A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge has added a Morgan Hill school trustee candidate to the November ballot, upholding an appeal by the candidate, Vanessa Sutter, who argued she had been given wrong information about the filing deadline by a county elections clerk.
The Aug 23 ruling by Judge Theodore Zayner means voters in Trustee Area 5, in Morgan Hill, will have a choice on Nov. 6 between Sutter, a Morgan Hill parent and political newcomer, and Angelica Diaz, who ran unsuccessfully for the seat in 2016.
The trustee race will be one of the four contested trustee seats on the seven-member Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Education. The fifth seat went uncontested and candidate Heather Orosco will be appointed.
Sutter “missed the filing deadline and asked the court to allow her to file late, and on Thursday (Aug. 23) the court said ‘OK,’” said Eric Kurhi, communications specialist with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. “It’s not an unusual occurrence and there is a provision for it in the California Elections Code.”
Sutter’s first venture into politics has been a rollercoaster. After pulling candidate papers Aug. 3, she said the clerk who helped her at the county elections office explained that Sutter had until Aug. 10 to file the papers, unless the incumbent (in this case, Tom Arnett) failed to file for re-election. Sutter said in an interview that she was told by the clerk that if the incumbent failed to file for re-election, she had until Aug. 15 to file. Since Arnett had already resigned as MHUSD Board President with two years remaining on his four-year term and had moved out of the area, he was not going to run again in Morgan Hill.
“At that time, they told me I had until the 15th as long as Tom Arnett didn’t reapply (because) their records showed there was an incumbent (for Trustee Area 5),” explained Sutter, a parent in the local district for 16 years.
With the understanding that the candidate filing period would be extended, Sutter left town to take her son to college over the weekend of Aug. 10-12 and said she planned to file her paperwork at the county office when she returned. However, when she brought in her documents Aug. 13, Sutter was told she had missed the candidacy filing deadline.
“They didn’t refute that (the clerk) gave me wrong information,” she said.”They just said they were not liable for the information that was shared in good faith and they were sorry, but I had missed the deadline.”
“The frustrating part is if I don’t get on the ballot, then we don’t even get to have an election for this district,” Sutter added prior to the judge’s ruling.
That changed on Aug. 23, when Sutter’s appeal in Santa Clara County Superior Court was heard and Zayner issued a “writ of mandate” order that allowed Sutter to get on the Nov. 6 ballot. Sutter filed the judge’s order with the County Board of Supervisors, which forwarded it to the Registrar of Voters, according to Sutter. She then brought in her paperwork to the county office on Aug. 24.
“It was successful,” said Sutter of her appeal. “The process seemed kind of new to most people involved (but) I was basing it on facts of what I was told by the county.”
“As a parent in this school district for the past 16 years, I felt it was my responsibility to give back now,” Sutter added. “I was committed to seeing the candidate process through and I am glad that I am on the ballot. Voters deserve a choice.”
Diaz, also a Morgan Hill parent and a program manager, could not agree more: “I think it’s a good thing that the residents living in Area 5 will get to elect their next MHUSD board of education member.”
Name: Vanessa Sutter
Age: 43
Family: Married with four children: two graduates of Ann Sobrato High School, one eighth grader and one fifth grader.
No previous elected or appointed office
Current Occupation: Student services advisor
Campaign slogan: The Choice for Better Schools
