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Vote count complete in SLO County but Morro Bay council race undecided

June 13, 2014

election-2014San Luis Obispo county elections officials have counted all of the votes cast in the 2014 primary election, but the results of the Morro Bay city council race are still unclear.

Newcomers Matt Makowetski and John Headding finished first and second in the three-person race that included incumbent Nancy Johnson. Makowetski received votes on 60.10 percent of ballots. Since a majority voted for Makowetski, he earned a seat on the council

Headding tallied votes on 49.09 percent of ballots. However, 123 voters left the city council section of their ballots blank. If the blank council ballots are not counted in the Morro Bay race, Makowetski, too, will have received a majority and earned a seat on the council.

Assistant county clerk –recorder Tommy Gong said it is up to the city of Morro Bay to determine if Makowetski received a majority vote. The city has until July 1 to decide, Gong said.

If Morro Bay opts to count the blank council ballots and Makowetski’s tally stays at 49.09 percent, a runoff will ensue between Johnson and Makowetski. Johnson received votes on 36.6 percent of ballots in the primary.

Voters in San Luis Obispo County will also decide two other elections in November runoffs. Incumbent District 4 Supervisor Caren Ray will face challenger Lynn Compton, and Gong is in a runoff for county clerk-recorder against deputy clerk-recorder Amanda King.

The spread between Ray and Compton increased upon completion of the final vote count. A week ago, Compton had received 46.66 percent of the vote while Ray had received 42.34 percent. After the final vote count, Compton’s tally increased to 47.34 percent and Ray’s decreased to 41.71 percent.

Mike Byrd, the third candidate in the fourth district race, received a total of 10.80 percent of the vote.

In the clerk-recorder’s race, Gong’s final tally was 45.78 percent. King received 43.23 percent of the vote.

Other noteworthy races included the district attorney and district 4 supervisor elections. Deputy District Attorney Dan Dow defeated Assistant District Attorney Tim Covello. Dow received a final tally of 53.83 percent, and Covello’s final total was 43.71 percent.

District 4 Supervisor Bruce Gibson won election with 66.04 percent of the vote. Challenger Muril Clift only garnered 33.60 percent.

In addition to the Morro Bay council race, the 24th U.S. Congressional District election remains undecided. Republicans Chris Mitchum and Justin Fareed are currently separated by 612 votes.

Mitchum has received 15.8 percent of the vote, and Fareed has received 15.4 percent, but elections officials have not yet finalized the race. The winner will enter a November runoff with Congresswoman Lois Capps, who received 43.7 percent of the primary vote.


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At this point it doesn’t matter,we are so screwed with the people in there already one more isn’t going to make a difference,watch our down hill slide as we now have useless people in power in MB the BOS,we just can’t seem to get rid of gibson, Arnold is finally starting to speak up and we’ll have hope with Compton,the losers in office in SLO,irons wife and that ilk,but I shouldn’t expect much as there were something like 11,000 votes for that crook lee in this county,can you say uninformed.


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There are errors in this story, which says,


“Headding tallied votes on 49.09 percent of ballots. However, 123 voters left the city council section of their ballots blank. If the blank council ballots are not counted in the Morro Bay race, Makowetski, too, will have received a majority and earned a seat on the council.


Assistant county clerk –recorder Tommy Gong said it is up to the city of Morro Bay to determine if Makowetski received a majority vote. The city has until July 1 to decide, Gong said.


If Morro Bay opts to count the blank council ballots and Makowetski’s tally stays at 49.09 percent, a runoff will ensue between Johnson and Makowetski. Johnson received votes on 36.6 percent of ballots in the primary.”


It should say,


“Headding tallied votes on 49.09 percent of ballots. However, 123 voters left the city council section of their ballots blank. If the blank council ballots are not counted in the Morro Bay race, HEADDING, too, will have received a majority and earned a seat on the council.


Assistant county clerk –recorder Tommy Gong said it is up to the city of Morro Bay to determine if HEADDING received a majority vote. The city has until July 1 to decide, Gong said.


If Morro Bay opts to count the blank council ballots and HEADDING’S tally stays at 49.09 percent, a runoff will ensue between Johnson and HEADDING. Johnson received votes on 36.6 percent of ballots in the primary.”


Makowetski has already been elected.


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Matt is in , no problem, the question is do we have to have a November ‘run off’ , this is so stupid, between Headding and Johnson?


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“District 4 Supervisor Bruce Gibson won election with 66.04 percent of the vote. Challenger Muril Clift only garnered 33.60 percent.”


Although it felt like Gibson, Hill and Mecham were all our District 4 Supervisors and our only hope during the reign of Paul Teixeira, Gibson is actually the District 2 Supervisor and thank the Lord, Caren Ray is currently our District 4 Supervisor.


If you all want someone just like Teixeira just vote for Compton. She has Tex’s old side-kick working with her and has told the public on a number of occasions “If you liked Teixeira you’ll like me.”


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sure could save a lot of time and money if the candidate with the least amount of votes withdrew her name


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You could save even more, if you got rid of the mayor and his comrades.


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Don’t forget, Pelican, there was an election on June 3, and while some people said that they felt were voting for the “lesser of two evils” for mayor, the bottom line is that Irons won quite handily, defeating his opponent by over 500 votes – quite a significant portion of the 3,872 people who voted for a mayoral candidate. Thus, while he is obviously not perfect, a significant majority considers Irons a better bet for Morro Bay than his opposition.


I think it is worth noting that while 1,754 signatures would have been required to get a recall of Irons on the ballot, only 1,666 people voted for Wixom, who was his opposition’s only remaining hope of getting rid of Irons. This seems to indicate that despite all the “the dog ate my homework” excuses made by the would-be recallers, there just were/are not enough anti-Irons people in town to vote him out of office.


Then we have the Council race. Nancy Johnson, a rabidly anti-Irons City Council member, notably got the fewest votes – over 900 fewer than Irons supporter Matt Makowetski.


Bottom line: Despite all the crazy rhetoric and drama from the old boys/girls and their pals, they are out of power and it appears that they are going to stay that way for a long time to come.


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I assume then that you must have felt that Richard Nixon was the correct person for the job in 1972 with his reelection on a 49 state -1 state vote. After all, with that criteria the people spoke overwhelmingly for the person who must have been the right person.


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That’s a rather bizarre assumption, Shocked. If you will re-read my post, you will see that what I said was that your side does not have the votes to get Irons out of office, and that your side is out of power, and is evidently going to stay out for some time to come.


While I don’t consider Irons perfect, he is way better than the alternative, which meant have been a return to the old boy/old girl reign under which a few people ran the City for their own benefit and that of their Embarcadero cronies – while everyone else paid the bill.


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Would someone, anyone, please explain who the “cronies”, “old boy” “old girls” are? Because the Embarcadero has a few prominent names that hold properties does not mean that they are in control. Go back and look at the times they have tried to get things passed that would benefit the embarcadero and you will see that the moves failed. Lets not lose sight of the fact that the embarcadero is what is the main draw for tourists to Morro Bay. They do not come here to walk the streets of downtown or drive out to No Morro Bay.. They start at the Embarcadero and eventually-hopefully work themselves out to other parts of the city. Without the Embarcadero, we would lose a huge amount of the tourism we have now. I assume that you do want to have tourists?


I am always so confused by the “stuff” that people say about the tourists, businesses and business people of MB. I do not believe I have ever seen a place where tourists and the local business people all seem to be held in such contempt. I may change my login from “shocked in MB” to “thoroughly confused in MB”.


By the way, I am not one of “those” property owners on the Embarcadero and I have not gotten my “old boy/old girl” ID card. I keep hoping its in the mail, because I sure am missing a lot.


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Sure. The old boy/girl network in Morro Bay is the faction that ruled the town for many, many years before the current majority took over the Council. They ensured that they and their pals got sweetheart deals at the expense of the rest of the community.


Developers got to build things that didn’t adhere to the General Plan, the Local Coastal Plan, and the zoning. In some cases, the public ended up paying for development-supporting infrastructure for which the developers legally should have paid the bills.


Others violated Embarcadero lease site rules with impunity. One case in point is the violation of the rule that one cannot live on Tidelands Trust lands, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.


A small group of local contractors and consultants got nearly all the contracts issued by the City, and often without any competitive bidding. This cost residents a bundle.


City staff often ignored the law and did work without obtaining necessary permits. The reactivation of the desal plant is a glaring example, but there are many more, including up-sizing of infrastructure without obtaining Coastal Development permits.


Under the old boy/girl rule, City government’s contempt for the law and regulatory agencies was blatant. At one point, they widened the Embarcadero Road extension from 22 to 42 feet – just months after the Coastal Commission clearly stated that they couldn’t widen it at all. Then, of course, there is the infamous attempt to defy the Coastal Commission and build a sewer plant in a flood plain.


There are so many more examples of the arrogance of the old boy/girl network as they ran the town for their advantage and that of their pals. It has cost the rest of Morro Bay’s residents a lot of money that should have been spent for the good of all.


By the way, I did not say that the Embarcadero is not an important tourist attraction. The problem has been SOME Embarcadero merchants and other locals who have actually stated that since they took the time and trouble to build up businesses, they should get special treatment. Such comments have been made in this forum.


That kind of attitude – the idea that they are very important and DESERVE special favors and treatment is the very essence of the old boy/girl network and has been the cause of numerous violations of our laws and of the fleecing of the rest of Morro Bay’s residents.


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Prersidents Cooledge, Harding, and Wilson also won “handily” and like Irons, their legacy is one of question and embarrassment.


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Fascinating


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How about just bow down to King Irons and cancel elections? That would save lots of money.


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