A local paper reports that former OPA employee Colby Phillips and former OPA board member Esther Diller have teamed up to create a social media group for the purpose of highlighting "issues of communitywide concern" in Ocean Pines.

Diller's husband, Stuart Lakernick, is an announced candidate for election to the OPA Board of Directors.

Diller is quoted as saying, "It's about issues... this is not a gripe group." She is also encouraging association members to run for the Board of Directors, and says she is "not just focused on her husband running." Diller wants candidates who are electable based on the individual's priorities and values. Presumably, those priorities and values would need to coincide with Diller's to gain her support.

Diller is quoted as saying about the current board, "Stop all the closed-door sessions and get back to work." Nice headline phrase but the board is essentially obligated by law to discuss personnel issues in private." To quote yours truly, "Transparency rarely causes problems; a lack of transparency frequently causes problems."  However, certain things need to be discussed in private.

Here is what appears to be going on behind the scenes:

A power struggle is taking place within the Board of Directors, primarily as a result of the resignation of the very popular OPA employee Colby Phillips after six members of the Board of Directors voted that OPA President Larry Perrone did not violate the board's so-called Code of Conduct as Phillips charged.

Phillips is just starting a new position as Senior General Manager down at Captains Cove in Virginia. Why she is now choosing to embroil herself in OPA political issues and the upcoming OPA election is confounding. If Phillips has any interest in a future position as General Manager of Ocean Pines, board politics is the last thing she should be involved with. Phillips is not a property owner in Ocean Pines.

On the other hand, Diller and her board candidate husband benefit greatly from this new politically oriented public association with the popular Phillips.

Informed sources say Diller and her husband, and now perhaps Phillips, are seeking to change the majority on the Board of Directors by electing individuals who will side with current board members Tom Janasek and Doug Parks.

Diller is outspoken in her feelings about Larry Perrone, Colette Horn, and John Viola. She wrote that the culture of the board with Perrone as president and Horn as vice-president is one of "dictatorship."

The last time OPA had a board election dominated by internal board infighting and a desire to install a new board majority that would possibly hire a new General Manager, OPA ended up with a financial disaster.