news story / By Hank Sims

Thrilla in Manila

Current MCSD General Manager Christopher Drop wrote to Fennell and Lima and informed that one of them would not have to run again in 2009 because of the snafu. Lima wrote that Fennell was welcome to it. “I am willing to give the four-year position to Michael as I have not as yet decided to run again,” she wrote. “Please, Michael … take it. I don’t know if I can stomach the b.s. much longer, I guess my skin is too thin.”

At last Thursday night’s MCSD board meeting, Fennell himself seemed to feel much the same. Thirty or so members of the public were present to talk about the elections snafu, as well as everyday district matters such as equipment repair and water and sewage fees. Tensions between the board and dissident members of the public seemed to run high, and board chair Dan Ihara kept his gavel close at hand to rap down folks talking out of turn. It rarely had any effect.

The meeting started with Susan Opalach — a resident who ran against Fennell in 2007 — handing the board a petition signed by some 80 or so residents, asking that the board take legal action to put the extra seat on the ballot after all. Later, when the scheduled time to discuss the matter arose, Fennell said that he had been personally vilified by some neighbors in this matter, and that he was fairly sick of it.

“What goes on in this community … that somehow I’ve been attacked for engineering this,” an exasperated Fennell told the public. “I really don’t care which way it goes, I just don’t want to see it become more convoluted.”

If that was his wish, he was soon disappointed. After some discussion, during which it looked as if the district would sue the county in an attempt to put the seat on the ballot, Ihara said that he believed Fennell had a conflict in the matter and should not vote. Fennell abruptly left the room. With director Charles McDaniels absent, that left only three members of the board to vote on the resolution to sue the county.

Director Lima put forth a motion to file the suit, provided that costs to the district would not exceed $2,000. When the matter came to a vote, though, Lima decided to vote against her own motion. Directors Ihara and Dellas voted yes; it was assumed the matter had passed 2-1, and that a suit would go forward.

Soon after, though, it was determined that the district’s bylaws required three affirmative votes for a motion to pass. The board reconvened on Monday to retake the vote, with McDaniels present. This time, though, Lima and Fennell both were determined to have conflicts of interest. McDaniels voted against the motion. So, with another 2-1 vote in favor, the motion failed again.

Reached Tuesday, Drop, the district’s general manager, said that the matter was not likely to end there, though. He said that the board was looking at asking Fennell to resign his seat somewhere around election day, at which point the board would appoint someone — perhaps Fennell himself — to fill the problematic seat for the extra two years.

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