Board of Directors meeting briefs

(Dec. 21, 2020) The Ocean Pines Board discussed the following items during a regular meeting on Saturday:  

Racquet Sports Committee reinstated 

Board members voted 7-0 to reinstate Resolution C-14, which revives the Racquet Sports Advisory Committee. 

Director Camilla Rogers originally moved to create a Racquet Club Advisory Committee, but then accepted a friendly amendment by Director Doug Parks to reinstate Resolution C-14 that sets up the committee. A prior Board repealed the resolution, in 2016. 

Board members will vote on committee appointments at a later date. For information on advisory committees and current openings, visit /web/pages/includes-advisory-committees. 

Board work group updates 

Association President Larry Perrone asked Board members for an update on current Ocean Pines work groups. 

Director Frank Daly said he leads a work group related to short-term rentals. He said the group has met with Ocean Pines Police Chief Leo Ehrisman, as well as local fire department officials, county zoning officials, and Ocean Pines' attorneys.  

"As a result of that, [the work group] has pursued a course ... of adding to our architectural guidelines a clause ... to regulate short-term rentals," he said. "We have a semi-final document that I distributed to the Board and to the ARC chairman yesterday, that shows what those guidelines would be.” 

Daly said the next step would be for the Architectural Review Committee to sign off on the guidelines, and then have the document reviewed by Ocean Pines' attorneys. He said the guidelines would next return to the committee for a vote. 

After that, the Board would have an opportunity to vote on the document. 

"I am reasonably optimistic that that will be [during] the January Board meeting," Daly said.  

Association Vice President Colette Horn heads a work group on general manager succession planning, which also includes Daly and Rogers.  

Horn said the three directors worked with the Segal consulting group that previously handled a compensation study for Ocean Pines. She said the firm helped to develop "tools to go through a process to determine the qualifications required for the position, and a process for vetting the employees who self-nominate for consideration." 

She said the work group then developed a "360 evaluation process” sent to employees to fill out about one candidate under consideration.  

"That process should wrap up in January, so we should have some further information for our January meeting," Horn said. 

Horn also has been a part of a work group on human resources policies.  

"What we've been working on is filling gaps in our HR policies related to sick time, severance package(s), and vacation time use," she said.  

Additionally, Horn leads a work group about transitioning to digital signs in the community. She said the Worcester County Planning Commission recently approved a text amendment that would allow up to six digital signs, and the Worcester County Commissioners will next review the changes.  

Current county ordinances do not allow electronic signs in residential communities, Horn said. Ocean Pines presently has 13 non-digital marquee signs.  

"The Board approved looking into the possibility of replacing some of those [existing] signs with electronic signs that would support rapid updates, particularly for public safety messages," she said.  

Horn said there is a proposal to keep three of the 13 existing signs, and then eventually add three new digital signs "at key points in the community." 

Parks is part of three workgroups, including one focused on the Bainbridge Pond drainage project. 

"We are waiting to hear back from the state to approve the final distribution of the grant. We'll continue to work with the county, with the Maryland Coastal Bays [Program], and with Vista Engineering as we work to get some momentum on this," he said.  

Parks is also part of a work group helping to oversee the Northstar software implementation. He said there were some issues with the rollout, but the vendor is addressing those. 

Additionally, Parks serves on a work group with Rogers and two others that are reviewing Ocean Pines' bylaws. He said the group had a first meeting last week and will meet again in January. 

"We have a soft target for the Annual Meeting ... to have at least something for consideration," he said.  

Two contracts approved 

The Board unanimously approved separate contracts to keep the existing vendors for trash removal (Republic Services) and accounting services (TGM Group). 

General Manager John Viola said there would be a roughly $3 per-month increase in trash removal fees. 

"Even with the contract we had, with the escalations it was going to go up anyway," Viola said. "The basic service, with two-times-a-week [collections] ... are the same." 

Viola said there would be a "slight savings" under the new agreement with TGM.  

New HR policies 

The Board unanimously approved new HR policies, effective Jan. 1, related to severance packages. Horn said the change would help fill gaps in employee policies.  

"Currently, there is no sick time carryover limit; currently no policy exists related to severance package offering(s) and vacation time use. The changes are recommended by the HR policy work group based on research into policies in neighboring communities, industry, and consideration of the size of our organization," she said.  

Board members removed changes to the sick leave policy that were part of the original motion.  

"Since this motion was written, we have received information from employees and additional information has come forth from policies for Worcester County employees ... and one other municipality," Horn said. "I'm going to reflect back on a previous colleague, who used to say that sometimes our motions are not ready for primetime." 

Perrone offered a friendly amendment to remove that part of the motion, which Horn accepted.  

"There are a few more working pieces to this ... we've received feedback from the employees [and] we're also looking at what the state requirements are, as well as what local communities are doing," he said. "Hopefully, in January, they'll be another motion coming forward regarding sick time policy." 

Jenkins Point Project update 

Perrone said Maryland Coastal Bays will apply for a grant for engineering work to restore the Jenkins Point island, located near the Ocean Pines Yacht Club.  

He said the Ocean Pines public had an opportunity to weigh in on the matter, but no one sent a comment.  

Perrone will next complete an affidavit to allow the work, which will be part of the grant submission.