The Santa Maria Public Airport District is a bit closer to filling a vacancy on the Board of Directors, but board members will still need more time to narrow down their pick from six viable candidates.
At the July 14 board meeting, the four directors held a vote on who would fill the seat. The vote ended in a 2-2 tie between two of the candidates. Two other candidates had previously informed the board they wouldn’t be able to attend the meeting. The board members put off selecting a director until each candidate has had a chance to address the board, president Hugh Rafferty told the Sun. That will likely occur at the next meeting on
July 28.
The board deadlocked over two of the candidates: Girard Brenneman and Donald Lahr.
Brenneman owns a Santa Maria dentistry office and is a pilot and aviation enthusiast with more than 38 years of flying experience. This isn’t his first attempt to fill a seat on the board. He’s campaigned for the position twice, most recently in the November 2010 election, in which he finished third behind current director Chuck Damiano and the now deceased Ted Eckert.
Lahr, owner of Santa Maria-based Lahr Industrial Welding since 1982, previously served on the district Board of Directors for one term in 2004, notably helping lead the search and recruitment for current General Manager Chris Hastert. Lahr has also served on the board of directors for the Santa Maria Economic Development Association.
Other candidates for the board include Timothy Larsen, Denis Breslin, Ken Dally, and Richard Jensen.
Larsen, a Santa Maria-based Realtor, has served on the Santa Maria Landmark Committee since February 2010. He holds two bachelor’s degrees—in business administration and history—from the University of San Diego.
Breslin has served as a satellite operator with the California Air National Guard since June 2005, and as an orbital analyst for NASA since May 2007, both out of Vandenberg Air Force Base. Breslin, a private pilot with nine years of flying experience, is also a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Dally has also been a private pilot for more than 30 years. He’s also owned 11 small retail businesses over the past 20 years. Prior to his move to the Central Coast, Dally served on the city council, the Wastewater Management Board, and as chairman of the Chamber of Commerce in Big Bear Lake.
Jensen, a private pilot and instructor for more than 40 years, is currently employed as a computer technician with the Orcutt Union School District, and has been since 2004. Jensen has also been a safety counselor with the Federal Aviation Administration since 1990.
In appointing a candidate, the board members have three choices: They can appoint a candidate themselves, hold an election, or take no action, in which case the county would take over the process. But that’s an option the board—and likely the county—would rather avoid.
“If we could get that seat filled ourselves, yes, that’s how we’d like to handle it,” Rafferty said, adding the board will give it another shot on July 28. “It’ll likely be a long meeting, but hopefully logic will prevail somewhere down the line and we’ll get someone appointed.”
The six candidates applied to fill the vacancy left on the board by the passing of longtime director Eckert on June 7, following a prolonged illness. A retired U.S. Air Force colonel, Eckert later joined the airport district board, on which he would serve for more than two decades. He was most recently re-elected to the board in November 2010. He was 75 years old when he died.
This article appears in Jul 21-28, 2011.