PPCC Committee Announces Officer Candidate Nominations

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

The Pacific Palisades Community Council Nominating Committee—chaired by Steve Cron—announced its nominations of officer candidates for the 2022-23 term during a virtual meeting on Thursday evening, May 12.

The committee nominated Maryam Zar for chair, Jenny Li for vice-chair, Beth Holden-Garland for secretary and Randy Young for treasurer.

“Last year, [PPCC Chair] Dave [Card] asked me to chair the nominating committee and I said yes, and it was easy as can be,” Cron explained during the meeting. “We had four officers, all of whom had indicated they wanted to run again.”

The committee met for about 45 minutes, Cron said, spending less than five minutes settling on nominating the four incumbent officers: David Card for chair, David Kaplan for vice-chair, Richard Cohen for treasurer and Chris Spitz for secretary. The slate ran uncontested and was elected by the board to serve again.

This year, however, Cron shared was a “different story.”

“Dave was term limited out, a number of people had said that they were not interested in serving again,” Cron explained. “So we started from scratch.”

This year’s nominating committee had five members: Cron, Holden-Garland, Joanna Spak, Nancy Niles and Mary Mueller. Rob Weber, who is not on the council but serves as legal advisor, attended the meetings and gave advice according to the bylaws.

“We cast a wide net, looking for people who had been involved in the council—some with a lot of experience, some with less, so we would have a mixture,” Cron continued. “We wouldn’t have all seasoned people who a few years from now, we’d be looking around saying, ‘Where are our future leaders?’”

Cron explained that the committee faced many “tough calls” after “a lot of meetings, a lot of phone calls and a lot of outreach,” but in the end, they put together a slate they were all “happy to announce.”

The committee’s nomination for chair, Zar, created the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness and is also a former chair of PPCC, who has been involved in “countless activities.” She currently serves as chair emeritus.

“We felt that her experience in the community and her experience as a past chair would serve as a guiding light for the rest of the officers and the rest of the community council,” Cron said.

Li currently represents Area 7 (Rustic, Santa Monica and lower Rivas canyons, and the Will Rogers area) on PPCC; Holden-Garland is an organizational representative for Pacific Palisades Residents Association; and Young is a Palisades historian who is a past chair of PPCC.

Officers are elected by the PPCC Board to serve one-year terms that run from July 1 to June 30. The chair and vice-chair are limited to no more than two consecutive terms.

“We spent a lot of time and vetted all these candidates with numerous people,” Cron said later in the meeting, “and we’re confident that these people will be the right team to lead us into the future.”

Nominations for officers from the PPCC Board are now open and will continue to be accepted until 15 minutes before the scheduled close of the next board meeting on May 26.

“An officer candidates forum (if needed) and the board’s election of officers will take place on June 9,” according to information shared by the council. “The new officers’ term will begin on July 1, 2022.”