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Dueling Fort Ord ballot measures lose
Published: November 8, 2013
DESPITE BIG contributions that poured into the campaigns for competing Fort Ord ballot measures, voters decided neither was good for the former military base and rejected both at the polls Tuesday.
Measure M, which would have prevented development of about 540 acres in the Parker Flats area of Fort Ord, received 16,622 Yes votes (47 percent) to 18,742 No votes (53 percent).
Measure K, which called for some development including the
proposed Monterey Downs, the project that called for a horserace
track, more than 1,000 homes, a hotel and tennis and swim
facilities, got 13,485 Yes votes (38.12 percent) to 21,887 No
votes (61.88 percent).
Measure M collected more than $250,000 in campaign
contributions since Jan. 1 while Measure K supporters garnered
about $220,000 — most of which was donated by the backers of
Monterey Downs in September and October.
There were still about 8,000 ballots to be counted, the
registrar of voters said, but the margin of defeat for both
measures makes it extremely unlikely the results will change,
which means existing laws and agreements about the use of the
disputed Fort Ord land remain unchanged, which leaves its future
in the hands of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors and
other agencies.
Measure G fails
In Pacific Grove, residents failed to pass Measure G, the
Pacific Grove Unified School District-backed proposal that asked
taxpayers to pay about $30 per every $100,000 of their assessed
home value for tech devices and programs for the district’s
schools.
But the measure, which had the support of the Monterey
Peninsula Taxpayers Association, fell short of the 55 percent it
needed to pass, receiving 2,030 Yes votes (51.51 percent) to
1,911 No votes (48.49 percent).
Backers had said the funds would have been collected for 20
years in a series of short-term, low-interest bonds and would
generate about $27.8 million for the district to purchase
computers, electronic tablets — such as iPads — update security
cameras, and implement statewide technology requirements for
testing and learning.
Water district elections
There was an odd twist in the results of the race for the seat
on the board of directors of the Monterey Peninsula Water
Management District for District 2, an area that includes Del
Rey Oaks.
Voters unseated incumbent Judi Lehman, giving their support to
challenger Bill Thayer, who received 1,087 votes (55.09 percent)
to Lehman’s 886 votes (44.91 percent). There were still some
mail-in ballots to be counted.
In September, Thayer announced he was exiting the race even
though it was too late to officially drop out per Monterey
County elections office rules. Still, after Tuesday’s election
night, Thayer said he would accept the seat on the water board.
“Yes, I am going to take the oath,” Thayer, the CEO of William
Thayer Construction, told The Pine Cone. “The voters have spoken
and they deserve to have new leadership, new representation.”
Voters in District 1 of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management
District, which includes Seaside, reelected Brenda Lewis to the
board. Lewis received 982 votes, or 55.36 percent of the vote
compared to challenger Dean Provence’s 792 votes, or 44.64
percent.