School Board Election Ordered : Moorpark: Residents submit enough names on a petition, voiding the appointment of Gary Cabriales.

Moorpark voters will go to the polls in November to select a replacement for former school board President Sam Nainoa, officials announced Tuesday.

The decision comes just days after Gary Cabriales, a former Moorpark High School valedictorian, was appointed to serve the reminder of Nainoa’s term, which expires in November, 1994.

Cabriales, 37, who beat out four other applicants vying for the spot, was removed from office automatically Tuesday when outgoing county schools Supt. James F. Cowan signed a resolution ordering the election.

County elections officials called Cowan’s office earlier in the day with news that a petition submitted by a group of residents seeking an election contained 207 valid signatures--32 more than the 175 needed.

Cabriales said earlier this week that he expected the election and will run for the seat he was awarded by the board early Friday after he and other candidates endured a grueling four hours of questioning.

Eloise Brown, a former councilwoman and one of four residents behind the petition drive, said Cabriales’ appointment had nothing to do with the desire for an election. Proponents of the petition effort said they have no plans to field a candidate.

“It has nothing to do with who they picked,” Brown said. “I can’t allow four people to disenfranchise me or anyone else in the city.”

Brown said she and Helen Taylor, Dorothy Ann Ventimiglia and Stacy A. Seeman collected signatures over the weekend in a bid to have the petition certified early enough for the issue to be included on the countywide ballot Nov. 2.

Had the petition not been certified and the election ordered by next Tuesday, the school district would have been forced to pay for a special election costing roughly $30,000 instead of becoming part of the countywide vote at a cost of $3,400, said Bruce Bradley, assistant county registrar of voters.

Elections officials Monday had identified Moorpark resident Ron Golden as a proponent of the petition. But Bradley said Tuesday that Golden, whose name had appeared on earlier drafts of the document reviewed by the county, was not named on the final version that was submitted.

Nainoa resigned June 4, saying that work obligations would force him to leave the district for extended periods.

School board members, who had been criticized for selecting a replacement rather than allowing the public to choose its own, said they were not upset that the matter was being taken out of their hands.

“I’m not mad and I’m not happy about it,” board member Tom Baldwin said. “It’s the process. It’s the way our government is set up to run. The board has the opportunity to fill vacancies by appointment, and the people have the right to challenge that process.”