Sanford in runoff for LAFCO special districts alternate

Rainbow Municipal Water District board member Dennis Sanford is in the runoff election for the alternate special district member seat on San Diego County's Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO).

Four special district board members sought the four-year term as the special districts alternate, but none received the necessary majority and a runoff between the two candidates with the most votes is now taking place. Judy Hanson of the Leucadia Wastewater District received 15 votes while Sanford received nine votes to qualify for the runoff election. Mark Robak of the Otay Water District received five votes and Joel Scalzitti of the Helix Water District had four votes.

The LAFCO board consists of two County Supervisors (currently Dianne Jacob and Bill Horn), one City Council representative from San Diego (currently Lorie Zapf), two city Council members from the county's other 17 incorporated cites (currently Sam Abed of Escondido and Lorraine Wood of Carlsbad), two members from special districts (currently Jo MacKenzie of the Vista Irrigation District and Ed Sprague of the Olivenhain Municipal Water District), and one public member (currently Bonsall resident and former North County Fire Protection District fire chief Andy Vanderlaan).

The city council members from outside of the City of San Diego are selected by each city council voting for candidates while the special district members are selected by votes from each independent special district (an independent special district's voters elect the district's directors; a special district's board is comprised of the Board of Supervisors or another governing body although dependent special districts often have local advisory committees).

Sprague, who had been the North County Fire Protection District's deputy fire chief before his retirement last year, had been the special district alternate member prior to seeking a regular special district member seat which was open due to the retirement of a previous LAFCO commissioner. Sprague ran against Mission Resource Conservation District member George McManigle and received 31 votes while McManigle had two votes. Sprague's term will expire in May 2019.

"I appreciate the opportunity to serve," Sprague said.

The special districts have until June 3 to submit their choice of Sanford or Hansen to LAFCO.

"I'm just looking forward to getting more involved in LAFCO," Sanford said.

LAFCO handles jurisdictional boundary changes including incorporations, annexations, consolidations, and detachments. In September 2015 LAFCO rejected a proposed merger between the Rainbow Municipal Water District and the Fallbrook Public Utility District, which was supported by the FPUD board but opposed by the Rainbow board.

"Having had the experience of going through the process regarding FPUD and Rainbow, it made me more aware of the role of LAFCO and how important it is," Sanford said.

"I think it's important to have North County represented and special districts represented," said Sanford. "Given the projected growth in North County I think it's very important for North County, if possible, to be represented on LAFCO and kind of stay in touch with what's going on."

Sanford, who was raised on a dairy farm in upstate New York and lived in Colorado before moving to California in 1984, moved from San Juan Capistrano to Rainbow nine years ago. He was appointed to the Rainbow Community Planning Group in February 2010 and held that seat until resigning in March 2016.

In early 2011, Sanford was appointed to the Rainbow Municipal Water District board seat vacated when Paul Georgantas moved out of the district for employment reasons. Also that year, Sanford replaced Georgantas as chair of the Rainbow Community Planning Group. Gerald Walson had been Rainbow's representative on the San Diego County Water Authority board but passed away in February 2012, and Sanford became Rainbow's SDCWA representative the following month.

Sanford had been the vice-president of the Rainbow Municipal Water District board in 2014 when McManigle was the board president. McManigle was defeated in his re-election attempt in November 2014, and Sanford took over as the Rainbow board president while turning over Rainbow's seat on the SDCWA board to district general manager Tom Kennedy in January 2015.