August...so near...yet so far away.
Commentary by Joe Reynolds

The vote is in and it is unanimous. Ocean Pines should be a municipality.

Well... unanimous as far as the so-called OPEG group of sitting board members is concerned. In a front-page newspaper story published on June 7, Dan Stachurski, Heather Cook, and Glenn Duffy have declared that Ocean Pines would be better off as a municipality. Apparently these three board members have no problem with possibly disenfranchising about 53% of Ocean Pines lot owners who do not use the Pines as their principle residence, not to mention the likelihood of adding a paid mayor and city council along with a City of Ocean Pines tax on top of the existing HOA board and assessment.

In a separate story, Dan Stachurski pushes the idea of a special assessment to cover the costs associated with shutting down the Community Center project. He also mentioned this during a June 8 board meeting called to discuss the by-laws.

Here's where we are on the dollars according to OPA staff:

Current claims are at around $875,000, and this number includes the $325,000 Blades claim for profit that will likely/hopefully be rejected by OPA since it appears the claim is not in accordance with the signed contract. The remaining $550,000 or so has already been paid, or payment is in the works for a minor item or two.

So, if OPA does not owe the claimed Blades profit, all the bills are essentially paid, at least any of consequence. Even an absolute worst case scenario means OPA pays Blades another $325,000.

Why then is Stachurski pushing the idea of a special assessment? He indicated that since those Community Center expenses were taken from reserves, the special assessment would be used to restore those reserves.

Calling for a special assessment on the Community Center costs is pure hypocrisy, considering neither Stachurski or the board majority made any noise about restoring reserves via a special assessment when the board voted to fund a $1 million unbudgeted pool enclosure from reserves, an amount that was later reduced to about $500,000 from reserves thanks to Ray Unger pushing the issue and a community outcry over the pool cover fiasco.

This is yet another example of Stachurski attempting to play hard-ball politics with the money of association members.

As if all this was not enough, the board majority, set to exit stage-right in about 60 days, and urged on primarily by Heather Cook, is apparently trying to push a complete re-write of the Ocean Pines Association by-laws out the door before a new board majority takes control in early August. This is classic lame duck politics.

If this current board majority, elected three years ago with the now obviously failed promises of returning civility and professionalism to Ocean Pines politics, along with fewer and shorter board meetings, wants to leave office with a modicum of class it should do only what is absolutely necessary between now and the annual meeting.

After three years of OPEG control, an editorial in the Bayside Gazette may just summarize their legacy: "As residents have learned, having a board with their own agenda only serves a few at a very high cost to many."

.... Or as forum member Bob Lassahn wrote, "August...so near...yet so far away."