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Eleven candidates running for board openings at three different public agencies took on the issues -- some with a bit of controversy -- during a public forum last week at the Stallion Springs Community Center.

Heeding organizer JoAnne Huckins’ admonition to “refrain from excessive exuberance for or against any particular candidate,” an audience of 60 people heard statements from candidates for non-partisan board positions at the Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District, the Stallion Springs Community Services District and the Tehachapi Unified School District. 

Flashes of controversy emerged from candidates for the boards of the Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District and the Stallion Springs Community Services District, while candidates for the Tehachapi Unified School District Board of Trustees did not raise contentious issues.

Retired aerospace engineer Jonathan Hall, an incumbent candidate for director of the water district board, held up a flier from candidate Adrian Maaskant and said, “It’s just scurrilous.”

Maaskant, a retired math teacher, has raised the issues of agricultural water rates and the cost of water supplies to the California Correctional Institution at water board meetings. He was not present at the forum. His flier said the water district’s “agricultural water rate is a means of giving $4 million of local property tax dollars to farmers, including large corporate growers, every year.”

Hall and fellow water district incumbent candidate David Hadley rejected Maaskant’s assertions. They said the district is establishing parity between the agricultural and M & I (municipal and industrial) rates.

“Over the next five years the ag rate will be equalizing with the M & I rate,” Hadley said. “It will be over the next five years gradually.”

Hall said that 15 percent of the water that goes to farmers is reclaimed as ground water and that currently the difference in charges between ag and M & I “is only one and a half percent.”

Hadley said, “You as a customer are paying 20 cents more than the ag rate. It amounts to $20 a year or so.”

Former Tehacahpi City Manager Jason Caudle filed papers to run for the water district board but was not in attendance at the forum. 

Transportation planner Marilyn Beardslee, a candidate for the Stallion Springs Community Services District board, who was asked if she was satisfied with the present board, said, “I think there’s a lot that can be done. There is not as strong a sense of community that there could be. Our crime statistics are going up and up. We don’t have a neighborhood watch – we do it informally.”

Stallion Springs has activities for children, Beardslee said, but “The average age is more than 41 years old. There are a lot of older people in Stallion Springs. Their interests should be addressed and provided for.”

Stallion Springs CSD candidate Dave Burt, a building inspector, said, “We have a good board in there now.” He said he was strong supporter of the Stallion Springs Police Department and its PAL organization “to keep our kids occupied and away from the streets.”

Retired college professor of human development and psychology Irene Gunshinan, incumbent candidate for the Stallion Springs CSD, said, “It is a wonderful board.”

A six-year member of the board, she said, “I work for the people.”

Gunshinan said the board has been able to get a new fire station, funding for the community center, retain the police department, is now building a new administration and police building and is seeking “the wherewithal for a building for the kids.”

Stallion Springs CSD candidate Glenn Simpson, a retired businessman, said he had been a resident of Stallion Springs since 2000, served on the board of directors of the Horse Thief Golf Club, was a volunteer at the Tehachapi Relay for Life, a member of the Tehachapi Hospital Foundation and Smart Growth Tehachapi.

A member of the audience challenged the Stallion Springs candidates to address the issue of the Meadows development, saying, “It’s starting again, you know.”

Gunshinan said, “I can’t address it because it’s not encompassing us.”

The questioner said, “How many of you buy what the lawyers say?”

Simpson said, “I call it the Meadows Fiasco.”

A questioner said, “The three of you who get elected have to vote on whether or not to annex. Do you care to say now?”

Three candidates said “no,” and Burt said, “Until I see the whole proposal, I can’t say.”

Jackie Wood, Tehachapi Unified School District incumbent for Seat D, a graduate of Tehachapi High School and business owner for 23 years, said that her active family “has helped me have better insight.”

Wood invited everyone to attend a school board meeting, citing new programs and praising the Superintendent of Schools, Richard Swanson, PhD.

“Everybody is thinking out of the box,” she said. “It’s so exciting to be part of this team. We’re going to go from good to great with him as superintendent.”

Wood’s challenger, Brenda Wright, was an elementary school teacher for 31 years, with experience in Orcutt Union, Rescue Union, Elk Grove Unified and Tehachapi school districts. According to her flier, she is a member of the Principal’s Advisory Board and School Site Council and a teacher in migrant education.

Referring to a program at Serreno High School in Phelan that helps students plan for and get into college – 100 percent of the last graduating class going to higher education – she said, “This has really been lacking in this school district.”

John Foster, who also filed for Seat D, was not in attendance at the forum.

Judy Walsh, incumbent candidate for Tehachapi Unified School District Seat “F,” focused on the district’s finances.

“We are faced with great challenges,” Walsh said, noting that the Cost of Living increase of 0.68 percent covers a portion of the budget, and that class sizes are back up to 28 to 30 students.

“You can’t have 10 to 12 students more and do as good a job as with 20 students,” Walsh said. “It’s always the children who suffer with our cuts in the budget.
Walsh suggested utilizing 25 acres adjacent to the high school to install wind turbines.

“There are districts in the Midwest that are paying all their bills through wind energy,” she said.

School district candidate Steve Miles, challenging Walsh, said that his extensive experience in business taught him how to benefit his clients. As a member of the school board, he said, “You are my client.”

A U.S. Marine who was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant, Miles was an air traffic controller in the Marines and for the FAA, and worked for the Wrigley Gum Company in consultative sales.

He said that Cumming Valley Elementary School had maintained test levels above the crucial 800 mark even with loss of funding and the classroom aides it paid for.
“We have to find other sources of funding,” he said.

[Editor’s note: in the interest of public disclosure, we note that Miles works for TheTehachapi News in the advertising department].

Diana Osbrink, also challenging Walsh, said she is the daughter of two educators and mother of four, and “I care very much about the Tehachapi Unified School District.”

Osbrink said that “changes must take place” to ensure that every child has an opportunity, and that decisions must be made in cooperation with parents and members of the community.

She vowed to “dedicate my life to giving children a chance. I am not in this for politics but for the children. The school board needs someone with good communication skills.”
 

Editor's Note: The photos of Diana Osbrink and Brenda Wright were transposed in our print edition and have been corrected in this online post. The Tehachapi News regrets the error.