Sechelt area director Alton Toth is the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD)'s new board chair.
Toth was acclaimed to the position, which is re-elected by the board directors annually, at the board's Nov. 14 meeting. He has sat on the SCRD board since 2019.
Toth takes over the seat from Pender Harbour area director Leonard Lee, who held the position for the previous two years.
While Toth gave no victory speech, he joked he had some duck facts to fill time while the votes for the vice chair position were counted. "Did you know ducks can fly at an altitude of up to 21,000 feet?" (At least one board member said they did know that.)
Halfmoon Bay area director Justine Gabias and Elphinstone area director Donna McMahon were both nominated for the vice chair position (lately held by Toth).
"I've been thinking about service a lot recently and I want to serve to the best of my ability and capacity," Gabias told her fellow directors. "We have a lot of really complex challenges ahead of us and I really want us to use those challenges and turn them into opportunities to make positive change."
She said she'd like to focus on communication among board, staff and community –– to make sure the bridges between those three entities are solid. She said she'd also like to see more strategic and intentional advocacy as well as support for staff pride in work.
Donna McMahon, who held the position twice before, was also nominated as vice chair but made a point of saying either she or Gabias would do a good job. She named policy and advocacy as among her focuses.
As normal business resumed, chair Toth thanked Lee for his time as chair "and inspiring us in a lot of this work that we've got ahead of us in the next year. It's going to be a big challenge and I'm looking forward to all of us working together on that work."
"Thank you for bringing us to where we are today," Toth said.
Lee replied (after a round of applause), "Thank you chair, and I've got a lot of confidence that you're going to just a great job, so thank you for taking the position."
