At the Dec. 3 meeting, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved the recommendation from the Registrar of Voters to appoint new members of several County Special Districts. Among these were three from the Hill – Idyllwild Fire Protection District, Lake Hemet Municipal Water District and the Pine Cove Water District.

Although all three districts could have held elections last month to fill seats of directors whose terms were expiring, the number of candidates was equal to the number of vacancies. Thus, choosing the option of an election would have created an unneeded cost for the districts, so they chose to let the Board make the appointments of the candidates who filed for the seats. Section 10515 of the California Elections Code authorizes the Board of Supervisors to appoint any persons who have filed declarations of candidacy.

Idyllwild Fire Protection District

The terms of two incumbents – Dennis Fogle and Henry Sawicki – expire this week and would need to be filled. The only candidates filing for the election were Fogle and Sawicki, who will continue on the Board.

Fogle was initially appointed to the Board in July 2019 and won election to a four-year term in the November 2020 election. Sawicki is the former President of the Board. He was originally appointed in 2017 and won a four-year term in the 2018 election. However, he was defeated for re-election in the November 2022 vote but re-appointed to the Board in May 2023 and has won election to another four-year term.

Lake Hemet Municipal Water District

The Supervisors approved the appointment of Darrell J. Elam to the District 2 seat and Stephan A. Pastor, current Board Vice President, to the District 5, which includes Garner Valley, seat. Both will serve full terms.

Pine Cove Water District

Two incumbent Directors – Vicki Jakubac and Becky Smith – were reappointed to full four-year terms. Jakubac was appointed to the Board in 2016, won re-election to complete that term and then a full-term in 2020. Smith was appointed to the Board in February to fill the term of former Director Diana Luther who resigned in December 2023. She now has a full four-year term.