General election filings begin

A filing period begins today in elections for the Angels Camp City Council, Mark Twain Health Care District and a variety of school boards in Calaveras County.

Candidates have until Aug. 10 to complete nomination paperwork to be included on the Nov. 6 ballot. The deadline is extended to Aug. 15 when an incumbent does not file by the initial deadline.

A majority of City Council seats are open, now filled by Mayor Elaine Morris, elected in 2008, and council members Roger Neuman and Scott Behiel, each appointed to fill vacancies last year.

The Mark Twain Health Care District was the top focus of this year’s grand jury report in Calaveras County. The report included a finding that term limits should be imposed as the board has seen little turnover, in addition to noting a perceived “lost confidence” by county residents in the local health care system amidst turmoil in 2010. 

The district’s official response, written by board president Lin Reed, stated term limits cannot legally be imposed and the hospital’s situation stabilized after CEO Feliciano Jiron resigned.

Seats held by incumbents Kenneth McInturf and Colleen Smart, last re-elected in 2008, are open this year.

North county voters will select a trustee for the San Joaquin Delta Community College District, a position now filled by Steve Castellanos, elected in 2008 after campaigning on concerns about the accreditation of San Joaquin Delta College and “inept management of building funds.”

The district announced last week that it had turned the corner on shoring up its accreditation. 

It took much heat from county voters who are paying for part of a $250 million construction bond passed in 2004. Calaveras County citizens largely felt they were promised a satellite campus in Valley Springs that district put on hold indefinitely in 2007 and then decided to scrap altogether in 2010, prompting some calls to break away and join the south county in the Yosemite Community College District.

Three seats, constituting a majority, are open on the boards for the Calaveras County Office of Education, Bret Harte Union High School District, Mark Twain Union Elementary School District and Vallecito Union School District. 

Two seats are available in the Calaveras Unified School District.

All open seats are four-year terms with the exception of one two-year term in the Vallecito Union School District.

For more information, call the Elections Office at 754-6376 or visit http://clerk.calaverasgov.us/Elections.aspx to download a candidate’s guide.