Nearly 55 percent of Vashon’s more than 8,300 registered voters cast ballots in last week’s election, unseating two incumbents and sending several islanders to seats on community boards, where they will be sworn in this December and January.
The election will not be certified until Nov. 24, and results are not considered final until then.
Vashon Island School District
At the Vashon Island School District, current school board chair Laura Wishik is losing her race against Toby Holmes. As of Monday, there were nearly 500 votes that still need to be counted, but Wishik said that she believed there was only a “slim, slim chance” that she could win. At press time, Wishik, an attorney who has been a strong presence on the board throughout her two terms, had garnered 1,654 votes — 49 percent compared to Holmes’ 51 percent with 1,750 votes.
Looking to take his seat next month, Holmes, who does business development and marketing for a software company, said the biggest challenge facing the district right now is the Phase 2 bond, which the current school board is launching, but the new board will carry forward, as new members will be seated Dec. 10, and the election is in February.
“We need to support that and communicate well with the community,” he added.
Beyond the bond, he said it will take some time to ramp up and understand what issues have been under the radar at the district. He also hopes to focus on what he calls “resisting the culture of standardization” in testing and beyond.
“We should protect the idea that students are in school to learn, become engaged and good citizens,” he said.
Holmes noted that when he filed to run, he did not target Wishik, but chose her seat because it would enable him to serve with current and potential board members he wanted to work with.
“I have tremendous respect for her high level of dedication,” he said.
Reached over the weekend, Wishik said she will take some time to determine where she will focus her energy next. She may stay involved in the school district in some capacity, possibly working on forming parent partnerships at the younger grades and improving how the district works with students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
In other school board contests, Zabette Macomber won for Position 3 with 62 percent and 2,142 votes. She defeated Jake Jacobovitch, who had 1,303 votes on Monday.
Macomber, a former teacher currently on the board of the Vashon Schools Foundation and the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust, said last week she has been attending school board meetings regularly since this summer and will continue to do so until she is seated.
“There is not a lot of lead time,” she said. “You have to got to hit the road running. .. It is not like I am going on vacation right now.”
Like Holmes, she pointed to the February election as of being primary importance, as it will include the bond and the capital and technology levy.
Beyond the election, she said there are several areas she would like to work on, including making sure the school is serving the expanding Latina population and evaluating testing in the schools to determine what is necessary and what is not.
“What we need to do is continuously ask ourselves, ‘What are we doing well? What can we do better? Who we are serving and who are we not serving?” she added.
In Position 1, incumbent Dan Chasan will keep his seat and begin his third term after garnering 60 percent and 2,056 votes. He defeated John “Oz” Osbourne, who had 1,371 votes.
Chasan, a writer, lawyer and longtime islander, said he will focus on the priorities he discussed during the campaign, including resisting the pressure for more testing and standardization.
“That is a less and less controversial idea, but I think it is important to keep following through on that,” he said.
Also, he said, the district needs to continue to have the conversation about how it asks for money and how it spends it once it gets it.
Vashon Island Fire & Rescue
The Vashon Island Fire & Rescue board commissioner race was the most decisive of all the races, as Brigitte Brown, a longtime emergency medical technician (EMT) with VIFR garnered 81 percent of the vote. With 2,706 votes, she defeated Tamalyn Nigretto, a battalion chief with the Seattle Fire Department, who received 639 votes.
Reached last week, Brown said her priority for the first year of her six-year term will be to listen and learn and become part of the commissioner team. Several tough issues are ahead, she noted, including dealing with an “arcane” tax system, budgetary needs with no funds to match, improved disaster planning and increased volunteer recruitment. Additionally, she said the commissioners will have to reach out to the Strategic Planning Oversight Team and map out the next few years for the district, which is expected to part with its paramedics next year, when they become absorbed in the South King County Medic One System.
“I do not profess to have all the answers,” she said. “Hopefully we will all work together to make those answers happen.”
Saying she was “delighted and humbled” by the community support she received, she thanked Nigretto for her willingness to serve and encouraged islanders to attend fire commission meetings, speak up on issues and get involved.
“It is a community process,” she added.
Currently, Brown is one of the most active volunteers at the department, typically working one shift a week and responding to additional calls when needed. By law, she is allowed to continue in her volunteer EMT role, but current board policy does not allow it, so she will relinquish it.
“I will step back come January, but the lack of on-island volunteers is something we need to address,” she said.
Brown will fill the seat vacated by Rex Stratton, who will soon be moving off the island.
Current fire commissioner David Hoffmann ran uncontested for his seat, which he has held since 2006. As of Monday, he had 2,178 votes; there were also 51 write-in votes for his seat, the highest of any of the Vashon races.
Vashon Park District
At the Vashon Park District, Karen Gardner has won in Position 1, with 60 percent and 1,982 votes, defeating Rick Skillman, a retired hospital CEO, who received 1,333 votes.
Gardner, a retired computer scientist with an additional degree in horticulture, says she will use the time between now and January to learn about the park district in a more in-depth way.
“At the moment, my main interest is making a realistic appraisal of where we are with everything, from maintenance to the fields,” she said last week.
She noted that she wants to learn more about the district’s accounting system, with the goal of ensuring that generally accepted accounting practices are in place, and create a more transparent financial picture.
In Position 3, Bob McMahon, with 54 percent and 1,751 votes, defeated Josh Weil, who received 1,465 votes.
McMahon, who is retired from a 40-year career in shipyard management, said he too will use this interim period to learn more about the park district, its many facilities and the rules governing commissioners.
Among his priorities once he is in office, he said, is working on developing a strategic plan for the district — a process that will likely get underway in the middle of next year.
“If we really put a lot of thought into a comprehensive plan, then we have to follow it,” he said. “We can’t just be doing things without bouncing them against what we want the parks to be five to 10 years down the road.”
In the three-way race for Position 5, Scott Harvey, with 54 percent and 1,885 votes, defeated Peter Ray, who had 1,090 votes, and Bill Ameling, who served as a park district commissioner for 30 years, received 537 votes.
Harvey, a banker who has served on the board since 2013, said he had been concerned that the three-way race would split the vote, causing him to campaign vigorously to retain his seat.
He will continue to focus on the priorities he campaigned on, he said, most notably fiscal responsibility: ensuring the district does not start any project until it knows the full cost and has the money in hand to complete it, building up a financial reserve and maintaining district facilities before it builds new ones.
Several other islanders were elected in uncontested races, including Bob Powell at Water District 19, Lisa Devereau for the King County Cemetery District and Don Joy at the Vashon Sewer District. Three islanders were elected to serve on the board of the King County Airport District: Kaye Pierson, Will Gerrior and Bob Therkelson.
King County Elections will continue to update results until the election is certified later this month.
