Santa Maria City Council Race Filling Up With Candidates

In addition to incumbent Terri Zuniga, there are three other candidates seeking the two seats open on the Santa Maria City Council in the November general election.

“I come from a software and technology background, so I’m looking at business development and bringing jobs here to the city”, says newcomer candidate Hector Sanchez, “secondly, I’m looking at developing a soccer complex and I’m working with Parks and Rec on that, and third is addressing the violence here in the city, so I’m working on a coalition for that as well, looking at models like the City of San Jose, who has solutions around things that we can look at, getting ahead of the curve on the violence, that’s what I’m trying to look at.”

“I have lived in Santa Maria for 38 years, my wife and I really like it here, we raised our kids here, we have five grandkids here”, says council candidate and former Santa Maria City Planning Commissioner Dr. Michael Moats, “we have a lot of legacy in the City of Santa Maria, I wanted to see what I could do to make it a more beautiful place to live and have it continue to be a great place to raise your kids.”

“I feel like I can represent the people, their values, their needs, their desires and act on those on behalf of the City of Santa Maria as a whole, and do a very a good job at it”, says candidate John Childers, “the City is doing well right now I think, I get to meet a lot of people in my everyday work and I talk to them and understand what they actually want and need and I think I can represent them very well.”

Aside from the Mayor’s race, the race for Santa Maria City Council is an at-large election with the top two vote-getters filling the two seats that are available in November.

In addition to Terri Zuniga’s seat, the second seat on the City Council is open with the announced retirement of long-time council member Bob Orach.

The deadline to file candidacy papers for the Santa Maria City Council election is August 17.