Crowded Field for Midway Sanitary
Posted by: Tomahawk | 08/07/2008 6:38 PM
Most people outside the Westminster area probably have never heard of the Midway City Sanitary District, a special district responsible for refuse collection and sewage. Like most special districts in Orange County, MCSD is govern by a 5-member board of directors: Joy Neugebauer, Margie Rice, Grace Epperson, Al Krippner, and Truong Diep.
Neugebauer (pictured right) and Krippner are up for re-election this year. For those under the age of 40, Joy Neugebauer was once the Mayor of Westminster and Al Krippner is also currently a Planning Commissioner for the city.
Now to the challengers, and there are quite a few of them this year: Frank Cobo, owner of a small janitorial business; Vivian Kirkpatrick-Pilger, a managerial employee at UCI, and Joseph Dovinh, an editor for a Vietnamese language weekly magazine.
For a challenger, Cobo is probably the most formidable out of the three because he is supported by Mayor Margie Rice, Councilman Tri Ta and Senator Lou Correa. His only weakness is probably the ability or lack thereof to raise enough money to mount a direct attack on either of the incumbents. In my estimate, Frank Cobo will need to raise at least $20,000 to have a decent shot of unseating Neugebauer or Krippner.
As for Joseph Dovinh, he's certainly a surprise because no one expected him to pull paper for public office this year. Aside from his work with the weekly magazine, Dovinh is also a certified court interpreter. Getting the necessary resources to run an effective campaign will be his problem, unless he can personally bankroll it.
Last but not least is Vivian Kirkpatrick-Pilger. She served briefly on the Midway City Sanitary District from '04-'06. During the past year and a half, Vivian is staying active in the Westminster community by serving on the Rose Center Foundation Board of Directors and several city commissions. I guess Vivian still has that political bug in her and will make another attempt at public office. Vivian has the personal means to throw in $10,000 to $15,000 of her own money.
I heard that another political figure is also considering pulling paper tomorrow so stay tuned...
Neugebauer (pictured right) and Krippner are up for re-election this year. For those under the age of 40, Joy Neugebauer was once the Mayor of Westminster and Al Krippner is also currently a Planning Commissioner for the city.Now to the challengers, and there are quite a few of them this year: Frank Cobo, owner of a small janitorial business; Vivian Kirkpatrick-Pilger, a managerial employee at UCI, and Joseph Dovinh, an editor for a Vietnamese language weekly magazine.
For a challenger, Cobo is probably the most formidable out of the three because he is supported by Mayor Margie Rice, Councilman Tri Ta and Senator Lou Correa. His only weakness is probably the ability or lack thereof to raise enough money to mount a direct attack on either of the incumbents. In my estimate, Frank Cobo will need to raise at least $20,000 to have a decent shot of unseating Neugebauer or Krippner.
As for Joseph Dovinh, he's certainly a surprise because no one expected him to pull paper for public office this year. Aside from his work with the weekly magazine, Dovinh is also a certified court interpreter. Getting the necessary resources to run an effective campaign will be his problem, unless he can personally bankroll it.
Last but not least is Vivian Kirkpatrick-Pilger. She served briefly on the Midway City Sanitary District from '04-'06. During the past year and a half, Vivian is staying active in the Westminster community by serving on the Rose Center Foundation Board of Directors and several city commissions. I guess Vivian still has that political bug in her and will make another attempt at public office. Vivian has the personal means to throw in $10,000 to $15,000 of her own money.
I heard that another political figure is also considering pulling paper tomorrow so stay tuned...
CATEGORY:
Politics Behind the Orange Curtain
Mr. Ayer registered as a Republican to be electable in an interim election with no incumbents. He did...
Seriously, when you have to open the post by explaining what the Midway City Sanitary District is, you should question the relevance of the post to begin with.
Thanks for the plug Tomahawk! But I think I'm pretty "formidable" too. We'll see how it all works out. But there should be a gentleman's and gentlewoman's agreement that there are no "direct attacks" on people. It's just so unprofessional....
Vivian
I thought the post was very tame, really didn't criticize anyone.
No Tom you didn't, thank you, but in your comments about Frank you said "His only weakness is probably the ability or lack thereof to raise enough money to mount a direct attack on either of the incumbents" ...and the word "attack" kind of raised the goose bumps on the back of my neck (or in other words, my hackles). I'm hoping for a very good campaign where those running concentrate on the qualities that they can bring to MCSD, and are not hanging out on late night radio, or in local papers spend time hacking up their opponents.
Vivian, will you be running for City Council now that there is an open seat?
You can't do any better than Joy Neugebauer.
Well, that's your opinion. When Vivian Kirkpatrick-Pilger was on there, she at least did a little planning. Apparently previous board members (including some current board members) had not bothered to look at anything long term. For over 50 years no one bothered to find out when those pumping units needed to be replaced. Disasters cannot always be predicted but they can be avoided with careful planning. When Kirkpatrick-Pilger was on that board she at least asked the right questions about "when" they needed to be replaced; "when" the district had to meet mandates with their trash trucks on emissions and types of fuel that was going to be required in the future. One forsight saved the taxpayers a bundle. All those trash cans you see stacked up in their corporate yard? if you bought them today you'd pay a lot more because the price of petroleum products has increased so much in the last couple of years. Those trash cans are made with petroleum products.
I just wondered where the other board members were and what they were thinking when those pumping stations were over 50 years old, didn't they think they'd ever need to be replaced? Didn't that public agency do any forward planning? To find out the pumping stations had outlived their "natural life" of 25 years and needed to be replaced was quite a shocker since they cost a couple of million per station to replace and the District didn't have that kind of money.
I think it is a politicians responsibility to prevent disasters and to plan ahead, far ahead, to keep the people safe.
I'm glad she's running again, my vote goes to Vivian Kirkpatrick-Pilger this year. Only her.