Filing Glitch Leaves Water District With 3 Open Seats : Statutes: Instead of being elected, the directors will now be appointed by the County Board of Supervisors.

Things have gone from embarrassing to puzzling in the South Coast Water District.

In August, four directors forgot to file for reelection before the deadline.

Since then, district and county officials have had to scratch through election codes to figure out how to fill the seats that expire in November.

Now, seven other people want the seats.

The first thing that had to be done, according to California law, was to have county Registrar Donald F. Tanney cancel the election. Then he had to grant the one person who did file, challenger Ingrid McGuire, a seat.

From there, the district will be blazing a new election trail, Tanney said. This kind of thing had not happened before in Orange County.

Tanney said the state election code calls for the County Board of Supervisors to appoint three new members, usually based on a recommendation from the water district. Therefore, Tanney is no longer involved.

“We are out of the middle of this,” Tanney said. “At this point, I’m pretty much just an (administrative) agent saying: ‘Give me some names.’ ”

Coming up with the names is causing the confusion, according to Christie McDaniel, top aide to 5th District Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, in whose territory the water district lies. It is up to Riley to recommend three names to his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, a process that might have been simpler if only three people had applied.

But with seven people now seeking the posts and the deadline open until Oct. 26, the process has become a testy issue. “I’m referring back to county counsel on just about everything,” McDaniel said.

Arthur Wahlstedt, the assistant county counsel who is advising the water district, said he has had to dig through California statutes to help out.

“It’s just a matter of wending your way through the statutes and trying to figure out which ones apply,” Wahlstedt said. “I’m not aware of it happening before . . . (but) there is a procedure in the elections codes that applies when people do not file for offices, so it must have happened someplace else.”

In hopes of coming up with three appointments, McDaniel and a committee of other Riley aides will begin interviewing the prospective candidates this week. Technically, all anyone needs to qualify is to live in the district--which covers South Laguna, Dana Point and Laguna Niguel and serves 7,300 customers--and be a registered voter.

South Coast Water District Close-Up

Formed: July 29, 1932.

History: Merged with the South Laguna Sanitary District in July, 1976.

Size: Covers 3,200 acres or five square miles of territory in South Laguna, Dana Point and a small section of Laguna Niguel.

Budget: $7 million annually.

Board of Directors: Seven members, elected at-large, each serving four-year terms.

Board Meetings: Third Tuesday of each month; members paid $125 for each meeting.

Board Duties: Directors are responsible for establishing water and sewer service rates and adopting district budgets.

Source: South Coast Water District