7 potential candidates for June C.V. election

Eight people have filed papers so far to run in the June election for two Chula Vista City Council district seats, and they have one month to garner signatures from those who live in their candidate areas.

Mark T. Gardner, who filed papers to run for District 3, has since decided not to run.

From Feb. 15 through March 11, the applicants must collect at least 20 signatures from registered voters in their district. Once the City Clerk validates the signatures, their names will be placed on the June ballot as candidates.

The two seats up for grabs are those now occupied by Pamela Bensoussan and Steve Miesen. Bensoussan’s seat is in District 3, and Miesen’s is in District 4.

Bensoussan was elected to the City Council in November 2008. She ran in 2014 for mayor but lost to now Mayor Mary Casillas Salas.

Miesen was appointed in January 2015 to fill the council seat vacated when Casillas Salas was elected mayor. He will serve until November.

In 2012, Chula Vista voters approved a change in the city’s charter that required council members be elected by geographic district, instead of citywide votes, beginning with the 2016 election.

A city appointed Districting Commission was formed in 2014 to develop a map that created the new districts.

The City Council unanimously approved the commission’s recommended map in July.

Beginning this year, individuals running for City Council must reside in the district they wish to represent, and residents will vote only for candidates in their respective districts.

The first election will be held June 7; the run-off is Nov. 8. The two candidates who receive the most votes in June will go to the run-off.

The mayor and city attorney will continue to be elected in citywide votes.

District 3 applicants are Steve Padilla, Jason Paguio and Carmelita Larrabaster Vinson.

Padilla is a former Chula Vista councilman and mayor. He served as mayor from 2002 to 2006 and served two terms as a city councilman from 1994 to 2002 before being elected mayor. He is also a small-business owner and former San Diego police officer, San Diego Port Commissioner and California Coastal Commissioner.

Paguio is a small business owner, nonprofit executive and community volunteer. He is president and CEO of Parade Band Foundation Inc., a 2014 Chula Vista council candidate and is currently the policy adviser to Miesen.

Larrabaster Vinson has worked for more than 20 years as a real estate broker throughout San Diego. She is a member of the National Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce, according to her LinkedIn profile and the REO Industry Directory.

District 4 candidates are Michael Diaz, Rudy Ramirez, Eduardo Reyes and Emmanuel Soto.

Diaz is a 32-year retired Escondido firefighter who grew up in Chula Vista. He currently works at Sweetwater High School as a fire technology instructor. He ran for seat No. 3 on the Chula Vista City Council in 2000 and was endorsed by the Chula Vista Firefighters but was defeated by Jerry Rindone.

Ramirez is a former councilman who served two consecutive four-year terms, first elected in 2006 before he was termed out in 2014. He is also a small business owner of a metal fabrication company in Chula Vista. Before being elected he served on the city’s Board of Ethics, the General Plan Update Steering Committee and the Bayfront Citizens Advisory Committee.

Reyes is currently the principal of Bonita Vista Middle and has been a Sweetwater Union High School District administrator since 1998. He is also president of the Chula Vista Elementary School Board. He has been part of the Democratic Central Committee for five years.

Soto was the 2015 instrumental music director at Mar Vista High School and Mar Vista Academy. Currently he is teaching music in the Chula Vista Elementary School District. He helped develop San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory’s Community Opus Project and currently serves on the Chula Vista Parks and Recreation Commission.

Elections for Districts 1 and 2 will be held in 2018.

For more information on Chula Vista elections visit: https://www.chulavistaca.gov/departments/city-clerk/elections.