Oct

01

2020

From The Blog

Letter from New Board Chair, Dave Morley

Dear Association members,

At the most recent Kiawah Island Community Association board meeting on Aug. 31, Diana Mezzanotte stepped down as chair. I was elected to complete her term, relinquishing my role as treasurer to Townsend Clarkson. Jerry McGee was elected secretary and David DeStefano maintained the role of vice-chair. I will serve as your chairman through the spring of 2022.

I want to thank Diana for her exceptional leadership in very difficult times. She has been a positive and welcoming ear to all involved with KICA, and I am very happy she is willing to remain on the board to fulfill her term. However, this is a sad day for KICA. This mid-term change in board officers is a typical, and I’d like to address the cause of this change. Somehow over the past months, our board has not modeled respectful discourse, resulting in Diana’s decision to resign. It is one thing to debate and disagree, but we should do it with respect and walkaway as colleagues. I take on the role of chairman in an attempt to redirect focus away from individual interests and toward the betterment of the entire island. I love Kiawah and I stepped up to fill this position because we need to set a new path.

I have served on the Finance Committee of this island since 2012 and as treasurer for the last year and a half. That is the most participant friendly and transparent group we have in KICA. Three-quarters of the membership are community members. Our meetings are open to the community. We have modeled transparency for years. I also chaired the island’s Flood Mitigation Task Force. We had community participation in the development of the plan, gave weeks of public review of the proposal and engaged in community outreach so we could come to a broad based decision. We ended up with an 82% favorable vote. I will commit to you to be an open leader. I want your ideas. We have an outreach group that will be asking you for ideas. We will follow that up with a survey of the whole island to confirm your feedback. My objective, and only you will be able to measure, is to have this board and this community largely working as one. We can no longer fight for individual interests, but must fight for what’s best for the entire island. That is my stance and I ask that you join me in doing what is right for our island. I will continually ask you if we are making progress.

In the meantime, I invite you to join us virtually for our bi-monthly public board meetings (next meeting is Nov. 2) and our Finance Committee meetings, and please ask questions or report issues
to the association in the new member portal. Our board and staff want to hear from you. I wish you and your loved ones good health during these challenging times.

Sincerely,

Dave Morley

KICA Board Chair