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Sanitary district slate sweeps 5-0 majority now in control of district After years of often acrimonious in-fighting in the East Palo Alto Sanitary District, one side is now in control of all five board seats. Board president Samuel Rasheed, Peggy Argus and Belinda Rosales, who were running together, won all three seats up for election Tuesday. Incumbents A. Peter Evans and Lincoln Niambi were defeated in their re-election bids, and their running mate, Jacqueline Wallace Greene, also lost. While Rosales, the leading vote getter, and Rasheed won easily, Argus beat out Greene for the final seat by just 42 votes in unofficial results, with some absentee ballots left to be counted. That count won't be completed until early next week and county election officials didn't know how many of those ballots were from East Palo Alto. The two slates of candidates had been divided over the $50 annual rebates the Rasheed-majority board voted to give homeowners. Evans and Lincoln strongly opposed the rebates, and Greene was a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the legality of the rebates, which have been held up in court. "The No. 1 priority is making sure the rebates get done as quickly as possible, now that the two impediments on the board are gone," Rasheed said. Another high priority will be hiring an interim general manager while a search is conducted for a permanent one, Rasheed said. The former general manager, Leroy Hawkins, was removed on a 3-2 vote of the board earlier this year. Rasheed said the two new board members will assume their posts after San Mateo County election officials certify the results of Tuesday's election. Evans and Lincoln could not be reached by the Weekly for comment on the election results. Dennis Scherzer, a Rasheed ally on the board who was first elected in 1983, said there has been little harmony or unity on the board since 1984, with opposing factions vying for control. "It's been a roller coaster since 1984," Scherzer said. The opposing slates of candidates had differed over the rebates, the financial health of the district and its management, with the board majority dismissing both Hawkins and former district counsel William Esselstein last year. District meetings have sometimes been tumultuous, with the police called once to restore order. A videotape of Evans throwing a cup of coffee and lunging at an audience member at a meeting in 1998 was shown several times on Cable Co-op's Channel 6 in recent weeks, including the night before voters went to the polls. Evans was censured by the board last year for those actions on 3-2 vote. |
