Former task force member says he never received notice his term was up
Resident tells council lack of communication cost him chance to serve
By Kyle Jorrey kjorrey@theacorn.com

The frustration of one resident may cause the city to rethink how it communicates with people serving on various volunteer advisory boards and committees

John Dantona, a 2005 selection to the community gang task force, came before the City Council March 5 to say he was never notified that his two-year term was set to expire prior to the Dec. 6, 2006, deadline to reapply. For that reason, Dantona said, he missed out on the opportunity to interview along with the 12 other applicants- three were eventually chosen- for a service position he hoped to maintain.

"I'm not saying we deserve a commendation or anything else, but we certainly deserve communication just so we know what our status is, because had I known my status I would have come back in again," Dantona said of volunteers with expiring terms.

The gang task force is currently comprised of 20 regular members with representation from several agencies and community groups. Six of those members represent the public at large.

Councilmember Barbra Williamson made a formal request of the council that night to expand the task force by one community member and appoint Dantona- a request that was denied.

Mayor Pro Tem Steve Sojka noted that Dantona was not in attendance at the Nov. 8, 2006, meeting where two other task force members were told that their terms were up. The community gang task force meets four times a year.

"I know John; he's a good guy, but I don't see the issue here when he can just reapply in December," Sojka said in response to Williamson's request to "make an exception."

"I don't know why we would want to create another spot for him- albeit the argument is he wasn't notified- but he wasn't at the board meeting where he should have been attending to be notified," Sojka continued.

Dantona responded that he had missed the Nov. 8 meeting only because he was helping his brother, county supervisor candidate Jim Dantona, with his campaign. Election Night was Nov. 7.

"My name may be Dantona, but I'm not a politician in this town. I'm somebody who enjoys serving the public," Dantona said defiantly, noting his involvement with the YMCA and his brother's nonprofit, Baseballers against Drugs.

Councilmembers Michelle Foster and Glen Becerra, who conducted the recent task force interviews, said it wouldn't be fair to appoint Dantona without allowing the eight applicants who weren't selected in January to reapply.

"If we opened up a position even temporarily, out of fairness we need to do a whole other public recruitment," Foster said. "We're not even sure if (Dantona) would have been one of the choices."

Despite their denial of his request to be reappointed, council members seemed to agree that something didn't sit right about Dantona's lack of notification.

Dantona said he didn't hear about the last round of interviews until a chance meeting with Becerra at a girl's softball camp for their daughters.

"The bigger concern is making sure that we put into play some kind of procedure so this type of thing doesn't happen," Foster said.

She went on to apologize to Dantona and said his criticism could act as a catalyst of change.

"We have an opportunity here to improve our process," Foster said. "I'm sorry that our learning experience came at your having to go through this experience.

"This is not just going to improve our process with gang task force, but it will improve our process with all of the committees that we have," she continued.

The three community members appointed to the gang task force in February were Gary Collins, Arnold Hernandez and Fred Thomas.