The Adamson House Board of Directors last week elected a new president in the hopes of a fresh start in its relations with State Parks, which owns the historic house, and the docent volunteers, who run the day-to-day operations of the property.
“We have very substantial funds for repair of the house and my goal as president is to speed up the process … 10 years is an awful long time and the house needs repairs, so in my meetings with the state, that’ll be my number one item,” new president, Linas Kojelis, told The Malibu Times in an interview.
The Adamson House was embroiled in controversy in March and April of this year, as the gift shop was closed and the house remained locked with tours cancelled, since a disagreement among docents, Board members and State Parks caused the docent volunteers to refuse to work. Compounded with these conflicts was the admission that the Board sits on $800,000 to be used for repairs that for some reason have not been approved by the State.
Kojelis, a self-proclaimed “active preservationist” who has sat on the Board of Directors for the house since March 2014, comes to the presidency with nearly 40 years of experience on the national trust. It’s this experience, according to Kojelis, that can help smooth out the bad blood among the three groups that work together to run the house, which was built near Malibu Lagoon in the late 1920s.
“I think with my election, what we’re hoping for is a fresh start with the state, just to be very straightforward and honest with them, to have a healthy dialogue with them,” Kojelis said. “If we have disagreements, we have disagreements, and it’s vital to have a good dialogue with [Malibu Sector State Parks Superintendent Lynette] Brody and [Los Angeles District State Parks Superintendent Craig] Sap, because they have the keys to the house.”
In April of this year, representatives from the Adamson House Board of Directors requested Brody be relieved of her duties as California State Parks representative to the Board, an idea which Sap scoffed at.
According to Kojelis, it’s time to let bygones be bygones.
“I’d say, over the last several months, we got into a little bit of a stalemate, so, I think that I’m sort of … relatively new on the board,” Kojelis said, “I do have a lot of experience serving on boards and working with government. We’ll hopefully agree on a lot and if we disagree on issues, we’ll have to work out those disagreements.”