Blog note: this article references a 2013-14 San
Mateo County Grand Jury report critical of the San Mateo County Harbor
District.
Menlo Park resident Virginia Chang Kiraly,
about to begin her second four-year term on the board of the Menlo Park Fire
Protection District, has joined the board of the San Mateo County Harbor
District.
Ms. Chang Kiraly, a former investment adviser
and stock market trader, was appointed to the five-member harbor district board
on Nov. 16 for one year of the three years remaining in the term for that seat.
The vote was 3-1, with board member Sabrina Brennan dissenting, Ms. Chang
Kiraly said.
When the November 2016 election rolls around,
Ms. Chang Kiraly will have had one year in office and will be eligible to run
either for the remaining two years of her seat's term, or for a four-year term
for one of the other three seats be up for re-election, she said.
The harbor district board meets twice a month:
the first Wednesday of the month in Half Moon Bay and the third Wednesday in
South San Francisco, one day after the monthly meeting of the fire district
board in Menlo Park.
Ms. Chang Kiraly's goals, she said, are to
bring financial acumen to the board and to move the board in the direction of
"good governance."
The board's problems were outlined in a
2013-14 grand jury report. "There is no way to sugar coat the issue,"
the report begins. "The commission governing the San Mateo County Harbor
District is in disarray."
The report goes on to say that the district
operates at significant yearly losses, that board meetings sometimes require
police presence, that district financial reporting is "anything but
transparent," that records may be being destroyed, that seating
arrangements at board meetings can be contentious, and that video recording of
meetings are sometimes suspended.
"It is clear to the Grand Jury that the
District commissioners are lacking in professional decorum and fiscal
oversight, and that a lack of fiscal transparency makes it impossible to
determine exactly how taxpayers' money is being used," the report says.
A board that represents the entire county
should be well-versed in proper governance procedures, she said. "I have
always been a good governance advocate and I think I can help," she said.
Two offices
Ms. Chang Kiraly is holding two elected
offices at the same time. State law prohibits such situations "if the
offices have overlapping and conflicting public duties," according to the
Fair Political Practices Commission.
Ms. Chang Kiraly said she talked with
officials in the San Mateo County Elections Office and was told that her
situation does not embody such a conflict. The harbor district's general
manager and legal counsel concurred, she said.
When asked by the Almanac, the fire district's
counsel chose not to offer an opinion, and a spokeswoman for the state Attorney
General's Office said the Attorney General had not issued an opinion.
November 24, 2015
The
Almanac
By Dave Boyce
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