The ballot has been set for the Nov. 8 general municipal election, in which Colusa County residents will vote on candidates for school boards, special districts, and city councils.
The candidate filing period closed Aug. 17 for races in which the incumbent did not seek reelection; Aug. 12 for all others.
In Williams, four people are looking to claim one of three open seats on the City Council.
Incumbents Alfred Sellers, Jr. and Sajit Singh, are both seeking reelection. Incumbent Santos Jauregui did not seek reelection.
Sellers, who is seeking his third term, and Singh, who is seeking his second term in office, will be joined on the ballot by Williams Planning Commissioner Maria Belmontes Leyva and Kate Dunlap.
Another race to watch in November will be for the two open seats on the Colusa City Council, after a year of controversy, infighting, and an overrule by the City Council of the Colusa Planning Commission over allowing retail cannabis stores in the downtown business district.
Newcomers Ryan Codorniz, Planning Commission chairman, and Julie Garofalo, who served on the 2022 Grand Jury that investigated and found the city misused public funds and violated city, county, and state policies, are seeking to unseat two incumbents, Josh Hill and Tom Resishe.
Hill, who is seeking re-election, was appointed to the City Council in March 2018 and ran successfully for his first full term in the Nov. 6, 2018 election.
Longtime incumbent Tom Reische is also seeking reelection, despite publicly stating during his 2018 campaign that he would not seek a fifth term.
The announcement of his candidacy left many citizens after the Aug. 17 meeting stating that Reische, if reelected, would likely step down before the end of his term in order for the City Council to select someone of their own choosing.
Colusa officials have previously admitted to “grooming” potential candidates for appointment or to run for office.
At the time of his death in 2018, Councilman Kirk Kelleher was grooming Hill to run for election in 2018 to replace Councilman David Womble, who had announced he would not seek another term of office. Instead, Hill was appointed to the City Council to fill the vacancy left by Kelleher’s unexpected death.
In other local races, four newcomers will vie for the two open seats on the Pierce Joint Unified School District board, vacated by Trustees Amy Charter and Barbara Bair.
The candidates are Juan Manuel Garcia, Iluixochitl Perez Dudley, Kevin T. Ross, and Melissa Ehrke Doherty.
Colusa Unified will also see a contested race when Roberta James, Vicki Pulsifer, and incumbent Christoper Mcallister face off for two open seats. Longtime member Kathie Whitesell did not seek reelection.
These are the only two contested school board races in 2022.
Incumbent school board members only are on the ballot for Williams Unified (Ed Davis and Heather Covarrubias); Princeton (Victoria Reamer, Troy Hansen, and Cathy Withrow); Stony Creek (Zoe Brandenberger); and Maxwell (Mark Sutton and Tony Roa).
In a school district that had five candidates for three open seats in 2018 and seven candidates in 2014, Maxwell Unified will for the first time in many years will be short one candidate for filling three open seats; Diana Kemp Azevedo did not seek reelection, which will leave her seat vacant after Dec. 31.
Colusa County Board of Education incumbents Madison Martin (Trustee Area 2); Cristy Edwards (Trustee Area 4); and Ed Conrado (Trustee Area 5) will be on the ballot, along with newcomer Serena Morrow, who is running unchallenged for the Trustee Area 3 seat to be vacated by her husband, Charles Morrow, who did not seek reelection.
The Nov. 8 ballot will also include local special district elections, along with the runoff election between Janice Bell and Richard Selover, for District 5 Supervisor, and Cristy Edwards and Amy Schmidt for Colusa County Clerk Recorder.
Election officials said all Colusa County registered voters will receive vote-by-mail ballots.
Ballots will be mailed out no later than Oct. 10. ■