Six of seven reform candidates beat Promote La Jolla\u2019s incumbents Oct. 3 in a race to fill seven vacancies for the 2009 business improvement district\u2019s board of directors. La Jolla business owners become automatic members of PLJ \u2013 the village\u2019s business improvement district, a nonprofit entity \u2013 with added business tax assessments, but anyone can choose to pay dues and become an associate member. The reform slate\u2019s ongoing theme centered on the public\u2019s mistrust of the current board. This year\u2019s winners included incumbent George Hauer, owner of George\u2019s at the Cove, and six reform slate candidates: Jennifer Clark, Glen Rasmussen, Shannon Turner, Brian Miller, Daisy Fitzgerald and Rick Wildman. The reform slate said they collectively decided to run after PLJ came out in favor of paid on-street parking, said La Jolla Town Council President Darcy Ashley. Members of the reform slate said they are against paid on-street parking but the community\u2019s issues run deeper, according to many new board members. “I think transparency is a nice word that\u2019s used a lot,” Wildman said. “It\u2019s like every other public organization, and I think it\u2019s very important that everything be done out in the open.” Last year\u2019s election resulted in ongoing legal battles between two newly elected reform candidates and other PLJ board members, but Wildman said he doesn\u2019t predict any repeat skirmishes. “Nobody objected to the results. There were no protests,” Wildman said. “Hopefully it\u2019s going to be that way in the future. A lot of us live here and have lived here a really long time.” Although nothing is official until the first of January, Wildman \u2013 a prominent La Jolla attorney \u2013 said the reform slate is planning to cash in on their previous promises. “We shouldn\u2019t be spending money that\u2019s meant to promote local businesses in litigation,” Wildman said. “I don\u2019t know that there\u2019s anyone who wants to get even [with the current board]. I look at the new list and most of these people, and I think that this is a group of people that can get beyond the past.” Wildman said PLJ is a public organization that should always remain accessible to the community, but some have felt the board was not offering the community information. “I think that\u2019s what got all of us locals involved \u2014 whether it has been or not \u2014 I think that is sort of the central theme,” Wildman said. Recent PLJ board meetings ended with “closed sessions” allowing the board to legally retire to privacy by saying they were discussing an ongoing court case. Because the case involved last year\u2019s two reform candidates, the two were excluded. “I don\u2019t know how good of an idea these closed sessions really are,” Wildman said. “I think everything should be open, including the books.” Wildman said the new candidates just want to create a fresh new board that will change the public\u2019s image of PLJ. “We all run into each other around town,” Wildman said. “Everybody\u2019s frustrated more than anything else. Who knows why things were the way they were in the past, but now things are going to be different.” PLJ\u2019s next monthly meeting is Wednesday, Nov. 12, 6 p.m., at La Jolla Recreation Center, 615 Prospect Ave. For more information, go to www.lajollabythesea.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Six of seven reform candidates beat Promote La Jolla\u2019s incumbents Oct. 3 in a race to fill seven vacancies for the 2009 business improvement district\u2019s board of directors. La Jolla business owners become automatic members of PLJ \u2013 the village\u2019s business improvement district, a nonprofit entity \u2013 with added business tax assessments, but anyone can […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Merchants read writing on the wall","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551,11593,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news","category-no-images","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}