With exceptionally high voter turnout at the 2021 annual Greenbelt Homes Inc. (GHI) election, members voted for generational change on a scale the cooperative hasn’t seen in decades. None of the five members of the board of directors elected two years ago will remain in office after Thursday, May 20, when the new board is seated. This is in sharp contrast to recent board elections, which have been uncontested since 2017.
GHI has nine directors, elected to staggered two-year terms: five in odd years and four in even years. Earlier this year, concurrent with completion of GHI’s $21 million Homes Improvement Program, three directors announced they were not running again. These included current Vice-President Steve Skolnik and board member Sue Ready, both former presidents. In March 2021, Director Anna Socrates also resigned, effective immediately. After advertising the vacant seat, the board received an application from only one member: Jason Luly, who was appointed to an abbreviated term starting March 18.
Luly was the only one of five incumbent directors re-elected in this year’s May 13-14 annual election. Four newcomers also swept to victory: Denna Lambert, Heather Mortimer, Erin Bilyeu and Christopher Carbone. Among these, Carbone is the only one with elected experience in GHI, completing a seven-month term on the Audit Committee. Long-standing board incumbents Chuck Hess and Bill Jones came in sixth and seventh place and were not re-elected.
The Audit Committee race was uncontested, with three candidates for three positions: elected were incumbent Sam Lee and newcomers Dale Wilding and David Benack.
The vote count was exceptionally high, 60 percent higher than 2020’s election, and more than twice the average of the prior five years in-person paper-ballot elections.
The five members of the Nominations & Elections Committee (N&E) were also elected by acclamation during the May 13 annual meeting, which the bylaws permit in an uncontested race. Re-elected were Dan Gillotte, Theresa Henderson, Tom Jones and Luisa Robles, while newcomer Joe Ralbovsky filled the position of outgoing member Mary Salemme.
Similar to last year’s pandemic-delayed October meeting, this year’s event was a hybrid. Members were offered the choice of an online meeting hosted by GetQuorum or joining the same event in person at the Youth Center. According to GetQuorum, 323 Zoom participants joined online (although some households had more than one participant for one membership) while merely 11 members attended in person at the Youth Center, including two board members and two N&E members.
The first item of business facing the new board was election of officers among the new directors. Current President Stefan Brodd and Secretary Ed James were re-elected to those positions. New board member Denna Lambert is vice-president, and Jason Luly is the new treasurer.
To ensure newcomers are maximally successful at directing the 1,600-member corporation (with an annual budget of $13 million as it saves for future projects costing $43 million), GHI provides annual training for board members in roles, responsibilities and effective communication.
Tom Jones is chair of GHI’s Nominations & Elections Committee.