By Hannah Heineman

The votes for the open seats on the 2012-2013 Wilmont Board of Directors that were cast at a noisy meeting on June 9 at the Main Library were counted on July 7 at the Church of the Nazarene in front of an audience of 15 people.

The June 9 meeting was supposed to be the neighborhood organization’s annual meeting at which the 2012-2013 board would be elected. But, at the last minute, the current board changed it to a regular meeting. Under the group’s by-laws, elections can only be held at annual meetings. The board, in effect, canceled the election by changing the meeting to a regular session. The change in meeting type was made ostensibly because the existing board didn’t have access to Wilmont’s membership records. Only valid
members are allowed to vote and/or run in elections, and the membership chair, Marcia Carter, had just broken her hip and the records, which would identify valid members, were locked up in her apartment.

However, at the June 9 meeting, the members proceeded to hold a provisional election over the protests of the current Board. Use of provisional ballots would permit the validity of the candidates and voters to be established at a future time.

Ed Hunsacker, a Wilmont member, explained that the vote count on July 7 was done in order to conclude June 9 election process, adding that, “We (the members) are the official governing body of the organization (Wilmont) because there are not a minimum of 8 board members on the board right now because two of the board members’ terms ended at the annual meeting.”

Three “counting supervisors” tallied the votes — former Santa Monica City Council member and Chair of the Planning Commission Kelly Olsen, Lauren Murray, Assistant Treasurer and Global Cash Manager for the law firm Latham Watkins LLC and Attorney Carol Aragon, Aragon Mediation Services. According to Jeanne Dobson, a former chair of Wilmont and one of the candidates for the 2012-2013 board, the supervisors were “chosen for their standing in the community but most importantly for their neutrality.”

Fifty-seven envelopes containing ballots were pulled and counted from a ballot box that had been sealed and then entrusted to Friends of Sunset Park President, Zina Josephs. One envelope was invalid.

Hunsaker explained that the official Wilmont membership roll had still not been made to available to them by the current board, so they had contacted those in attendance at the June 9 meeting to either e-mail, or submit some proof of membership so a list could be compiled to verify that those who voted were members of Wilmont at the time of the vote. In all, 30 voters out of the 56 who voted were found to be valid members, which Hunsacker stated was “enough to reach a simple majority of all the ballots cast.” The other 26 can be vetted at a later time if necessary.

Out of the ten candidates, the eight top vote getters would be new Board members. Those with the lowest count were incumbents Benjamin Steers with 19 votes and Diane Krackower with 16 votes. The board can have up to 15 members so eight new members and one incumbent could be seated. The members whose terms weren’t up for election would occupy the other six seats. Only one of the current 2011-2012 board members, Betty Mueller, was present for the count.

After the count, Hunsacker announced the ballots would be placed back in the ballot box. It would be resealed, signed by the counting supervisors, and then once again be entrusted to Josephs — along with the original tally sheet and the membership list used to vet the ballots. They asked Josephs to give the result of the count to the chair of the 2011-2012 board Valarie Griffin and the Vice-Chair Albin Gielicz neither of whom were up for election. A board meeting is currently scheduled to be held on July 16.

The nine candidates who were elected were Dodson, Robert Gurfield, Reinhard Kargl, Lenore Morrell, Jim Pickerell, Deborah Roetman, Benjamin Steers, Elizabeth Vandenburgh, and Alin Wall.

The Dispatch contacted Griffin but she had no comment.