Ex-Columbia School Board member is re-elected despite resigning from position

Name recognition is critical for anyone seeking election to public office. It’s a little more troublesome when trying to step away from politics, as one Columbia School Board member and others in Burbank recently discovered.

District voters re-elected Troy Woody to his seat on the board in the Nov. 3 general election, with more than 57 percent choosing him over Jim Choate, who collected about 43 percent.

Here’s the problem: Woody resigned from the board, which he’d served on for several years, in May because of other commitments and wasn’t trying to seek re-election. Choate already was appointed to his seat during the summer by the rest of the board.

Woody has declined returning to the board, so a new appointment process will have to take place.

“Jim is interested, but that doesn’t mean he’s a shoo-in,” said Superintendent Lou Gates.

Woody left his job as general manager with TRAC in Pasco earlier this year to focus on his solar heating business, Hot Solar Solutions. The demands of that new business prompted him to resign from the board, saying in a letter that his new business venture was putting too much demand on his schedule. He noted Choate, the board’s eventual choice of an appointment to his seat, had filed for his spot, making it an opportune time to leave.

“I simply cannot commit the necessary time and energy to be an asset to the board,” Woody wrote in his letter.

But Woody’s decision came after the filing period to seek re-election, and he’d already provided the necessary paperwork to hold on to his seat to the Walla Walla County Auditor’s Office. When he did try to remove his name from the ballot, Gates said he was told he’d missed the deadline.

Woody didn’t campaign. He even wrote a letter to the community in the school district newsletter saying he wasn’t running again. But residents still voted for him, requiring him to send another note to the district saying he wasn’t going to return.

Letters of interest should be sent to the board via the district’s office at 755 Maple St., Burbank WA 99323 for consideration. The person appointed will have to stand for election in two years.

This story was originally published November 25, 2015 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Ex-Columbia School Board member is re-elected despite resigning from position."