New RA Board President Asks Directors To Set Aside Personal Agendas

RESTON, VA — A day after the results of the 2024 Reston Board of Directors election were revealed, the new board elected officers to oversee RA's management for the next year. The board is also responsible for developing the 2024-2025 budget.

Outgoing President John Farrell presided over Wednesday night's meeting until he handed over the gavel to the board's new president, Jalal Mapar.

These are the RA Board's officers 2024:

• Jalal Mapar, President
• Trevor Grywatch, Vice-President
• Izzy Santa, Secretary
• Robert Petrine, Treasurer

Robert Petrine stepped down Tuesday night after serving four years as a board director. He agreed to stay on as treasurer.

Once the board had finished all of the items on the agenda, Mapar, who was out of the country and viewing the meeting remotely, shared a few thoughts before the board adjourned:

"First of all, I would like to thank Director Farrell and Director Jushchuk for their service to the board and all of their hard work. I think it goes without saying that they have spent hours, long hours and they have helped the community, they have been very effective for RA, and, as mentioned last night during the annual members meeting the list of accomplishments are just phenomenal. I hope to carry in the shoes, footprints, whatever, and do similar things and in working with the rest of you, including our newest board member Izzy Santa, to make sure that we provide great service to the community and make sure casino gets defeated again, and we do good things for the community.

"Number two, as the incoming president, obviously speaking from the other side of the pond and with internet problems and so on, I appreciate your indulgence to bear with me as we go through this transition. I am asking Director Farrell and Director Jushchuk to please work with me to go through a transition period to ensure that we're not missing anything, that are not changing anything that has been already established.

"And number three, I am asking all of my fellow board members, to please work as a team and we're all in this together. Our responsibility is to the community. We are accountable to the members. So we need to make sure that we set aside our personal agendas, and I'm going to make that very, very strong. It's my focus. We need to put our personal agendas aside and focus on working as a team to serve the community. We all need to do this together."

RA members had the entire month of March to cast ballots to fill four vacant seats on the board. Here are the results:

At-Large Director (3-year term, 2 vacancies)

• Izzy Santa - 4,677 *
• Jalal Mapar 2,871 *
• Darin Skelly - 2,860
• Abstain - 242
• No Vote - 4
• Overvote - 4

South Lakes District (3-year-term)

• Jennifer Jushchuk - 1,712 *
• Abstain - 128
• No Vote - 8

Apartment Owners Representative (2-year term)

• Margaret Perry - 1,002 (22.35%) *
• Carolina Mejia - 240 (5.35 %)
• Lynda McCann-Ovington - 0 (0%)
• Abstain -385

* Winners

The newly elected board members joined current board members Farrell (At-Large), Grywatch, Laurie Dodd (North Point), Irwin Flashman (Lake Anne/Tall Woods), and Travis Johnson (Hunters Woods/Dogwood).

Related:

Reston Association Reveals Results Of 2024 Election At Annual Meeting