BFC presents budget guidance to OPA Board

(Oct. 21, 2020) The budget process for the next fiscal year unofficially got underway on Saturday, as Budget and Finance Committee Chairman Dick Keiling presented the annual budget guidance document to the Ocean Pines Board.  

Budget guidance from the committee is one of the requirements of Resolution F-02, which governs the annual budget development process. 

“The preparation of the budget is a significant work process. It not only involves the Finance staff, but it involves all of the departments,” Keiling said. “They do a really good job of developing a zero-based budget … and BNF truly appreciates all their hard work, which facilitates a pretty smooth process.” 

Keiling said each year the General Manager sets a budget review timeline, and this year the committee asked that to start with a committee review during early January.  

“The GM agreed to that, so he’s preparing a document [that] describes all the activity leading up to the budget approval in February,” Keiling said.  

“We strongly encourage and welcome any Board members who would like to attend those three days. It’s a very, very good time, and a very thorough look at the budget process,” he continued. “We encourage participation [and] asking questions.” 

Following Keiling’s presentation, Director Frank Daly cautioned the community that the COVID-19 pandemic would certainly play a significant role in the next budget.  

He also credited General Manager John Viola and his team with delivering favorable financial results during what has been an extremely trying time.  

“I think it’s important for all of us to understand … what an incredibly difficult year this has been from a management perspective,” Daly said. “This year’s budget was developed pre-COVID. We’re operating in a COVID environment. We’re dealing with reduced capacity by government mandates. We’re dealing with reduced demands because people are scared. We’re dealing with reduced assessments which we, collectively as a Board, made a decision on, because the community was so negatively impacted by COVID.  

“Yet through this we have maintained – and John has maintained and the Board and the whole team – outstanding operating results by using tools that have come available to him from the sky, like the PPP program, [and] by managing revenues [and] by managing expenses,” Daly added.  

A few years ago, Daly said, the Association was facing around $2 million in losses during what then was a good economy. Some of those losses are still on the books.  

“Now, we’re looking at performance to budget that’s great in an economy that is absolutely unimaginable for people alive today,” he said. “I just want to caution everybody that … it’s going to be a difficult proposition, because we still have to deal with a half-million-dollar shortfall in assessments.  

“Who knows what’s going to happen between now and the end of the fiscal year. We can’t even make a projection – we can’t even honestly ask for one,” Daly added.  

“We have to go forward with the understanding that we have, in effect, chartered John to fly through fog in a high-performance jet with no instruments. And there are bumps out there. It’s been a damned smooth ride – a lot smoother than really anybody expected. But we’re going to have to deal with those bumps in the budget. And I think they’re going to be there,” Daly said. 

To view video of the budget guidance presentation, visit https://youtu.be/U08JUkyV5G0?t=5364.   

To download the budget guidance document, visit www.oceanpines.org/documents/20124/76969/B%26F%202021%20budget%20guidance.pdf/1966deff-6866-9110-a672-6c16310b7415.