Based on information from informed sources, OPA President Doug Parks is upset with coverage of OPA by the Bayside Gazette newspaper. Parks contacted the Gazette editor and even went so far as to mention that the board had the authority to keep reporters out of the board meetings if they were not association members. None of this was authorized by a formal vote of the Board of Directors.

The dispute apparently stems from Bayside Gazette's coverage of complaints by former board member Amy Peck about Parks not allowing public comments during board meetings from online viewers. The piece was headlined, "Parks: Online participation not an issue."

Parks and Peck exchanged emails over the issue and the Gazette reported:

"After the exchange, Peck was incredulous over how the situation had been handled.

"This is just insane," Peck said. “This board ran on transparency. They wanted Saturday meetings badly because they wanted more participation. But now they’re doing this? It doesn’t make any sense."

The article indicates Parks was contacted for comment.

The board should indeed require public comments only be allowed by those attending meetings in person. The board should end all this Microsoft "zoom" meeting participation, by association members and board members. Either attend the meeting in person or watch a video of it later. This online participation is being carried to an extreme. At some point, we could have board meetings where no board members are physically present in the meeting room.

Then there is the issue of requiring all those attending meetings to be association members and prove it via a scan of their OPA ID card at the door. The reporter usually covering the OPA board meetings is apparently not an association member. Parks informed the Gazette editor that the board has the authority to not allow him to attend the meeting in person.

Threatening members of the press is ridiculous. Doing so without a board vote to do so is ..... well, Peck's four-word quote above would apply.

Parks is acting as if the board's own approved Resolution B-02, Rules of Order for Meetings of the Board of Directors" does not exist.

B-02 states, "Any member of the Association and their agents may attend any open Board meeting. Executive or supervisory employees of the Association and members of the press may also attend unless specifically excluded by a majority vote of the Board members present. Other persons designated by the Board of Directors may be permitted to attend and participate in any open Board meeting."

Press members should show up at the upcoming board meeting and, if rejected as not an association member, demand a vote of the Board of Directors to exclude him or her.

However, there is something fundamentally unfair about allowing non-member reporters to attend board meetings yet requiring association members, the people who pay assessments, to prove they are association members - at least without some formal vote to change Resolution B-02.

Proof of membership to attend board meetings was never required for over 50 years. All this nonsense is the result of threats from supporters of those who demand OPA name the skatepark after Gavin Knupp, and in a strangely related way threaten to boycott OPA food and beverage operations to put Matt Ortt Companies out of business.

If those threats were actually credible, board members should have 24-hour protection, not just at board meetings.

Way too much OPA business takes place via emails.