Point Reyes Light - November 7, 2002

Two challengers win in Bolinas-Stinson race

By Ivan Gale

Voters in the fiscally-healthy Bolinas- Stinson School District said, "if it ain’t broke, fix it" on Tuesday, as incumbent Charlie Ross was unseated for leading vote-getter and challenger Meg Simonds.

Simonds was joined by challenger Tom Williard, who finished second overall in the voting, earning longtime board member Colleen Hicks’ vacant seat. Incumbent Frankie Accardi came in third earning 334 votes and the right to keep her seat.

Time to refocus

Local contractor Matt Lewis, who finished fourth in voting just ahead of incumbent Charlie Ross, was circumspect at the election’s outcome.

"It’s a small town," he said. "I can’t get beyond some of the politics that go on. Some of it’s not fair or called for. But maybe this is a time for me to get back to my family, to give them my time."

Accardi said she thought all five of the candidates would contribute to the school district, but attributes her reelection to work she’s done in the past.

"Everything that I’ve done in the past four years, I thought, ‘what’s best for the children?’" she said. "And I think that’s going to remain true in the future."

Accardi said her first focus will be towards organizing a budget committee to plan an upcoming parcel tax, addressing declining enrollment, and just getting to know the new governing board.

Simonds said she is ready to put the election behind her as she voiced concern over the district’s budget constraints and declining enrollment.

More fiscally responsible

Tom Williard said he will start his term by solely focusing on improving the budget situation as he believes the board should start acting in a more financially proactive manner.

"The board has been fiscally prudent and hasn’t overspent," he said, adding the district needs to seek more funding by hiring a grant writer. "There’s much more that can be done."

Bolinas voters were also busy ushering in change through the passage of two measures that will affect the landscape.

Measure R passed with 67 percent of the vote. The measure is also known as a downsized version of advisory-poll Measure D. That measure, a county-proposed bike path between Bolinas School and downtown, was voted down last March.

Measure R will allow for a two-way bicycle-pedestrian path on the east side of Olema-Bolinas road. Proponents of the measure attributed its passage to the increased votership. Residents within the Bolinas Fire Protection District, as opposed to residents just in the utility district last go-around, were all allowed to vote.

Parcel tax

Measure S, a parcel tax of $36 per year for Mesa Park, passed capturing 71 percent of the vote.

"I’m very happy the measure passed," said BPUD board member Jack Siedman, a longtime proponent of the measure. "We came close last year. This is a good thing."

Across the Lagoon in Stinson Beach Measure T, which increases the appropriations limit to taxpayers in the Stinson Beach water district, passed with ease collecting 84 percent of the vote.

Election day ran smoothly in all reported precincts, in contrast to the November 2000 election. Some West Marin voters claimed they were turned back at polling booths because of precinct zoning changes. This year West Marin voters seemed to opt for the safe route and mailed-in almost 30 percent of their ballots as a part of the more than 40,000 absentee votes cast in the county this election.

In voting for Governor, West Marin residents liked Gray Davis over Peter Camejo. Camejo, the Green Party candidate, fared well in West Marin compared to the rest of the state, where he garnered only 4 percent of the vote.

Camejo failed to carry any precinct in West Marin, but was in a virtual deadlock with Davis in Point Reyes Station, which may be in part a result of his appearance at the Dance Palace last month.

Davis, who spent $50 million on television advertisements alone during his campaign, won 52 percent of the West Marin vote. Camejo was second at 32 percent, and Republican Bill Simon, a distant third at 14 percent.

Green Party

Green candidate for Controller Laura Wells fared well in West Marin finishing second to Democrat Steve Westly, who captured 53 percent of the vote. Wells earned 23 percent of the vote and Republican Tom McClintock came in third notching 20 percent of the tally.

Oftentimes West Marin fell in line with the rest of California voting in favor of Democrats. Assemblyman Joe Nation won by an overwhelming margin in West Marin with a whopping 83 percent of the vote.

US Representative Lynn Woolsey garnered an equally-astonishing 81 percent of the vote.

West Marin voters did not, however, agree with the rest of the state as they supported Proposition 52 to register voters nationwide and declined on Proposition 49, which mandated money for before/after school programs. Proposition 49 passed statewide by a tiny margin.

Propositions

West Marin residents voted similarly to the rest of the county and the state in favor of Proposition 46, the housing and emergency shelter act; Proposition 47, an education facilities bond; Proposition 50, a clean water and wetlands act, which will potentially benefit Inverness, Point Reyes, and Stinson Beach; and in rejecting Proposition 51 which would place motor vehicle sales revenues into specific transit projects.

Finally, West Marin voters rallied overwhelmingly in favor of Jack O’Connell over Katherine Smith for State Superintendent. O’Connell took 70 percent of the vote.

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