(Sept. 28, 2017) Members of the Ocean Pines Association Board and new General Manager John Bailey acknowledged a slew of problems existed and needed to be addressed, but a general sense of optimism prevailed during a nearly eight-hour orientation meeting, last Friday.
“We now have a complete team. This is the team that’s going to govern,” Board President Doug Parks said. “I’m excited. I think that we’ve got a lot of different opinions here, which I welcome … This team is the one that’s going to work together, and we have to work at working together.”
Later during the meeting, Parks talked about his expectations of conduct.
“I want to spend more time governing rather than arguing,” he said. “I think we’re getting really, really close. I don’t want to lose that momentum, if that’s where we’re heading.
“Personally, I’m in – I’m all in on that,” Parks continued. “I think it starts with communication. I think it starts with a comfort level that you can communicate on a professional level and agree to disagree.”
Newly appointed Director Ted Moroney said it was important for the directors to have respect for one another and to leave personal attacks out of public meetings.
“We’ve gotta stop questioning each other’s integrity, we’ve gotta stop questioning whether people are liars, we’ve gotta stop going back and saying, ‘he said, she said,’” Moroney said. “Whatever is [leftover from the previous board] let it finish off with where we are and start, as much as possible, anew.
“All it does is [create] a never-ending cycle, where one thing leads to the next, leads to the next. We’re basically done as of today,” he continued. “If we lost our position we say, ‘hey, I felt this, but the board has decided to go in this direction.’ You’re on record that, if the board steps in it, you were the one with the right answer. If they don’t, you were part of that great board that did it.”
Board Vice President Cheryl Jacobs stressed the value of having different opinions on the board – without resorting to arguments.
“We don’t want a ‘group think’ kind of situation,” she said. “Because somebody has a different opinion doesn’t devalue them – doesn’t make them the enemy. There’s real value in getting diverse opinions to further the discussion, to ultimately move to the best decision.”
Parks also stressed the need to build a partnership with Bailey, who started on Sept. 11 and previously managed several associations in Virginia.
He said the proper balance of oversight should be struck between micromanaging and “being completely uniformed.”  
“We’ll probably get more mileage out of interacting in such a way that is supportive … rather than domineering,” Parks said.
Jacobs said it was essential for that relationship to be a two-way street.  
“Absolutely,” Bailey said, adding that regular informational meetings with Parks and Jacobs were already established.
Bailey, during his own presentation, raved about the activities and programs offered in Ocean Pines parks, which he said were the envy of other homeowner’s associations.
He also talked about the importance of making a good first impression with the north and south gates.
“When you’re coming into the community or driving past the community, looking for a place to live, looking for a place to start up a new business – or relocate a business or expand your business – we want people to notice that something different is going on and this is a special place,” he said.
He said everyone in Ocean Pines was responsible for making that happen.
“We have 12,000 residents in Ocean Pines, give or take … how many people are partly responsible for picking up trash and making us look good? Everybody,” he said. “That’s from the president of the board to me, [and] all the staff and all the residents. We take it upon ourselves to do those types of things, so it’s not just the public works staff that’s having to make us look good – we’re all a part of it.”
Bailey admitted the country club, stuck in construction limbo, was “a real mess” and at the top of the list for improvement. He also discussed the need to improve drainage and the greens at the golf course.
He said some financial changes needed to be made, and that calling revenue targets during the previous year “ambitious” was something of an understatement.
“Ocean Pines is not unique to that. I’ve seen that in other HOAs – I’ve seen that in government,” Bailey said. “You can do that if you’ve got a good business plan that shows some backup to that, but you still don’t want to be overly aggressive with it.
“If you go in with a conservative revenue number and you do better than that, great,” he added. “If you don’t … you’re not too far off.”
Bailey ended on a positive note.
“I’m excited to be here,” he said. “This is what I wanted.”