Writers Guild of America West members have given screenwriter John August the most votes for a two-year board seat and re-elected incumbents Andrea Berloff, Luvh Rakhe, Meredith Stiehm, and Zak Penn.
Nicole Yorkin, Angelina Burnett, and Michele Mulroney were also elected to board seats and incumbent secretary-treasurer Aaron Mendelsohn easily won re-election.
Results were released Monday night. David A. Goodman officially became the new WGA West president after running unopposed, succeeding Howard Rodman, who opted not to seek re-election. Goodman had been selected by the guild’s nominating committee as a candidate to succeed Rodman and was unopposed, as another unnamed candidate selected by the nominating committee declined to run.
Marjorie David, a WGA West board member, was elected vice president after having been nominated by the committee to succeed Goodman. Another unnamed candidate declined to run against her.
The ninth finisher, Patti Carr, was elected for a one-year term on the board to fill the vacancy created by David’s election as vice president.
Turnout was typically light with 2,142 ballots cast. Ballots were mailed to dues-current members last month. The WGA has about 9,000 members.
August has screen credits on the upcoming live-action “Aladdin” movie along with “Big Fish” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” He also won the WGA’s Valentine Davies service honor last year.
Penn has story credits on “The Avengers” and wrote the script for “X-Men: The Last Stand.” Berloff wrote the screenplay for “Straight Outta Compton.” Rahke is a producer and writer on “New Girl.” Yorkin has credits on “The Killing” and “Judging Amy.” Stiehm has credits on “Cold Case” and “The Bridge.” Mulroney has a screenplay credit on “Power Rangers.”
The WGA West jointly negotiates with the WGA East on the guild’s master contract with producers. That deal expires on May 1, 2020 — so the campaigning for this election has focused on the need to prepare for those talks.
Goodman told members in his candidate statement several weeks ago that Hollywood writers will need to issue an official strike threat in 2020 to get a decent contract. He contended that getting a strike authorization is essential to improving on the current three-year master contract, which was hammered out at the last minute on May 1.
Official voting results follow:
President: David A. Goodman (1,952)
Vice President: Marjorie David (1,962)
Secretary-Treasurer: Aaron Mendelsohn (1,322), Carleton Eastlake (553).
Board of Directors: John August (1,634), Nicole Yorkin (1,561), Andrea Berloff (inc.) (1,510), Meredith Stiehm (inc.) (1,436), Angelina Burnett (1,337), Luvh Rakhe (inc.) (1,337), Michele Mulroney (1,284), Zak Penn (inc.) (1,172), Patti Carr (1,096), Spiro Skentzos (920), Francesca Butler (734).
