The paramount issue is whether the OPA should continue its current level of annual spending on operations, and spending another $8 to $10 million or more on proposed new projects in the next few years – all while the nation’s economy continues to flounder in search for real solutions to restore growth. 

While some of us are financially secure, a growing segment of our population is experiencing diminishing purchasing power, declining returns on investments, increases in real estate taxes, and escalating costs for basic necessities. Those property owners living on fixed incomes are feeling it worse than most, as seen in uncollected OPA assessments that are now approaching an estimated $900,000, which amounts to just over $100 per property.    
I view the increasing cost of the OPA’s operations as an area where the overspending of recent years and the substantial losses in underperforming amenities can and should be curtailed. Budgeted payroll is up some $750,000 in two years. I strongly believe we can freeze annual dues without impacting our lifestyles or jeopardizing the overall quality, safety, and delivery of OPA services to property owners. I further believe we can start to lower assessments in our next budget.
The proposed capital expenditures need to be revisited and, except for absolute essentials, delayed where feasible or trimmed to more manageable proportions. We may want lots of things, but what things we need and can afford merit closer scrutiny.

My one term as an OPA director ended in 2006. Having remained on the sidelines since then, I feel a responsibility today to return to the board, where my background and experience offer different skills and insights to help lead the OPA on a new and fiscally responsible commonsense path for addressing and resolving the membership’s needs.

As an owner and senior executive at several firms during my career – and as a full-time management and marketing consultant and turnaround specialist to over 600 companies during the past 30 years – I deal on a daily basis with both executives and line employees on revitalizing and re-energizing the profitability, productivity, and marketing agendas of their enterprises.

As an OPA director, chairman and liaison to numerous OPA committees, and serving on the Governor’s Economic Development Committee as well as in leadership in several non-profit community and national organizations, I have a broad understanding of how to identify core needs and solutions to a variety of real-world challenges. From a lifetime of varied management experiences, I feel I’d bring something to the table here in my own back yard and at a time when the long-term issues for the OPA need a new level of critical thinking.

The current OPA board’s majority doesn’t, as I view it, work to solve problems. It simply subsidizes them. Those property owners who agree we need a major course correction in the board’s philosophy will find me a dedicated steward of OPA resources and a strong advocate for budget restraint.
What makes you so focused on financial issues?

I see the OPA’s leaders spending money on a variety of budget items – and sometimes unbudgeted items – without focusing on whether their choices are always the most prudent. One glaring example of poor choices is spending an unbudgeted $100,000 to outfit the Java Bay Café without first testing whether the operation would be successful, resulting in a loss of over $190,000.

Yes, our Yacht Club certainly needs attention. But is $4 million to build a bigger building the best or only sensible solution, when there’s general consensus YC operations should be curtailed or closed in the off-season?

Will a new $4 million edifice attract a sufficient number of new patrons who’ll spend significantly more money than now? Will a bigger building – and its upkeep – be equal to erasing escalating annual deficits?  Should the board have committed over $170,000 for plans before a referendum is even approved?  Might the board have offered a revised strategic business model and a cogent marketing plan before asking property owners to approve $4 million? I’d venture that a solid re-do or a smaller replacement building is more suited to our community’s needs.

How many more spending schemes can we endure, much less afford?
How do you plan on decreasing spending?

Limiting the Yacht Club’s months of operations would immediately eliminate that operation’s deficit. But while there are several areas when spending can be moderated, the question is better framed as, “How can we improve revenue generation and limit spending to produce more favorable overall outcomes? Here are a few ideas, among many others, I’ll advance for improving our bottom line on existing resources:

Hire a commissioned salesperson to create and market golf and tennis tournaments and other events ripe for sponsorship from area businesses and organizations. Improve the marketing for hosting events at the Beach Club and invest in heating and air conditioning the building, if feasible, for gaining banquet business and enabling longer hours of operation. Upgrade our liquor license at the Beach Club to attract more patrons. Establish direct relationships with leading area hotels for funneling golfers to our course.

The solutions to a financially healthier association obviously entail both restraints on unnecessary spending and improving sales in key amenities. Realistic and attainable results can indeed be affected through a renewed focus on “selling” Ocean Pines to more patrons, local businesses and organizations, and promoting popular events in the shoulder seasons.

Isn’t this what we should have been doing better all along?
What would you say is your specialty that you bring to the board?

Beyond what I’ve written in the second question, I bring a great love for Ocean Pines as my home and community for over 20 years. I value our special amenities from the beach to the bay and from the wonderful places we offer for recreation to our well maintained roads and landscaping.

While I’m well aware that some of our infrastructure and facilities need serious attention, I’m equally mindful that we can afford only what we can afford and justify. If there’s a specialty I bring to the board, it’s the ability to make commonsense judgments about where we can and should be focusing our resources without being unfair to those who don’t utilize our amenities and don’t live here all year.

That means holding the line against profligate spending, unnecessary increases in annual assessments, the unwarranted growth in our annual budget, and catering to and appeasing special interest groups.
What is the message you are sending to homeowners to get them to vote for you?

My appeal to our property owners is that we need to run the association more effectively. Trying new ideas is great, but ensuring their success through more intelligent planning before we launch them, including input from our own members, who would be happy to offer their talents and expertise to us, is a more promising approach to success on the bottom line.

My message is that property owners who’d like to see a more businesslike emphasis on running and promoting Ocean Pines will find I’d be a willing, energetic, dedicated director. For those property owners frustrated with the current board majority’s policy of expanded secrecy and obfuscation they see in the conduct of OPA affairs, they’ll find me a faithful defender of transparency and an unyielding warrior for sunshine management.

For property owners who are tired of annual million-dollar losses in golf, aquatics, and foodservice and catering operations, they’ll find in me a friend who’s committed to a serious course correction.

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BILL CORDWELL

How has your background with the Baltimore County Police Department qualified you to run on the board?

My experience in police work taught me a valuable lesson and that is to listen to everything folks have to say. In investigating murders, rapes and robberies, I kept my mouth shut and ears open. One little thing said by a victim or witness that may have seemed innocuous at the time has come back to help me solve cases. That is why, when I was thinking about running for the board, I went to and stayed every minute of every meeting, both board and facilities planning meetings, to hear every resident comment.
Why do you believe the OPA must renovate its facilities?

One facility in question, the Yacht Club, shouldn’t be renovated; it should be replaced. The bids for replacing the Yacht Club weren’t substantially higher than simply renovating it – especially if we tried to renovate it and the contractor found other problems as they started to tear it apart. We could conceivably pay more to renovate a 40-year-old building than to build a brand new building. That just doesn’t make sense to me. Our facilities and amenities are our community. They keep our property values up and add to our overall community experience.
How will you keep assessments low?

Continuing the final year of the Five-Year Funding Plan next year is crucial. This should give us enough funds to aggressively attack the problem with our aging facilities. After the Five-Year Plan is exhausted next year, I don’t see the need to raise assessments further. This Five-Year Plan was necessary because we backed ourselves into a corner with previous boards getting voted in by promising to lower assessments.

What they didn’t say was that they would then have to raid our reserves to pay for other things. Paying assessments one year to go into reserves, to pay for needed improvements, and then raiding those same reserves the next year, doesn’t work and has gotten us where we are today with much work that needs to be done. It scores political points but leaves the residents holding the bag.
What would you say is your specialty that you bring to the board?

I believe my strongest assets are common sense and the ability to solve problems. I am able to work with people that I may not care for personally, as long as it is evident that we both have the same goal in mind, which in this case would be the community of Ocean Pines.

I can read people fairly quickly and don’t have time for those who want to be somebody they are not and would rather pander to a certain group and be the star, instead of working hard towards a goal. I am also a huge proponent of research. Seeking facts from professionals and make informed decisions is what we should ask of our board.
What is the message you are sending to homeowners to get them to vote for you?

I am offering a new face and point of view. We shouldn’t keep recycling old faces and old ideas. It’s obvious that they didn’t work in the past, or we wouldn’t still be talking about our falling-down facilities. These facilities should have been taken care of years ago. Unfortunately, we have some who have to carry the conversation and have for years, telling the rest of us what we can’t do. And quite frankly, this isn’t about me, it’s about the community.

I may be too blunt for some folks and that’s fine. Those who can’t vote for me because of my being too blunt, please consider voting for others who are willing to move forward and getting things done.