Tina Dean
Tina Dean represented Seat 1 on the West Ada School District Board of Trustees in Idaho. She was first elected to the board in May 2013, and she served until she was recalled on May 17, 2016.[1][2]
Dean was targeted for recall along with Zone 3 Trustee Carol Sayles, Zone 4 Trustee Julie Madsen, and Zone 5 Trustee Russell Joki by the group “Concerned Citizens of West Ada School District for Trustee Recall.” Supporters of the recall questioned the board's transparency and how members treated former Superintendent Linda Clark, who resigned from her position on October 23, 2015.[3]
Elections
2016
An effort to recall three members of the West Ada School District Board of Trustees in Idaho was on the ballot on May 17, 2016.[4] Tina Dean, Carol Sayles, and Russell Joki were successfully recalled from their positions as Zone 1, 3, and 5 representatives, respectively.[1] The effort originally targeted four members, but one resigned before the election.[5] Joki also resigned from the board, but his name still appeared on the ballot as the ballots had already been finalized.[6][7] A second effort to recall the fifth member of the board was abandoned in January 2016.[8]
The effort against the four members was launched in November 2015 by a group called Concerned Citizens of West Ada School District for Trustee Recall. They targeted Dean, Sayles, Joki, and Zone 4 member Julie Madsen.[9] Madsen decided to resign from her position rather than face the recall election.[5] Dean, Sayles, and Joki announced that they would face the recall election and let the voters decide.[10] Sayles and Joki filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop the recall election, but the judge ruled against them, allowing the recall to continue to the ballot.[4][11] A week after the court ruling, Joki announced his resignation from the board for personal reasons. Because the ballots had already been sent to absentee voters, his name still appeared on the recall election ballot.[6][7]
A separate group launched an effort against the fifth member of the board, Zone 2 trustee Mike Vuittonet, in November 2015, but it was dropped in January 2016. The group, called Veterans for the Recall of Mike Vuittonet, said the district needed to focus on other things, such as its new leadership under Superintendent Mary Ann Ranells. The group also said they agreed with the Idaho-Press Tribune's editorial that called the recall attempts "misguided."[8][12]
Concerned Citizens of West Ada School District for Trustee Recall questioned the board's transparency and how members treated former Superintendent Linda Clark, who resigned from her position on October 23, 2015.[9] The group that initially targeted Vuittonet also questioned the board's transparency. They accused Vuittonet of violating the Idaho Open Meeting Law. They also objected to Vuittonet's support of the recall movement against other members of the board.[12]
Madsen and Joki were first elected to the board on May 19, 2015. Madsen defeated incumbent Anne Ritter for her seat, and Joki won an open seat against three other challengers. Their resignations meant the newest members of the board were appointed rather than elected. Vuittonet was re-elected to his fifth term on the board in the same election. All three of them were supposed to serve until 2019, but only Vuittonet remained on the board as of April 2016. Dean and Sayles were elected in 2013. Their terms would have expired in 2017 if they had not been recalled.[6][13][14][15]
Results
| Tina Dean, Zone 1 Board Member, West Ada School District | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
 Recall | 1849 | 62.17% | ||
| Retain | 1125 | 37.83% | ||
| Election results via: Ada County, "Official Primary Election Results," accessed June 1, 2016 | ||||
2013
| West Ada School District, Zone 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan |  Tina Dean |
36.9% | 185 | |
| Nonpartisan | T. Shane Bell | 36.1% | 181 | |
| Nonpartisan | Ed Klopfenstein | 27.1% | 136 | |
| Total Votes | 502 | |||
| Source: Ada County, "Ada County, Idaho Consolidated Election Results May 2013," accessed April 28, 2015 | ||||
Campaign themes
2016
Dean responded to the recall effort against her by providing the following statement to the Meridian Press:[16]
| “ | The thing that greatly concerns me is that their decision to do (support a recall) seems to be based on our acknowledgment that we are not above the law, that we did something incorrect and we need to change it. Number two, trying to recall four-fifths of a board is extremely dangerous to the school district. … I don't know the requirements that the Ada County Clerk has in place, but if that many members of the board would be displaced, there would be no quorum.
I don't think anything I did warrants a recall. I understand they didn't agree with our decision, but our responsibility as elected officials is to make decisions, and you're never going to please everybody. In this case, the only other decision that I could have made would be to vote no, that I don't believe we violated the open meeting law, (and) that clearly wasn't the case. I find it very interesting that the only person who refused to comply with the law is the one they chose to not start a recall drive on.[17] |
” |
| —Zone 1 Trustee Tina Dean (2015)[16] | ||
After announcing she would face the recall rather than resign, Dean said, "There are a lot of very caring, very skilled people in this valley, so whether I'm on the board or not this district will be in good hands."[10]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Tina Dean ”West Ada School District” recall. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ada County Clerk's Office, "May 2016 Primary: Unofficial Results," accessed May 18, 2016
- ↑ Ada County, "Ada County, Idaho Consolidated Election Results May 2013," accessed April 28, 2015
- ↑ Idaho Statesman, "Group takes first step to recall four West Ada School District trustees," November 5, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Idaho Statesman, "Judge rules against blocking West Ada recall," March 28, 2016
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Idaho Statesman, "West Ada school board rushes to fill trustee Madsen’s seat after resignation," February 19, 2016
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Idaho Statesman, "West Ada Trustee Russ Joki resigns from school board," April 5, 2016
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Idaho Statesman, "West Ada recall: Shake-ups on school board before election, so what’s next?" April 6, 2016
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Meridian Press, "Recall group drops efforts against West Ada Trustee Mike Vuittonet," January 22, 2016
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Idaho Statesman, "Group takes first step to recall four West Ada School District trustees," November 5, 2015
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 KBOI, "West Ada trustees stand to fight recalls," February 24, 2016
- ↑ Idaho Statesman, "4 West Ada trustees face choice: resign or stand for recall," February 12, 2016
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 KIVI-TV ABC 6, "Group files for recall of West Ada School Board member," November 9, 2015
- ↑ Ada County, Idaho, "May 19, 2015 Consolidated Election," accessed May 27, 2015
- ↑ West Ada School District, "Board of Trustees," accessed December 27, 2014
- ↑ Idaho Statesman, "Campaign to recall four West Ada school board members begins," September 30, 2015
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Meridian Press, "Former West Ada leaders seek to recall most of school board," October 2, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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