The Santa Barbara City Council on Tuesday certified the Nov. 5 election results and will swear in its new members on Jan. 7.
Councilmen Frank Hotchkiss and Bendy White were re-elected to their second terms, and Gregg Hart, who served two terms from 1996 to 2004, won a seat. Hart currently works as the public information officer for the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments.
Councilman Grant House will be leaving office due to term limits.
Mayor Helene Schneider was easily re-elected, winning 73.32 percent of the vote to challenger Wayne Scoles’ 26.68 percent.
City Clerk Services manager Gwen Peirce said the mail-only election turnout was 38 percent, which is lower than 2009 and 2011 but beat 2007, the city’s first stand-alone election held without the county.
It’s a high number compared with similar cities’ results, which averaged 19 percent, she said.
The city counted 17,659 ballots total, out of 46,106 registered voters.
White had 18.24 percent of the vote among the 10 council candidates, Hart got 16.8 percent and Hotchkiss got 13.49 percent.
The rest of the candidates came in as follows, from most to least votes: David Landecker, Megan Diaz Alley, Lesley Wiscomb, Jason Nelson, Michael Jordan, Cruzito Herrera Cruz and Michael Kramer.
Measure F passed easily as well, with 85.6 percent of the vote. It adjusted the lot line between MacKenzie Park and the Fremont Hall Army Reserve Center building, which city officials have said is an overdue technicality.
— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.