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Marina Coast Water District President Dan Burns, who lost his bid for re-election on Nov. 6, called one last special meeting with a long agenda of labor agreements—then didn't show up Friday morning for the meeting he requested.

The board voted 3-1, with Jan Shriner, the usual odd voter out, dissenting, on four salary increases for employee groups. The bumps in compensation also come with extensions from two-year to three-year contracts.

"I voted no because I didn't feel like this is the best time to be increasing compensation packages," Shriner says.

One of the measures approved 4-0 on Friday would require a "supermajority" vote to annex territory into the district. That means only a 4-1 margin, rather than a simple 3-2, could get an annexation approved. Alternatively, voters residing in an area under consideration could vote to be annexed into the district.

Shriner would not confirm whether her affirmative vote on the supermajority annexation rule, which was recommended by Howard Gustafson, was in fact just a maneuver that would allow her to bring the item back to reconsider at a future meeting. It's a tactic she's recently employed as the Marina Coast board faces a shifting future, with a margin that's expected to tip her from a 4-1 minority to a 3-2 progressive majority.

The board's final meeting with outgoing director Burns and Ken Nishi, who is retiring, is scheduled for Dec. 11. Newly elected board members Tom Moore and Peter Le are scheduled to be sworn in that day.