Bay Area Houston Magazine

By Mary Alys Cherry

Mayor Tom ReiBy Mary Alys Cherry

The votes have been tallied, and three Bay Area cities have new mayors – Webster, Shoreacres and Galveston – while Pearland Mayor Tom Reid was re-elected for the umpteenth time, snaring almost 70 percent of the vote.

Reid, who has been mayor of the Brazoria County’s largest city for 30 years, won over 12-year city council veteran Woody Owens with 2,273 votes (69.4 percent) to Owens’ 1,000 votes (30.5 percent).

Another familiar face is Jim Yarbrough, who was elected mayor of Galveston with 3,251 votes and 59 percent of the vote. The former long-time Galveston county judge won out over Elizabeth Beeton, who had 1,358 votes (24 percent); Don Mafringe’s 882 votes (16 percent); and Raymond Guzman’s 66 votes (1 percent).

Donna Rogers, a former mayor of Webster, is the new mayor of that city, defeating Tracy Bush 172-17. Besides being mayor, she also served on the city council. She will replace long-time Mayor Floyd Myers, who is term limited.

In Shoreacres, the voters picked Mayor Pro-tem Rick Moses to be their new mayor. He had 168 votes to Ron Hoskins’ 52.
Several cities did not hold elections as candidates had no competition. Among them were Clear Lake Shores, Dickinson, Friendswood, Nassau Bay, Seabrook and Taylor Lake Village.

Baytown, League City and Pasadena elections are in the fall.

Mayor Rick Moses

School district elections

Clear Creek ISD District 2 voters re-elected School Board Vice President Win Weber over Nick Long 407-336 with the Nassau Bay attorney and municipal judge getting 54.78 percent of the vote to Long’s 45.22 percent.

Pearland ISD voters cast 1,324 ballots or 54 percent for Rusty DeBorde in the Position 2 race with Suzanne Johnson, who got 1,111 or 46 percent. In the Position 1 race, Charles Gooden Jr., got 54 percent of the vote to Jeff Jeffress’ 37 percent and Trevor Hale’s 8 percent.

Meanwhile, Dickinson ISD voters passed a $56 million bond proposal to build an elementary and an intermediate school and elected Veanna Veasey (140 votes) over Leo Rudd (10 votes) in the District 2 trustee race while La Porte voters OK’d a $260 million bond proposal for a laundry list of school improvements.

In the Clear Lake City Water Authority election, residents turned out to cast nearly 3,500 votes and elect Gordon Johnson (1,298 votes), and Thomas Morrow, (1,299 votes), to the CLCWA Board. Other candidates’ vote totals were Steve Baxter, 416; Tim Daggett, 337; and M.G. Spaniel, 127.

Mayor Donna Rogers

City council races

The Webster city council race for the Position 6 seat held by Bill Jones is headed for a June 17 runoff between Martin Graves (60 votes) and a former councilman, Steve Waltz (56 votes).  Kaz Hamidian got 53 votes and Bill Jones, 38.

All three Kemah incumbents were re-elected as Rhonda Trevino with 156 votes beat Teresa Vasquez Evans’ 138 votes to take 53.1 percent of the Position 1 vote while Carl Joiner beat Mikal Williams 167-116 to take 59.6 percent of the vote in the Position 3 race. Steve Mewborn retained his Position 5 seat by getting 177 votes or 61 percent to Michelle Cochran’s 113.
El Lago Councilman Jeff Tave was re-elected to Position 5 by defeating Clyde Mayhew 93-69.

Deer Park Position 4 Councilman Bill Patterson was re-elected over John Janatasch 635-212, and in the Position 5 race, Ron Martin had 540 votes to Shelley Stokes’ 337.

Shoreacres residents elected Mike Wheeler (97 votes) and Richard Adams (139 ballots) as aldermen.  Candidates Neil Moyer had 81 votes while Paul Croas had 66.

In the Texas City District 1 race, Thelma Bowie (304 votes) won with 90.1 percent of the vote as Johnny Howell received 33 votes.

Six Galveston council seats were up for grabs in the May 10 election with some incumbents winning and some not so lucky.
In District 1 incumbent Cornelia Banks with 37.3 percent of the vote was forced into a runoff with Tarris Woods, who had 47 percent while Ronald Dean had 16 percent. Craig Brown was the winner of the District 2 race with 58 percent of the vote to Susan Fennewald’s 17 percent and Richard Batie’s 25 percent.

Mayor Jim Yarbrough

The District 3 winner was Ralph McMorris, who got 52 percent to Kate Marx’s 48 percent. Incumbent Norman Pappous emerged the victor in the District 4 race with 59 percent of the vote while his opponent, David Hoover, had 41 percent.
Incumbent Terrilyn Tarlton walked off with 71 percent of the vote in the District 5 council race with opponents William Quiroga getting 5 percent and Diana Gonzalez Bertini receiving 24 percent.

In Galveston’s District 6 race, the incumbent, Marie Robb, received 31 percent of the vote, while Carolyn Sunseri won the seat with 69 percent of the vote.