JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
Ocean Pines Director Slobodan Trendic reads from the latest Bayside Gazette issue during a public meeting last Saturday.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Feb. 14, 2019) While most of a four-hour budget discussion Saturday in Ocean Pines concerned lowering assessments, two men asked to speak about a slightly different topic: recent political history.

Ocean Pines Director Slobodan Trendic stood up near the start of the meeting to address an article in last week’s Gazette that included comments from former association president and board member Tom Terry.

“I’m going a read a quote from the Bayside Gazette – they’re getting free ads today, I guess,” Trendic said.

Terry’s quote: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are trying to find our way back from an absolute disaster in this community … in August of 2016 this organization was out of deficit and within a year-and-a-half actions had been taken and a direction had been set to put us a million and six in debt.”

“Tom Terry continues to say the following,” Trendic said, “‘Let’s not blame these folks’ – he was referring to the four directors that were at the meeting … last Saturday –

‘Let’s not blame these folks – there’s only one of them left up there, and he didn’t show up today.’”

“Anybody that pays attention to our association affairs knows that Tom Terry is referring to me,” Trendic continued. “Why do I feel compelled to bring this up? Because probably a lot of people are wondering why I did not attend last Saturday’s meeting.”

Trendic, becoming emotional, said he did not attend because he was out of town to be with his wife while she had surgery.

“That was my priority,” he said. “Now, I don’t want to do what Mr. Terry did with his quote, so I’m just going to deal with the facts.”

Trendic said he joined the board in August 2016. That September, Doug Parks, the current association president, was appointed to the board.

Trendic said Colette Horn was elected to the board a year later and in September 2017 Ted Moroney was appointed as a director.

“During this period of time, when those issues with our financial performance were going on, I did everything I could to stop the train wreck,” Trendic said. “I spoke publicly, I questioned [the] 20-percent discount, I questioned raises, I questioned promotions, I questioned crazy revenue projections, I voted again the budget both years – in 2016 and 2017 … because I knew we were in for [a] tough ride. And I was right, unfortunately.”

Trendic said only Parks voted with him against the 2017 budget, while only he and former Director Tom Herrick voted against the 2018 budget.

In 2013, when Terry served as association president, Trendic said, the audited financial report showed a $1.02 million deficit. In 2014, Trendic said the operating deficit was $559,000, and in 2015 the operating deficit was $712,000.

“In 2016, the year Mr. Terry left the board, the operating deficit balance was $402,000,” Trendic said. “The following year, when I joined the board, we ended the year with a reduction. We actually reduced it to a deficit of $363,000.

“A lot of people read the newspapers and sometimes this kind of information that gets disseminated leaves [the] wrong impression,” he continued. “I just wanted to set the record straight.”

Roughly three-and-a-half hours into the meeting, homeowner Tom Bierley asked to speak, also on the subject of recent history.

Bierley said he moved to Ocean Pines in 2015, when the yacht club had just been completed. He said not long thereafter, a board was elected with the agenda of removing then general manager Bob Thompson.

“I don’t know anything about Bob Thompson, except the for the fact that he was involved in the yacht club building and, for some reason, at the end of the time when you all got rid of him he was operating in the black,” he said. “At that point, the sort of hen house was open … that’s where the deficit came from, I believe … all the sudden we started losing money.”

Bierley said Brett Hill, who succeeded Thompson as the general manager, “took and changed this whole place around, [installing] security cameras … right and left everywhere.”

“All kinds of crazy stuff … paranoid … I think,” Bierley said.

“The board let him have it. They were the ones that put him into the place and said, ‘You run this thing,’” Bierley continued. “My thing is, I know a deficit you have to make up for, but the deficit wasn’t created by the people – the deficit was created by what you all did.

“Our deficit was created by the board and now we’re paying for it,” he said. “You want us to make up for your-all’s screw-up. And it’s getting old and a lot of people are getting tired of it.”

Bierley added the current board should put something into place to ensure “this doesn’t happen again.”

“Hopefully, we can learn something from this,” he said.

Bierley also brought up a December article in this paper, when current General Manger John Bailey offered some advice on fire pits.

“He came out and said, ‘Use your head. Be neighbors,’” Bierley said. “‘Use your own common sense.’ I think that’s what we need to do.”