The Los Osos Community Services had no one interested in running for two open seats at November’s Election, but they had plenty of folks apply for appointment.
With Dists. 3 and 5 coming vacant due to the retirement of the incumbents, the current LOCSD Board has to select people to send to the County Supervisors, who will make the ultimate choice and appointment.
Three people applied for the seat in Dist. 3 — Tom Cross, Jeff Edwards and Julie Tacker, who is a former LOCSD Director.
In Dist. 5, the applicants were David Cheney, Richard Hubbard and Patrick McGibney.
The Board chose Cross for Dist. 3 and Hubbard in Dist. 5. Those recommendations would now go to Supervisors for a vote, probably at the board’s Oct. 22 meeting.
The chosen pair will serve starting in December through December 2028, when they would be up for election.
The application process brought out a big issue for the CSD, one raised by Tacker in her cover letter.
She pointed out that the CSD’s website said there would be an extended deadline from Aug. 9 to 15 if incumbents didn’t file to run. Tacker said the misstatement was confusing and the LOCSD Board could have avoided all this nominating stuff if it had been accurate to begin with. She noted that it was Hubbard and herself who tried to file papers after the Aug. 9 deadline, and before the 15th.
“If the information had been accurate,” Tacker wrote, “Mr. Hubbard and I would have been seated in the respective Districts because no one else had signed up an would have run unopposed.”
She then demanded the Board appoint her to the Dist. 3 seat.
Estero Bay News asked the LOCSD General Manager Ron Munds about Tacker’s letter.
He responded, “There was some confusion on our end regarding the status of the two Directors that did not file candidacy papers.
“Because the CSD went to voting districts a couple of years ago, Marshall [Ochylski] and Troy [Gatchell] had never been ‘elected’ into those district’s so, by law, they were not considered incumbents, so the filing period was not extended.”
Munds added that they just posted the information culled from the County Clerk-Recorder’s Office, which is also the County Elections Office.
“What we posted on our website was the statement provided by the County’s Clerk-Recorder’s office. What the CSD didn’t provide was the status of the Directors not running, incumbent vs. no incumbents.”
So they made a mistake but weren’t necessarily wrong. “Accordingly,” Munds continued, “we made no misstatement on the website, but we did not have clarification on the existing director’s status, which isn’t required.”
Munds said they discussed the matter with their lawyers. “Our legal counsel’s interpretation was the noticing was entirely legal and was consistent with what the Clerk-Recorder’s office provided.”
