Costa Mesa senior commissioner steps down after error in appointing her
A Costa Mesa senior commissioner has given up her post before even being sworn into office, following a voting error Mayor Pro Tem Sandy Genis made during the appointment process.
Commissioner Olga Zapata-Reynolds submitted her resignation letter on Feb. 13 — less than a week after being appointed — and wrote that she hoped to “remove any controversy and/or distractions.”
“It has been brought to my attention that a member of the City Council marked nomination forms incorrectly,” Zapata-Reynolds wrote. “The results were not what was intended.”
Costa Mesa will launch a recruitment and application process, perhaps as soon as next week, to fill the vacant seat on the Senior Commission, according to city spokesman Tony Dodero.
Genis admitted earlier this month that she had mistakenly placed her choices to serve on the senior, planning and parks and recreation commissions in reverse order when the council appointed residents to the panels on Feb. 7.
A council vote the month prior vacated every appointment on those commissions.
Council members used a process in which they ranked their preferred candidates by assigning them a point value from one to seven for the Senior Commission and one to five for the planning and parks commissions.
Those point totals were then multiplied by the number of council members selecting a particular candidate to determine a final score.
Because of Genis’ mistake, Zapata-Reynolds ended up tied with another candidate — Joeliza Jones — for the seventh and final open spot. The council unanimously approved Zapata-Reynolds’ appointment in a tiebreaking vote.
Had Genis marked her ballot correctly, Jones would have secured a commission seat outright.
The councilwoman’s mistake extended to the other commissions as well. While the outcome of the Parks and Recreation Commission wouldn’t have been any different, the slip-up gave Stephan Andranian a seat on the Planning Commission instead of another candidate, Teresa Callo Drain.
On Tuesday, council members declined Genis’ request to release Andranian from the Planning Commission, which he now chairs.
During that meeting, Genis said she didn’t also ask her colleagues to consider removing Zapata-Reynolds from the Senior Commission because her resignation presented “an avenue of correction” for the error.
The remaining members of the Senior Commission — Charlene Ashendorf, Alexa Merchant, Darrell Neft, Gary Parkin, Lee Ramos and Barbara Steck — will come together for their first official meeting March 14.
Twitter: @LukeMMoney
