With all of the other news in OC today it may have gone unnoticed by some of you that the Orange County Department of Education announced today that enough signatures have been verified to force a Special Election to fill the vacancy created by the death of Trustee Denise Mansfield Reinking. The signatures were collected by proponents of a recall of former Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD) Trustee Harald Martin who had been appointed to fill Reinking’s seat and force a special election to fill the vacancy left by the death of Trustee.
Martin resigned his appointment on September 1st in an effort to “save the district the estimated $550,000” it could cost to conduct a special election by permitting the Board to select another replacement. The petitions were submitted on August 20th but signature verification was briefly stopped when Martin resigned. The proponents then filed a lawsuit to have the counting continue until sufficient signatures were verified. The petitioners prevailed and the counting was resumed. Roughly 2,300 valid signatures have been counted and the AUHSD Board will meet on Thursday the 13th when the trustees can decide to either appoint a successor or conduct a special election. Should the Board decide to make an appointment; the matter will be back in court on Monday where the same judge will decide if a special election must be held.
Anyone want to predict what these trustees will do?
When the judge restarted the count, that settled the matter. The board will support the election. Timing will be the critical issue. This election will be to complete the full term until 2010. Do they wait for primary in Feb? Or do they conduct election by mail in December? Need people to come forward and give board input, they are adrift right now.