In a recent newspaper piece of reporting worthy of a Pulitzer Prize, Ocean Pines Progress publisher Tom Stauss lays out the rather complicated journey of the Ocean Pines Association hiring Matt Ortt Companies (MOC) to manage food and beverage services back in March 2018 through the recent decision of the Board of Directors to seek proposals from other restaurant firms as the MOC contract is set to expire next summer. Every association member should read that informative front-page article in the October 2024 issue of the Progress.

Careful readers will come away with many insights, including:

1. The headline question Stauss asks is significant: "Inside Track for Matt Ortt Companies?"

2. Stauss wrote: "one source with insight into the OPA relationship with MOC told the Progress that MOC would most likely win the contract..."

3. Despite that claim, Stauss says OPA General Manager John Viola is intent on managing any received management proposals in "a fair and above-board manner."

4. Stauss says all proposals must be received by OPA by October 18. After staff review, the GM will make a recommendation to the board during a board meeting on October 26. (Note: OPA says the board will likely not decide until sometime after that date)

5. MOC currently receives a management fee of $200,000 plus other profit-sharing incentives. This is double the original $100,000 management fee MOC received when Tom Herrick was OPA president in 2018. It should be noted that under the current contract, MOC has no financial risk. All food and beverage operations expenses, including labor, are paid out of some special account funded by OPA with checks written on the account by MOC. MOC receives the $200,000 management fee whether the various venues produce a profit or loss.

6. Stauss reports MOC received a total management fee of more than $500,000 for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2024. Not mentioned in the article is that while MOC pocketed over $500,000 in management fees, OPA association members, based on the audited report, had to foot the bill for a $24,000 loss at the Yacht Club after depreciation. This is why Stauss says if the board awards the new contract to MOC, it may come with a more equitable sharing of any profits.

7. Stauss makes it clear that it was not the board's desire to seek new management proposals as the MOC contract expires. Stauss suggests board members Rick Farr and Stuart Lakernick said publicly they wished to renew the contract with MOC. That likely scenario changed when OPA attorney Bruce Bright weighed in and said the board had to seek other proposals to comply with OPA governing documents.

8. Unlike the current MOC contract, the now requested proposals asks vendors to pay OPA a lease fee for the three venues, perhaps operating with the vendor's own funds rather than OPA's, but leaves open the alternative of just receiving a management fee.

Beyond Stauss' excellent coverage of the issue lies MOC's history of managing OPA food and beverage facilities. This includes the initial hiring of MOC to manage food and beverage operations in March 2018 when Tom Herrick was OPA president. At the time the board was looking for any good option to recover from disastrous financial results after then Director Brett Hill was made acting General Manager and experimented in a major way with operations at the Yacht Club and the Beach Club.

Hill was replaced when the board hired John Baily as General Manager. Bailey actually "discovered" MOC when staying at a hotel in Ocean City.

After the contract award to MOC, a large crowd gathered in the Assateague Room for a meet and greet with MOC partners Ralph DeAngelus and Matt Ortt. DeAngelus was clearly the primary spokesperson for MOC, regaling the crowd with his presentation and introducing several key MOC personnel who would be in management positions at the two venues. Association members were excited about the new management team.

Returning profitability to the Beach Club proved relatively easy. MOC hired the Beach Club manager who had run it prior to Hill's takeover. The Yacht Club proved a more formidable challenge but MOC finally turned things around financially.

There were a few bumps along the way.  The issue of OPA board members accepting free food and booze from MOC popped up during a public board meeting in October 2020. Discussion was stopped and the board decided to move any further discussion of the issue to a closed session.

OPA Director Frank Daly later reported publicly that the board of Directors reached what he characterized as a "compromise" in that closed session as to whether board members could accept free food and booze at MOC establishments in Ocean Pines or at MOC's other independent operations in West Ocean City and on the boardwalk.

While the board never voted on a definitive, formal policy, Daly said the board "compromise" allowed board members at that time to accept free food and booze at MOC establishments outside Ocean Pines but not at the MOC-managed facilities owned by OPA.

Daly and another board member present, but wishing to remain anonymous, confirmed the board members reached the "compromise" on a five-two agreement. Those in favor of the Daly proposed "compromise" were Frank Daly, Camilla Rogers, Tom Janasek, Doug Parks, and Steve Tuttle. Those opposing were Colette Horn and Larry Perrone. There is no indication that any recent board members have ever taken advantage of that "compromise" and perhaps never knew it existed. Past OPA president Rick Farr, for example, said such a "compromise" would be "crazy."

Then came that fateful evening in July 2022 when 14-year-old Gavin Knupp was struck by a vehicle. The driver of the car left the scene and Knupp died soon after. Nine months later, 17 charges were made against 22-year-old Tyler Mailloux. The vehicle involved was owned by his mother, the long-time partner of Ralph DeAngelus, and found in the garage of their home. After many delays and appeals, the case against Tyler Mailloux goes to court sometime in the Spring of 2025.

In the aftermath, Gavin Knupp's grief-stricken mother Tiffany, and a hoard of supporters from a Facebook group,  began picketing MOC restaurants in West Ocean City and the boardwalk. Little or no picketing took place at OPA food and beverage venues, but on a few occasions there were threats of picketing at OPA Board of Directors meetings. Only four or five people ever showed up and the board, perhaps over-reacting, began requiring association members to provide proof of membership to attend board meetings.

Tiffany Knupp created a tax-free Foundation to honor the memory of her son. She was interviewed on TV and radio; appeared at Foundation fundraising events at local bars and restaurants; and set up online sales of clothing, bracelets, and other items to raise funds for the Foundation. Signs supporting the "Justice for Gavin" movement popped up all over Ocean City and West Ocean City, some even appearing on the western shore.

The Facebook group grew to more than 20,000 members. Many of them strident and accusatory. They demanded the resignation of State's Attorney Kris Heiser. They wanted Tyler Mailloux behind bars for life. They wanted charges against Ralph DeAngelus and Tyler's mother. They demanded action against Tyler's girlfriend, even contacting the college she planned on attending. They went after the father of Tyler's girlfriend, an excellent manager at the Yacht Club.

The constant publicity in local papers and pressure on the two MOC partners ended with the announced dissolution of their MOC partnership. Ralph DeAngelus was no longer a part of the MOC. Along with DeAngelus went several excellent management people.

The Facebook mob then turned their ire toward Matt Ortt and his family, accusing him of some sort of complicity in a coverup of the hit-and-run. It was all done with zero evidence of wrongdoing by Matt Ortt. And like all the other Facebook attacks, they came with adults and teens using the most vulgar and foul language that is now sadly common in our society, as our language is reduced to the lowest common denominator. Ortt's young children were harassed at school. The mob demanded OPA end MOC management of the food and beverage operations.

Matt Ortt struggled on - alone. It had to be a terrible time for him and his young family. Ortt told a few individuals that during that trying time one Ocean Pines individual, Esther Diller, assisted the Matt Ortt family, quietly and out of the limelight, in navigating and handling all the strain and anxiety caused by the Facebook mob and local news coverage.

Tiffany Knupp's non-profit Foundation ended in September 2024 when she entered an Alford Plea to embezzlement charges. The agreement required her to repay $6,500 to the Foundation. She was removed from the Foundation and it will be dissolved after all remaining funds are disbursed to charity. She is moving out of the area to be near her daughter in college.

There are no winners or losers in this tragic series of events. It is a classic example of a Greek tragedy.

All that history aside, the issue for the OPA Board of Directors now is to decide who will manage all of OPA's food and beverage operations next summer.

Members of the Budget & Finance Committee recently expressed concerns that banquet events, especially weddings, they were told had been booked never took place. Yacht Club profits are down compared to the end of the season last year.

As a practical matter, the main Yacht Club structure represents a $6 million investment that is not utilized to its maximum potential. The second floor of the Yacht Club, one of the finest banquet rooms in the area, sits empty far too often. A lovely dining room and two bars on the first floor are too frequently near empty, even during the peak summer season. This commentator and association member Jack Barnes ate lunch most Tuesdays at the Yacht Club bar. It was not unusual for the two of us to be the only patrons at the bar. The interior dining room nearly always empty, save perhaps for some card players.

Meantime, nearby restaurants like Pines Public House and the Southgate Grille saw overloaded parking areas and frequent lines of patrons waiting for tables for lunch and dinner. As an aside, Pines Public House bartender Maryanna makes the best Cosmo on the East Coast.

Now the Yacht Club is closed most of the week. This reflects one simple economic fact -- money made at the Yacht Club is not made inside that $6 million building but on the outside deck, with the associated Tiki Bar, top bands on weekends, and free seating.

Then there is the issue of the board spending around $200,000 for a Tiki Bar expansion to provide room for more than one line where attendees could purchase drinks without long waits. It was dedicated on May 19, 2024, with a formal ceremony and installation of a large plaque that many saw as a self-serving promotion by board members. It has since been moved.

However, informed sources say board members are upset that MOC did not use the enlarged Tiki Bar to add additional beverage service lines, essentially making the $200,000 expansion useless in terms of that desired objective.

Here is a snapshot of the OPA bottom line at the Yacht Club over the entire MOC management period beginning in 2018.

Fiscal Year     Net P/L for OPA Association members including depreciation

• 2018-19     (289,813)
• 2019-20     (107,536)
• 2020-21     (196,533)
• 2021-22       25,965
• 2022-23        5,048
• 2023-24     (23,967)

2024-25    In progress. Operating income is profitable overall but down about $136,000 from the same time in fiscal 2022-2023.

At this point, association members have no idea whether MOC or some new organization will be managing OPA's food and beverage service next year. Stauss' excellent article, while tellingitlikeitis, to use a John Dos Passos creative word combination, certainly does not encourage prospective management firms to spend time and money on a formal management proposal submission to OPA. Stauss essentially says the deck is stacked in favor of MOC, and he may well be correct.

Assuming OPA receives viable proposals from management firms other than MOC, the Board of Directors should receive whatever recommendation the General Manager proposes, MOC or otherwise, and approve it. Given John Viola's incredible success at handling OPA finances, amenity operations, and overall infrastructure maintenance while simultaneously lowering assessments, increasing reserves, and retained earnings, he is the professional whose final advice on this issue should be followed.