The Village Council Board mixes it up

At last night's Village Council meeting, the board was shuffled around. Many thought that current Chairman David Wells was stepping down from the Council, but he only stepped down as Chair.

Council members Michelle Niemeyer and Kate Callahan were nominated for the Chair position, but Kate declined the offer because she announced that she is in the running for the District 2 Commission seat, currently held by Marc Sarnoff, there is an election in November.

While she will remain on the Village Council, she did not want to be an active board member to allow her to run for the Commission seat and still participate in Village Council. So Michelle Niemeyer is the new Chair of the Village Council. She was happy to take the position which she held just a few years ago, she said, "I sense a different energy tonight and I'm looking forward to a new year. We can be effective this year."

There was a nice energy in the room. The meeting was at the Sailing Club and many people came out and were engaged. It may be a better location than the Ransom Everglades Middle School auditorium -- it seems more accessible and better lit and just has better energy.

The rest of the new board consists of Felice Dubin as Vice Chair; Heather Bettner is Secretary; Renita Samuels-Dixon is Treasurer and Patrick Sessions is Sergeant at Arms. The rest of the board is Kate Callahan, David Wells, David Collins and Stephen Murray.

At the end of the long meeting, there was a nice chocolate cake to thank Linda Williams who took the minutes last year.