McLean Board Member Expresses Frustration

A  McLean Community Center Board member  raised an issue of “frustration” this week --- that the same people get elected to the board’s Executive Committee.

Lee DiCenso proposed expanding the membership of the Executive Committee by adding all the board’s committee’s chairs. Her proposal in effect would have added herself and fellow board member Susan Bourgeois to the four-member Executive Committee. DiCenso chairs the Program Committee.

The board has five committees. Members of the Executive Committee head the other three committees.

The  board has 11-members: Nine adult and two student members.  The board oversees the community center, raises money by collecting our  property tax dollars and is sitting on a surplus of $12 million mostly of our tax dollars.

The Executive Committee consists of Chair David Sanders,  Vice Chair, Kevin Dent, Treasurer Sean A. Dunn,  Secretary Risa Sanders,  who is no relation to David.

What is the problem,  Risa Sanders  asked DiCenso at Tuesday's Executive Committee meeting.

“It’s sort of a frustration. I think more that it’s been the same people making the decisions. . .it’s that filter,” answered DiCenso in her gentle, graceful way.

David Sanders has chaired the board for two years. Dunn said he had served on the committee for six years. Dent, four years. Risa Sanders, two years.

 “I think there can be a sense the Executive Committee is doing all these things and I’m on the outside looking in. . . Then when you become a member, it’s not such a big deal after all,” David Sanders said.

DiCenso: " I was just expressing that it could be perceived as an issue, not a problem, that the same people for years at a time are governing the Executive Committee and I don’t know if there is a way to rectify that I’m raising the issue."

Dunn noted that the Elections Committee meets only a few months out of the year because its function is to oversee the May election of board members. Dunn heads the Finance Committee which also meets only a few months of the year.

Dent and Risa Sanders encouraged other board members to run for officer positions.

The board's officers who make up the Executive Committee are elected in May at the board's  first meeting after the election. In May 2010 all the officers ran unopposed and were elected by a unanimous vote.

The Executive Committee came to no resolution.

The terms of DiCenso, Dunn and Risa Sanders all expire this year. It is unclear if they intend to seek reelection to the board.