By Ken Williams | Editor
No hanging chads or Supreme Court justices were involved, but the North Park Planning Committee board election on March 15 became embroiled in controversy just like the 2000 presidential election.
Seven winners were declared at the end of the March 15 board meeting: Incumbents Robert Barry, Brandon Hilpert, Rachel Levin, Sarah McAlear and Roger Morrison were reelected, and newcomers Robert Gettinger and Melissa Stayner got more votes than incumbents Daniel Gebresellassie and Lucky Morrison, and several other challengers.
Later that night, board chair Vicki Granowitz informed San Diego Uptown News that the ballots had been recounted “out of an abundance of precaution” and the results had changed slightly. Gebresellassie had now leapfrogged Levin into the No. 7 position in the new election results, meaning that he had been reelected and Levin had not.
Five people, including four contestants who had lost, later challenged the election results. That triggered a further investigation by the Election Subcommittee, the board officers, and city officials.
At a joint meeting on March 21, the Election Subcommittee and the board officers discussed the challenges and made recommendations that would be voted upon at the March 22 meeting of the full board. The public was allowed to participate in the joint meeting along with the challengers.
At the March 22 meeting, the challengers who were in attendance were given a short amount of time to state their case. Levin pointed to the ballot error, which correctly stated in its first paragraph that seven board positions were open, then later incorrectly said: “You may vote for as few or as many candidates as you would like, but voting for more than eight (8) candidates will invalidate your ballot.”
Three people did indeed vote for eight candidates, but their ballots were later invalidated.
Granowitz told the audience that voters were told multiple times about the error on the ballot. Board secretary Sarah McAlear — who was on the ballot and was reelected — said she recalled at least three occasions where voters were reminded not to vote for eight candidates.
Challenger Brandon Cohen said that because “numerous ballots” were thrown out, the entire election should be conducted again.
Challenger Don Leichtling — who was on the ballot and didn’t get elected — said that voters didn’t follow instructions and that there were people in the counting room who should not have been there. He, too, wanted to redo the election.
McAlear — who participated in the joint meeting as a board officer even though she was on the ballot — made a motion at the March 22 meeting to deny a new election, recount the ballots, and recommend the joint committee’s findings to rewrite the bylaws to refine the way challenges are handled. The board voted 7-3 with one abstention. But when a board member pointed to an error in the motion, the board invalidated the first vote.
To simplify the lengthy motion, McAlear then broke the wording into three motions.
Motion 1, to deny a new election, passed 7-3-1. Rachel Levin, Lucky Morrison and Roger Morrison (who are not related) cast the nay votes and Howard Blackson abstained, saying it was because he had not attended the election.
Motion 2, to recount the ballots, passed 7-3-1 with the same board members casting their votes according to the first motion.
Motion 3, to amend the bylaws related to elections and recounts and to reinstitute the city’s election handbook, passed 10-0-1. Blackson abstained.
Granowitz said the recount would occur at a public meeting to be determined at a later date. As of press time, Uptown News has not been notified of when the recount will take place.
Another issue involves the number of voters who participated in the election. Granowitz has told Uptown News several times that 99 people cast their votes at the election, but late on March 22, after the meeting had been adjourned, she sent an email to correct herself. She now confirms that 110 people legally voted, and that only three ballots were invalidated.
In a telephone call on March 23, Granowitz said she believes only the No. 7 position is at stake in the recount since the top six positions had sizable leads. The unofficial results are:
- Robert Barry, 80 votes
- Sarah McAlear, 77
- Roger Morrison, 73
- Melissa Stayner, 73
- Brandon Hilpert, 72
- Robert Gettinger, 56
- Daniel Gebresellassie, 35
- Rachel Levin, 34
- Lucky Morrison, 31
- John Paul Iacoangelo, 17
- Don Leichting, 17
- Danielle Knouff, 8
The seven elected board members will be installed at the April 19 meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 2901 North Park Way. They will join current board members Howard Blackson, Dionne Carlson, Steve Codraro, Vicki Granowitz, Peter Hill, Dang Nguyen, Rene Vidales and Rick Pyles on the dais, and then the new officers will be elected.
— Ken Williams is editor of Uptown News and Mission Valley News and can be reached at [email protected] or at 619-961-1952. Follow him on Twitter at KenSanDiego, Instagram account at KenSD or Facebook at KenWilliamsSanDiego.
