Responding to recent commentary on OceanPinesForum.com regarding the Elections Committee and chairman Steve Ransdell, on 5/25/2025 OPA Secretary and liaison to the Elections Committee John Latham wrote, "The Board and I will disagree with your opinion of Steve. He is doing a good job." ( Ransdell - Yet Again! )

There is no record of the OPA Board of Directors voting as an entity on anything such as Latham suggests.

So, fast-forward two days later to an Elections Committee Meeting on May 27, 2025.

The meeting was held in an OPA administration meeting room, and is available on video. Chairman Ransdell participated remotely. Also signing in remotely were association member Doug Parks and OPA director Jeff Heavner.

Ransdell decided to have a committee meeting that also included the "candidate draw" to determine the position of each candidate on the ballot. Candidates Monica Rakowski, Steve Jacobs, and Amy Peck were in the room. Candidate Stuart Lakernick was not present and did not attend remotely. Candidate Steve Jacobs mentioned he did not believe he had proper notice of the meeting.

Association member Doug Parks, a past OPA president, made public comments. He even said he was there to address two issues, the most important being his blessing that the committee could go into closed session to discuss what questions the committee should ask candidates at an upcoming Candidate Forum. Two different sources suggest someone asked Parks to be there to make that comment. The idea of "secret" questions is childish.

There is some credibility in the suggestion, based on what seems at times to be an obsession by a few Facebook Get Involved supported board members with candidate Amy Peck. Not long ago the board considered having OPA's attorney send Peck and several others a cease and desist letter about some ROC Facebook posts accusing board members of fraud. A couple of folks actually did so. Peck did not. The letters were never sent.

There was also the flap a year or so ago when Peck, as a candidate, attended an Elections Committee meeting and the committee publicly discussed Candidate Forum Questions. Some board members accused her of cheating by being there when the questions were discussed. Pure nonsense as the meeting was available later on YouTube for any candidate.

On the other hand, there was the issue of Peck refusing to support the appointment of now OPA president Stuart Lakernick, husband of Get Involved owner Esther Diller, to a committee when Peck was on the board and Colette Horn was president.

It is an ongoing OPA version of the Hatfields and McCoys.

Parks' background with Peck is interesting. After she served as an appointed member of the Board of Directors to fill an empty seat, Peck was appointed to the Recreation & Parks Committee by a new board with Parks as president and a board majority controlled by board members supported by Get Involved.

Peck said not long after her appointment to the Recreations & Parks Committee, Parks had her removed by a board vote at a public meeting.

So, that is some background as to why Parks may have wanted to provide public comments supporting the committee going into closed session to discuss the candidate questions.

Chairman Ransdell thanked Parks for his comments and noted the committee would go into closed session to discuss the questions, as Parks suggested was appropriate. The now online minutes of the May 27, 2025 meeting contains the following: "Committee adjourned into closed session for the purpose of discussing Candidate Forum Questions."

Here's the rub, as is too often the case lately with the Elections Committee: A committee motion and vote is required to go into closed session to comply with the Maryland Home Owners Association Act. Ransdell never asked for or considered a motion to go into closed session. It is not in the video and individuals in the room confirm no vote was taken.

Even if he had asked for a motion and a vote, the HOA Act allows closed sessions only for specific purposes. Once again, Ransdell's Elections Committee appears to have violated the Maryland HOA Act.

Will the Board of Directors do anything? No.

Well, they probably will continue to praise Ransdell and the committee. Count on it.

A somewhat interesting aside was the process used for the candidate draw. The process is spelled out in Board Resolution M-06. "Candidates shall draw numbered slips. Number 1 (one) shall be the first position on the ballot, number 2 the next position, and so on through the full list of candidates."

What actually happened is a committee member at the table had four playing cards he shuffled under the table and then laid out in a row in front of his position.

What are the odds that the cards would end up in numerical order with lowest on the committee member's right and highest on his left? The probability is 1/24, but that was how it happened. A committee member directly to the right of the cards, asked to select for the absent candidate, made a long reach over to her left and selected number one.

One other somewhat interesing sidebar - during the meeting, chairman Steve Ransdell never appears in the video.