Kaplan, Carnevale hold lead in Cathedral City race
Sherry Barkas
Shelley Kaplan and Mark Carnevale led the race Wednesday morning for two open seats on the Cathedral City Council in an election that brings a new majority to the 5-member panel, which also has a new mayor for the first time in a decade.
Councilman Stan Henry ran unopposed for mayor after Kathy DeRosa decided not to seek re-election. DeRosa has been on the council since 1998 and mayor since 2004.
"It's a great start," Kaplan said just after the first unofficial results were posted about 8:10 p.m. "My hope is that it's the trend for the night," he said.
The retired higher education administrator ran on a vow to get the city moving forward again, improve the economic development of the city and address the needs of the residents.
Kaplan was watching the returns with fellow candidate Carnevale at Nicolino's, Carnevale's restaurant.
"I'm very, very happy with the results," Carnevale said.
Carnevale was closely followed by Theresa Hooks, a businesswoman, who could still wind up with a seat on the council. The new council will be seated in December and one of its first decisions will be how to fill Henry's seat — appoint the third top vote-getter; appoint someone else; or call for a special election. There are two years remaining on his term.
"I feel honored to be the new mayor," said Henry, also the city's retired police chief. "We knew it was going to be a major change. We will eventually have four new council members, and I include myself because I have only been on two years. ... It will be a team effort to move forward."
Henry spent the night visiting the other candidates, showing his support.
"I would be honored to serve with any of them," he said.
Hooks on Thursday morning congratulated the winners.
"We knew going in it would be a horse race," Hooks said. "My committee ran an excellent campaign. I am proud of our accomplishment and will continue working to make Cathedral City a place where people will be proud to live, work, shop and play."
Six candidates campaigned for the two council seats. Sam Toles resigned in August to take a job in New York and Chuck Vasquez, the mayor pro tem, resigned in September after pleading guilty to three felony counts of misappropriation of public funds and misdemeanor counts of grand theft and fraud.
The most recent returns, posted at 2 a.m., had Vasquez in fourth place. If he wins re-election, he would have to resign his seat to have his felony pleas dismissed when he returns to court Nov. 14.
It was a fairly quiet campaign with the exception of a Cathedral City Cove Neighbors' Facebook posting on Oct. 24 that cast a spotlight on Hooks and created a lot of buzz about her support of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit based in Colorado that has drawn national attention for its conversion therapy program.
Hooks said she didn't have an opinion on conversion therapy.
"I don't know enough about that," she said.
Desert Sun reporter Sherry Barkas covers the cities of Desert Hot Springs and Cathedral City. She can be reached at sherry.barkas@thedesertsun.com or (760) 778-4694. Follow her on Twitter @TDSsherry