Appointment created issue in Marin City

From the standpoint of following the rules, the swearing in of a new member of the Marin City Community Services District board was not a pretty picture, from start to finish.

From the start, the seat was left vacant when no one ran for the post in November’s elections.

After a 2018 election in which there were six candidates actively running for three seats, failing to draw enough candidates for two seats seems improbable.

Obviously, the district and the community did not do enough to get people interested in running and serving on the board.

That failure left the job of filling the vacancy to the county Board of Supervisors, not the best option for Marin City’s hyperlocal board.

The supervisors picked Homer Hall, a longtime resident and community leader, for the vacancy. Hall would have been a solid choice, had he not also been serving on the board of the Marin Housing Authority, which manages Marin City’s Golden Gate Village public housing.

Hall is a supporter of the county-backed plan for muchneeded restoration and repairs of the housing.

The plan includes building a new apartment complex nearby that would serve as temporary housing for tenants displaced by the construction. When that work is completed, the nearby apartments would be privately held rental housing.

A version of that plan was at the center of Marin City’s 2018 board race; one that was won by three critics of the county’s proposal.

Unfortunately, putting Hall on the board appeared to represent interests of the supervisors more than Marin City’s voters.

It was not a huge surprise that it drew complaints from the district board, which took the unprecedented move of swearing in someone else to the open seat. It was a strong example of Marin City leaders reminding the county of their right to determine their own community’s destiny.

The move, however, also raised serious legal questions, but before they were addressed publicly, Hall did the right thing and withdrew.

Unfortunately, although Hall is well- qualified, the timing of the appointment smacked of political patronage when local representation should have been the top priority. The supervisors should have seen how the political optics would have looked from Marin City.

The district board had picked Lynette Egenlauf, who grew up in Marin City and is a local educator and activist. She organized the Black Lives Matter demonstration in Marin City following the murder of George Floyd.

The district board wanted a board member who represented younger and more progressive voices in the community, said one of its directors, Damian Morgan.

He said there was a concern that Hall was named to promote the county’s Golden Gate Village plan.

Hall’s decision to withdraw from the appointment was an example of putting the community first. His unselfish move also kept the district out of what could have been a costly legal battle with the county had the county challenged the district’s action.

Hall is regarded highly as a longtime community leader. His leadership and voice on the Marin Housing Authority board is important, but being named to the district board — at this time — looks like a conflict of interest that should have been avoided, not pushed on the district board.

In this case, it’s too bad that the choice had not been up to Marin City’s voters in November.

Perhaps district directors should make community involvement and participation in the district’s work a top priority in hopes that more people are interested in running two years from now.