It looks like tribal members of the Petersburg Indian Association have elected several incumbents to seats on the tribal government’s council.
Election day was Monday, January 7th with two people seeking the position of tribal council chair and five people vying for three council seats. It looks like Tina Sakamoto has been re-elected chair of the tribal council with 46 votes, in unofficial results. She was challenged by Mike Sheldon, who has 26 votes on the first count.
For council seats, the top vote getters were two incumbents, Jeanette Ness with 60 votes, and Melanie Frentz-Hallingstad with 59 votes. Also winning a council seat is Skip Hallingstad with 57 votes. Those three will serve two year terms. Carol Martinez received 18 votes and Darnell Wilton had 17 after the initial count.
Three winning candidates will join Mary Ann Rainey, Derek Lopez and Chris Lopez on the council.
The PIA is the federally-recognized tribal government in Petersburg and it provides a variety of services for its members and the greater community. The PIA owns and operates a restaurant and apartment building, collects recyclable materials and does road and sidewalk reconstruction and maintenance, among other services.
Twelve absentee ballots remain to be counted and seven questioned ballots may be considered. In addition three other electronic ballots were sent out and could still be returned. Those additional ballots will mean the final vote tallies will change. A special meeting is planned for Monday, January 14th at 5:30 p.m. to finalize the election results.
