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Neighborhood report

Time as president: in, out, in again?

An Army reservist was forced to miss some community association meetings, leading to his removal as president. But he may be able to return.

By STEPHANIE HAYES
Published October 14, 2005

WESTCHASE - Daryl Manning could be called Westchase leadership's pingpong ball.

Manning, who was named community association president in September, was bumped out of his position at a meeting of neighborhood representatives Tuesday night. In fact, he was momentarily dropped from Westchase's board altogether, then added back on. And he'll get another shot at the presidency this month.

"It's difficult to put into words how it feels to be off and back on," Manning said after the meeting.

The move was brought on by a web of events with Manning stuck in the middle.

Manning, a judge advocate general officer in the Army Reserve, served two years in Iraq. While still deployed in 2004, he ran for the board and attended meetings via telephone.

Manning returned home in November. Starting in June, he missed three monthly meetings in a row - he was in the hospital, having surgeries for health problems related to his deployment.

Although Manning is feeling better, Westchase rules say a board member who misses three consecutive meetings gets the boot. But between the absences and Tuesday's meeting, the community association elected him as its president.

"It's important that we follow our own guidelines, our own rules," said Ernie Sylvester, who represents the Greens and also serves on one of Westchase's taxing boards.

Still, most representatives of Westchase's 28 neighborhoods, who serve as voting members, did not want to part ways with Manning.

"It doesn't make sense to me that we should penalize someone who responded to the call of our government, got sick and was in the hospital," said board director Carlos Quiros.

Sue Syatauw of Glenfield questioned why the others would put Manning up as president, only to remove him from the post 30 days later.

With Syatauw and Mark Midence of Radcliffe dissenting, the others appointed Manning to his vacant seat on the board. The full community association will decide on Oct. 27 whether to restore him as president.

Despite all the pingpong, Manning said the voting members were right to follow the rules.

"It showed that this group is not a rubber stamp," he said.

- Stephanie Hayes can be reached at 813 269-5303 or shayes@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 13, 2005, 08:21:03]