Challenger Michelle Anne Bholat has secured one of the two open Beach Cities Health District Board of Directors positions as vote totals trickled in Tuesday night.
Incumbent Joanne Edgerton, who currently serves as a board member of the BCHD, won reelection to her fourth term on the board, while fellow incumbent Noel Lee Chun was narrowly defeated by only four votes.
Results, however, will not be finalized until December 2 when ballots that were hand-delivered at polling sites will be counted, according to the Los Angeles County Clerk’s office. With such narrow margins among the three candidates, the winners are still up in the air.
Bholat, 56, is a lifelong Beach Cities resident and has been a member of the BCHD strategic planning board for several years.
“What motivated me [to run for the board position] was the excellence of the leadership, the people that work there every day, and most importantly the people that live in the Beach Cities,” Bholat said.  “We have an interesting demographic. There’s every type of socioeconomic status that lives in our Beach Cities. I’m interested in groups that have disparate incomes and races who work together to get the common good done. I think that’s what represents the Beach Cities.”
Bholat has been a practicing family physician since 1995 and is a self-proclaimed “21st century family physician.”
“You have to be able to meet people at all places in their lives,” she said.  “At the best of times and worst of times. I really do understand people. I’m in the community and have great relationships with people in the community.
In her new role as a board member, Bholat wants to promote a more unified BCHD
“We can do a better job of letting community groups know more and inviting them in and being more inclusive,” she said. “We should work on how to closely align as cities together working together instead of as three separate cities. Working on that piece is important. As we know with Ebola, health, viruses and bacteria know no boundaries.”
