Candidates Line Up for November Election

The filing period for open seats in the Nov. 2 election closed Friday. With no city council seats and few municipal agency boards up for election this fall, most of the Marin electorate will focus on contentious races for two countywide boards, each with a divisive issue at its heart.

Four of the five seats on the Marin Municipal Water District  board are up for election this fall, and the battle lines likely will be drawn over the issue of desalination. The district board has put a measure on the ballot to compete with one put forth by opponents of desalination.

For the Marin Healthcare District, three seats are open in the fall, and the district's termination of Sutter Health as the operator of Marin General Hospital and the hospital's future direction should dominate the debate.

For the MMWD board, incumbents Jack Gibson and Armando Quintero have filed to retain their seats. Peter Lacques, a Fairfax planning commissioner and environmental attorney, is challenging Gibson. 

Gibson, who oversees the district's Division 1, which includes Northgate, Terra Linda, Santa Venetia, Marinwood, Lucas Valley and parts of Ross Valley, said the district has paused work on desalination because the water supply is sufficient this year. He said he supports putting desalination plans before voters.

Gibson said he signed a petition for the ballot measure that would require a majority vote prior to construction or financing a desalination plant. After signing the petition he became aware that the wording of the petition may go beyond a simple restriction on building the plant, and may restrict the district from even further study or planning for any desalination. 

 He said because he views the restriction from further study or planning as too limiting and poor public policy he asked that his name be removed from the petition.

" I now favor the alternative ballot proposition which will require the district to obtain a majority vote prior to construction or the financing for construction of a desalination plant," Gibson said.  "But that measure would not prevent further investigation, study, or planning for desalination.  I intend to propose that the board adopt an ordinance which will provide that the water district must obtain a majority vote from the rate payers prior to construction or financing a desalination plant."   

Challenger Lacques could not be reached for comment.

Quintero represents Division 2, including San Rafael, East San Rafael, Bret Harte, Sun Valley, the Dominican, Bayside Acres, Country Club, Point San Pedro, Loch Lomond, Peacock Gap and China Camp. He could not be reached for comment.

There are three seats open in the fall for the Marin Healthcare District board, which does not divide its seats up geographically. In late June, the district ushered in a new era with the termination of Sutter Health as the operator of Marin General Hospital. The move ended the hospital's tumultuous, 5-year relationship with Sutter.

The candidates are:

Larry Bedard - Incumbent Board Chairman. Bedard, an emergency room doctor for more than 30 years, said he anticipates a smooth transition and looks forward to taking to the voters a bond measure needed to finance construction of a new, earthquake-safe hospital building.

Jennifer Reinks - Incumbent. Since 1996, Reinks has worked for the Family Health Outcomes Project at University of California San Francisco.

Jamie Clever - Incumbent. Clever was a primary care doctor in San Francisco for 35 years, and taught medicine at UCSF School of Medicine for more than 30 years.

Joseph Salama - San Rafael attorney and mediator.

Lori Sue Wood - Former district secretary who ran unsuccessfully for the board in 2006.

"There's more work to be done," said incumbent Jamie Clever. "The best firewall of all to protect the hospital from the at times crazy politics on the district board is to have a tradition of good people running for office."

Board Chairman Larry Bedard said he anticipates a smooth transition and looks forward to taking to the voters a bond measure needed to finance construction of a new, earthquake-safe hospital building.

The district must complete the project by 2015, and intends to take a $250 million general obligation bond to voters in 2011. The bond will have to get two-thirds approval of voters in the healthcare district, which includes all of Marin except Novato.

"The board election and the bond issue will be one in the same in many ways," Clever said.

Upon the June 30 transition from Sutter, the district board appointed 11 people to the Marin General Hospital Corp.'s board of directors, Harvey Bichkoff, a the chief executive at California Cancer care is from San Rafael.

Finally, in the race to succeed county Assessor Joan Thayer, two in-house candidates - Rich Benson and Shelly Scott - will square off in a November runoff.

The deadline for voters to register to vote in the Nov. 2 election is Oct. 18.