The Santa Clarita City Council has called for a special meeting Monday to decide on what to do with the lone candidate for District No. 3 in November’s election.
Jason Gibbs, who’s about to finish his first term on the council, is the only one who filed paperwork for the seat by its deadline.
Now the City Council has three choices, according to a draft resolution in the city’s agenda posted online for the 5 p.m. meeting: appoint to the office the person who has been nominated; appoint to the office any eligible elector if no one has been nominated; or hold the election if either no one or only one person was nominated.
“Should the City Council appoint the nominee to office, the attached resolution may be adopted to confirm the appointment and cancel the election; the nominee would take office and serve exactly as if elected at a municipal election; and the term of appointment for the four-year term would begin December 2024,” according to the draft resolution.
The City Council is expected to pick one of the three options, with the odds favoring the appointment of Gibbs, who is a council incumbent, but not considered an incumbent in his race under the new electoral map being used for November’s election.
The map has his District 3 seat composed largely of Saugus with parts of Valencia, too. The northern border includes the developing Tesoro tract, with the western border near the Rye Canyon Business Park and the southern border near Soledad Canyon Road.
Voters can check their electoral district at this website the city created: residency.santa-clarita.com.
Another reason why the appointment might be a popular choice with a council that prides itself on its fiscal conservatism is that the cancellation of the District 3 election will save the city about $120,000 in election costs it would otherwise have to pay to L.A. County for consolidating the single-candidate race onto its ballot.
The other City Council race on the Nov. 5 ballot, for District No. 1, includes three candidates who filed paperwork as of the Aug. 9 deadline, according to the City Clerk’s Office: Patsy Ayala, Tim Burkhart and Bryce Jepsen.
