Election Results: School Parcel Tax, City Clerk Measures Headed to Victory; Barbanica and Scales-Preston On Track to Square Off in November Runoff for Supervisor

Avila Farias takes early lead in Assembly race, followed closely by lone Republican candidate; City Council to get bad budget news, take up waterfront plan at tonight's meeting

Update: Here are where things stand as of Wednesday morning

Measure A (appointed city clerk): 67% yes (passes)

Measure C (MUSD parcel tax): 73% yes (passes)

County Supervisor: Barbanica, 41%; Scales-Preston, 33%; Killings, 14%; Hector Gonzalez, 11% (Barbanica and Scales-Preston move on to November runoff)

State Assembly: Ledo, 33%; Avila Farias, 30%; Wilson, 24%; Mitchoff, 13% (Ledo and Avila Farias to move on to November general election)

State Senate: Grayson, 65%; Rubio, 35% (both move on to November general election)

Note: Results don’t reflect mail-in ballots that were mailed/dropped off on Election Day, as well as provisional ballots, but given the current margins, it’s unlikely that the late ballots will result in meaningful changes.

Based on early returns in Tuesday’s primary election, Martinez Unified School District officials will be able to rescind a small portion of the painful budget cuts they made last week, as a parcel tax renewal was easily exceeding the two-thirds majority required for approval.

The near-certain approval of the parcel tax (it had about 73% yes votes as of 10:30 p.m. Tuesday) is expected to shave about $675,000 off the roughly $3.36 million in cuts the school board approved last week for the 2024-25 academic year, saving 5.6 full-time-equivalent teaching, librarian and counseling positions.

Martinez city voters also easily passed a measure to do away with the antiquated elected city clerk position, making it a position appointed by the city manager. Requiring only a simply majority, Measure A had over 67% yes votes in early returns. When Gary Hernandez’s final term as city clerk expires at the end of this year, Martinez will join most other cities in the state in appointing its city clerk.

The race to succeed retiring county Supervisor Federal Glover looks destined to come down to a runoff in November between Antioch Councilman Mike Barbanica and Pittsburg Councilwoman Shanelle Scales-Preston, as neither was approaching the majority vote necessary to win the race outright (Barbanica was leading with 41%, followed by Scales-Preston at 33%, with the two other candidates far back).

In a development that I admit I didn’t anticipate, Republican Sonia Ledo, who spent little money and had little backing, was in strong position to advance to the November runoff in the race for the state Assembly seat representing District 15, which includes Martinez. Based on early returns, Ledo was in a dead heat with Martinez resident and Contra Costa County Board of Education Trustee Anamarie Avila Farias, with Antioch Councilwoman Monica Wilson and former county Supervisor Karen Mitchoff trailing well behind in third and fourth.

Ledo clearly benefited from being the only Republican in a four-way race where the Democratic vote is split among three contenders whose campaigns (as well as their special interest supporters and detractors) bombarded voters with advertising. With an unknown number of ballots still to be counted, Ledo held a healthy lead of 3,416 votes over Wilson for the second spot and right to advance to November. Mitchoff, despite a number of high-profile endorsements from top local politicians and the name recognition that comes from being a longtime county leader, was well behind the top three vote-getters and out of contention.

If Ledo holds off Wilson for a place in November’s general election, it will be a striking result based solely on the amount of money the two candidates raised and spent on this campaign. Wilson reported over $331,000 in contributions for her campaign, far and away the most of any candidate; Ledo raised $7,320.

Follow county election results at the following link: https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/CA/Contra_Costa/120249/web.317647/#/summary

City Council meeting preview

Even as the Martinez school district gets a glimmer of positive news with the parcel tax approval, the City Council will come to terms with its own budget woes at tonight’s meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. Like the school district, the city is facing the double whammy of declining revenues and rising expenditures, and will be making some mid-year budget adjustments in an effort to keep its books balanced.

As a staff report accompanying tonight’s agenda item on the budget states:

The City is facing financial challenges not historically experienced in recent fiscal cycles. Revenues are down significantly from the projected budget, reflecting a softening of consumer spending, lower cannabis sales, and lower than anticipated charges for services. This trend was identified and conveyed in staff’s first quarter budget report to the Budget & Finance Subcommittee in December 2023. Conversely, expenses have increased since the budget’s adoption due to unanticipated events, unplanned City initiatives and one-time expenses related to the stabilization of the City’s finance operations (as conveyed in a staff report to the City Council in November 2023). Despite this unanticipated shift in budget projections, staff has identified cost savings in various programs and in labor, which enables the City Manager to authorize budget transfers within the General Fund to cover the new expenses and address the shortfall in revenue.

The other big item on tonight’s agenda is a public hearing to approve the long-awaited and much-discussed Waterfront Marina Trust Land Use Plan, which will be submitted to the State Lands Commission for consideration. The plan serves as a blueprint for renovating and modernizing the marina and waterfront in a process expected to play out over the next several decades.

The regular council meeting will be preceded at 5:30 p.m. by a special meeting on the Contra Costa Transportation Authority's feasibility study for expanded ferry service.

The agendas for both meetings can be found at the following link: https://www.cityofmartinez.org/government/meetings-and-agendas

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