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The June 5 Primary Election was full of surprises, with a decided anti-incumbent outcome in several local races. In Mono County, for District 2 Supervisor, Fred Stump edged out incumbent Hap Hazard 476 to 389. For District 3 Supervisor, Tim Alpers KO’d incumbent Vikki Bauer 449 to 216. District 4 will go to a runoff on Nov. 6, as Bob Peters got 296 votes against Tim Fesko’s 272. Jan Huggans is out after pulling just 121 votes.

Speaking of Inyo County … in the Supervisor races, at press time absentee votes still have yet to be finalized, but former Bishop Mayor Jeff Griffiths was still ahead in District 2 with 312 votes or 51.57% of the vote. 50% plus one is all that is needed to win outright, so if that holds, no runoff will be required (Cash formally conceded via Facebook Thursday afternoon). Incumbent Supervisor Susan Cash gained 211 votes or 34.88% and candidate Russ Aldridge had 80 votes or 13.22%.

In District 4, current Supervisor Marty Fortney has 330 votes or 40.44%. Mark Tillemans, 266 votes or 32.60%. Nina Weisman gained 190 votes, which is 23.28% and Christopher Dangwillo, 29 votes or 3.55%. It appears like a runoff between Fortney and Tillemans.

In District 5, another run-off is likely, but incumbent Supervisor Richard Cervantes, who only pulled 134 votes or 20.62%, is definitely out. Matt Kingsley, with 304 votes or 46.77%, will face off in November against Jim Gentry, who landed 212 votes or 32.62%.

Proposition 28: Mono County said yes to new term limits with 1,618 votes. The measure also passed statewide with 61.4%.

Proposition 29: Mono County also said yes to additional $1 per pack tax on tobacco, with 1,399 votes, but the measure was narrowly defeated statewide, with 50.8% voting no. Inyo County voters also rejected the measure.

The results are in and the Mono County Supervisor outcomes mean that three new faces will soon be behind the dais.

Supervisor District Two: Fred Stump beat incumbent Hap Hazard with 476 votes versus Hazard’s 389.

Supervisor District Three: Tim Alpers knocked incumbent Vikki Bauer out of her seat with 449 votes versus Bauer’s 216.

Supervisor District Four: Bob Peters received 296 votes while running mates Tim Fesko and Jan Huggans received 272 and 121 votes, respectively. Peters and Fesko will have to head to a runoff since neither received the majority of votes needed to win flat out.

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mono County Democrats chose Barack Obama; Republicans – Mitt Romney; American Independent – Mad Max Riekse; Green – Jill Stein; Libertarian – Gary Johnson; Peace and Freedom – Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson and Stephen Durham.

UNITED STATES SENATE: If Mono County got to choose, residents would pick Dianne Feinstein. She received 1,009 votes from area voters.

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE  – DISTRICT 8: Jackie Conaway would be Mono County’s choice with 559 votes.

STATE ASSEMBLY MEMBER – DISTRICT 5: Rico Oller received 766 votes from Mono County residents.

PROP 28: Mono County said yes to term limits with 1,618 votes.

PROP 29: Mono County also said yes to additional tax on tobacco users with 1,399 votes.

A total of 2,784 voters participated in the election either by mail or by showing up at the polls. That’s about 50% of all Mono County registered voters.

For additional information visit, http://www.monocounty.ca.gov/departments/elections/elections.html

The staff and Board at the Eastern Sierra Unified School District are still playing an unavoidable game of wait-and-see with budget projections. They are, however, aware of the consequences this time around.

The bulk of the District’s revenue is produced by county property tax dollars, according to Caty Keller of the Mono County Office of Education, but these figures are not gathered until the end of each calendar year and are not revealed until some time in January of the new year. This means that the ESUSD Board was left fumbling in the dark this week when members were presented with the District’s first interim financial report.

“It’s too early to tell so we are staying in line with the adopted budget from June of this year,” explained Keller, which means that if all goes well on the property tax front, the District should have a positive fund balance at the end of the 2010/11 school year.

Last year at this time, a chain of events led the District to a budget deficit of $1.8 million. The Sheet reported the following:

“The first interim financial report for the district, which covered the period ending Oct. 31, 2009, showed a projected deficit of about $800,000.

Mono County Deputy Superintendent Colleen Wright warned the ESUSD Board last January that ‘because of the large deficit spending projected by the District along with the projected reduction in local property taxes, the county office encourages the district to carefully review property tax revenue projections to ensure future interim and budget reports are fiscally credible and able to be certified as positive.’

By the time a property tax shortfall and other unexpected factors came into play, the District found itself facing the large deficit and an angry community.

So how does this year compare? Keller would not go into detail.

“The first interim report for last year is over; we are just focusing on the numbers from this year,” she said.

When Board member Gabe Segura asked what she expected, Keller refused to speculate on potential new budget shortages from the State

This year, in an attempt to not repeat history, the Board did adopt a generally conservative budget which projected flat property tax revenues

Newly appointed Board President Doug Northington requested that Keller get the Board the property tax revenue information as soon as possible.

“That way we know as early as possible whether or not we were really wrong or just right,” he said.

Keller expected to have a number sometime in January 2011.

Board tables electoral change

A resolution on the agenda for the Dec. 15 ESUSD Board meeting would have opened the door to allow the District to implement a district-by-district voting system for Board elections in the future. This would mean that community members could only vote for Board members that represent their individual district rather than the Board as a whole.

The issue was raised by the District’s legal counsel because of civil rights litigation in the Central Valley that, according to www.signonsandiego.com, “alleged that at-large voting disenfranchises significant blocs of minority voters in violation of the California Voting Rights Act.”

There seems to have been some confusion however between the ESUSD Board and legal counsel. The Board was expecting the item to be on the agenda for discussion and exploration, not as a resolution to be voted upon.

“It’s not something we need to do right now, it’s just something we need to investigate,” Northington said to a room full of community members that had attended the meeting upset that the idea was not vetted before being presented as a resolution.

Northington motioned to table the item to a discussion at the Board’s January meeting. The motion was approved unanimously.

If you’re like me, you tend to be swayed by the last argument you’ve heard for something.

Which is why, upon being presented with new information, I always like to wait a day before I make an important decision.

In recent years, I’ve reined in my predilection for snap judgments. In fact, the only time I haven’t waited a day to make an important decision is when I asked my wife to marry me. I did that on one knee at the intersection of Main and Minaret as we were walking over to Nevado’s following a Tower of Power show. This was more than four years ago directly following the Mammoth Festival.

Just kind of had an inspired moment.

My wife said yes. She also, however, gave me 24 hours to change my mind, just to make sure I was asking as opposed to Double Nut Brown.

Will Mono County be so kind and let me redo my ballot on Nov. 3 if I have second thoughts?

So here we are a few days away from election day. Something that we’ve seen coming for umpteen days now. And in that time, I feel like I’ve gotten to know Mono County Superior Court candidates Randy Gephart and Mark Magit very well.

The more I get to know them, however, the more difficult the decision becomes.

One conclusion I have reached during these past few days is that I don’t buy certain charges that have been levied against both men.

I have to disagree with Therese Hankel and George Booth regarding their mutual opinion that Mr. Magit doesn’t like the courtroom.

Magit was an Assistant D.A. in Mono County and contends that he tried more cases by himself during that period than have been tried by the entire D.A.’s office in the past decade.

Perhaps he likes court just fine. Perhaps he’s just looking for a different role to play while he’s there.

A man shouldn’t be punished or chastised for expanding his horizons.

After all, just because I’ve taken a recent hiatus from covering Mammoth Lakes Town Council meetings doesn’t mean I have zero interest in Town politics. A step back can offer perspective.

As Emerson said, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

As for Mr. Gephart, I like him more every time I see him. There’s an underlying warmth and sensitivity to him.

Gephart believes his experience as a father has deeply affected him both as a person and a lawyer.

Of course, I couldn’t resist an editorial comment in reply. “Is it because your shortcomings are pointed out to you on a regular basis?”

Gephart smiled. “That’s part of it. It’s also about listening, patience … ”

“Does it make you more empathetic?” I asked.

“It does,” he replied.

The key difference between these gentlemen is in their outlook as to where they think the real work is done. Mr. Magit says, “My job is to be the most knowledgeable person in the room. The hard work is in the preparation behind-the-scenes.”

Magit supporter Paul Rudder, who walked in on our interview at the Java Joint on Wednesday morning, offered this nugget (though he couldn’t recall who said it for attribution), “A genius in the courtroom is a drudge in the office.”

Mr. Gephart doesn’t just like the courtroom – he loves it. And it’s in the courtroom, he contends, “That’s where a judge’s work is done.” Which I read to mean that courtroom experience, and the intuition that comes with that experience, is crucial.

Short takes

There was a sign placed by the entrance to Snowcreek this week which indicated that the Creekhouse development was in the foreclosure process. This prompted a quick call to the Chadmar Group’s Chuck Lande, who said, “The honest answer is that we’re negotiating with the bank and they’re playing hardball.” He described it as “a wonderful tactic by Bank of America.” He then went on to make a few more choice comments about Bank of America, although it’s nothing I haven’t heard before where BofA is concerned.

Heather and Robert Schaubmayer welcomed twin daughters to the world on Oct. 19. The Sheet’s suggested names of Jacqueline and Luncheonette were rejected, as was brother Kirk and wife Stacy’s choice of Thelma and Louise. Instead folks, we have Sylvie and Kenzie. Congratulations!

Mammoth Unified School District was expected to discuss a parcel tax renewal at its Board meeting Thursday night. The measure will likely be floated on the Nov. 2011 ballot as the current parcel tax expires in 2012. The expectation is that the District will ask for the same level of funding (currently $59/parcel).

Tioga Road site visit

Yosemite National Park has planned a public site visit for Oct. 29 in order to gather public input on the Tioga Road Rehabilitation Project. The goal of the project is to improve visitor safety along Tioga Road/Hwy 120, which is the highest trans-sierra highway that crosses the northern part of the park, while at the same time preserving the natural and cultural resources in the area. Site visits are weather dependent and will take place in two locations. Attendees should meet at the South Fork Bridge turnout along Tioga Road from 10-11 a.m. and then from 12-1 p.m. at the Tuolumne Meadows Visitor Center parking lot. The Tioga Road Rehabilitation Project will be released for public review in spring 2011.

Whitmore EIR

The Whitmore Park Track and Sports Field Project EIR is now posted on the Town’s website. The project is an effort by the High Sierra Striders and the Town of Mammoth Lakes to bring a high-performance track and field to the Eastern Sierra.  The Project is proposed within the Whitmore Regional Park on Benton Crossing Road near U.S. 395.

On the site, you can read the Environmental Review (CEQA) Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration Public Review Period dated Oct. 16-Nov. 15. Log on to www.ci.mammoth-lakes.ca.us/index.aspx?NID=363 or call Stu Brown at the Town offices, 760.934.8989, for assistance.

Bear management issue Gaines ground

While in Mono County recently on the stump for State Senator, Assemblyman Ted Gaines, met with Wildlife Specialist Steve Searles, and mammoth Lakes Council members Matthew Lehman and John Eastman to discuss our wildlife problems, the issues surrounding Searles’ situation, and what loftier efforts might be pursued to give him more jurisdictional latitude to do his job.

Gaines, whether elected Senator or not, said he’s seriously considering taking those issues to Washington D.C. to get action on them as soon as possible. “Steve’s been very effective for the Town of Mammoth Lakes and we need to coordinate with the Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Forest Service and see how we can get him to coordinate efforts on the periphery of Mammoth,” Gaines told The Sheet. “If you had him in place, there’s an opportunity to help make sure bears aren’t taken out unnecessarily.”

The Assemblyman suggested there could be a Memorandum of Understanding in terms of how to manage the bear and wildlife population in a perimeter around Mammoth that would allow Searles to take appropriate action to protect the town and private property.

While here, Gaines had substantial talks with Council members and watched DVD footage shot on “Bear Whisperer” locations to familiarize himself with what’s going on. Some of that footage includes Searles being told to stand down and the DFG insisting that no assistance would be rendered, while a bear ransacks private property.

The week ahead

Upon learning that the Town of Mammoth is now tweeting, Lunch is convinced social networking has officially jumped the shark. Look for Geisel’s story next week … Kirkner covers a local visit by USDA Rural Development State Director Dr. Glenda Humiston on Thursday. Look for that story on www.thesheetnews.com. And election results will be posted as soon as possible on Tuesday (or Wednesday, depending upon what happens).

Shows how much I know.

This spring, I made a bet with Tom Cage that Tony Barrett would finish in the top half in the Mammoth Lakes Town Council election.

He finished 7th.

On election night, I really thought Sharon Clark had a decent shot. She finished 6th.

Meanwhile, Cage had the top three selected in order; Matthew Lehman, John Eastman and Rick Wood. Those three will join holdovers Skip Harvey and Jo Bacon on Council for the next two years.

Kirk Stapp finished 4th, 29 votes out of the third seat captured by Wood.

Full election results appear on page nine.

Two local races on Tuesday ended as they began – undecided – as no candidate garnered 50% plus one of the vote.

Randy Gephart and Mark Magit will square off for a final duel in November to determine who will become Mono County’s next Superior Court Judge.

And in Mono County’s District 4, there will be a runoff between the Tims, Hansen and Fesko, for the open Supervisor’s seat.

Another race that may not be over is the Johnston-Sauser battle in District 1, due to an election term that’s starting to make its way into the Mono County lexicon: “provisional ballot.”

Johnston beat Bill Sauser, but only by 5 votes, but a clear win is still up in the air, as a reported 80 or so provisional ballots are still being handled in the Mono County Elections office in Bridgeport.

Of these provisional ballots,

Also being watched is the fate of Measure U, which passed with the necessary two-thirds vote (66.67%), but could theoretically end up short depending on the results of the provisional ballots yet to be factored into the final count.

According to the California Secretary of State’s office, a provisional ballot is used to record a vote when there is some question as to a voter’s eligibility. A provisional ballot would be cast when:

A voter refuses to show a photo ID if requested.

A voter’s name does not appear on the electoral roll for a given precinct.

A voter’s registration contains inaccurate or out-of-date information, such as an invalid address or misspelled name.

A voter’s ballot has already been recorded. (This is to prevent the same voter from balloting twice.)

Whether a provisional ballot is finally counted is contingent upon the verification of that voter’s eligibility. A guarantee that a voter could cast a provisional ballot if he or she believes that they are entitled to vote was one of the guarantees of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, though eligibility must be properly vetted.

And be patient … provisional ballots can take up to 7-10 days after an election to be picked up in the results.

Late breaking news

Johnston ultimately beat Sauser. The 10 provisional ballots that remained to be counted were split evenly, so Johnston wins 215-210.

Measure U also still passes.

As for his analysis, Cage finds the diversity of the results, well, bizarre.

“We’re a potsmoking, tax-charging group of conservatives. There are so many things wrong with that statement in so many ways,” he said.

As for how the result will shape Mammoth Town politics, one can assume the effect will be profound and no Town Staff member can consider his/her job safe.

After all, no member of Staff really stepped in to save Eastman when he got confused and voted to end the furloughs he wished to extend.

The gaffe, coming in the final days of the campaign, would have sunk most politicians. 22 years of dedicated public service, however, saved him.

The other interesting question is how the election will affect the current rotational system in place to determine the Mayor.

The three Councilmembers-elect could choose to change that policy, which taps Mayors based upon their vote totals in the previous election.

As top vote-getter in 2008, Skip Harvey would be the next Mayor based upon current policy.

According to several people I’ve spoken to this week, Mayor Wood announced on other local media outlets that he is not running for reelection. Of course, he also said this last year before he flip-flopped and decided to keep the revolving door open, so it’s hard to know what to believe.

My assumption is that he secretly wants to be “drafted” to run.
“We all want to be loved/We all want just a little respect/We all want to be loved/So tell me what’s wrong with that.” -DC Talk. *FYI, that lyric is from their 1998 Supernatural album in case someone wants to get the Mayor a copy.

Planning Commissioner Neil McCarroll is the first challenger to officially declare his intention to run for Council in June – the election, appropriately, will be held on 6-6-06.

“So Neil,” I asked, “Seeing as you’d be a fiftysomething lawyer potentially replacing a fiftysomething lawyer, is a vote for you a vote for the status quo?”
“Well actually, I’m 61,” said McCarroll, illustrating at least one key difference—a sense of humor.

He then related a recent event where he was stopped on the frontage road by Rick’s Sport Center behind another car, waiting to cross the street and fuel up at the Shellmart. Just then, he heard a loud thunk on his roof. Someone had literally “lunked a snowball” onto his car.
“So I got out of the car and I could see there was a young man whose car had been blocked in waiting for me to go. And I asked him if he’d lunked the snowball onto my roof.”
“Yeah, well you were just sitting there like an old man, blocking me.”
“I am an old man … and you’re an inappropriate little jerk.”
“Well, that’s your opinion.”
“And I’m sticking to it.”

What the incident did illustrate is McCarroll’s concern that the General Plan Update focuses on what is anticipated to be an escalating transit/traffic/parking problem, while McCarroll emphasizes that we have a problem right now. “If I get my way, we’ll be talking about transit and parking immediately.”

McCarroll said the Town needs to take action in the same manner that Mammoth Mountain took action in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s to relieve horrible lift line congestion.

Other Remarks:
*”The Advocates for Mammoth have made a number of insightful comments. We need to address these comments. Their concerns are our concerns.”
*”I hate it when someone says, ‘I’m an environmentalist.’ We’re all environmentalists.”
*McCarroll believes local taxpayers, not developers, should foot the bill for a Recreation Center.
*And speaking of Rec Centers, in response to The Sheet’s query about whatever happened to plans for a Rec Center following the big to-do held at the Shilo Inn two years ago with expensive outside consultants, McCarroll exclaimed, “That’s why I’m running. There’s no such thing as a new idea. It’s about follow through.”