Doherty, Kramer win Oceanside Sanitation vote

The votes have been counted, and the Oceanside Sanitation District has two new commissioners, Pat Doherty and Jean Kramer.

Doherty, who ran unopposed in the June 16 election, received 349 votes. He will serve a five-year term, replacing Chairman Joseph Cibellis. “I’m happy for the support we got out here,” Doherty said. “I know it was unopposed, but at the same time, we got a lot of people to come out … I’m very excited.”

He said his first priorities would be moving all board meetings to nights so more people can come, meeting the sanitation employees and union representatives, and being the first commissioner to go on a ride in a truck with the workers. “I’d love to get in there and see what these guys do on the job,” Doherty said. “So you really have firsthand experience on what they do.”

Kramer beat Stephen Edmondson for a one-year term, which opened up when Commissioner Florence Mensch resigned. Kramer, who received 305 votes to Edmondson’s 38, will serve the year remaining in Mensch’s term.

Kramer said she was very happy, and that her first action would be to compare compensation for Oceanside workers to other sanitation districts.

“We’ll see what happens, because [Kramer’s] got to run again next year,” Edmondson said. When asked if he would run again, Edmondson said, “I don’t know. I might go on to bigger and better things.”

Doherty and Kramer, who campaigned together, hugged after the results were announced. They were sworn in on Monday at a meeting at sanitation headquarters, at 90 Mott St. in Oceanside. Ed Scharfberg is now the board’s chairman.