(Aug. 11, 2016) Months of suspense will be over Saturday, as the results of the 2016 Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors will be announced during the association’s annual meeting at 10 a.m. at the community center.
Competing for the three open slots on the board was a record 11 candidates: Frank Daly, Slobodan Trendic, George Simon, Tom Janasek, Doug Parks, Steve Lind, Brett Hill, Ray Unger, Patricia Supik, Jack Collins and Larry Perrone. A 12th candidate, Sharona Ezaoui, dropped out of the race in June.
According to the Ocean Pines Elections Committee, about 7,500 of the 8,452 homeowners in Ocean Pines were eligible to vote this year. Roughly half of those are expected to cast ballots.
The meeting requires a quorum of at least 100 homeowners, and attendees are encouraged to sign in. If a quorum is not reached, the board of directors can immediately go into a special session, assuming the board has a quorum of at least four members.
Exactly when a new director takes office was a matter of some debate last year. Attorney Joe Moore originally said he believed new board members’ terms began after being sworn in during the organizational meeting – not upon their election at the annual meeting.
A day later, he reversed that opinion in a memo sent to the board dated Aug. 18, 2015. The confusion, he said, was because a section of Maryland code addressing corporations and associations reads, “until successors are elected and qualify, the board of directors consists of the individuals who are on the present board.”
Under those guidelines, Moore said “the qualification of a director is twofold; first, their election and second, their ‘qualification.’”
Ocean Pines bylaws, however, appeared to differ. Section 5.01 of the OPA bylaws reads, “The terms of the Directors shall be for three (3) years and until their respective successors are duly selected.”
Moore therefore wrote that an OPA director’s term “begins ... when the Director is ‘selected’ which is, of course, at the election.”