By Mary O’KEEFE

Officers were voted on at January’s Montrose Shopping Park Assn. board meeting. Running unopposed were Ken Grayson who was re-elected president, Andre Ordubegian was voted in as vice president, Corey Grijalva was elected treasurer and Danny Parnata maintained his position as secretary.

Not only the election of officers was held at the meeting, but also discussion on the upcoming centennial celebration, which will be celebrated in February. The association is looking for sponsors for the weekend event beginning on Feb. 21.

At present, the monthly meetings for the MSPA are open to the public. A discussion at the January meeting posed a possible closed section of that meeting. The concern was that some members would be open to discuss issues more frankly if there was a closed session, especially if those topics concerned a privacy issue.

It has yet to be determined if the association is required to follow the Brown Act, a state law requiring open forum for meetings held by public bodies including local agencies, legislative bodies and governing bodies of non-profit corporations formed by a public agency.

The question that has faced MSPA for years is in what category do they fall.

“That depends on who you ask,” said Dale Dawson, executive director MSPA.

It has yet to be determined if MSPA is a government board under the city and therefore would fall under the Brown Act requirement.

Although most board members were in favor of a closed section part of their public meeting, they have asked for more study before deciding the issue.

Grayson asked Dawson to explore the costs of hiring an outside bookkeeping firm to review, and run, the association’s finances. Dawson responded that they had attempted using an outside source in the past, but it was easier to do it in house.

Grayson and the other members asked Dawson to again explore the possibility of hiring an outside source.

MSPA also formed a new committee to reach out to business owners and the community to work together in supporting the philosophy of shopping  locally.

The MSPA monthly board meetings are held at 8 a.m. on the first Thursday of the month. Community and business members are invited to attend the meetings. Public communication is offered at each meeting. The meetings are held in the community room in the rear of CitiBank at 2359 Honolulu Ave. in Montrose.

  Mary Okeefe