Two Pescadero Municipal Advisory Councilmembers Cause 2024 Election Ballot Confusion at the Last San Mateo County Board of Supervisors Meeting

This history was provided on June 13th, 2022 by San Mateo County staff, Travis Dunn:

“I went ahead and took this all the way back to the PMAC’s formation in 1992. Please note when I talk about “qualified” candidates I mean only whether they have completed the candidate filing process and are therefore qualified to be a candidate in the legal sense. I also wanted to note that in some cases, the PMAC appointed members to vacant seats – since that’s a non-electoral process, our office does not have record of when those appointments happened. I’ve gone over the records the PMAC has available, but they are scant in some periods.”

The PMAC has 13 seats. District 1 has six seats. District 2 has two seats. District 3 has two seats. District 4 has 2 seats. There is one At-Large seat.

In 1992, the PMAC was created with 13 initial members. In District 1, they were Patricia Carr, John W. Dixon, Velia Garcia, Meredith Reynolds, Kurt M. Jensen, and Chris Brancart. District 2 was Tim Hudson and Maeva Maria Neale. District 3 was Gaston “Gas” Periat and Kurt B. Jacobsen. District 4 was Allison Jackson – no other qualified candidates. At-Large seat [“District 5”] was Alice E. Partanen.

In 1994, Curt Dias was elected to District 1, Meredith Reynolds also to District 1, and Maeva M. Neale (sometimes misspelled as Haeva M. Neale) to District 2. Both Robert L. Carpenter and Victor T. Subbotin are referred to on the ballot as Appointed Incumbents, PMAC records do not reflect the date of these appointments.

In 1996 only two candidates went to ballot, Gaston “Gas” Periat (320 votes) against Jeannine Clark-Gananian (163). No district was indicated on the ballot, so I’ve made the assumption that this was for District 3 re-election. John B. Nowland was the only candidate for District 4, and Tim Hudson the only candidate for District 2. Both James F. Schweichert, Sr. and Larry Walsh were the only qualified candidates for separate District 1 seats. Mr. Nowland, Mr. Schweichert, and Mr. Walsh are all indicated in our forms as incumbents, but no previous record of these parties holding positions on the PMAC appeared in our files.

In 1998 there were a number of candidates running for District 1’s three open seats. John W. Dixon, Herb Hamor, and Geoffrey H. Allen won. Qualified candidates who did not have to face election were Maeva Maria Neale (District 2), Lary Lawson (District 3), Meg DeLano (District 4), and Beverly Fields (District 4).

In 2000, Steve D. Simms, Linda “Sam” O’Sullivan, and Irma Rodriquez Mitton won the three open District 1 seats. Qualified candidates who did not have to face election were Tim Hudson (District 2), Carol F. Simon (District 3), John C. Donovan (District 4), and Meredith Reynolds (At Large).

The 2000 election was PMAC’s last. At no time since then has more than one person filed as a candidate for any seat, so no seat has gone on the ballot. Every qualified candidate took their seat automatically.

In 2002, Only Catherine Peery qualified as a candidate.

In 2004, the qualified candidates were Paisley Nash-Dooley (Dist. 4, Non-Incumbent), Eugenia Silva (Dist. 1, Non-Incumbent), Chris Trailer (Dist. 3, Non-Incumbent) and Donald McDermott (At-Large, Non-Incumbent). In August, Pattie Brixen was appointed to fill the remainder of John Dixon’s term.

In 2006, three qualified candidates, Pattie Brixen, Jackson Robertson, and Catherine Peery.

In 2008, Don McDermott was elected to another four-year term, for the At-Large district. No other candidates. Ed Dee resigned and was replaced by Rob Skinner.

In 2010, there were 4 qualified candidates. Kim “Jake” Bowman (Non-Incumbent, District 4), Rob Skinner (Incumbent, District 1), Carolyn Shade (Non-Incumbent, District 1), and Catherine Peery (Incumbent, District 3).

In 2012, the only qualified candidate was Donald McDermott, for the At-Large seat.

In 2014, the qualified candidates were Rob Skinner, Carolyn L. Shade, Kenneth Pesso, David LoCoco, and Michael Polacek.

In 2016, the only qualified candidate was Nicholas Erridge for District 1.

Between 2016 and 2018, Heather Gibbon, Casey Dunn and Monica Ventrice were appointed by PMAC to vacant seats.

In 2018, the only qualified candidate was Rob Skinner for District 1.