BERLIN – Instead of the traditional comprehensive plan, the Ocean Pines Association could move toward use of a strategic plan based on recommendations from an advisory committee.
Last week Frank Daly, chairman of the Ocean Pines Association Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee, told members of the board a strategic plan would suit the community better than a comprehensive plan.
“We’d like the board to endorse the concept of a strategic plan that follows the traditional corporate format,” Daly said.
Daly spoke at the request of Director Slobodan Trendic, who said he’d asked the committee to consider why they’d not been able to complete the comprehensive plan that had been in the works for more than five years.
Daly said that in looking back on the committee’s past activities, he and his peers concluded that a strategic plan would be a better option for Ocean Pines. Daly said the plan would be developed by the general manager but would incorporate input from the community and would be reviewed and approved by the board.
“We think following the state of Maryland template for city planning is just a flawed, bad idea,” Daly said. “It just won’t work.”
Daly said the committee thought the strategic plan should be a document that looked ahead three to five years. Items outlined for the first year of the plan should be 100 percent firm, while planning laid out for the second year would be 80 percent firm and so on, Daly explained.
“It should have measurable goals and objectives,” he said.
Daly did say that the general survey questions the committee had planned for the community could still be released if the general manager approved of them. He added that because the committee was recommending a strategic plan developed by the general manager, the committee itself could be disbanded or used as a research group.
“This is a complete change in the paradigm from what we’ve had in the past,” Daly said.
Trendic said he was completely behind the committee’s recommendations.
“What we need is a multi-year strategic plan tied to a capital improvement plan and reserve study,” he said.
Daly recommended that the survey questions be sent on to General Manager John Bailey for his input since he would be the one drafting the strategic plan.
“The final questions, in the committee’s mind, reside with the general manager and his staff,” Daly said.
