La Jolla merchants elect new board of directors

At its Oct. 9 meeting, the La Jolla Village Merchants Association (LJVMA) announced the winners of its election for 2019-2020 board of directors: incumbents Brett Murphy (co-owner of La Jolla Sports Club), Lauren Johnston (project manager Patronus Wellness) and Melissa Snook (Merrill Lynch wealth advisor), as well as challengers Amber Anderson (Pacific Sotheby’s broker associate), Morgan Barnes (Cove House marketing manager) and Cody Decker (co-owner of Decker’s Dog and Cat).

All will be sworn in and take their seats at the top of the next LJVMA meeting on Nov. 13.

“I really want to thank all the board of director candidates for getting out the vote,” said LJVMA executive director Jodi Rudick. “We probably got more great marketing from the efforts of our candidates than maybe anything that we’ve done, in terms of merchant engagement.”

Nearly 60 votes were cast, Rudick reported, compared with 15 last year. “And for the first time we know of, there were more candidates than seats,” she said. (Twelve candidates vied for six spots.)

Rudick said she hopes the six unelected board candidates will run for one of the seats almost certain to become vacant throughout the year, or that they’ll become involved with LJVMA via one of its committees.

Fay Fitness Crawl approved

The board unanimously voted to allow public right-of-way (PROW) access for a fitness-centric event — tentatively titled the Fay Fitness Crawl — on an as-yet-undecided Saturday morning in January or February. The event would feature sidewalk vending and activities from F45 Training La Jolla, Pilates Plus La Jolla, Chiltonic La Jolla and La Jolla Sports Club (LJSC) along Fay Avenue from Silverado to Kline streets.

“It’ll be like a pub crawl without alcohol,” said Murphy, who is both the Sports Club co-owner and LJVMA’s president, and who placed the item on the agenda.

Fitness center construction parking

Life Time La Jolla requested that the LJVMA extend its street parking closures for the remainder of its construction period. (The new gym is slated to open Dec. 4. in the former Brooks Bros. building at 1055 Wall St.)

Rudick said the gym had 12 spots reserved for vehicles involved in construction, equipment delivery and trash removal, “but will do their very best to get it down to six. I’m not going to be out there every day watching them,” she said, “but if you have to park a semi, you have to park a semi.”

No board member made a motion, so Rudick said she would approve it herself — as the board previously voted to empower her to do.

Also at LJVMA

Financial report: Murphy reported $70,353 in bank, assets and liabilities balanced at $77,413, and net income of - $396. He called the figures “strong to quite strong.”

Lajollalty Card: Rudick distributed stickers advertising the Lojollalty card, a locals-only discount program, to be placed in the windows of the 52 merchants, so far, who agreed to offer discounts to cardholders. Rudick also said that La Jolla High School agreed to sell the card to fund raise at this year’s homecoming game, Oct. 11. The card was introduced to the public at the La Jolla Art & Wine Festival, Oct. 12-13.

Goodbye bench program: The memorial bench program in The Village, inactive for several years, has officially been benched. Rudick reported that neither LJVMA nor Enhance La Jolla wanted to take on the long-inactive program.

Pillage the Village: Check-in will be at the Real Estate Brokers Association (REBA offices), 908 Kline St. for this year’s Pillage the Village event, 3-6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 31, with trick-or-treating for candy bags and a costume contest.

— La Jolla Village Merchants Association next meets 3 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13 at La Jolla Riford Library, 7555 Draper Ave. lajollabythesea.com