With Singh-Allen's election as mayor how, who will fill her vacancy on EGUSD Board of Trustees?
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2020/11/with-singh-allens-election-as-mayor-how.html
With her defeat of incumbent Steve Ly, Bobbie Singh-Allen will be sworn in as Elk Grove's third directly elected mayor on the evening of Wednesday, December 9. Before she is sworn-in, Singh-Allen will have to resign from her seat, which she has held for eight years, on the Elk Grove Unified School District Board of Trustees.
Along with the resignation of Singh-Allen, it is expected the Board of Trustees will swear-in Sean Yang, who appears to be in a position to win the Area 3 seat being vacated by Chet Madison Sr. Yang, a political newcomer, received substantial support from Ly, whose career to elected office started when he was elected to the seat now occupied by Nancy Chaires-Espinoza in 2012 over Jake Rambo, who was appointed to the vacant seat earlier that year.
The Board of Trustees have two options - make a two-year appointment, or hold a special election. Over the last 10 years, Trustees have uniformly made appointments for vacancies rather than holding special elections citing the high-cost of running the district-wide contests for only one seat.
Given the likelihood of an appointment, it will be worth considering the composition of the six members of the Board of Trustees and how that appointment process might unfold. Even though he will no longer by the mayor, will Mr. Ly's longstanding relations with two current and one future board members play into how the process unfolds.
First, there is Yang and Perez, who were respectively elected and re-elected to their seats with the help of Ly. Will Ly influence how they vote?
As for a third possible vote that might be loyal to Ly, third term Trustee Carmine Forcina has been allied with Ly since both were elected in 2012. Although Forcina was unchallenged for this third term during the recent election, in anticipation of a possible opponent, he was part of several mailers paid by Ly.
Additionally, at an August 28 protest against Singh-Allen at the EGUSD administration building, a student read comments on behalf of Forcina stating his support of the Hmong community (see video below). The protest against Singh-Allen, which featured several speakers including Trustee-elect Yang, was organized by members of the Hmong community who said Singh-Allen made racially motivated claims against them.
Forcina, who has shown independence and has not been aligned with Perez even though they are connected to Ly, is not guaranteed to align with Perez and Yang in an appointment showdown. If the appointment is made after Yang is sworn-in, Forcina could become the crucial swing vote.
The other alternative the Board of Trustees could pursue is making an appointment before Madison's term expires. Under this scenario, Singh-Allen could resign, and the Trustees could solicit applications for the vacancy, hold a special meeting before Yang is sworn-in to avoid a possible appointment deadlock should the appointment be made after Madison's departure.
Along that same line, to assure an appointment to the board before Yang is installed, Singh-Allen could hold her Trustee seat to the last possible moment, and a special appointment process meeting could be conducted before her resignation. In this scenario, not only will Madison have a say, Singh-Allen will help determined who fills her vacancy, and that would give Singh-Allen a strong hand politically in Elk Grove.
Regardless of how the process unfolds under any of these possibilities or others, the vacancy proceedings will be worth monitoring as well as who is appointed.
Click on the video to play.
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2 comments
My money is on Jake Rambo to fill the seat. He lives in the same Stonelake neighborhood as Bobbie and seemed to be active in her election. Of course that is the only way Rambo can get on the school board because she sure can't win on a district-wide basis. Maybe he ought to call that attorney who forced the city to go to by-district and force the school to become by-district.
Spoons YAWN....
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