Ballots for the 2025 Board of Directors election are in the mail, and many association members are already voting prior to receiving the paper ballots via Internet voting.

If history is any indication, approximately 4,000 ballots will be cast.

Ongoing Facebook battles are in full bloom, mainly between Sherrie Clifford's ROC page, and Esther Diller's Get Involved page. Clifford supports Amy Peck; Diller supports her husband, Stuart Lakernick.

Each site seems to support Monica Rakowski and Steve Jacobs. If there is any oddity, it is Get Involved supporting Steve Jacobs. Proves they worry about Peck more than Jacobs.

Unfortunately, the Admin of a Facebook hate site known for attacking any women involved in ROC, far beyond any more "normal" OPA politics on Get Involved or ROC, is going after Peck with vile and disgusting comments.

How vile? How disgusting? Someone using the name Chris Caudill on the hate site recently wrote, "Amy Peck is a miserable lying #$%...., and anyone voting for her is the same." The word in question was spelled out. Imagine the most disgusting word a man can call a woman. That disgusting comment is only the tip of the hate iceberg on the Facebook hate site.

Not one sitting board member has expressed outrage at this sort of despicable attack on women on the hate site. Yet five or so sitting board members know exactly what goes on at that hate site. A few current and past board members have "hung out" with the hate site Admin for years at the Yacht Club. They say he is a wonderful fellow.

Within the last week or two, a steady stream of text messages arrived on this commentator's iPhone from a board member. He insisted this commentator research past OceanPinesForum.com discussions that involved participation by candidate Peck, primarily related to claims she supported an online survey asking OPA to fire Matt Ortt Companies. This was a few years ago when hateful, disgusting attacks on Ortt and his family were taking place over a tragic hit-and-run death. There is no factual information to support those charges against Peck.

The sitting board member is especially obsessed with Peck, and "obsessed" is a mild description, based on the steady stream of texts to this commentator.

Of course, perhaps he did not consider such research might just also turn up things from the past he did not want brought back in the public light. For example, it turns out in a prior campaign, Stuart Lakernick said, if elected, association members would get two directors for the price of one - him and his wife Esther Diller - as published in the Ocean Pines Progress.

Just today, the Facebook hate site Admin said Peck was using a fake name on Facebook and that the image Peck used in the election ballot material was not of her, but some "stock picture." Fact is, the image was taken by an OPA staff member for use in the ballot package. The hate site Admin not only lies, the Admin posted Peck's home address.

Want to talk about irony? The hate site Admin claims he knows Peck is using some fake name on Facebook because he somehow or another discovered Peck's IP number. Does anyone believe Facebook allows users or Admins to see the IP numbers of users? Not to mention, this hate site Admin is the same individual who supposedly tracked down the IP number for Esther Diller of some anonymous nitwit attacking Diller a few years ago.

What did he claim was the source of these anonymous attacks on Diller? The hate site Admin told Diller he tracked down the source to a laptop computer in the OPA Administration Building! Absolutely untrue.  Of course, some years ago, Diller was "mentoring" another individual hoping to be General Manager.

Back to what happens when people suggest intensive research into what board candidates may have said or done in the past. Here is a classic:

Brett Hill. Ran for the Board of Directors in the August 2016 election and was elected.

To say Hill's time on the board and appointment as Acting General Manager was turbulent would be the understatement of the decade. Hill resigned from the Board of Directors in September, 2017.

So, Hill resigns, pretty much in disgrace according to any number of association members.

He then decides to run for election again in 2018. Esther Diller is also a candidate.

Incredibly, Diller says Hill did a great job for OPA and posts a message on OceanPinesForum.com to that effect, announcing she and Hill are more or less running as a team!

On 5/10/2018, Esther Diller wrote:

"All association members

"Over the last several months, there has been much discussion in the Ocean Pines community regarding transparency and open communications. In some areas, progress has been made, but in others, there is still much work to be done. Unfortunately, yesterday, the closed-door dealings escalated to a new level with the very disappointing recommendation from our General Manager to the Board. Based on this action, we have decided that it is necessary to run for the board, to join other candidates who are supportive of having transparency in community decisions, and sound procedures in procurement, including open RFP cycles for all major projects in accordance with our existing financial guidelines.

"The fact is right now we have a lame duck board. They have taken no action towards any major capital initiatives in the last 8 months, but are now using their last three meetings to a make key decisions on a large capital commitment when all options have not been evaluated. Buying software that has not been publicly shared, through a process that was managed by individuals who have a financial interest in the proposed result, without consideration of alternative options, is a complete neglect of fiduciary duties for all parties involved. Such a significant purchase needs to be both approved and implemented by the SAME board, that being the NEW board elected in August, after ALL options can be presented to them.

"We look forward to serving the community, and most importantly re-establishing open lines of communication and transparency on where and how OUR Ocean Pines assessments are spent. Hiding behind attorneys and secret meetings needs to end. The Maryland HOA Act was drafted to protect the Homeowner’s, and we need a board that uses the HOA Act to foster community involvement, not hide board activities.

"Thank you.

"Esther Diller and Brett Hill"

So, in the 2018 OPA election, Diller and Hill, were obviously running as a team of some sort. However, Hill was declared ineligible by OPA corporate Secretary Colette Horn. Hill sued. Can't recall the case ever going to court.

Diller won a one-year term on the OPA Board of Directors, besting candidate Paula Gray by 23 votes. Can't recall any recount request.

When a board member demands you find dirt on a current candidate, you may run into all sorts of election history.

All that election history aside, why report on the Facebook hate site? It essentially terrorized three women in Ocean Pines for years. Even then, the hate site has zero significance, except for board members, past board members, and committee members who have "Liked" posts and participated on the hate site.

Some may say Get Involved and ROC deserve each other in their ongoing battles over board politics.

However, no woman deserves the vile, disgusting attacks on that Facebook hate site. No person does. Why have OPA Board of Directors elections sunk to such a disgusting level in some quarters?