Republican Greg Cox will remain District 1 Supervisor, and continue to represent South County cities.
The incumbent, whose district includes IB, Coronado, Chula Vista and National City, earned 68.2 percent of votes against Brant Will, a deputy city attorney in San Diego, trailed with 31.8 percent.
"One of the things I'd really like to work on is the Imperial Beach library," he said at Golden Hall in downtown San Diego. "It vastly underserves for the community. It's just small, and so I want to work with the City of Imperial Beach and kind of put together an effort to see if we can raise some money from philanthropy, from individuals, to help build a new library in Imperial Beach. That's one of my priorities."
"I've always been a big advocate for parks, for trails for bicycle paths. I think we can get done, and I don't think this is overstating it, I think we can get the Bayshore Bikeway done in the next four years," he said.
He would also like to see more funding devoted to the building or reformation of 22 miles of trails in the Tijuana River Valley.
Funding for each of the initiatives has not yet been attained, he said, but a bond measure and federal funding may help pay for the bikeway and river valley trails.
District 2 Supervisor incument Dianne Jacob received 77.7 percent of votes in her bid to retain her East County seat. Challenger Rudy Reyes, an archaeologist who was severely burned in the 2003 Cedar Fire, had 22.3 percent.
In a close finish, Steve Danon, chief of staff to Rep. Brian Bilbray, R- Solana Beach, bested the deputy mayor of that coastal city, Dave Roberts, in their fight to succeed retiring Supervisor Pam Slater-Price.
Danon finished with 32.8 percent of votes, compared to 31.6 percent for Roberts.
Del Mar Mayor Carl Hilliard was third with 20.2 percent, followed by Bryan Ziegler, deputy county counsel, with nine percent, and Stephen Pate, a transportation coordinator in the film industry, with 6.4 percent.
If no candidate gets more than 50 percent tonight to win outright, the top two vote-getters will face each other in the November general election. The ultimate winner of the North County seat will be the first new member of the Board of Supervisors in 17 years.
Danon said change was needed in streamlining the county's permitting process "so it doesn't take five to seven years for a business to get their permit so they could extend their operation or build their operation."
Danon also pledged to end the Neighborhood Reinvestment Program, which provides grant funds to county departments, public agencies and nonprofits. The "slush fund," if not completely eliminated, should include a residents' panel " so that every group that elicits taxpayer funds will be thoroughly vetted before one dollar is allocated," Danon said.
Danon's priorities also include consolidating county fire districts into a regional firefighting authority and creating an ethics commission.
Roberts agreed that county government should foster an environment that spurs job growth.
"It is critical the next supervisor understands fiscal responsibility," Roberts said.
He also stressed environmental and quality of life initiatives, such as expanding open space areas and using recycled water on residential properties, as well as streamlining the Department of Planning and Land Use's business- permit process. He also said he would work to improve fire protection.
Hilliard stressed the need to attract well-paying jobs and bringing jobs back from out of state and overseas.
"Our challenge is to make sure that we don't get in the way of that change, that we don't regulate them to the point where it doesn't make sense for them to come back," Hilliard said.
Hilliard also said Public Safety Realignment, which shifted responsibility for low-level offenders from the state to counties, was a concern.
City News Service contributed to this report.
