Lincoln Hills board election results announced

Craig Fraser, Laura Thiele, Robert Copp and Joe Cortez are the four new Sun City Lincoln Hills Community Association board of directors. Seven candidates ran for the four two-year terms in the association's Feb. 18 election. Incumbent Thiele was reelected to her seat, receiving the second most votes. The other two incumbents running, Alice Crawford and Kathy Shaddox, lost their bid for re-election. Don Negus' seat was up in this election and he did not run for reelection. An all-time record of homeowners voted in this election, according to the Sun City Lincoln Hills Community Association's elections committee. Fraser received 4,060 votes; Thiele received 3,997 votes; Copp received 3,205 votes; Cortez received 1,918 votes; Crawford received 1,729 votes; Shaddox received 1,144 votes and David Conner received 1,009 votes. The new board members were sworn in after the ballots were counted on Feb. 18 and an organizational meeting was then held to select board officers. The association's new officers are President Thiele, Vice-President Jack Harris, treasurer Fraser and secretary Copp. The three other directors are Tom Dunipace, Diana Peters and Cortez. Harris, Dunipace and Peters are in the second year of their two-year term. "The Covid-19 pandemic created a challenging election with the elimination of in-person events for campaigns and informational forums. Many past procedures had to be modified or eliminated and most meetings were conducted via Zoom," said Twila Miller, a Lincoln Hills resident and elections committee member. "To reduce the number of people present during the ballot count, no spectators or board members were present during the counting process but the procedure was live streamed to the community. Dede Barnhart, chair of the elections committee, announced that a record number of ballots were received. Sixty-five percent of Sun City Lincoln Hills homeowners voted, more than any other board election. The elections committee appreciates all those who participated in the election: the candidates, the volunteers who helped count the ballots, the video team and the members of the community who submitted their ballots on time."