Laguna Beach council selects committee members

Incumbents fared well as the Laguna Beach City Council on Tuesday interviewed and appointed applicants for positions on five commissions, committees and boards.

The five-member council unanimously selected Delano Dinelly, Karl Koski and Cathy Viviani for three spots on the Personnel Board.

Council members also unanimously selected six applicants to fill as many spots on the Housing and Human Services Committee, including incumbents Faye Chapman, Jane Fulton and Jheri St. James, and challengers Cottie Petrie-Norris, Robert Reed and Marcus Skenderian.

Reed elicited laughs from applicants and the council with his comments about life expectancy.

“Senior housing to me is going to be a really critical issue because I just found out...that I’m going to live to be 96,” Reed said. “When I started out with my family in 1962, my life expectancy was 76. From retirement to 76 is only 11 years. Now it’s an extra 20 years.”

Reed called it a “mistake in planning.”

Council members unanimously selected incumbents Roger McErlane and Susan Whitin out of three applicants for the Planning Commission.

The council unanimously selected four incumbents out of seven applicants for four spots on the Arts Commission: Michael Ervin, Pat Kollenda, Suzanne Mellor and Adam Schwerner.

The council needed three rounds to select five candidates from a pool of eight applicants for the Emergency/Disaster Preparedness Committee.

Incumbent David Horne and challenger Jason de Bretteville each received a unanimous five votes, while incumbent Jerry Myers received four votes.

Three candidates received three votes, including challengers Charity Morsey and Lynda Halligan Olsen, whom the council eventually selected to fill the remaining two spots.

Two-year terms for each committee, commission and board begin July 1 and run through June 30, 2019.

bryce.alderton@latimes.com

Twitter: @AldertonBryce