Candidates Line Up for November Election

With the filing period for the Nov. 2 election closed, the candidates for two contentious countywide boards, as well as an election in which all five Strawberry Recreation District incumbents will run unopposed, are set.

Here are the candidates for each race pertaining to residents of Mill Valley and its surrounding unincorporated areas:

Marin Municipal Water District board: 

Four of the board's five seats are up for election, but only one applies to Mill Valley, as the board divides its seats up geographically.

In addition to those seats, two similar but competing ballot measures will ask voters to decide of they should have a vote on the district's desalination efforts. The measures do so to different degrees, with the Marin Water Coalition's measure preventing the district from continuing to explore the issue of desalination until voters have a say. The district's own measure simply asks voters if they want the right to vote on desalination but does not prohibit continued analysis of the issue.

Cynthia Koehler - Incumbent. Her District IV includes Mill Valley, Alto, Homestead Valley and a portion of Tam Valley, is up for election.

Sashi McEntee - The Mill Valley resident is the former chair of the Marin Republican Party and a vocal proponent of the public's right to vote on desalination. McEntee was tossed out of her party chair slot late last month in a decisive vote by the party's central committee following a disagreement over an opinion column she wrote for the Marin Independent Journal.

Larry Rose - The Mill Valley resident was a senior public health officer in Cal-OSHA for 28 years. Rose is a member of the Marin Water Coalition, which opposes the district's desalination plans. The coalition is behind the Marin Responsible Water Policy initiative.

Marin Healthcare District board:

The district does not divide its seats up geographically. In late June, the district terminated Sutter Health as the operator of Marin General Hospital. The move ended the hospital's tumultuous, 5-year relationship with Sutter.

Larry Bedard - Incumbent Board Chairman. Bedard, an emergency room doctor for more than 30 years, said he anticipates a smooth transition and looks forward to taking to the voters a bond measure needed to finance construction of a new, earthquake-safe hospital building.

Jennifer Reinks - Incumbent. Since 1996, Reinks has worked for the Family Health Outcomes Project at University of California San Francisco.

Jamie Clever - Incumbent. Clever was a primary care doctor in San Francisco for 35 years, and taught medicine at UCSF School of Medicine for more than 30 years.

Joseph Salama - San Rafael attorney and mediator.

Lori Sue Wood - Former district secretary who ran unsuccessfully for the board in 2006.

Strawberry Recreation District board:

For the independent agency responsible for maintaining the community center, athletic facilities and parks of Strawberry, all five incumbents are seeking re-election and running unopposed. The only slight change is that Kelly Reade, who served a two-year short term, is running for a full four-year term, while full-term incumbent Julie Zener is running for a short term.

Jennifer Klopfer

Jeff Francis

Julie Zener

Kelly Reade

Peter Teese