All local measures appearing on Stanislaus County ballots were passed by voters, except for one: the City of Turlock’s Measure C — the Transient Occupancy Tax, more commonly referred to as the hotel tax.
Voters throughout the county passed 16 different measures — 15 of which received more than 55 percent of the vote — to improve local schools, bolster fire protection districts, and implement a county cannabis tax. But Turlock voters said no to an increase from 9 percent to as much as 14 percent on the TOT.
And it wasn’t even close.
Nearly 10,300 voters have opposed the measure, while about 6,300 are in favor it.
“We didn’t campaign for it, legally, and the hotel groups were ambivalent about it,” said city manager Reagan Wilson, who returned to his post on Monday after being out on medical leave since August. “I think the public looked at it as just another tax and said no, not recognizing that it didn’t affect them directly.”
In other Turlock races, incumbent District 2 city councilmember Rebecka Monez leads challenger Milt Trieweiler by just 57 votes — 1,307 to 1,250.
As of Thursday night, the county still needed to process more than 64,000 mail-in ballots, but it’s impossible to tell how many of those envelopes contain city of Turlock ballots.
“We can’t tell how many we have from each area because we don’t separate them (by area) until they’re ready to be counted,” said Donna Linder, the county’s Registrar of Voters.
Linder pointed out that that there are 7,640 registered voters in District 2, and only 2,900 votes from the district have been accounted for, with county turnout trending around 67 percent,
“It’s possible there could be 2,000 votes still to count from that area,” said Linder, whose office won’t resume counting until after Monday’s Veterans Day holiday. “You never, ever know.”
Meanwhile, political newcomer Erika Phillips, a local businesswoman, was comfortably ahead of county public health worker Kamlesh Kaur by about 1,200 votes in the contest for District 4’s open seat.
In the race for city treasurer, Michael Abram, husband of District 3 councilmember Cassandra Abram, also had a sizable cushion against his opponent — outgoing District 4 councilmember Pam Franco. Abram had amassed 8,822 votes (56.8 percent), while Franco had 6,716 votes (43.2).
Three Turlock Unified School Board seats were up this election cycle.
The Area 3 race is tight, with challenger Anna Ramirez holding a slim 133-vote lead over incumbent Paola Maldonado-Padilla.
In Area 5, Debbie Martinez has built a lead of 991-782 over incumbent Daniel Benedict.
And in Area 6, challenger Patrick Shields, a member of the Community Development Block Grant selection committee, as well as the Measure A citizen’s oversight committee, has a comfortable lead over incumbent Joe A. Souza. Shields has 1,256 votes (53.7 percent), while Souza has 1,083 votes (46.3).
In Turlock Irrigation District’s Division 1 race, incumbent Michael Frantz is winning in a landslide over TUSD board member Mary Jackson, with 77.63 percent of the vote.
In other races around the region:
Denair Unified School District Board (top three) — Andrea Bennet is the top vote recipient, with nearly 30 percent of the vote, while Ray Prock is in second place with 20.28 percent of the vote. However, Prock is 33 votes ahead of Jason Christopher De Muro, who has garnered 19.51 percent.
Hughson City Council (top two) — Alan McFadon is comfortably in the lead with 790 votes (28.87 percent), while Sam T. Rush and Susana Vasquez are battling for the second seat. Rush has 651 votes, just 23 more than Vasquez.
Hughson Unified School District Measure B — Yes: 2,116 (59 percent) … No: 1,469 (41 percent).
Denair Unified School District Measure Z — Yes: 1,623 (61.7) … No: 1,008 (38.3).
Keyes Union School District Measure U — Yes: 836 (70.8) … No: 345 (29.2).
Keyes Fire Protection District Measure H — Yes: 1,141 (74.3) … No: 394 (25.7).
Stanislaus County Measure P — Yes: 79,493 (67.5) … No: 38,304 (32.5).
