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City Council to get new faces as trio to be sworn in Tuesday night
By Tuesday the Kings County Board of Supervisors will have certified the results of Lemoore’s council election, paving the way for a swearing-in ceremony. Leaving the council are two-term member Billy Siegel and one-termer Lois Wynn, who spent her last two years as the town’s mayor.
Wynn stepped into the position early when Siegel was forced out of the mayor’s job – the first Lemoore mayor ever voted out of office by his fellow councilmembers. It was Neal who asked councilmembers to consider removing the controversial mayor after a series of emails led Neal to believe that Mayor Siegel may be a liability to the city. “Many community members have been hurt and disappointed by the bullying and harassment of the mayor over the past year,” he said at the time.
Neal was the election’s top -vote-getter, garnering 21.95 percent of the vote in a seven-person field. He had 3,165 votes overall, more than 400 votes more than second-place finisher Holly Blair, who held 19.13 percent of the vote and a total of 2,759 votes. Dave Brown took the final open spot on the council with his impressive showing of 15.09 percent and 2,176 votes.
Ray Etchegoin, Joe Simonson, Angela Valenzuela and Beverly Halliman rounded out the remaining candidates.
The top spot went to the soft-spoken Neal, who easily won a second term, easily outdistancing his six other rivals. Neal, who did a lot of walking himself and talking to voters, begins his second term on Tuesday night.
“I think (my victory) had a lot to do with the great people of Lemoore,” he said. “It also had to do with the grace of God. I knocked on a lot of doors and put up a lot of signs. I’m happy that everything worked out.”
Blair credited her work ethic as well and was often on the campaign trail knocking on doors and meeting Lemoore residents. “I went out and spoke to people door by door in the community,” she said, crediting a contingent of volunteers that helped her canvass the city.
“We walked and knocked on doors, one by one by one,” said Blair. We talked to people, and I asked them what do you want to see in your community? And I listened to what they wanted and listened to the suggestions people made, and that was really, I think, a big shift I made from the last time I ran. I spent a lot more time listening to what it was that people in our community were asking for.”
Brown may have had his tenure on the Lemoore Planning Commission to thank for his election. Brown, who steadfastly opposed a Siegel-led effort to shutter the planning department in 2013 – which was successful – opted to resign in protest.
