Five candidates, including two incumbents, are seeking seats on the Santa Maria City Council while Carpinteria’s and Goleta’s three council members whose terms expire this year won’t be challenged in their bids to keep serving.
Friday was the first deadline for candidates seeking terms on city councils, school boards and special district boards in the Nov. 4 election.
However, if an incumbent didn’t chose to run for re-election the filing period was extended five days, to Wednesday, for newcomers who want to seek elected office.
Guadalupe and Lompoc are the only cities in Santa Barbara County where the nomination period extended.
In Santa Maria, incumbents Willie Green and Jack Boysen filed by Friday’s deadline along with challengers Etta Waterfield, Tony Coles and Amy Lopez.
In Buellton, the three incumbents, Ed Andrisek, Judith Dale and John Connolly, seeking re-election will be among a crowded field of candidates.
By Friday’s deadline, five challengers, Ron Anderson, Dan Baumann, Joe Padilla, Mark Preston and Tom Widroe, also qualified to run for the four-year terms, City Clerk Linda Reid said.
In Solvang, only Mayor Jim Richardson filed for that job, according to City Clerk Mary Ellen Rio.
However, incumbent councilwomen Joan Jamieson and Tara Wood will face a challenger, Neill C. Zimmerman, in the race for two terms.
The three Carpinteria City Council members whose terms expire this year won’t be opposed in their bids. City Clerk Fidela Garcia said Friday that council members Gregg Carty, Al Clark and Brad Stein are the only three who filed by the deadline.
And in Goleta, the three incumbents, Roger S. Aceves, Michael T. Bennett and Paula Perotte, also were the only candidates who filed for those three seats on the council.
Since all the incumbents filed, the filing deadline weren’t extended for Santa Maria, Goleta, Buellton, Solvang and Carpinteria city council races.
In Lompoc, Mayor John Linn will face a challenger from Councilman Bob Lingl.
The field of candidates for Lompoc City Council could still grow since Councilwoman Ashley Costa chose not to run for re-election and the deadline was extended to Wednesday.
Councilman Dirk Starbuck filed his paperwork along with challengers David Grill, Frank Campo, Ann Rughe, Victor Vega and Steve Chudoba.
Darrell Tullis and Robert Cuthbert picked up papers but hadn’t returned them as of Monday, city officials said.
Guadalupe extended the filing to Monday because Friday was a furlough day for the city. However, the lack of incumbents filing means the deadline is automatically extended to Wednesday.
Terms up for grabs include that city’s mayor, two council slots and treasurer.
Current Councilman John Lizalde, whose term expires this year, is running for mayor and current Councilwoman Gina Rubalcaba pulled papers Monday to challenge him for the job.
Mayor Frances Romero chose not to run for re-election.
Seeking the two seats on the City Council are current City Clerk Joice Earleen Raguz and former council members Ariston Julian and Virginia Ponce, who submitted their paperwork Monday.
No one has pulled papers for the Guadalupe city treasurer job.
The Santa Barbara City Council holds its elections in odd years so it won’t appear on the ballot this fall.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.