The last day to qualify to run for Morgan Hill’s mayor has come
and gone. As of 5 p.m. Friday, Mayor Steve Tate, Councilwoman Marby
Lee and resident Art College filed the appropriate papers. The Nov.
2 election will determine the city’s leader for next two years.
The last day to qualify to run for Morgan Hill’s mayor has come and gone. As of 5 p.m. Friday, Mayor Steve Tate, Councilwoman Marby Lee and resident Art College filed the appropriate papers.
The Nov. 2 election will determine the city’s leader for next two years.
Tate has served as the city’s mayor since 2004 and Lee is finishing her first four-year term on the council. College, a finance instructor at Evergreen Valley College, was appointed as the city’s director of finance and assistant city manager in 1987 until he resigned in August 1990. He also run unsuccessfully for city treasurer in 1992.
Morgan Hill City Council
Two seats are open this election cycle since Lee is running for mayor and councilman Greg Sellers will not seek re-election.
The high interest in the race this go-around is keeping city clerk Irma Torrez busy putting together extra candidate packets. Potential candidates have until Wednesday to qualify for the election.
By Monday, three residents were approved: Michael Castelan, the former owner of Poppy’s Fish and Poultry; Kenneth Wayne Galloway, a project manager; Richard Constatine, a firefighter, and Joseph Carrillo, who lists his occupation as a handyman and entrepreneur.
Lee Schmidt returned his nomination forms Monday and was awaiting approval by the Registrar of Voters.
In tow are David Mounteer, Rick Moreno and Gordon Siebert who told Torezz they are planning to file today, while Janice Comstock who pulled papers last week has said she will not run. Jynelle LaPointe requested a candidate packet Thursday, but has not returned it.
MH Unified School Board of Trustees
The bid for a seat on the seven-member school board of trustees is shaping up to be a tight race among at least eight candidates, three of whom are incumbents.
Trustees Shelle Thomas, Don Moody and Bart Fisher officially threw their hats into the ring by qualifying last week. Trustee Mike Hickey has decided not to run for another four-year term.
Since an incumbent is not running, interested candidates also have until Wednesday to run for the school board.
Five newcomers officially qualified as of Monday, including Brenda Cayme, who lists her occupation as a senior clinical manager.
Claudia Rossi is a mother of two and a registered nurse who became a stay-at-home mom after her son was diagnosed with autism. She volunteers at Nordstrom Elementary.
Armando Benavides is a member of the Hispanic community group Coalition for Latino Education Achievement Defense or Co-LEAD.
Ron Woolf taught in the district for almost 24 years, most of which were at Britton teaching pre-algebra and leadership classes. He was also the principal at the Morgan Hill Adult School in the 1990s and was named Teacher of the Year in 2003.
Father of four children and businessman Robert Paul Benevento, a 26-year resident of Morgan Hill, rounds out the list.
Mauricio Quijano, a freelance broadcast journalist who has three children at Charter School of Morgan Hill, pulled papers but has not qualified. Mother and community affairs director Kirsten Francis Carr also showed interest in the race but has not qualified.
A third prospective candidate Jayne Rovianek pulled papers July 30.
Santa Clara Valley Water District
Though South County’s current at-large Director Cy Mann said he would file by Friday to run for the District 1 seat, by Monday morning Mann was not on the list of candidates who qualified. Phone calls to the director were not returned Monday.
If Mann does not file by Wednesday at 5 p.m., the race will be among termed-out Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage, San Jose dentist Roberto Sepulveda and Gilroy winery-owner Tom Kruse.
Gage was a councilman and mayor in Gilroy from 1981 to 1997 and has 30 years experience working in the private sector for IBM.
Kruse is a well owner and has served on the county’s planning commission as well as the Llagas Basin nitrate study committee.
He ran an unsuccessful race for county supervisor earlier this year, but did pull more votes than Gilroy councilman Peter Arellano in the six-person race. Voters will decide between former San Jose councilman Forrest Williams and Los Gatos councilman Mike Wasserman to replace Gage on the county board of supervisors.
Sepulveda, who has no political experience, runs a dentistry practice in San Jose. He lives in the Evergreen area and said he wants the job so he can represent the people and rectify some of the problems he has heard about the water district. Sepulveda referred to the grand jury reports that discovered a conflict of interest when the board’s chair Director Richard Santos backed the construction of a lavish gazebo nearby property that he owned in Alviso.
Mann is a licensed Realtor who owns a ranch in Morgan Hill and also a home in South San Jose. He was appointed by the board in January to fill retiring Sig Sanchez’s seat.
