Linda Santos recall, Oakdale Irrigation District, California (2016)

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Oakdale Irrigation District Board recall
Officeholders
Linda Santos
Recall status
Recall defeated
Recall election date
April 25, 2017
See also
Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2017 Recalls in California California recall laws Special district recalls Recall reports

An effort to recall Linda Santos from her position on the Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) board in Stanislaus County, California, was launched in August 2016. The recall was defeated.

Deanne Dalrymple served Santos a notice of an intention to circulate a recall petition during the OID board meeting on August 17, 2016. Dalrymple read the grounds for the petition out loud at the meeting, accusing Santos of putting the interests of her friends, campaign contributors, and special interests above the interests of the people that she represents.

Recall vote

The special recall election was on April 25, 2017. One candidate—Nate Ludlow—ran to replace Santos.

Recall Linda Santos Question
Result		Votes	Percentage
Recall		270	46.08%
Retain		316	53.92%
Election results via: Stanislas County Registrar of Voters

To Succeed Linda Santos
Result		Votes	Percentage
Nate Ludlow		278	90.26%
Write-in		30	9.74%
Election results via: Stanislas County Registrar of Voters

Background

In June 2016, the OID filed a lawsuit against Santos and another board member, Gail Altieri, claiming that they had persuaded a judge to put the OID fallowing program on hold. Court documents also say Santos had a conflict of interest because she leases land to a farmer that was challenging the fallowing program.

Recall supporters

Recall supporters said that Santos favored special interests when she voted against the OID’s farm conservation program. They also said that Santos should have recused herself in any matter involving her tenant, who lives outside the district. "Any director with an ounce of integrity would recuse herself in any litigation involving her own tenant and the district she serves," said Dalrymple.

Robert Frobose, a supporter of Santos, and Gail Altieri filed a report with the Oakdale Police Department which accuses petitioners of misleading people in order to get them to sign the recall petitions. Frobose said he heard secondhand that petitioners said that "the petition was to prevent water from being shipped from northern California to southern California." The police department concluded that they were unable to charge anyone with an election violation because a specific suspect could not be verified

Recall opponents

Reponse from Santos

Santos said that the recall effort was composed of "outright lies, malicious rumors and unfounded accusations." She said the rest of the board was angry that she wanted to conduct environmental studies on the fallowing program and that she was "not willing to just blindly go along." In her statement, she said, "Why not spend money on an EIR (environmental impact report) so we know if we’re doing something we shouldn’t and we can fix it? Then we’d at least have something to show for our money, instead of spending it to fight against doing the EIR."

The Modesto Bee editorial

The Modesto Bee's editorial board published an editorial on November 10, 2016, titled "OID recall is unfair, should be voided." Below is an excerpt from the article:

“	First, Santos is accused of no wrongdoing except in the most gauzy of terms. Her critics say she favored unnamed “friends, campaign contributors and special interests.” Favored how or with what? Her actual “offense” has been refusing to give OID General Manager Steve Knell a blank check for his water-sale schemes. That has angered Knell and those who would benefit from his plans – some of which are admittedly beneficial, but all of which need to be vetted and approved by his bosses on the board.	”
—The Modesto Bee editorial board

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing recall in California

Recall proponents needed to collect 390 valid signatures (25 percent of voters) in order to have the recall put on the ballot. Petitioners turned in the signatures to the Stanislaus County clerk-recorder’s office on November 10, 2016. Dalrymple said that they turned in 660 signatures. The clerk-recorder's office had until December 28, 2016, to certify the signatures. The office finished verifying 628 signatures on December 14, 2016—enough to prompt a recall election. The special recall election was scheduled for April 25, 2017.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Oakdale Irrigation District recalls. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Linda Santos recall, Oakdale Irrigation District, California (2016) - Google News

See also

Suggest a link

• Recall campaigns in California
• Political recall efforts, 2016
• Special district recalls

External links

• Oakdale Irrigation District website