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News / Schools
Filing light for school board, city council elections light
Thursday, March 4, 2010
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Filing for candidacy in local May 8 elections was reportedly sparse Tuesday, less than a week before Monday’s filing deadline.
Three seats are up for grabs in the Eanes school board election and in both Rollingwood and West Lake Hills city council elections.
In West Lake Hills, seats currently held by Mayor Dave Claunch, Place 2 Councilman Andrew Schwartz and Place 4 Councilwoman Cindy Probst will be decided. As of late Tuesday, only Claunch and Schwartz have filed for re-election, and Jean Goehring and former council members Katherine Loayza and Jane Noble have filed for candidacy to Place 4. Place 4 incumbent Cindy Probst has indicated that she will not seek re-election.
Mayor Dale Dingley and Alderman Brian Nalle and Alderwoman Shanthi Jayakumar are up for re-election in Rollingwood. Dingley announced that he will not seek re-election, and no other candidates had filed as of Tuesday afternoon.
Nalle and Jayakumar will face all comers in an at-large election in which the top two vote-getters win, and the mayors race is a traditional head-to-head election. The filing place and polling place on Election Day is at City Hall, 403 Nixon Drive.
The Eanes school board meets on the fourth Wednesday of each month. The Rollingwood City Council meets every third Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m., while West Lake Hills Council members meet every second and fourth Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Interested candidates have until Monday to file for the election at his or her respective city halls. For more information, call the Rollingwood City Hall at 327-1838 or West Lake Hills City Hall at 327-3628.
In both cities, council seats are for two-year terms.
The Election Day polling place for both the West Lake Hills and Eanes school board elections is Valley View Elementary School.
In the Eanes school board election, places up for grabs are Place 6, currently held by Mike Monnig, and Place 7, currently held by Ellen Balthazar. Both are for three-year terms. A concurrent special election will also be held to fill the Place 5 seat vacated by Gail King last August. The seat is currently bing held by interim appointee James Kallison.
Only the incumbents have filed candidacy as of Tuesday afternoon.
Candidates file for the election at the Eanes administration building, 601 Camp Craft Road.
The deadline to file for candidacy is also Monday.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why Mrs. Loyaza would wish to serve on the WLH city council unless it is to preserve at least one seat there for the Urdahlian faction among us. Her performance in her last term did not exactly inspire my confidence in her ability to make decisions for the city under controversial mayor Mark Urdahl.
Isn’t there anyone who will make this a contested election? I would hate to think Mrs. Loyaza will take an uncontested seat on city council. Her past support for Urdahl makes her a bad choice.
Easy to bash Urdahl, but the truth is that he shook up the status quo in a way that has benefited our city by paving the way for Claunch and creating a much friendlier environment for residents. Too bad Mark isn’t here to run for school board. We could use a shake up there.
Vote for School Board Candidates that ARE NOT incumbents.
I don’t think that anyone else filed to run against them. Am I right that the filing deadline has passed? I’m confused because they ran a story about uncontested races in the City elections but didn’t mention the school board.
Monday was the deadline. I think that two board seats are contested. I don’t think anyone is running against Ellen Balthazar which is a real shame. Like many of my neighbors, I will vote for any school board candidate who is not an incumbent.
I’ll let them announce, but there are two people running for school board against Kallison and Monnig. I don’t know if anyone signed up to run against Balthazar. Too bad. We seem to reward longevity; but anyone who attends board meetings (and listens-not for the sport of it) can easily see that she and Monnig are both way over their heads when it comes to budgets.
Thanks goodness someone is running.