OCEAN PINES – Members of the Ocean Pines Association’s board of directors want to end the culture of indifference they say has built up in the community.
At a meeting last week Director Frank Daly brought up the culture of indifference he believes has led to deteriorating conditions at various Ocean Pines amenities.
“It didn’t come over the last year,” he said. “It’s been here for decades.”
Daly, who was elected to the board last month, told his peers he considered it to be a major problem. To address it, he proposed having the association’s general manager provide the board of directors with an organizational chart identifying specific staff members responsible for each of the community’s amenities. He said those people would be responsible for submitting operations, maintenance and capital budgets as part of the strategic planning process.
“Over the past five or more years a number of facilities have experienced maintenance and or operational issues that have resulted in financial, service or credibility losses to the association,” he said.
Examples he provided included the fact that the Ocean Pines Yacht Club had to be completely replaced due to lack of maintenance, the Manklin Meadows playground having to previously be closed due to lack of maintenance, and the community’s bridges had to be replaced.
“The effect of adopting this motion will be to assign specific responsibilities for each major asset to ensure operations readiness,” Daly said.
Director Colette Horn questioned his assertions.
“I think there’s a huge assumption here between the problems and maintenance,” she said. “Where’s the evidence that that’s what it’s due to?”
Other board members however were quick to agree with Daly.
“I’m in support of it,” board president Doug Parks said, adding that he didn’t believe the board needed to make a motion to that effect though. “I think we can accomplish the same thing with a directive.”
Director Esther Diller agreed.
“I like the idea of a detailed directive,” she said. “I think it’s more user friendly.”
The rest of the board agreed and Daly withdrew his motion.
