By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(May 31, 2018) The Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors last Thursday discussed the following items during a regular board meeting in the community center:

Capital purchase requests

The board unanimously approved two bids of $33,864 by Hertrich Ford of Milford, Delaware for two 2018 Ford Explorers for Ocean Pines Police. The bid, one of two received, was about $1,000 below what was budgeted, $35,000 for each.

General Manager John Bailey said a third bidder was contacted but did not respond.

The vote was 6-0, with Association President Doug Parks absent.

Fire department budget update

The board approved a $165,621 increase in the fiscal 2018 fire department budget “in order to comply with OPA responsibilities under the memorandum of understanding” between the association and fire department.

The adjustment was necessary “in order to properly close the FY 2017-2018 financial books,” Director Ted Moroney said.

Moroney said $216,777 to pay off fire department notes was transferred from capital reserves and held in a trust, although no board vote ever occurred to do so.

He said the action would restore “the proper value of the OPVFD Capital Reserve Fund pre-note retirement,” meet capital replacement reserve contributions in the approved fiscal 2018 budget and ensure the association has followed legally agreed upon terms with the fire department.

The directors unanimously approved the motion without discussion.

Leaf drop-off

The board discussed bringing back spring leaf drop-off services, previously available to residents at the public works yard.

General Manager John Bailey said the service was a casualty of fiscal 2019 budget sessions and cost about $30,000 during the spring – and about $100,000 during the fall. The former service was discontinued, and the latter remains.

“Leaves are usually a bit more important [during the fall],” Bailey said. “We eliminated having the yard open during the month of May to save $30,000.”

As an alternative, Bailey said the yard could be opened on Saturdays, June through November excluding holiday weekends, to allow residents to dispose of yard debris. No garbage, construction debris or bulk trash would be allowed.

He said the cost of labor was estimated to be between $4,000 and $8,000 and could be monitored and reevaluated.

“On a bigger question, should we really be providing this service at all?” Director Ted Moroney said.

“If you take $130,000 a year to operate that … that’s $15 per person sitting in here, and given everybody is bitching about assessments going up, there’s a problem right there,” he continued. “Everybody needs to remember that, whether it’s this or drainage or anything else … it costs [money],” he continued. “Frankly, I’m just not sure that we should be providing that service to the residents – I’m not sure that that’s our responsibility to do that as a community.”

“Those are questions we always ask – how much do you want us to do for the community and what are you willing to pay for it?” Vice President Cheryl Jacobs said, ending the conversation.

Discussion on discussions

Slobodan Trendic, following up on a discussion during a recent bylaws and resolutions committee meeting, recommended requiring that a statement of purpose and background on discussion topics be included in published board packets.

He said membership was not always aware of that information before meetings.

“Putting it out would only serve as a benefit to the membership, so they are aware of the topics that the board intends to discuss,” he said.

Jacobs, Moroney and director Tom Herrick agreed.

“It gives a little bit of feedback and not only helps everybody else understand it, it helps all of us understand the reasoning behind what we’re doing,” Moroney said.

Appointments

The directors unanimously approved the appointment of four people to advisory committees: Lisa Schwartz to the architectural review committee (third term), Frank Daly to the strategic planning committee (second term), and John O’Connor (fourth term) and Leonard Hall (first term) to the budget and finance committee.

Closed session

The directors, by a 6-0 vote, adjourned after the regular session to a closed meeting.

Trendic said the purpose of the session was for a mid-year performance review of Bailey and a review of the Mediacom contract.

Jacobs, on Tuesday, said the former matter was required under the terms of Bailey’s contract.

“The discussion associated with giving him his review was very productive on both sides,” she said.

She could not go into detail regarding the latter review, but offered, “We are still negotiating with Mediacom.”