All 4 Water Board Incumbents Forget to Enter the Race

It has not been a proud few weeks for the South Coast Water District board of directors. Four in particular are hard-pressed, and red-faced, in explaining what they did or did not do to guarantee themselves another term on the board.

All four of those incumbents--Harry Lawrence, Charles R. Benton, Ed LaBahn and Jim Smith--had intentions to run for reelection Nov. 3.

But a strange thing happened on the way to the county registrar’s office in August to file their papers.

None of them showed up.

Only one challenger, Ingrid McGuire, a former director and a former Dana Point city councilwoman, managed to beat the Aug. 12 filing deadline and will be an automatic winner.

Of the other board members, veterans all, each thought someone else would remind him to file.

“It was just one of those things,” said board President Lawrence of Laguna Beach, a 16-year member who would like to spend another four years as a director of the district.

The South Coast Water District supplies water and sanitation services to more than 7,300 customers in parts of Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel and Dana Point.

“We had a recent change in manager and a loss of coordination and it just got dropped--to everyone’s surprise and dismay,” Lawrence said.

Said Smith, an architect and a board member for the past 18 months: “We are responsible and we are to blame. I just plain overlooked the deadline date. It’s embarrassing.”

County Registrar Donald Tanney said it is not unusual that an election has fewer candidates than open seats, particularly in a special district. But the particulars in this case--where all the incumbents want to run but all miss the deadline--are indeed rare, he said.

The South Coast Water District office was notified by mail ahead of the deadlines, as is one every year, Tanney said. The district has existed since 1932.

“We do send a letter to every special district,” Tanney said. “The one thing we can’t do is walk these people in.”

California law stipulates that the election be canceled and the county supervisors solve problems such as this, Tanney said.

Fifth District Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, whose territory includes the district, will be asked to make three appointments to the water district board, Tanney said.

Coincidentally, one of Riley’s top aides, Susan Hinman, is another of the district board members. But her term will not expire this November.

Of those whose terms do expire, one member will definitely be out of a board seat since McGuire has already been notified she won. After a quick huddle among the “candidates,” LaBahn opted to step aside and leave the board, Lawrence said.

Lawrence, Smith and Benton will now each seek a Riley appointment, as can any other registered voter who lives in the district. Board members get $100 per meeting.

For McGuire, who served on the board from 1985-88 until she resigned after being elected to Dana Point’s first City Council, the snafu came as a shock.

“I ran into a former board member, John Raymond, and he asked me what happened. I said, ‘I don’t know either,’ ” McGuire said. “We were both really, really surprised. At first some of us thought the board was going to consolidate to just five members.”

On the positive side, her quick “victory” means she can save about $2,000 she had put aside for the race. With the notification from the registrar’s office that there would be no election and she had already won, McGuire also got her $250 candidacy filing check back.

There could easily have been a negative side, said McGuire, who was the leading vote-getter when she ran in 1985. On the last day of filing, anyone who walked into the registrar’s door could have walked out with a board seat.

“I could have called some people and said, ‘Why don’t you file?’ ” she said. “But that wouldn’t have been right. I think someone needs to be really motivated to serve.”

Water Marks The South Coast Water District covers parts of three cities and has about 7,300 customers.