HOT FIRE BOARD RACES IN EAST COUNTY: FIRED CHIEF WINS SEAT ON BOARD IN LAKESIDE, 2 NEW FACES ADDED TO SAN MIGUEL BOARD, PLUS MORE LOCAL RESULTS

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By Janis Mork

November 7, 2012 (san Diego)- In the hotly contested Lakeside Fire District, former Lakeside fire chief Mark Baker captured 39.6% of the vote while fire captain/paramedic/ and board director Jim Bingham clinched 36.6%, beating out challengers.

There has been controversy over these two figures, since Bingham voted to fire Baker as Chief, a move that sparked a backlash among community members and questions of influence by firefighting union members on the board. (http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/11356). Nonetheless, these two will have to set aside their differences and work together in this district, where some of East County’s largest wildfires have occurred.

The other controversial fire district has been San Miguel, where both incumbents up for reelection won, weather storms over the district’s decision to outsource firefighting services to Cal Fire.  Incumbent fire captain/paramedic Dave Rickards,  managed to capture the top votes with 28.9% along with incumbent board member Karrie Johnston-Scully, who has received 17.8% of the votes. The two other open seats have been claimed by former civil engineer, William A. Kiel with 19.0%, and businessman/college educator Dan McMillan with 14.1%.

In the Deer Springs fire district, Tim Geiser got 28.7% and Bret A. Sealey got 22.0%. Other uncontested fire district races, not on the ballot, included Alpine, Bonita-Sunnyside, and Julian Cuyamaca. In these uncontested districts, an insufficient number of candidates have filed, so whoever has filed to run for these districts take the spots or advance to a general election in a primary.  

For more information on special district results, visit: http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/voters/results/election.xml and

http://smartvoter.org/2012/11/06/ca/sd/special_district.html.


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