With only two weeks left in the nomination period for elected
city government seats in San Juan Bautista, city officials say
finding qualified candidates is difficult in a town where everyone
knows everything about everyone else.
With only two weeks left in the nomination period for elected city government seats in San Juan Bautista, city officials say finding qualified candidates is difficult in a town where everyone knows everything about everyone else.
Two city council positions, the city clerk’s seat and the city treasurer are open.
Of those four seats, two incumbents are running for re-election, and one other resident has pulled nomination papers, according to City Manager Larry Cain.
“I think people don’t like to get themselves exposed to the problems of being an office-holder,” Cain said. “It’s the people who have a strong feeling about something that usually come out.”
Mayor George Rowe, Jr. and Councilman Dan Reed’s seats are up for election, and while Reed has pulled papers to run for a second term, Rowe is undecided whether he’s ready to run for another stint at the council table.
“There’s not really any reason why… I’m just trying to get all my ducks in a row,” Rowe said. “I’ve got a lot of family stuff going on right now.”
The nomination period began July 12, and candidates have until August 6 to file papers. If an incumbent fails to file for reelection by that time, the period will be extended by a week, according to the city clerk’s office.
“Everyone waits until the last couple of days,” Rowe said. “Everyone wants to see who else is running.”
Reed could not be reached for comment Monday.
Council members volunteer their time and aren’t paid for the hard work they do, said Councilman Arturo Medina, which is a detriment to finding qualified candidates.
Between the four-hour-long city council meetings once a month, the copious amount of reading on topics such as sewer pipelines and garbage rates, and the other duties that go along with being a council member, many people don’t want to subject themselves to the workload, he said.
“In the last elections there has been a race, but I don’t feel like they’re kicking the doors down to run,” Medina said. “People care, but in a small town it’s tough to make a decision when you know everybody.”
But City Treasurer Jamie McClanahan, who decided not to run for re-election this year, believes finding qualified people to run for government isn’t as hard as Medina makes it out to be.
“I think everybody’s really into politics and how well San Juan does, and is interested in seeing San Juan do well,” she said. “Everybody would like to run the city – I think they’ll be fine.”
Medina agrees that finding at least one person to run for office isn’t the problem, it’s that there are not enough options for the public, he said.
“When you have a larger pool to choose from, the odds of getting a qualified person in place are greater, Medina said. “It’s hard to get them – everybody’s busy with their own personal lives to attend to.”
Medina believes a small stipend of $100 or so should be paid to each council member to encourage people to get involved in local politics.
Years ago city council members were paid $10 a meeting, but council members at the time voted to go without pay to ease the burden on the city’s general fund, Cain said. Both the city clerk and city treasurer positions pay $100 a month, Cain said.
But Cain doesn’t believe the stipend paid to the city clerk and treasurer positions has anything to do with more people being interested in running for those seats over council positions, he said.
“It doesn’t make any difference,” Cain said. “It’s not enough money to bother with.”
Incumbent Shawna Serna is the only person so far to pull papers for the city clerk position. McClanahan decided not to run again because of time constraints in her professional life, she said.
“I’m just too busy,” she said. “I’m the manager at Community Bank in Gilroy and I wasn’t when I started. It’s just too much.”
Serna is on vacation and was unavailable for comment.
Retired certified public accountant and school administrator Paul Petersen pulled papers to run for McClanahan’s vacated seat about two weeks ago, but hasn’t decided for sure if he will file, he said.
Petersen has lived in San Juan Bautista for about a year and decided being part of city government would be a good way to get involved in his new community and do something “useful with the rest of my life,” he said.
“It’s a good opportunity to use some of my intelligence, but if someone else is running I’ll ignore it – I don’t want to spend any money or have a battle,” Petersen said. “But I was told nobody else was going to run, so I was invited to consider it.”
Candidates have until August 6 to file, and nomination paperwork can be obtained with City Clerk Shawna Serna at City Hall, located at 311 Second St., or with Deputy City Clerk Shirley Hawkins at the San Juan Bautista City Library, located at 803 Second St.
