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Ripon City Council moves to appoint 3 incumbents
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There will be no election for the Ripon City Council.

Elected leaders unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday that appointed the three qualified candidates – Leo Zuber, Daniel de Graaf, and Gary Barton – to another four-year term.

At the close of the nomination period on Aug. 9, the three incumbents – otherwise qualified candidates – were unopposed in the Nov. 5 election.

City Clerk & Finance Director Lisa Roos said that Council members had two of three options under a section code of the Election Code.

They chose Option 1, which allowed them to appoint de Graaf, Barton, and Zuber back to office and cancel the election.

“The candidates are appointed as if they were elected,” Roos said.

That option came at an estimated savings of $40,000 to $46,000, which is the cost to consolidate the City of Ripon to consolidate with that of San Joaquin County.

Option 3 called for holding an election only with a choice of a write-in candidate.

Option 2 would have applied if the number of qualified candidates (three, in this case) was less than the number of open seats.

Some of the races in the Nov. 5 elections include:

·         South San Joaquin Irrigation District – Dave Kamper in Division 3 did not seek reelection. William Van Ryn II is running to fill that seat; Mike Weststeyn (Division 4) and John Holbrook (Division 5) are running unopposed.

·         Manteca Unified School District – The only race is in Trustee Area 7, where former board member Bob Wallace and Kelly Alvarez are vying for the seat currently occupied by Marisella Guerro, who did not file for a second term. Incumbents Eric Duncan (Trustee Area 1) and Melanie Greene (Trustee Area 3) went unchallenged in their reelection bids.

·         Lathrop Mayor – City of Lathrop Council member Paul Akinjo, business owner / engineer Paul Camarena, retired staff manager Diana Radonic, and entrepreneur / investor Mansoor Fazel are in the running to fill the seat held by longtime mayor Sonny Dhaliwal, who is in a runoff with former Manteca mayor Steve DeBrum for the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisor District 3 seat.

·         Lathrop City Council – Incumbents Jennifer Torres-O’Callaghan and Minnie “Cotton” Diallo along with former Council member Steve Dresser are vying for the two available seats.

  For more information, log on to www.sjgov.org/department/rov/home.