Seeking Silverdale and Central Kitsap

Well, I can’t blame Regina Hill for the circumstances that forced her to withdraw from the Central Kitsap School Board race for Position 1, but I have to once again express disappointment that a school board member in Central Kitsap will, yet again, be chosen without a contest.

After being on a waiting list for base housing for two years, Hill received a surprise placement recently and as a result moved out of the geographic area that defines the residence requirement for the Position 1 board seat. As a result, Bruce J. Richards will be unopposed for the seat in the November election.

You can check out previous blog postings on the recent history with the CK board elections. This would have been the first election in more than a decade that all board seats that were up would have been contested. For several elections, there were no contests at all, and outgoing school board member Carl Johnson, who wanted to retire from the board two years ago, was forced to keep his position in 2007 because no one filed to run for the board seat.

Richards is an incumbent board member, and I have no doubt that he is a well qualified and honorable candidate. As I’ve said before, the fact that an incumbent is doing a decent job doesn’t eliminate the value of having a contest for an elective office. It was really a breath of fresh air to see the three candidates in the race for position 5 have to talk to the voters and answer questions on the Kitsap Sun’s election’s web site. I ended up voting for the incumbent in that race. But too often when there’s no opposition, the incumbents don’t ask the voters for their support and don’t have to state their positions on the issues facing the school district, the city council, or whatever office they are seeking.

So I have to express my sorrow that Hill will not be able to provide the voters of Central Kitsap with that most valuable of commodities in a democracy — a contested election.

— Jeff

Congratulations to incumbent Central Kitsap School Board member Eric Greene and to challenger Richard Romero as the top two candidates in the Central Kitsap School Board District 5 race.

Both candidates move on to the general election in November, while Jim Zimny was eliminated in the primary last night.

Greene received 2,525 votes in the initial tally performed by the county auditor’s ofice, Romero 1,565. Zimny trailed with 941.

There were a relatively large number of write-in votes, 204, in the contest. Wonder whether a single individual got a large number of those. Just for comparison, with about the same number of total votes cast, there were only 64 write-ins in the race for Bremerton Port Commissioner.

— Jeff

Back in town after a week in Florida (of course, our cool weather arrived while I was gone) and I find that the staff of the Sun conducted the interview with the three candidates for the District 5 Central Kitsap School Board position.

Video of the editorial board discussion was posted yesterday on the Kitsap Caucus blog, thanks to Sun Web Editor Angela Dice.

If you were wondering about the candidates, observing their discussion may be your best chance to assess their readiness to serve you on the school board.

And to regular readers who have been requesting this, please post comments here on whether you think the video of the editorial board discussion served your needs in terms of deciding what candidate to support.

— Jeff

Just wanted you to know I won’t be posting for about a week. In the meantime, hoping that we get some indication when the Sun will post the video of the editorial board interview with the three candidates for the District 5 Central Kitsap school board seat.

— Jeff

Reader Tim Katona commented on an earlier post about the fact that there are contests in all three Central Kitsap School Board races this election for the first time in years.

But Tim was concerned that he couldn’t find information about the candidates who are running. “Yes this is great to have candidates; however, I can not find what their positions are on the web or in print. As my wife says ‘another Eni-mini-mini-Mo election.’ My hope would have been for some info about what each thinks about their potential for doing a good job.”

I posted a response to Tim’s comment suggesting some sources of information about the candidates, but I wanted to also do it as a blog entry since there may be many other CK residents who want to know how to find out more about our candidates.

The school district is divided up into five voting areas. Board members representing three of the areas will be elected this year. But only one contest will appear on the primary ballot that you should have received by now in the mail. That’s the race for the 5th District Seat. There are three candidates for that position (incumbent Eric Greene, Richard Romero and Jim Zimny), and only the two who receive the most votes in the primary will go on to the November election. There are only two candidates competing in each of the other two races.

The Kitsap Sun published a storiy about the District 5 race. You can see it here. The Sun also published a story about the two candidates who filed for the race for District 2 in a special filing period after the previous candidates had to drop out.

I’ll admit that neither of these stories looks at the differences among the candidates in great detail. They give only a cursory profile of the candidates, but it’s better than choosing by coin flip while looking at the ballot on your dining room table.

Another source of information about the candidates is the Kitsap County online voters guide. While the county did not print a voters guide this year, it did create a guide on its web site. You can access the guide to see information about the candidates that will be on your ballot. For the primary, you will see information only about the three candidates for the District 5 race, and only if your voter registration places you in an area where you are allowed to vote on that race. You have to submit your first and last name, as listed on your voter registration, and your birthdate, to access the online information about the races that are on your ballot. All three submitted written statements for the county voters guide, and Romero also took advantage of the county’s offer to post a video as well.

It isn’t easy to find out about candidates for these kinds of offices. They seldom receive as much attention as candidates for state legislature, county commissioner or mayor receive in the local newspapers. I applaud Tim for making the effort to learn more, and I hope this helps him and anyone else who would like to be an informed voter this year.

— Jeff

We’re once again seeking candidates for the school board post now held by Carl Johnson. Johnson reluctantly allowed himself to be named to the school board two years ago, after intending to retire, when no other candidates stepped forward.

This year, two candidates stepped forward. But one withdrew upon seeing the other person in the race. And now the remaining candidate, Bill Bailey, has withdrawn after discovering he lived just a few houses outside the geographic district that seat represents. That’s a sad outcome, because I served with Bill Bailey on the Kitsap Sun’s editorial board, and though we didn’t always agree on issues, I found him to be extremely dedicated to improving the school system and a very honest man.

Now, we’re left with a huge hole to fill once again. I hope that Herb Messenger, who originally withdrew after seeing the Bailey was also in the race, will reconsider and put his name back in as a school board candidate. And I also hope that someone else will step forward so there is a real contest for Johnson’s board seat.

— Jeff

The final candidates have filed for the November eleciton, and all three Central Kitsap School Board seats that are up for election will have contests … and in one case, there are three candidates running.

I congratulate the candidates for stepping forward to seek this office. It’s one of the most important elected positions in Central Kitsap. The schools play an incredibly important role in the civic live of Silverdale and our wider community. Having choices among candidates for the school board is a good thing, a thing that will serve to make our community stronger. For the first time since 2001, we as a community will have the opportunity to have candidates for school board come to us to ask for our vote. As a community, we will benefit from this competition for our attention, and from the ability to ask these candidates questions about how they would lead our school district — questions they cannot ignore if they wish to win our support.

The candidates are: Regina “Raye” Hill and incumbent board member Bruce J. Richards in district 1; Bill Bailey, a former Kitsap Sun editorial board member who has experience as a member of the district’s budget advisory committee and Herbert Messinger in district 2; and incumbent Eric Greene, current Sun editorial board member Richard Romero and Jim Zimny in district 5.

No matter what, an whether you agree with them on the issues or not, they all deserve our thanks for offering us their candidacy. Thank you all. We should all look forward to hearing about their visions for our school district as the campaign unfolds.

— Jeff

There were no new candidates who filed Wednesday for the three Central Kitsap School Board positions that will be filled in the November election this year.

It will be interesting to see if other candidates file Thursday or Friday, the last day for candidates to file for the fall election cycle.

— Jeff

The good news on Tuesday is that two candidates filed for the District 5 seat for the school board, Eric Greene and Richard Romero. Eric Greene is the incumbent. I don’t know Mr. Romero, but I applaud him for giving voters a choice in that race.

Incumbent Bruce Richards remains the only candidate for the seat representing District 1.

And no one has yet filed for Carl Johnson’s seat representing District 2. Johnson planned to leave the board when his term expired two years ago, but no one filed for the position, so he was named to remain on the board for two more years, despite his desire to retire.

I’ll continue to update the news on school board filings as it becomes available.

— Jeff

It’s filing week, and I’m still hoping we see some movement in the Central Kitsap School Board elections this year.

As I pointed out in a post last month, there’s only been one contested race for school board in the Central Kitsap School District since 2001. While I have no criticism of board members who have volunteered their time to serve, I also think that the lack of contested races is bad for the community and a troubling sign of a lack of civic activism.

I’ve been noticing that the weekly Silverdale Chamber of Commerce e-mail newsletter has been giving information about the board positions and where to get information on the seats that are to be elected this year. Kudos to chamber Executive Director Darla Murker for including that information in the weekly message. Without specifically encouraging anyone to run, she’s been providing information people need to consider whether they could run.

According to the listing on Monday’s filings on the county’ auditor’s web site, only incumbent Bruce Richards filed for a CK school board position on the opening day of filing.

I hope we’ll see filings by at least six candidates for the school board this year, with contests for each seat. Filing continues through Friday.

— Jeff