Sheriff Don Horsley will be on San Mateo County’s ballot this November, but not as a candidate for the post he’s held for the last 13 years. Instead, he’s running against three incumbents for a spot on the Sequoia Healthcare District board.
The filing period for the race closed August 11. Incumbents Art Faro, Jack Hickey and John Oblak also qualified to run for the three open seats on the five-member board, which co-owns and helps to oversee Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City.
The entry of Mr. Horsely into the race is seen as a major threat to board member Hickey, a Libertarian who for years regularly ran for public office — then stunned local political observers by finally winning a race four years ago. He is now completing his first and only term of public office as a member of the Sequoia board.
When he ran for the board in 2002, Mr. Hickey said his goal was to dissolve the district, which taxes property owners in Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, Woodside, Redwood City, San Carlos and Belmont.
Mr. Horsely said he was asked to run for the board by someone affiliated with the district. He’s hoping to unseat Mr. Hickey, whom he calls “a character” but criticizes as “disruptive of the process.”
“Jack is opposed to pretty much everything,” Mr. Horsley said, referring to Mr. Hickey’s record of being the only “no” vote on most significant decisions made by the board.
Mr. Hickey is strongly opposed to a number of standard practices of the board, such as awarding nonprofit health groups in the county, in addition to Sequoia Hospital, millions of dollars in grants in support of their programs. “I’ve always advocated private philanthropy” and opposed the use of public money for support of nonprofit groups, he said.
Mr. Horsley will be leaving his post as sheriff at the end of the year, and will be succeeded by Undersheriff Greg Munks. But he said he was interested in remaining in public office, in service to a hospital that “has benefited the community for many years.”
Art Faro, the former CEO of Sequoia Hospital, is running for his third term on the board. John Oblak, president of Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, was appointed to a two-year board term in late 2002 by the county Board of Supervisors.
