Election 2004: Vote supports preserving health-care district Election 2004: Vote supports preserving health-care district (November 10, 2004)

By Renee Batti
Almanac News Editor

Voters showed their support for preserving the Sequoia Healthcare District by re-electing two incumbents to the district board for four more years.

Kathleen Kane and Malcolm MacNaughton won easy victories against Warren Gibson and Sonya Sigler, who had hoped to join fellow Libertarian Jack Hickey on the five-member board to form a new majority.

Voters had a clear choice when they marked their ballots: While the re-election of Ms. Kane and Mr. MacNaughton would ensure that the district would continue -- at least in the foreseeable future -- on its course as co-owner of Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, election of the challengers would likely have led to a hard-fought effort to dismantle the health-care district completely.

Getting rid of the district has been the stated goal of Mr. Hickey and Mr. Warren; Ms. Sigler has expressed strong doubts about the need for the district and has wanted to put the question directly to voters. Mr. Hickey campaigned for the election of both.

The two challengers also ran for board seats in 2002, along with Mr. Hickey, a fourth Libertarian, and an independent candidate who was critical of the district. With three seats open and only two incumbents running, Mr. Hickey won a seat. The incumbents were re-elected.

The vote count last week before all absentee and provisional ballots were tallied was: Ms. Kane, 30,664 (30.4 percent); Mr. MacNaughton, 27,176 (26.9 percent), Ms. Sigler, 22,532 (22.3 percent); Mr. Gibson, 20,667 (20.5 percent).

Two-year term

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors will appoint a district board member to a two-year seat on November 9, but the makeup of the five-member board is not expected to change. That's because current member, John Oblak, who was appointed last summer to a vacant seat, has the support of a candidate-screening subcommittee of supervisors Rich Gordon and Mike Nevin, who are recommending Mr. Oblak's appointment.

Mr. Oblak, the president of Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, had intended to stand for election to the two-year term last week, but accidentally filed election papers for a four-year term. He then went to court to keep his name off the ballot, but meanwhile, no one filed papers for the two-year term.

He and Merrilee Gibson, wife of unsuccessful candidate Warren Gibson, were the only two people who applied for the seat.

Supervisor Gordon said action to appoint Mr. Oblak is on the consent calendar of the board's agenda, which makes Mr. Oblak's appointment a near-certainty.

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