GM, among other things.”

“I would find a way … the other ones are operational, this one needs to be brought into the board’s oversight to make sure that we include that in some fashion.”

Parks proposed the postponement and said he’d review the resolution and come back to the board with his findings next month.

This story appears in the print version of the Bayside Gazette on June 30, 2022.