By The Record
August 13, 2008 6:00 AM
In one of the healthiest election signs recently, a dozen candidates have surfaced for the four seats up for election in the San Joaquin Delta College District.
In recent years, unfortunately, there has been a decided lack of interest in college-board service. That means some incumbents, who are not inconvenienced by term limits, have served for decades. While there is an argument to be made for the accumulated institutional knowledge they bring to the task, a more convincing argument cries out for new blood, new thinking.
Recent news revelations about cost overruns and project delays surrounding a $250 million bond approved by voters four years ago no doubt stirred some candidate interest. A nasty report by the county grand jury was another wake up call. Among other things, jurors charged the board with being dysfunctional and that the decision to build a south county campus in Mountain House rather than Tracy unnecessarily cost district voters about $30 million. Then there was the threat to the district accreditation. While the loss of accreditation is unlikely, the very threat is an embarrassment.
Enough is enough, the crowded field seems to indicate. There are two candidates running against Area 1 incumbent Anthony Bugarin - James Grunsky and Jennet Stebbins. There are five candidates for the Area 2 seat of Leo Burke, who did not seek re-election - Mary Ann Cox, Motecuzoma Patrick Sanchez, Thomas LaBounty, Gregory Benigno and David Rishwain. In Area 5, Steve Castellanos is the lone candidate to replace Dan Parises. And Area 6 incumbent Greg McCreary who hasn't faced an opponent since being elected 12 years ago now has two - Carolyn Gamino and Teresa R. Brown.
The challengers face an uphill battle against incumbent trustees, controversies, bad press, vicious grand jury reports and accreditation problems notwithstanding.
That's because in addition to no term limits which keeps office holders in place, so does the way they are elected. They run from districts - Area 6, for example, is the Tracy area - but they are elected at large. All voters in the sprawling district vote in all area elections. That means a candidate must somehow develop name recognition beyond the area that person will represent. That's a tough, expensive proposition and goes a long way toward explaining how some incumbents have camped in office for more than 30 years.
The district should rethink how trustees are selected and how long they stay once elected.
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1 comment:
The Stockton Record over the weekend noted that I remain unopposed for the Area 5 SJDC trustee seat. Last wednesday, the last day of filing, Al Lennox of West Point filed to run and at the same time registered to vote in the district.
Al Lennox and his wife as of today (August 18) are still registered voters in Amador County. As I mentioned earlier Lennox changed his address and registration the day he filed for the campaign.
He has two address's.
12837 Sutter Creek Road
Sutter Creek, 95685-9733
and
2081 Bald Mountain Road
West Point, CA 95255
Current records indicate that he and his family reside in Sutter Creek. A family by the name of Smith appears to reside in West Point. The Jordan's and the Smith's appear to be related.
At any rate you may be able to deduce that I am very suspicious of this guy's residency and very annoyed at the possibility of scamming the system. He is an American Legion state commander and last year served o an American Legion committee on ethics, but it does seem strange that he would move in one day and not even his wife now can vote for him??
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