The Vashon-Maury Community Council saw four nominations for new board members during its Oct. 17 meeting, with the board scheduled to welcome its new membership in November.
The community council offers a public forum for discussion on island issues and speaks as the unofficial voice of the island to policy makers in King County and in Washington.
The community council’s membership — open to residents of the island age 18 or older — votes democratically on matters brought to the board, but the council itself is administrated by a 12-seat Board of Directors, which will be refreshed this November. Eight of the board members are elected in even years, with the remaining positions chosen by the elected board members.
The board is currently made up of board president Diane Emerson, who is retired from the specialty chemical industry and is strongly involved in the environmental sector; Ben Carr, an assistant attorney general in the Consumer Protection Division of the Washington State Attorney General’s Office; Elena Camarillo, a creative writer and former software design engineer at Microsoft; Tammy Dye, the board treasurer and a retired actuary who now coaches and volunteers on the island; Debra Gussin, the board Vice President and a retired clinical social worker and board member of the Vashon Food Bank; board corresponding secretary Jessica Anakar, an islander, crisis counselor and former para educator with the Vashon Island School District; Dr. Steven Nourse, an ADA consultant, retired teacher, professor and advocate for people with disabilities; and Ann Thorn, a retired engineering director who spent her career developing defibrillators and AEDs.
“We’re all volunteers,” Emerson said. “This is a lot of work … running the Community Council, and we need many hands … so it’s not too much for any one [person].”
Announced at the Oct. 17 meeting was the resignation of board member Jamilla (Milla) Stigall, who was the organization’s secretary.
In a statement read by board president Emerson, Stigall said she was “leaving to focus on my family and other community efforts. … I’m also going back to school, so I have to put my energy into other things.”
Stigall “put in many hours on behalf of our community through the council,” Emerson said, including on the council’s equity, social justice and inclusion committee, and as a board member and secretary — even while taking care of three kids as a single mom, Emerson said.
“We will miss her presence on the board and the perspective she brought from her life experience,” Emerson said.
The council elects a new board every two years; current board members can run to retain their seats. The terms begin December 1.
Emerson will also be leaving the board after spending five years involved with the council.
Four people nominated themselves to re-join the board at the meeting: Nourse, Thorn, Anakar and would-be board newcomer Susan Carper, who withdrew her application after the meeting.
The nominating committee is reviewing two more applicants and will finalize its list on Tuesday, the day this edition of The Beachcomber goes to print, Emerson said.
Community council members were scheduled to be notified on Thursday, and anonymous voting was to begin for them on Thursday and run until Nov. 2. No new members will be allowed to vote once the voting process begins.
The new board will be formally announced during the Nov. 21 community council meeting and take office on Dec. 1. Their first board meeting, currently scheduled for Dec. 5, will be an opportunity to elect officers — and given the small number of applicants, Emerson said, also an opportunity to begin efforts to recruit more board members.
“I have been on the island for 40 years,” Nourse told the council. “Most of my kids were raised here. … I think the council really needs to be an educator, and [to] present all sides of issues.”
“I’m here to serve the community and keep good forums and discussions going, and to hear everybody equally,” Thorn said.
Anakar, who could not attend the meeting due to illness, comes from a family which has long been involved in the community on Vashon, Emerson said.
“She’s very, very dedicated to the community,” Emerson said, “even though she’s a single mom with three kids, working full time, she hangs in there. She wants to be on the Community Council, so she finds the time to do it. And I’m very, very grateful.”
Carper described her story — familiar to many islanders — of hustling to stay on an island community which is rapidly becoming unaffordable for many.
“I came here originally to work at Little Bird Gardens … and now work full-time at Thriftway. … I would love to be here, to be a voice of single parents and the people struggling to stay here. … I work with a lot of people who are in the same boat.”
Carper, however, withdrew her application after the meeting, Emerson said.
Some in the audience raised concern over the idea that the nominating committee has the power to filter out candidates for the board.
The role of the nominating committee is “to just make sure that the people who want to be on the board are a good fit for the Community Council and the board,” Emerson said.
Islander Armen Yousoufian, quoting state law RCW 24.03A.500, proposed that the ballot be open to anyone who wants to run — rather than needing to be vetted by a “self-selected nominating committee.”
“I think what you’re doing is immoral and unethical, and it’s subjecting you potentially to a lawsuit,” Yousoufian said. ” … I don’t see where you have the authority to do what you’re doing.”
In response, council board member Ben Carr quoted another statute of state law — RCW 24.03A.490 — which grants that “the activities and affairs of the corporation shall be managed by or under the direction, and subject to the oversight, of the board of directors”
“Unless there’s something that takes the power away from the board, the board has the power to create a nominating committee,” Carr said.
Emerson also pointed out that anyone can come back and resubmit their nomination to the new board when it’s formed, and the board can decide whether to accept them.
