We hope you will attend the monthly meeting of the Wilshire-Montana Neighborhood Coalition tomorrow night to demand that your votes are counted!!

Most of Santa Monica has now heard about the controversy surrounding the election at Wilmont’s Annual Meeting last week. There were charges that the current board tried to arbitrarily change the nomination rules stipulated in our Bylaws to keep anyone from running against them in the yearly board elections. When those efforts seemed questionable, they then tried to cancel the elections only two days before the meeting.

Luckily, our members decided to stand up and fight for your rights. You showed up in force and demanded that the elections proceed as required in our Bylaws. The Chairwoman then declared that she was adjourning the meeting, there would be no election, and that everyone had to leave. Our membership responded by voting, almost unanimously, to remove the Chair and proceed with the vote. It was a proud day for democracy.

Unfortunately, because of some questionable excuses put forward by the board, those votes could not be counted at the time. In front of a packed crowd of our members, the presiding Chair took possession of the sealed ballot box and promised that those votes would be publicly counted “within days.” More than a week later, current board members are using every excuse imaginable and are refusing to count your votes.

We hope you will join fellow Wilmonters Monday night, June 18, at the Ken Edwards Center at 7PM. Free parking for our members is available beneath the building at 1527 Fourth Street. We ask that you once again stand up for your right to a free and fair election and demand that your votes are counted.

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Wilmont members and candidates for the Board of Directors:Jeanne Dodson, Robert Gurfield, Reinhard Kargl, Lenore Morrell, Jim Pickrell, Deborah Roetman, Elizabeth Van Denburgh, Alin Wall