Mar Vista Community Council Fills Board Vacancies

The met last night at the for its regularly scheduled board meeting. was anything but regular: Board Chair Albert Olson walked out and resigned when he was stymied by the board in his effort to nominate a candidate of his choice to fill a vacant seat.

Last night’s meeting was a much quieter affair. Acting Chair Sharon Commins acknowledged the upheaval at the previous meeting, saying, “The appointment procedure that we sweated over didn’t work so well. That procedure didn’t serve us or you and we are looking at revising it and welcome your input.”

The board then elected Commins as the new Chair and turned to filling the two vacancies remaining, an at-large seat and a Zone 4 representative.

This time around there was little drama. Commins nominated Michael Millman for the Zone 4 seat and the board approved unanimously. Millman in his candidate statement made a point of stressing his residency in Zone 4 and praised the work of his predecessors in that seat, Albert Olson especially. “If I can be a fraction of what he [Olson] was to this board then I’ll be serving this community well,” Millman said.

With the Zone 4 seat filled, the board turned to the at-large vacancy. Commins nominated Yvette Molinaro, who was unable to attend the meeting because of a business trip. The board approved her nomination with only Babak Nahid abstaining on the grounds that he did not “know enough” about her to vote for Molinaro.

With that once contentious issue out of the way, the board quickly re-shuffled its officers, appointing Bill Koontz as First Vice Chair, Chuck Ray as Second Vice Chair and Millman as Secretary.

The Board then formally announced the vacancy for an at-large seat left by Olson’s resignation and began a 40-day period for candidates to submit their names for nomination.

For more on Albert Olson's resignation and the sparring over the appointment process that precipitated it, see:

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