(Feb. 23, 2017) A sparse crowd made for a – mostly – trouble-free budget presentation by Ocean Pines Association interim General Manager Brett Hill on Monday night.
Hill presented his $13.5 million fiscal year 2018 budget to about a dozen homeowners in the Assateague Room of the community center.
He first presented a draft of the budget during a board meeting on Jan. 20. The directors were involved in four additional board meetings in January and February, although no substantial changes have been made to the bottom line.
The basic annual assessment remains unchanged from the previous year at $921, and the waterfront lot rate is also flat at $1,386.
“We’ve managed to keep the reserve balance within 5 percent of the current fiscal year-end while undertaking several large projects for the community,” Hill said.
That includes about $400,000 for renovations to the second floor of the country club, $300,000 for a reorientation of the administration building and $225,000 for an addition at the sports core pool.
Hill said the addition, 24 feet by 80 feet, would allow for more aquatics offerings, including exercise classes and an afterschool program for children.
“The most important part, from the board’s perspective, was that we’re doing all this while keeping the assessments the same,” Hill said.
Many of the fees related to amenities are projected to decrease, and Hill said the major difference this year was the phasing out of associate memberships related to individual programs. Instead, an overall associate membership would cost $250 and cover an entire household.
Associate memberships allow non-homeowners to purchase amenity passes at lower, homeowner rates.
The only Ocean Pines amenity with a fee increase is the beach club. Annual parking pass fees would go up from $175 to $200, or from $75 to $100 when purchased with an amenity membership.
Hill said aquatics and platform tennis rates would stay the same, while golf rates would decrease about 10 percent, tennis rates would drop 20 percent and pickleball fees would be lowered by about 30 percent.
He said there were significant deviations in the operating budget caused by an uptick in payroll, as more workers were being hired for public works, facilities, the beach club and Mumford’s Landing. As a result, public works expenses were estimated to rise 10 percent, along with a 31 percent increase in general maintenance, a 31 percent increase at the beach club and a 14 percent rise at Mumford’s.
He said the federally mandated minimum wage hike and compliance with the Affordable Care Act also drove some of those numbers higher.
However, Hill was also budgeting for significant increases in revenues in two of those departments. He said the 38 percent increase in beach club revenue was driven by longer hours during the summer and extended operations overall, now from May through October.
The 26 percent projected increase in Mumford’s Landing revenue, Hill said, was related to the expansion of the carryout program at the new Tuffy’s Tavern bar area and several operational upgrades through the facility.
Hill allowed public comments at any time during the presentation. Two areas where concerns were repeatedly expressed were pickleball and the beach club.
Neil Gottesman, a spokesman for Ocean Pines Pickleball, argued that fees were not really decreasing at all, because a membership to that amenity would no longer cover indoor play. Instead, pickleball players will pay a drop-in fee to use the gym.
Several homeowners also voiced frustration with the increase in rates at the beach club and the fact that the association was doing away with open pool passes. Previously, an annual parking pass came with four pool passes that were not assigned.
Because of apparent exploitation by rental agencies and others, parking passes now come with a family membership to the beach club pool that is assigned to the purchaser.
“There’s been a trend of abuse on those passes across Realtors and landlords,” Hill said, adding those passes were easy to find and purchase online through sites like AirBnb, HomeAway and Craig’s List. “Other people are charging for weekly use of our passes. We have a huge problem.”
He added that Ocean Pines generally sells about 2,500 passes, but only has 230 parking spots.
“In some way we have to curtail the abuse of the passes and make sure that they provide a true benefit to our residents,” Hill said. “That’s what the board is trying to do and there’s not an easy solution without changing things.”
Hill admitted the board was still ironing out the details of how the passes could work, especially the somewhat nebulous definition of “family.” He said the discussion would be part of the agenda during a regular meeting on Saturday.
That session starts at 10 a.m. in the Assateague Room.
An agenda released on Wednesday includes a motion to approve the fiscal year 2018 budget, along with two related  points of discussion.