OPA Director Bill Cordwell is still fighting against a board vote to negotiate a contract with Landscapes Unlimited to manage the OPA golf course. Cordwell is irate, taking to interviews in a local paper and even denouncing the board decision during the public comments period at a recent board meeting .

The Bayside Gazette quotes Cordwell as saying, "Some board members were given information about serious allegations about this company, including poor business, legal and personnel practices and financial improprieties, but [Board President] Dave Stevens didn't think that should be brought up at the meeting and the rest of us didn't find out about it until days later after the vote had been taken.”

Poor business, legal and personnel practices and financial improprieties? This is an incredible public and totally unsupported allegation by Cordwell, apparently based on no more than a phone call made by a Casper-favoring golf member to someone who may well be nothing more than a disgruntled employee. This is the same issue the GM raised publicly when he said the board did not do due diligence in this matter.

Clearly, with no evidence of wrongdoing or illegal activity by Landscapes Unlimited, these now public charges by Cordwell are likely seen by Landscapes Unlimited as outrageous, or worse.

Cordwell also says Stevens wants Landscapes Unlimited to work with the board and not with the GM, as was, Cordwell says, the case with Casper. Cordwell should read the original Casper contract. As I recall, it requires Casper to report monthly to the Board of Directors on their marketing efforts. To my knowledge Casper never complied, or possibly the Terry-led board simply allowed Casper to work solely with the GM and by-pass the board.

Finally there is this juicy quote from Director Bill Cordwell, again in the Bayside Gazette:

“[Landscapes] has said they would report directly to Stevens and the board instead of to the general manager,” Cordwell said. “I believe that is a violation of our by-laws, as the general manager is tasked with running the day-to-day operations, not the board. After seeing how screwed up this process was, this board shouldn't be running the day-to-day operations of a snowball stand.”

If Marty Clarke had said something similar under the Terry regime, the FBI would have been brought in to investigate. 

In all this weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth by Cordwell, along with his supporting cast of Terry, O'Hare and GM Thompson, overlooked is the fact that the board voted only to begin negotiations with Landscapes Unlimited. Due process is certainly a part of that negotiation process, but Cordwell, et al. would rather throw political fire bombs.

This may be the most divisive and OPA-harming minority public reaction to any board vote in the history of OPA.