Editorial: Corey Bruins Needs to Resign as Current President of the OB Town Council

In an unprecedented move this morning, 22 community leaders published an open letter to the Ocean Beach Town Council and stated:

“… we call upon OBTC to hold a membership-wide election rather than privately appointing so many vacant seats. We further ask that the board address the community’s concerns about Mark [Winkie’]s departure. Only by airing these issues and allowing the community to be involved in the election can OBTC begin to re-establish trust.”

It’s the membership of the OB Town Council – a private organization – that elects new board members. So, this call for a membership election is based on fears the current board will proceed with the appointment of newbies to the four open seats. They have stated that is what they intend to do. Well, there’s so many open seats on the board because of the crisis within the town council.

Let’s back up. Until early July, Mark Winkie was president. He was just re-elected to his third or fourth term a few months ago by the board. But, apparently, several board members were upset with a very personal matter involving Mark. And he was asked to resign in a letter sent to him, signed by nine board members. Which he did. Then, at least two other board members resigned in protest of the way the matter with Mark was handled.

At the July public OBTC meeting on facebook, nothing was said about Mark’s departure or the departure of the other members or about how and why Corey Bruins was now the new president. Susan Winkie, Mark’s spouse, read a letter to the board during the meeting damning the board for their action and asking for an apology from them to Mark. Several other current or past members also agreed with Susan.

Yet, since then – eight days ago – there has been no response by the sitting board or by Bruins, despite their pledge on facebook they would be answering Susan’s statement.

Now, there’s several issues here. Apart from why Mark was asked to resign, the way in which his resignation was demanded by a letter did not follow the board’s own by-laws. At least two board members felt pressured to add their signatures to the letter. Apparently, not all then-current board members were even shown and asked to sign the letter. Here’s the section of the OBTC By-Laws at issue:

Does it sound like the bylaws were followed? Was there a 30-day written notice? Was Mark given “an opportunity to address the Board”?

The current board is a mixture, but many are new and have joined the board since or during the pandemic. They may have not experienced or known about Mark’s leadership qualities while president. But somehow they were convinced to sign the letter to oust Mark. Normally, there’s 15 members; today there is only 11 – and there’s no vice-president.

Many of us on the outside were not aware there were serious differences on the OBTC – not to mention factions. But it looks like there were.

This lack of transparency, this behind-the-scenes maneuvering is unbecoming of an important civic organization in OB. Now, the trust has been broken and unless the board quickly and immediately responds to the satisfaction of those who have signed the letter, the credibility of the Ocean Beach Town Council is trash.

One thing is clear, however, even from the outside. The new president, Corey Bruins, instigated the ouster of Winkie and persuaded others, perhaps with some serious arm-twisting, to gang up on Mark. Bruins did not follow the by-laws and was able to offer himself – surprise! – as the new head of the council.

Bruins, in less than a month, has damaged the reputation of this fine organization that has not suffered a wrinkle in more than ten years. In a sense, Bruins staged a mini-coup of a sitting president and replaced him with his own humble self. Now, there is a serious concern that he will push to appoint friends and allies to the board during a secret meeting in about two weeks. This cannot happen.

In order that this not happen, the OB Rag calls upon Corey Bruins to step down as president and resign from the board for the good of the community. That is an important first step in regaining the trust that so many community leaders believe has been lost. Only with Bruins’ departure and an election by the membership of perhaps a “care-taker” board, can the credibility be restored.