Stacey Harris’ election to the Dunwoody Homeowner’s Association six-member executive committee was a first for the influential group.
Every other member elected to the board in the association’s roughly 40-year history has been nominated by a committee and then elected by association members during the yearly election of officers, said Bill Robinson, a representative of the association.
At the association’s Jan. 9 annual meeting, Harris was nominated from the floor and then won a general vote among members. “That’s never happened before,” Robinson said of Harris’ election. “It’s just because no one had ever chosen to use that venue over what the committee had proposed.”
Harris was elected along with Larry Adams. The two will serve three-year terms on the board’s executive committee, which oversees the association’s 1,300 members.
Harris, for her part, downplayed the fact that her election to the executive committee was a first for the association. She said that she was approached by members of the board of directors and asked to run for the executive committee. The association traditionally has had a lot of sway in land use and development proposals in the Dunwoody area.
Harris, 40, said she brings a younger perspective to the association’s elected board because she is raising children who attend elementary school and has been appointed to a city of Dunwoody sustainability commission.
“Part of the idea was ‘let’s try to get more diversity,’” Harris said.
Harris said she has been involved as a member of the association’s unelected board for several years. She is also an involved parent at Austin Elementary School.
“This will get me a little more involved with the board directly,” Harris said.
Much of the rest of the association’s meeting served as an update from the city to the homeowners association.