Leonard and Simons elected to city council
Two new members will be sworn into duty at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Clearlake City Council. Chuck Leonard and Roy Simons are due to take their oaths of office at the Dec. 14 meeting. Each will serve a four-year term.
Leonard received 41.1 percent (1,413) of the vote in this year”s General Election while Simons received 36.8 percent (1,265). The third candidate vying for a council seat, Aqeela Bakheit, received 21.9 percent (753). A total of 5,647 voters were registered in the City of Clearlake for the 2006 General Election with 2,477 (43.9 percent) votes cast, including absentee ballots.
Leonard will come off the Clearlake Planning Commission to assume his title as a Clearlake City Council member. He has also served on the county”s Vector Control board as well as the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). He has served with the Lake County Alcohol and Other Drugs Advisory Board and the Economic Development Committee for Clearlake as well.
“I want to thank my supporters for having the confidence in me to vote for me,” Leonard said, adding that he was quite overwhelmed with the amount of votes he received in the election.
Leonard is looking forward to conquering the challenges ahead, such as recruiting a new police chief and finding some way to repair Clearlake”s streets. “The hard thing is going to be finding the money,” he said, adding that he”s seen a fair amount of out-of-town shoppers in Clearlake and that he would like to see the city take an opportunity to use that to its advantage.
Another issue Leonard hopes to see addressed is the broadening of community involvement. “I think the government needs to transparent,” he said. “We need to get information to the people.” Leonard would like to see city council meetings broadcast on the local Public/Education/Government (PEG) Channel TV8, which he hopes will stimulate more interest in local government among the community.
“Another big issue is the clean up of this town. I think we need to find some way to stop all this illegal dumping of vehicles and trash,” Leonard concluded.
Simons also expressed appreciation to the electorate. “I would like to thank those who thought enough to vote for me,” he said. “I do know of their frustrations as well as my own and I”m going to attempt to alleviate those frustrations.”
Simons added, “The people in City Hall are not doing their jobs; I think that”s one of the problems we have in this city.”
Simons has considerable concern regarding the Redevelopment Agency (RDA) and wishes to see the program utitilized to the best advantage of the taxpayers and the city. “I”m looking forward to the possibility, in the short length of time that we have left, to finally do something good and positive with the redevelopment program,” he said, adding that he would like to see more return on the properties invested in the RDA.
Another issue Simons hopes to address is the formation of assessment districts to help remedy the dire condition of the city”s roads. “Education is an absolute necessity when trying to gain support for street assessment districts,” he stated.
Both of the new council members look forward to being involved in the positive progression of the city. “Naturally, as with any job, the most enjoyable part of being a city council member will be seeing progress ? good progress,” said Simons.
Leonard said he will enjoy seeing projects like the Austin Resort development realized. He also said he is eager to bring resources together for the improvement of Lakeshore Drive.
Along with the addition of two new city council members, Melissa Swanson was elected to City Clerk. Swanson has been serving the duties of the title since the departure of former City Clerk Sharon Goode, who resigned effective Feb. 10, 2005. As a write-in candidate, Swanson received 205 votes.
The City of Clearlake was also looking to elect a city treasurer; however no qualified candidates submitted papers for write-in election.
Measure Z, the 1/2-cent sales tax measure for road maintenance, failed for a second time at 62.2 percent opposed.
Incumbents granted an additional term on the Konocti Unified School District Board of Trustees
Voters elected incumbents Anita Gordon, Carolynn Jarrett and Herb Gura to four-year terms on the Konocti school board during the Tuesday, Nov. 7, election.
“I was so thrilled that all the incumbents got reelected,” said Gordon, whose 2,703 votes in favor made her the election”s front-runner. “To me it means the community believes in what we”re doing as a board.”
Jarrett said, “I really appreciated what I felt was a vote of confidence. I want to give a lot of credit to our teachers, support staff and principals who are on the front lines … I”m looking forward to four more years.” See a letter from Jarrett on Page A4 of this edition.
Results are not official until the election is called by the Registrar of Voters, who is in the process of canvassing ballots. However, an 829-vote lead separates Gura from top-placing challenger Julie Alves. “I always come in third,” said Gura; “all four times that I”ve been elected.”
A total of six candidates vied for three seats on the Konocti Unified School District Board of Trustees.
Out of 9,975 registered voters in 25 precincts district-wide, 46.6 percent cast their ballots in the November election.
Accumulated totals for each of the candidates, according to preliminary results, are:
? Anita Gordon ? 2,703 (27.0 percent);
? Carolynn Jarrett ? 2,103 (21.0 percent);
? Herb Gura ? 1,966 (19.6 percent);
? Julie Alves ? 1,137 (11.4 percent);
? Gina Fortino-Dickson ? 1,126 (11.3 percent);
? Jamie Hopper ? 953 (9.5 percent); and
? Write-in candidate(s) ? 20 (0.2 percent).
“It was a very rewarding experience,” stated Dickson when contacted after the election. “If my running inspired even one parent to be more involved than they were before then my quest was a success.
“Myself and the other candidates are forming a parents and interested citizens coalition, to share information and inspire involvement.”
Alves stated, “It was a tremendous learning experience that I plan on utilizing in the future. I definitely plan on pursuing a seat on the school board, so you will see me on the ballot again in two years. I learned such an enormous multitude these past months. In which, Gina Dickson and myself are formulating a coalition of all willing parents to be present at the board meetings. Hopefully, this will allow all of us parents in this community to stay abreast with the decisions made that affect our children. Also, we hope that this will promote more parental involvement in our district.”
Dickson and Alves invited interested parents to e-mail them at gina4kusd@yahoo.com and juliealves@mchsi.com respectively.
Incumbents took the lead early following the closing of polls, with the counting of absentee ballots. The candidates” percentages remained largely consistent as precinct results came in.
Gordon, Jarrett and Gura cited important concerns for their upcoming terms ? including the Program Improvement status of Oak Hill Middle School and Pomo Elementary. “We have serious issues facing us with Pomo and Oak Hill,” Gordon said.
“A lot of teachers” time is directed toward accountability and it causes them stress,” Gura said. “I think that our board and school boards everywhere have bought into this pressure and I want us to focus on being supportive. I realize there are expectations that we have to meet, but I want to meet them in a way that we keep everyone”s job fun.”
Gura said he wanted the district to tackle what he called the “nuts and bolts” but added that he wanted to make sure that in a push for higher test scores, that arts, music, drama and vocational education did not get minimized. “I”d like to make the district more environmentally conscious,” he added.
Board members spoke in appreciation of fellow trustees and district administrators. “It”s really nice to work with these guys,” Gura said.
“We”re headed in such a good direction with Dr. Nan,” Gordon said, speaking of District Superintendent Louise Nan.
