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Like their neighbors in the San Ramon Valley, residents in other Tri-Valley cities will have city council elections to decide this fall — plus, some contested mayoral and school board elections, too.
Livermore and Dublin all have city council and mayor positions with incumbents and challengers on the ballot. The Pleasanton mayoral race is staying on the ballot, but the incumbent is unchallenged.
There are also challenged elections for Dublin and Livermore Valley school boards, while the Pleasanton and Sunol-Glen school district races were like the one in the San Ramon Valley — no contested elections, so candidates will be directly appointed without appearing on the ballot.
City elections
In Pleasanton, four candidates are competing for two City Council positions, and at least one seat will change hands as incumbent Vice Mayor Arne Olson opted not to seek re-election. The four candidates are Councilwoman Kathy Narum, former parks commissioner Joe Streng, former human services commissioner Julie Testa and local resident Joseph Ledoux, who works as a Berkeley police officer.
Pleasanton Mayor Jerry Thorne will appear on the ballot unchallenged, as no other candidates filed to run against Thorne in his bid for a fourth and final term.
Livermore Mayor John Marchand is facing a lone challenger in his re-election bid, local businessman Josh Laine, a U.S. Marines veteran who owns Valor Winery in Livermore.
With two seats up for election on the Livermore City Council, incumbent Bob Woerner is seeking re-election but Councilman Steven Spedowfski bowed out. Spedowfski said Wednesday that his work and family life have begun demanding more and more of his time, so he thought this was the right time to step away. He added that he plans to remain involved with the city going forward.
The four challengers in the race are estate planning attorney Rosmary Bartsch, social science researcher Trish Munro, architect Neal Pann and chief technology officer Brent Siler.
In Dublin, Mayor David Haubert is being challenged by Councilman Arun Goel, whose council seat is not up for election this year (he was elected two years ago).
Two Dublin City Council seats will change hands with incumbent Abe Gupta not seeking re-election, saying he wants to spend more time with his family, including 2-year-old son. Councilwoman Janine Thalblum, appointed to the seat in April after Vice Mayor Don Biddle’s death, followed through on her vow not to seek a full four-year term this fall.
The five candidates for two seats in Dublin are customer service representative Shawn Costello, retired state accounting officer Jing Firmeza, educator Jean Josey, project controls manager and Dubliners United leader Bobby Khullar, and Shawn Kumagai, a consultant and master chief petty officer in the Navy Reserve.
Education
This November marks a first for the Dublin Unified School District as it’s the inaugural election with board trustees elected by geographic area, after the district moved away from at-large seats.
For Trustee Area 2, incumbent Megan Rouse is running against parent Erin Herrera. For Trustee Area 5, incumbent Dan Cherrier faces retail manager Dominic Piegaro.
Three challengers (contract specialist Chung Bothwell, parent Emily Prusso and parent/manager Dave Vonheeder) are competing against three incumbents (Craig Bueno, Kate Runyon and Anne White) for Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees.
For Sunol-Glen Unified School District Governing Board, parent/medical assistant Liz Monti and rancher/retired firefighter Mike Picard were the only two candidates to file for the two-seat election. Those positions are currently held by board members Don Ball and Victoria Cloutier.
The story was similar for the Pleasanton Unified School District, where only incumbents Joan Laursen and Mark Miller submitted candidacy papers and were reappointed.
Pleasanton’s seats on the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District board weren’t up for election this year. Donald “Dobie” Gelles (Trustee Area 4) and Hal Gin (Area 6) were unchallenged, but in Area 3, appointed incumbent Genevieve Randolph is being challenged by Union City Planning Commission
Other positions
Five challengers will compete for the two available board seats on the Dublin San Ramon Services District, which provides water and wastewater services to Dublin and parts of San Ramon as well as sewer service to Pleasanton by contract.
Incumbent Georgean Vonheeder-Leopold will face off against challengers James Brady (facilities manager), Richard Jesse (retired electronics engineer), Ann Marie Johnson (environmental project manager) and Chuck Haupt (nonprofit director). Incumbent Pat Howard chose not to seek re-election after 14 years on the board.
Livermore Area Recreation and Park District isn’t appearing on the ballot as the only candidates to join the race were the three incumbents: Maryalice Summers Faltings, David Furst and Philip Pierpont.
Pleasanton’s representative seat on the East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors, for Ward Area 5, will be up for election as incumbent Ayn Wieskamp has been challenged by small business owner Dev Gandhi.
Three races are also held over from the June primary, including Alameda County assessor in which Newark real estate tax attorney Phong La is competing against Jim Johnson, chief of the Assessor’s Assessment Services Division.
Assemblywoman Catharine Baker (R-Dublin) is running against attorney and political newcomer Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda).
U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) is facing off against Republican challenger Rudy Peters, a business owner from Livermore.
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