Village board gets more new blood

Six of the nine directors will have two years’ experience or less

For the second year in a row, incumbents to the Montgomery Village Foundation’s board of directors were ushered out of their seats by a resounding margin amid intense focus on the foundation’s financial standing.

Incumbents Gerald Donegan and Scott Frohman finished eighth and ninth out of 10 candidates, respectively. Neville Levi did not run for reelection.

Coming on the heels of an election in which three incumbents were swept out of office by a 2-1 margin, the implication from residents is clear, Bort said.

‘‘Everyone I spoke to, in all the different areas of the Village, felt that with the embezzlement and the controversy over Lake Whetstone and how that was handled, that we needed some change, a new point of view on the board and new controls on [foundation] staff,” she said.

Bort, Deye and Perley will begin their three-year term on the nine-member volunteer board at the end of the month. The board steers foundation policy on everything from assessment fees to architectural standards to government relations.

This year’s campaign was the most crowded in recent memory. It was also unusually contentious: accusations broiled that campaign signs were being stolen — prompting a call to police — and there were several heated exchanges in the editorial pages of the foundation’s newsletter.

But board President Bob Hydorn said that with a number of issues facing Montgomery Village — from raising resident fees to advocating against road expansions and industrial development at the Village’s borders — he does not expect any ill effects to linger.

‘‘The entire board will be able to work together,” he said. ‘‘I think we’ll pull together. Because we have the same end goal: the community.”

Once Deye, Bort and Perley take their positions at the end of this month, six of nine board members will have two years or less experience on the board.

Bort is not concerned about that relative lack of experience. She has been on the South Village Homes Corp. board for two years; Deye is a 33-year Village resident and is on the audit committee; and Perley is also a longtime resident with years of experience on the Whetstone and foundation boards.

‘‘You have to start somewhere, and new people bring a new perspective,” Bort said.

Deye said the new board’s priority needs to be on bringing the foundation’s finances out of the shadows cast by the embezzlement of more than $150,000 from foundation coffers and the dispute over how much money to keep in reserves.

And with the issue of raising resident assessment fees through a special community-wide vote, Deye said he believes many votes hinged on those concerns.

‘‘I don’t think the general populous has had an adequate, transparent accounting of what has occurred over the last five years,” he said.

Despite the contentious atmosphere, this year’s election drew the usual number of votes: a small fraction below the usual 17 percent voting rate, said Sharon Levine, the foundation’s director of government relations.

Twenty-four of the 1,810 returned ballots were declared invalid, including 10 that were disqualified for being behind on assessments.

Among those are 864 uncounted votes from Cider Mill Apartments, because of $334 it owes to the foundation in late fees.

Rental communities rarely vote in elections for the foundation board. Cider Mill has before, but not in several years, Humpton said.

By foundation election rules, rental properties get one vote per apartment (Owners of single-family homes and condos are counted as two votes per unit). The votes are cast by the complex’s owner, and all go to the candidates of their choice.

Cider Mill’s 864 votes — more than enough to alter the election results — remain in an unopened envelope. Reached Tuesday, Lisa McElhinney, Cider Mill’s property manager, did not know who the votes were cast for, and the owner could not be reached.

Cider Mill’s ballot arrived at the foundation Feb. 26. The foundation’s Election Committee met Feb. 29 and decided to accept ballots from anyone who owed up to $25 but not more, said David Humpton, the foundation’s executive vice president.

The final election report goes to the board for review later this month.