Please direct me to the Ocean Pines document which requires our board of directors to engage in County, State, or Federal legislation or politics.  I can only find that this kind of behavior is, for the most part, prohibited.

I think common sense could be used in this whole area of Ocean Pines participating in the political process. It would make sense that the prohibitions contained in OPA documents were mainly inserted to prevent an Ocean Pines Board from backing any particular County or OPA politician running for office. That would be considered an abuse of power. There could be a few other similar circumstances that would fit the bill as well. I doubt if they were meant to excuse our Directors from avoiding every issue that may affect out property owners but is not within the confines of the Pines. What if the County announced that they had decided that shops involved in pornographic materials would be restricted to an area of 113 in the vicinity of rt 589? [these shops are protected from abusive legislation that would shut them down but can be zoned to specific areas away from schools and churches].

At the very least OPA should consider appointing a committee to evaluate any issues that could affect Ocean Pines "at the time the issue arises". That way we can stay on top of these issues and not get into the blame game after the fact.  Another issue that ended in a different way was the one involving the lack of fluoride in our drinking water. From what I could ascertain during the 'investigation"  just about every expert for the County and local dentists etc said it was something that was good for both children and residents, most of who don't even know it is absent. The politicians, however, let it sort of drift away as I suspect they wanted nothing to do with an issue that could be controversial and would raise water rates, albeit minimally. Perhaps if our elected representatives had to answer to a committee representing 25% of the voters in the County they would have to explain their actions more thouroughly rather than sweet talk their way onto the next issue. The Glen Riddle water hook up is another issue in which OPA was a day late and a dollar short.  Granted there are some risks to this approach and we would not want to damage our relationship with the County but it seems it would make a lot more sense than what has been happening in the last few years.