New board selected by Wasilla chamber members

WASILLA — An additional board member resigned and six new members were appointed to the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce board of directors after executive director Cheryl Metiva requested administrative leave today.

Metiva began the chamber’s first meeting since five of the seven directors resigned by reading a statement she previously released to the media. In it she said she resolved previous credit card charges with the past president and did not have an opportunity to address the current board’s concerns about her expenditures. She looks forward to an audit and the opportunity to explain any matters in question.

Metiva requested administrative leave in order to best serve the audit process, she said, and will remain fully available to auditor. She did not want to make any other statement now and concluded by saying it was a privilege serving the chamber for the last five years.

Chas St. George, one of the two board members remaining, read a statement after Metiva. He said he came on after the board had already made discoveries about Metiva’s expenditures and advocated for a third-party audit from the beginning. The chamber deserves a complete and unbiased assessment about its well-being, he said. Because of doubts about his impartiality and in order to avoid any perception he would impede a fair investigation, he tendered his resignation effective immediately.

Quentin Algood, the last remaining board member at this point, said she was at a number of meetings where there were suggested and hinted and failed accusations, but she had never seen any indication the law was broken.

It’s clear a third-party audit needed to be done, she said, but the chamber needed a board of directors before any action could be taken. There is nothing in the by-laws about what to do in a situation like this, she said, but she is willing to do what the members want.

St. George said the chamber needed to move toward filling the board of directors because they are currently not in compliance with their by-laws. A membership quorum was possible at today’s meeting because there was at least 10 percent of the 328 members in attendance.

A motion was made and passed to call for an emergency election. Volunteers to serve on the board were called for, and six people stood up. There was than a motion introduced to have Algood appoint one new member, have those two appoint a third, the three appoint a fourth and so on until the board was full of seven directors.

The new board of directors of the chamber was selected in this order: Mike Gabel, Marcus Reum, Chris Abernathy, David Baker, Rizz Arbelovsky and Julie Busch.

See the article in Friday’s paper for complete coverage.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or (907) 352-2252.