OB Planning Board, Feb. 7, 2018. John Ambert is still chair.
There’s been some changes at the Ocean Beach Planning Board of late.
Andrea Schlageter – who was interim-chair – has now been selected to be the “full” Chair. Kevin Hastings was selected by Board members to be the new Vice Chair, Craig Klein was chosen to be Treasurer, and rounding out the executive committee, Tracy Dezenzo is now the new secretary.
Kevin Hastings was recently appointed to planning area district 6 and Tracy Dezenzo was appointed to district 1 at the September 6 Board meeting.
At the most recent full Board meeting in early October, the Board appointed 4 new members: Virginia Wilson, Elizabeth Felando, Anthony Ciulla, and Richard Merriman. This means the OBPB has appointed 6 new members, and it is near full operating strength. Three women were added to a prominently-male board to help balance that out. This is all good news.
The Board has 14 seats – 2 from each of the 7 planning districts. But even that was changing.
After a discussion of some proposed bylaw changes, the Board voted to lower the number of signatures one needs to be a candidate for the Board via the annual election or via an appointment to 
the number 10. It was 35.
Plus in an extraordinary move, the Board voted to add two “at large seats” to the board. This change creates a 16-member board (unless we’re missing something). This type of change to the number of seats or the type of representation has not occurred since the Board was originally established in 1976.
The board took this tact instead of doing away with the districts or getting rid of half the district seats. (That kind of radical change would have required a much-more intense and indepth discussion and review by the community.)
{ 0 comments… add one now }