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After a week of counting ballots, election results show that City Councilman Dave Hudson is projected to become San Ramon’s next mayor, while parks commissioner Sridhar Verose is set to join the City Council representing District 3.
Both candidates took early leads on Election Night and have held onto them throughout the process as now the vast majority of local ballots have been counted, according to results released by the Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder’s Office.
“It always feels good, this is the seventh time I think. It feels really good, what impressed me the most I think on this one was usually you look back and think ‘what could I have done differently’ but I think everything was done about as efficiently as I’ve done any election,” Hudson said on Tuesday. “I have near 30 years of experience including on the Planning Commission and I think it all just came to a head in this Election.”
In the race to lead the city and replace outgoing Mayor Bill Clarkson — who is terming out at the end of the year after being elected to four terms — Hudson grabbed the lead early on Election Night and never let go, having recorded 13,317 votes (34.77%) as of Tuesday.
He was followed in second by Vice Mayor Sabina Zafar, who has earned 10,917 votes (28.50%), Dr. Dinesh Govindarao with 5,776 votes (15.08%), small business owner Aparna Madireddi with 5,510 votes (14.39%), businessman Sanat Sethy at 2,034 votes (5.31%) and small business owner Susmita Nayak who trailed in sixth with 745 votes (1.95%).
In the at-large mayor’s race, county election officials have counted 41,132 ballots out of the city’s 48,335 registered voters for a 85.1% turnout rate.
“It really was a different Election in that I really thought I would never see six people running for mayor, almost seven. For the life of me I am trying to figure out what people think the mayor does because I never get off the phone now,” Hudson said of the crowded field. “(But) the difference between being mayor and being on the council doesn’t seem like that much of a difference to me because I’m already on so many committees.”
A pillar of San Ramon’s government for nearly three decades, Hudson has served on the City Council for 23 years — making him the longest-tenured council member in the city’s history — during which time he has served as both mayor and vice mayor and previously served for four years on the city’s Planning Commission.
Hudson said that as mayor things will be mostly business as usual, however he intends to use his decades of experience to help the mostly inexperienced council up to speed — currently the only member with any council experience is vice mayor Zafar, who has two years experience representing District 4.
“My thought is, if there are to be maybe three new people… that they get an opportunity to see there are different ways to run meetings, interact and expectations,” he said.
One of the new council’s first major decisions will be to decide how to fill Hudson’s soon-to-be vacant District 2 council seat, which will need a member to finish out the remainder of his term once he officially takes the oath of office for mayor.
Hoping to have another council member with more extensive experience in civic governance, Hudson said: “For two years, I am hoping it is someone who has been through some wars before and I’m looking at the Planning Commission as the ideal place to look (for a candidate).”
In District 3 — which covers a large section of the Dougherty Valley along Bollinger Canyon Road in eastern San Ramon — Verose has also been able to maintain a comfortable lead and as of Friday has earned 3,796 votes (45.80%). He is followed by professor Reza Majlesi who took 2,522 votes (30.43%), tech professional Varun Kaushal with 1,018 votes (12.28%) and community organizer Sameera Rajwade at 952 votes (11.49%).
“I feel honored to get such a large number of votes and I’m definitely feel very privileged to serve our community as a council member. I definitely want to thank all of my campaign workers and supporters in District 3. Based on the numbers I’m very confident,” Verose told DanvilleSanRamon.com on Tuesday. “It’s like (my community) is telling me ‘Sridhar we have faith in you and you are the right person to represent us.’ That’s a great feeling.”
A member of San Ramon’s Parks and Community Services Commission, Verose’s campaign priorities revolved around supporting the city’s high standard for public safety, preserving its pristine open space, supporting coronavirus recovery and maintaining its residents’ quality of life.
Verose credited his experience with the city and policies established during the campaign as the key reasons for earning voters’ approval, saying: “When it comes to public safety (particularly) people felt I had the right approach and also I had many conversations with people who liked my community based solution framework.”
In addition to his time on the Parks and Community Services Committee — where he served as a liaison to several other city committees — Verose is also a member of the San Ramon Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club of Dougherty Valley, a Cub Scouts den leader, a founder and former president of San Ramon Cricket Association and a founding member of the San Ramon Valley Diversity Coalition.
While he was one of the more experienced candidates running for council, Verso acknowledged that he still had much to learn saying “even though I have worked as a commissioner, it is a much bigger role as a City Council member and I need to learn.”
In an effort to learn the intricacies of leading on the council, Verose said his first order of business will be to meet with city department heads in order to learn more about the goals they strive for and the challenges they face.
“During all of my conversations one major issue I kept hearing was about mental health services. So (as an early priority) I definitely want to reach out to the county to get there help in providing easy access for mental health services,” he added.
If election trends hold, he will be replacing councilman Phil O’Loane who opted not to seek re-election after serving two consecutive terms.
The Nov. 3 election marked the city’s first ever using district-based voting for council members instead of at-large, meaning residents can only vote for the candidate who lives in their geographic district.
The other open council seat in District 1 remains one of the closest contested races in the San Ramon Valley and as of Tuesday is still too close to call. In that race incumbent Councilman Scott Perkins holds a slim 75-vote lead over his lone competitor, public health professional Luz Gómez.
Contra Costa County officials have stated that countywide voter turnout rests at 82.17% and estimate that there are approximately 10,000 ballots left to be processed — an estimated 5,000 of which are estimated to be from vote-by-mail and polls, while the remaining 5,000 to be provisional and conditional voter ballots.
The election figures will likely change in the coming days as final vote-by-mail ballots, provisional ballots and other qualifying ballots are processed, according to the California Secretary of State.
