BY AMELIA BISCARDI
Daily Post Staff Writer
The sample ballot voters in the East Palo Alto Sanitary District shows there’s a race for the agency’s board, but the head of elections says that race won’t appear on the ballot.
Despite the three incumbents for the now nonexistent East Palo Alto Sanitary District filing for re-election, they will not be on November’s ballot, according to Chief Elections Officer Mark Church.
Because the three incumbents, Kelly Fergusson, Betsy Yanez and Glenda Savage did not have anyone file to run against them, they won’t be on the ballot, Church said. Fergusson was appointed to the board in June. The sanitary’s last day of operations was Sept 30.
According to Church if a single candidate withdraws from the race last minute their name still appears on the ballot.
As of Oct. 1, the district is now under the purview of the city after a prolonged battle over whether the agency should even exist. The city had claimed the sewer district blocked new developments by charging outrageous hook-up fees as a way of stopping those projects. The district said it was only asking developers to pay their fair share.
According to East Palo Alto City Clerk James Colin, services during the transition should mostly remain uninterrupted. Colin says that they are currently gathering data and learning details about the operations to determine how many works are needed.