Real Incumbent Not Listed : Laguna School Board Ballot Could Mislead

Because of an unusual chain of events, a Laguna Beach school board incumbent seeking reelection is not listed as an incumbent on the Nov. 3 ballot. And a former board member who is no longer campaigning for reelection is erroneously listed on the ballot as the incumbent.

“It’s an unusual situation,” said Jeannette Shelton, elections sections supervisor for the Orange County registrar of voters. “I’ve been here 17 years, and I don’t recall anything like this.”

The situation stems from the Sept. 22 recall election in the Laguna Beach Unified School District. In that special election, voters recalled three incumbents on the school board and replaced them with new members.

One of the recalled board members was Charlene Ragatz. Voters replaced her with Kathleen Jones, an assistant vice chancellor at UC Irvine. Jones has since been sworn into office and is legally the incumbent. She is, in fact, the only incumbent in the four-person field of candidates in the Nov. 3 school board election.

Ragatz Shown as Incumbent

But the official ballot shows, and will continue to show, that Ragatz is the incumbent. Jones is listed only as “assistant vice chancellor.”

“We’ve gotten some calls by people in Laguna about this,” Shelton said. “Some of the people active in the recall are upset. They don’t understand. Well, the situation came about because the filing deadline for this (Nov. 3) race was Aug. 12. That was before the recall election in September, of course, and at that time Charlene Ragatz was the incumbent. The law has no provision for us to change something like this after the filing deadline. The law is just silent on it.”

People active in the recall of Ragatz have complained that she gets an unfair advantage by being listed as the incumbent. They have pointed out that the word “incumbent” often attracts a majority of votes, especially in low-turnout school board elections.

Ragatz has said she is no longer campaigning for new four-year term. But she has agreed that she could be reelected nonetheless, because her name remains on the ballot.

Jones Trusts Voters

Jones, meanwhile, said she is putting her trust in the voters: “I admit it can be confusing, but I believe the people in Laguna Beach have paid enough attention so that they won’t be confounded by the misnomer.”

The other two candidates on the Nov. 3 school board ballot are Matt Gorry, a professional engineer, and James G. Kreder, a business owner. Both were active in the recall movement that ousted Ragatz, Janet Vickers and Carl Schwarz.

There are two four-year school board seats to be filled Nov. 3: the one now held by Jones and the seat being vacated by Harry Bithell, who decided not to seek reelection.

The election is at large, and the two candidates in the four-person race with the most votes will be elected.