Hager is winner in a tight race
It wasn’t exactly the coin toss Robert Krysak experienced to gain his seat on the Ramona water board in 1992, but Division 5 Director Everett “Red” Hager Jr. admitted to being “a little anxious” as he watched unofficial vote counts come in after the Nov. 4 election.
“I’m glad it’s over,” he said on Monday.
Hager, a retired electrical engineer first elected to the five-member Ramona Municipal Water District Board in 2004, beat challenger Patricia Boetcher by 2 votes.
The official tally released by the San Diego County Registrar of Voters: Hager, 1,501 votes, or 50.03 percent; and Boetcher,1,499, or 49.97 percent of the votes cast.
Hager said he is looking forward to his second four-year term on the board and is particularly interested in seeing San Diego Country Estates get more recycled water, so less potable, or drinking, water is used for irrigation.
The only negative is he will not be serving with Division 2 Director Doug Wilsman, who resigned on Monday for health reasons, Hager said, complimenting Wilsman’s knowledge of and dedication to the district.
The close Division 5 election served as a reminder of how each vote matters. Krysak joked about being the “two-bit director” after the quarter that was flipped in the air Dec. 8, 1992, landed “heads,” putting him in the director’s seat.
“My mother didn’t vote in the election,” Krysak told the Sentinel before the coin toss. “If I end up losing, I won’t have to look too far for someone to blame.”
Krysak, a board member for 14 years, lost his bid for re-election to Bryan Wadlington in last month’s election and, as board president, will conduct the meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 23. The board is scheduled to discuss the direction it will take to fill the Division 2 vacancy left by Wilsman’s resignation.
Division 1 Director Kit Kesinger’s term also ends this month. He lost his bid for re-election in the November election to Darrell Beck.
Beck and Wadlington will join Hager and Division 4 Director James Robinson on the water board in January.