Coachella Valley Voters Head To The Polls

MAYORAL ELECTIONS

In addition to selecting a governor and deciding on an array of statewide propositions, voters today in several Coachella Valley cities will be choosing a mayor and city council members.

Voters in Indio will also choose whether to adopt a 3 percent hike in the city’s utility users tax, which is expected to help bridge a projected $3.3 million budget gap.

In Cathedral City, voters will chose a mayor, two city council members, a clerk and treasurer.

Incumbent Mayor Kathleen De Rosa will face off against Mark Nicolino Carnevale, the owner of an Italian restaurant; Kari Middleton, a financial advisor; and Tahseen “Tee” Ahmed, a small business owner.

Watch complete election coverage tonight on News Channel 3 – Your Election Headquarters!

Incumbent City Councilmen Chuck Vasquez and Paul Marchand will square off against challengers Jens Mueller, a licensed contractor, and Sam Toles, a businessman.

Cathedral City residents will also be asked to decide between incumbent Pat Hammers and Gary Figgins, a substitute teacher, for the office of city clerk. The city’s treasurer, Henry Chan, is running uncontested.

Voters in Coachella will decide whether to re-elect Mayor Eduardo Garcia or replace him with Councilman Gilbert Ramirez.

In addition, incumbent City Councilmen Steven Hernandez and Jesse Villarreal will face off against challengers Guadalupe Rodriguez and Artura Aviles. The two candidates with the top votes will claim the seats.

In Indian Wells, voters will decide which candidates will fill two open council seats. Councilman Patrick Mullany, retired Manhattan Beach police chief Ted Mertens and Councilwoman Mary Roche are vying for the seats.

In Palm Desert, incumbents on the Palm Desert City Council — Jean Benson and Jim Ferguson — will go up against three challengers.

Vying for the job are Susan Marie Weber, an accountant; Sheila Gilligan, a retired city administrator; and Jan Harnik, president of the Palm Desert High School Foundation.

Jim McIntosh’s name will appear on the ballot, but he withdrew from the race in late September.

The two candidates that receive the largest amount of votes will win the seats.

Voters in Indio will choose among candidates for three open seats on the city council. Mayor Gene Gilbert, Councilwoman Melanie Fesmire and Mayor Pro Tem Ben Godfrey will face off against Ascencion Torres, a plumber; Michael Wilson, a retired firefighter and accountant; and Elaine Holmes, a businesswoman.

In La Quinta, voters will decide whether re-elect Mayor Don Adolph. His challengers are Robert Sylk and John Pena — both businessmen.

Incumbent Council Members Terry Henderson and Linda Marie Bender will square off against Tim Campbell, Dennis Lubas, Eric Frankson and Joe Maldonado.

STATE ASSEMBLY

Two incumbent Assembly members from the Coachella Valley will try to fend off challengers today and retain their seats.

In the 80th Assembly District, Democrat V. Manuel Perez is battling Republican Steve Sanchez, owner of SOS Marketing & Public Relations and a former U.S. Marine sergeant.

Before Perez was elected in 2008, the seat, which encompasses eastern Riverside County and all of Imperial County, had been in GOP hands.

In his campaign, Perez has touted his efforts to organize a bipartisan team of local and state stakeholders to support the approval of a natural gas power plant near Desert Hot Springs that will bring $900 million in investment and 350 short- and long-term jobs.

Sanchez has vowed to “push to make targeted tax cuts in the manufacturing, technology and agricultural industries to create incentives for businesses to operate in our state,” according to his campaign website.

In the 64th District, Republican Brian Nestande, who is running for his second term, will face off against Democrat Jose Medina, a Riverside resident who has served on the Riverside Community College District Board of Trustees.

Nestande promised in his campaign to solve the state’s budget deficit by cutting spending on wasteful programs.

He also supports a spending cap “to force government to live within its means,” according to his campaign website. Nestande also hopes to improve education by spending education funds in classrooms and “not on the education bureaucracy.”

Medina said his top priority is education, and he promised to develop partnerships between schools, city and county agencies, faith-based organizations and businesses.

He also pledged to create incentives for the creation of “green” jobs and provide training for people seeking to re-enter the workforce.

The 64th District includes Bermuda Dunes, Canyon Lake, Idyllwild, Indian Wells, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Woodcrest, Lake Elsinore, Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Riverside and Temecula.

U.S. CONGRESS

Six-term Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack will face off today against Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet in what is expected to be a closely fought race that will help determine whether Democrats or Republicans will control Congress.

Bono Mack was elected in 1998 to fill the 45th Congressional District seat held by her late husband, Sonny Bono.

Pougnet, who has been the mayor of Palm Springs since 2007, has said he will bring change to the 45th Congressional District. He has criticized Bono Mack for the district’s high foreclosure and unemployment rates.

The 45th district includes Palm Springs, Coachella, Hemet, Idyllwild, Indian Wells, Indio, La Quinta, Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Thermal, portions of Temecula and several unincorporated areas of Riverside County.

PUBLIC SAFETY MEASURES

Competing ballot measures that could determine the retirement pay of Riverside County sheriff’s deputies are among the proposals on today’s ballot.

Measures L and M are the products of a campaign mounted early this year by the Riverside Sheriffs’ Association — the union representing deputies — to limit the Riverside County Board of Supervisors’ discretion to adjust county public safety workers’ pension benefits.

Faced with a $700 million unfunded pension liability, the county has been exploring ways to pare down its future retirement obligations.

One option under consideration is to change the age at which workers can begin to collect benefits, as well as convert some defined-benefit plans to defined-contribution plans, in which workers contribute more of their own money toward retirement.

A decade ago, the county adopted the “3 percent at 50” formula for sheriff’s deputies as a recruitment incentive.

The formula bases yearly pension payments on 3 percent of the average of the three highest-paid years of an employee’s career, multiplied by the number of years on the job.

According to the Peace Officers’ Research Association of California, a public safety employee with 18 years of service could expect to receive just over half of his on-duty annual compensation in retirement.

Retirees’ pensions can be as high as 90 percent of pre-retirement income. The minimum age to collect benefits is 50.

The deputies’ union drafted the “Public Safety & Taxpayer Protection Act of 2010” to prevent the Board of Supervisors from altering future public safety employees’ pension and death benefits. The act is Measure L on the ballot and asks voters to decide whether county residents should be empowered to authorize the board to make any changes.

The board’s initiative, Measure M, asks voters to decide whether their approval should be required before retirement benefits can be increased, leaving the board the latitude to decrease benefits at its discretion. The measure would become Ordinance 889 and would not impact deputies already hired.

TERM LIMITS

Voters in four Riverside County cities will decide today whether to impose term limits on their elected officials.

Hemet, Indian Wells, Menifee and Murrieta all have measures on the Nov. 2 ballot that would cap the number of years an official could stay in office.

Hemet’s Measure W would be the most restrictive. If approved, no person could serve in any elected capacity for more than three terms — 12 years — over their entire life.

Proponents wrote in campaign literature that a cap is necessary because “career politicians at the local level have a tendency to get too close to their city `family’ and often make decisions which favor the interests of themselves and city employees, as opposed to the interests of Hemet taxpayers.”

Hemet is facing a $3.3 million budget shortfall and has laid off a small number of workers, including public safety employees.

Indian Wells’ Measure Q would limit the mayor and city council to two consecutive four-year terms. The same person could seek the same office after a two-year hiatus, however.

Menifee’s Measure Z would mandate the exact same parameters for that city’s council members.