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School, hospital district seats up for grabs |
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Friday, 08 August 2008 |
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By Darcy Ellis
Editor 8-7-2008
November’s General Election is getting personal for Inyo County voters.
In addition to helping put in office the U.S.’s next commander in chief, weighing in on various statewide ballot propositions and even deciding the Inyo Superior Court Judge runoff election, local residents will be going to the polls in three months to elect their friends, neighbors and fellow parents to several governing board seats in area school and hospital districts.
That, of course, depends on which districts they reside in, according to the county Elections Department.
The filing period for the numerous positions up for election – in all seven school districts in Inyo County, plus Trona Unified School District, Northern Inyo Local Hospital District, Southern Inyo Healthcare District and the Inyo-Mono Resource Conservation District – ends tomorrow at 5 p.m.
Already, clear elections have taken shape in the Lone Pine Unified School District, where three residents are vying for two, four-year terms, the Bishop Union Elementary School District, where four residents are set to challenge each other for three, four-year terms, and the Southern Inyo Healthcare District, where the open two-year term in Zone II has drawn two challengers.
But unless additional prospective candidates come forward with their paperwork in the next two business days, or an incumbent fails to file (which would extend the filing period to Wednesday), there just aren’t enough hopefuls vying for the positions to justify an election in other districts.
According to several district administrative secretaries contacted Tuesday, should an election be deemed unnecessary, the persons who filed for the open governing board positions will be appointed and their names will not appear on the November General Election ballot.
So far, that’s the case with the Bishop High, Big Pine, Round Valley and Owens Valley school districts along with the Northern Inyo Hospital district, whose board’s seats representing Zones I, II, IV and V are all up for election.
Incumbents Dr. John Ungersma (Zone I, four-year term), M.C. Hubbard (Zone V, two-year term) and Dr. Michael Phillips (Zone II, four-year term) have filed for re-election or, as the case may be, re-appointment to their positions. According to NIH Administrator John Halfen, Dr. Scott Clarke has also filed candidacy papers for November. Clarke resigned from his Zone IV position effective July 29 and the hospital district is currently seeking applicants to replace him in the interim.
In the Big Pine Unified School District, incumbents Marilyn Mann and Sandra Lund have both filed for another go-round on the Board of Trustees – Mann via another four-year term and Lund another two-year term. In all, three, four-year terms and two, two-year terms are up for election in the district.
The Owens Valley Unified School District has two, four-year terms and three, two-year terms on its board opening up. As of Tuesday, incumbents, Barbara Southey and Aldene Felton had filed their Declarations of Candidacy. Word of a possible third candidate is circulating, so an election in November could be in the cards.
All three incumbents on the Bishop Joint Union High School Board of Trustees have filed their candidacy paperwork. Stuart Hiroyasu and Lynne Greer are seeking retention of their four-year terms, while Dr. Asao Kamei is running for another two-year term. Just one more person filing for the available two-year term or two, four-year terms would force an election in November.
In the Round Valley Joint Elementary School District, a single four-year term is available and incumbent Dan Egle has filed for the position. No one has stepped forward to fill the single two-year term yet.
Three four-year terms are available on the Bishop Union Elementary School District Board of Trustees and four residents – incumbents Taema Weiss and Linda Arnold and challengers Trina Orrill and Larry Clark – had stepped forward as of Tuesday to fill them.
In Lone Pine, three residents are vying for the two available four-year terms on the school board so far, including incumbents Sandy Langley and Cathy George and challenger Matt Kingsley.
Where Southern Inyo Hospital is concerned, an election looks to be necessary for the two-year term available in Zone II, for which newcomers LeRoy Kritz and Judith Fowler have both applied. Zone I incumbent Mary Kemp has applied for another four-year term, as has Zone V incumbent Laurence Kraus. Zone III remained vacant as of Wednesday.
Anyone interested in filing for candidacy in any of the available governing board positions has until Friday at 5 p.m. to do so (unless the period has been extended).
For more information, call the Inyo County Elections Department at (760) 878-0224, 876-5559, 873-8481 or (800) 447-4696.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 13 September 2008 )
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