There were great expectations about eight months ago when John Bailey took over as General Manager of the Ocean Pines Association. A hundred or more association members gave Bailey a warm welcome during a meet-and-greet at the Yacht Club shortly after his arrival. Bailey said at the time that managing Ocean Pines was the realization of his ultimate career goal.

The OPA Board of Directors recently reviewed Bailey's performance in a closed session. Local media and association members can do their own review, based on publicly available information.

A headline in the May 2018 edition of the Ocean Pines Progress states, “Sadly, the GM has really stepped in it, this time.” Writer Tom Stauss observes, ”While the current board seems somewhat tolerant of some on-the-job training, another board might not be.” In a litany of issues, Stauss decries what he calls Bailey’s “take it or leave it” propositions to the board, Bailey’s poor response to legitimate document requests, and what Stauss describes as Bailey descending “into a crassly manipulative pitch that the board would do well to resist” with regard to financial management software.

Tough stuff, but let’s look beyond what Stauss wrote.

First, let’s state the obvious – OPA members are a tough crowd to please. Nor is that meant in any derogatory way. They have a right to be tough on those managing what is perhaps their most important and valuable investment. Ocean Pines is a terrific place to live and property owners want individual properties and commonly owned properties well maintained. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is as important a management function as maintaining property values for all association members.

Generally speaking, since Bailey’s arrival the average association member sees little or no change to what has gone on over the past few decades. Problems that existed in the past, for the most part, continue to be problems. Association members still complain to OPA of clogged ditches and drainage problems. While Bailey has kept the wheels on the bus, proper maintenance of all our facilities remains a problem.

Association member Skip Schlesinger recently wrote on OceanPinesForum.com, "Hopefully, within the next two weeks, OPA manpower can be shared from the Yacht Club to address the landscaping at and around our pools. Imagine if all OPA facilities/amenities received the same amount of time and attention as the Yacht Club. The sun deck at the Sports Core Pool is full of weeds. The condition of grass in OPA common areas, maintained by OPA, would warrant a CPI violation (if found on a homeowner’s lot).“

Schlesinger also indicated Public Works pinned blame on the OPA Board of Directors for not approving funding for the purchase of new mowers until the April 28 board meeting.

Association member Jack Barnes also wrote about poor maintenance, “The grass on areas of Newport Drive [and we are not the only ones] is over a foot tall in many areas and makes the side of the roads a real mess. It is embarrassing.”

Association member Bill Long writes, “Regarding the mowers, Bainbridge Park has been mowed twice (this) year but the roadside grass along Beaconhill is two feet high. Go figure.”

Indeed, lawn mowers were approved at the April 28 board meeting. However, they would have been approved a month or more earlier had Bailey not initially provided the board with incorrect or incomplete information about the purchases. Even the second time around, one lawn mower was not purchased due to Bailey's inability to explain its intended use – twice in a row he drew a blank stare when asked by a board member about the same lawn mower.

There was also the board's publicly expressed displeasure over Bailey's purchase of a new OPA automobile without board approval, as well as the sale of some valuable OPA assets without board approval.

Another contentious issue was Bailey’s decision to no longer allow association members to dump leaves at the Public Works yard. While this is primarily an issue of personal responsibility, many members are unhappy with the decision.

Then there was Bailey’s recommendation that the board accept a sole source contract for $100,000 to replace some sprinklers at the Beach Club. The board, thankfully, told Bailey to go back to the drawing board and obtain more bids. Net result? A low, qualified bid of around $45,000, saving an unnecessary expenditure of your assessment dollars in the amount of perhaps $55,000. In general, Bailey needs to comply with OPA policy in obtaining three bids whenever possible, as well as not personally preselecting who can bid. All requests for proposals for goods and services should be advertised as widely as possible.

One of the more troubling aspects of Bailey's tenure to date was allowing the Yacht Club interior conditions to deteriorate. Ralph DeAngelus, partner in the Matt Ortt Companies now managing the Yacht Club, said the following about the Yacht Club during a recent Town Hall meeting, "It was the most disgusting thing you've ever seen in your life."

He described food that was left "unwrapped and unsealed and not properly stored in the walk-in.” He added, “We threw away hundreds of pounds of food. It was literally tens of thousands of dollars."

All this happened many months after Bailey took over as General Manager, and last winter food from what DeAngelus described as the "dirty" Yacht Club was routinely taken to the Terns Grill for consumption prior to the arrival of Ortt Company and their cleanup of the Yacht Club.

Now great expectations arise for Ortt's management of the Yacht Club and Beach Club. The Yacht Club is currently scheduled for a grand opening on May 17. You can almost feel the excitement. The decades old albatross of food and beverage operations bedeviling past General Managers is now removed from Bailey's neck, thanks to the board decision to finally outsource the operation.

Talk to Bailey for any length of time about OPA issues and you will probably hear him refer to how things are done in Virginia, where he apparently spent much of his working career. Of course Maryland laws and Maryland HOA Act are not the same as Virginia’s.

At some point after his arrival in Ocean Pines, Bailey apparently decided no home could be bought or sold without his personal signature.

Marlene Ott, involved in Ocean Pines real estate for perhaps 45 years or more, wrote on April 19th, "John Bailey has suddenly decided several weeks ago that he needs to review and sign personally every OPA Resale certificate which has put a several day delay for Realtors to pick up those documents. A home inspection on one property was today and it was my intent to deliver those documents today, because as per MD Law the buyer has five days to rescind the sale based on receipt of the information. I want that clock ticking. It is not the fault of the Ocean Pines CPI Department, because their work is done in a day or two at the most. I called Mr. Bailey’s office today and left him a message to the effect that I don’t see the need for that delay imposed by him. In 50 years, no General Manager has ever done this."

Weeks later, on May 9th, Ott said the issue was still not resolved.

During the budget process the Board reduced the budget of the Marketing and Public Relations Department. Bailey was left to decide where those cuts were to be made, according to Director Slobodan Trendic who wrote, “All operational ideas were left to the management for decision and execution.”

Bailey decided dollars could be saved by not mailing the Ocean Pines Quarterly reports and activity guides to all association members - a major mistake. Bailey was asked about this a week or so ago. An email on May 11 inquiring as to any decision is as yet unanswered. Bailey could easily decide, probably without board approval, to move some budget items around in Marketing and Public Relations to come up with the necessary postage costs. For example, Bailey could elect to apply costs for buying all those free ball point pens and other trinkets to postage instead. Surely, quarterly reports mailed to all association members are more important than free ball point pens.

The Quarterly Report mailed to all association members was also an integral part of the board election process. This is not the place to save money. A recently prevalent notion that OPA has some sort of financial problems is nonsense, driven primarily by board members who like to see assessments increase. With perhaps $9 million of cash in the bank and no debt, OPA should maintain this minimum level of communication with all association members.

OPA board candidate Esther Diller says she is “absolutely appalled” and openly wonders why Bailey doesn't want the board to explore more options before committing to an extremely expensive in-house software contract for the OPA finance department. Diller believes Bailey should have at least suggested the board look seriously at options and costs for outsourcing the finance department, as The Parke does.

Bailey has shown little in the way of initiatives or thinking outside the box. One notable exception is his suggestion to bulldoze away the earth at the entrance to the Country Club to create a ground floor entrance. Local developer and longtime association member Marvin Steen says that idea should be a non-starter due to cost. The Progress reports Steen said, "We shouldn't be wasting time and money even looking at that."

It is still early in Bailey’s tenure as General Manager. If anything, his goal should be to become more familiar with more association members, perhaps through regular Town Hall meetings. He needs to realize his true employers are the association members, not the Board of Directors of bylaws language. Board majorities can change from year to year. Three board positions are up for grabs this August.

A General Manager more in tune with the desires of the membership is more likely to be around long term than one who caters solely to the whims of any transient boards; and especially longer than a General Manager who tries to impose his personal views on the association.

One of Maryland’s most popular and successful politicians was William Donald Schaefer. He dominated Baltimore and Maryland politics for more than three decades. He typically won elections by 80% or more. Schaefer was a man of the people, driving around at night looking for potholes and trash, then sending out public works crews to take care of problems. He went on radio shows and took calls from citizens reporting potholes and other issues important at the citizenry level.

Schaefer said take care of the small things like potholes and the bigger things will often take care of themselves. Perhaps Bailey should consider incorporating a bit of the Willy Don approach into his management style.