The Election Committee, chaired by Tom Piatti, meets with three of the four candidates for the OPA board of directors.

By Cindy Hoffman, Staff Writer

(June 8, 2023) Ocean Pines residents will have ample opportunity to be informed about the candidates and elections procedures during this season’s board of directors election.

Ballots will be mailed out the week of Jul

y 11 and should be returned by Aug. 8 at 4 p.m. to be counted on Aug. 10.

Three seats will be filled via this summer’s contest, which saw the third opening become available this week with the resignation of Director Frank Daly, who is moving out of the area.

The four candidates for the board, John Latham, Jerry Murphy, Elaine Brady and Jeff Heavner, received a questionnaire from the Election Committee this week. The results of the questionnaire will be delivered through the summer newsletter, which will be mailed in July to residents.

The questions being asked of the candidates are:

What do you think are the most significant issues facing the Association in the next two or three years and what solutions would you offer?

Outsourcing of our three food and beverage operations has been successful. Do you see other areas in which outsourcing might be appropriate?

Boards must make difficult decisions. How will you address differences of opinions between board members?

The Election Committee will hold a candidate forum on June 21 at 6 p.m. at the Golf Clubhouse. The forum will be recorded and available via Facebook and YouTube for those who cannot attend in person.

This year, the committee is giving residents the opportunity to ask questions of the candidates in two ways: in person at the forum or by email at elections@oceanpines.org.

Candidates will not be asked the same questions, giving people more opportunity to hear their views on different issues.

“We want the forum to be lively and engaging and get everyone to interact,” said Election Committee member Tom Schwartz.

Once voting starts, Election Trust, the company hired to conduct the elections, will be alerting voters via email when the company has received their ballots.

Committee Chair Tom Piatti said that means residents should make sure their contact information is up to date before Wednesday, July 6, so they are sure to get their ballots and get confirmation their ballot has been received. Residents can do this online by going to the Ocean Pines website member login page at https://oceanpines.org/web/pages/login.

For membership questions, contact rmeyer@oceanpines.org.

This year, homeowners with more than one property will receive the same number of ballots as properties — if a homeowner has six Ocean Pines properties, that person will receive six ballots.

This is different from last year’s elections, when a homeowner with multiple properties had to request additional ballots.

A hotline will be available for voters with questions from July 16- Aug. 6.

“We have yet to coordinate with Election Trust concerning who is directly responsible for the hotline and that contact info,” Piatti said.

The information on the hotline will be included in the package mailed out to homeowners on July 11.