The new 15th Congressional District gives voters the choice between long-time incumbent Fortney Pete Stark and Dublin Councilman Eric Swalwell. This might be a little more competitive than Feinstein vs. Emken but probably not much.
There's no election for San Ramon City Council this year, because San Ramon's elections are held in odd years; so Mayor Bill Clarkson and two Councilmembers, Jim Livingstone and Dave Hudson, will be up for reelection next year.
I heard a rumor that Mayor Abram Wilson plans to run for Mayor again next year even though he termed out last year. According to my source, Wilson believes his two year break from the office resets the clock to allow him four more two year terms. I suspect there will be a legal challenge over this, but that's still not until next year. So what's up here with this year?
Voters in south San Ramon and Dougherty Valley will find candidates for the Dublin San Ramon Services District (DSRSD) on our November ballots, but my name won't be there. Nope, I decided not to run, even though I was encouraged to run by two of the current DSRSD Directors.
Director Rich Halket was worried that if a third person didn't file before the August 10, 2012 deadline, Dan Scannell's vacancy could be appointed by the Alameda County Supervisors. That didn't sound too good to me either.
When the option for an appointment came up last April, I preferred to have the opening go to the voters rather than be appointed by the DSRSD Directors. That would have been better than getting a political appointee by the Alameda County Sups, which would probably kill the chance that anyone from San Ramon would be appointed. San Ramon hasn't had a representative on the Dublin San Ramon Services District board for ten years.
Halket told me if I wasn't going to file he wanted to meet with Mayor Bill Clarkson to recommend someone from San Ramon. I thought about filing for a couple of weeks, but I'm no longer interested in being on the Board. Almost everything I campaigned for in the past has been done already. I find I'm more effective as a meddler than actually being on the board. So that's what I'll continue to do.
Last Sunday night, August 5th, I phoned Mayor Clarkson to set up a meeting with Rich Halket. Clarkson told me he had two prospective candidates and wanted to meet with me before giving me any names. So I met Bill at the Peet's near Whole Foods. I always think is a Starbucks. I wish it was. I like Starbucks' lattes better.
Mayor Clarkson told me Ed Duarte is interested in running. Ed is an engineer with years of experience in construction management, which gives him the right kind of technical knowledge to be a Director of DSRSD. I can't think of anyone better than Ed to represent San Ramon.
The other potential candidate is from Dougherty Valley. His name wasn't familiar to me, and I didn't write it down. I tend to forget things I don't write down, which is why I don't want to be in positions of any responsibility anymore. I'm too forgetful.
Even though it would be a good balance to have a representative from south San Ramon and Dougherty Valley on DSRSD, I told Bill I was concerned that the Around Dublin Blog would revive the nasty personal attacks they published against Pat Howard and Rich Halket over their vote on the Pay for Performance bonuses. I disagreed with these bonuses, but the Pay for Performance program was started many years ago, before Rich or Pat were even on the DSRSD Board. They were just following contractual obligations.
I didn't want a nasty, mud-slinging campaign to distract from the real work Directors do and the years of dedication and experience of the incumbents. I suggested to Bill that the person in Dougherty Valley put his efforts into supporting Zone 7's separation from Alameda County. Then he could run for the Zone 7 Board in 2014. Bill liked that idea.
By Friday afternoon the three candidates were still unopposed. I emailed Rich Halket at 4:58 pm on August 10th, "I just checked with Contra Costa County and Ed is the only one to file there. It looks like you and Pat are the only ones to file in Alameda Country. So I suppose that means there won't be an election. Congratulations."
Rich replied, "Look again. Looks like somebody named Scott Hayes pulled papers in Alameda County today. I think we have an election. Actually better for the public."
I couldn't find out much about Scott Hayes or his qualifications for this position. He seems to have popped up out of nowhere (well out of Dublin). So the public will get to vote for three Directors out of four candidates, but vote wisely because DSRSD requires too much technical and regional knowledge for a novice.
