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Filing period ends for Atascadero city council, mayor, clerk seats 

Atacadero City Council

Atascadero City Administration Building. Photo by Heather Young

Those wishing to run for city treasurer can file through Aug. 13

The filing period for those wishing to run for Atascadero City Council, mayor or clerk ended on Friday, Aug. 8. The filing period for city treasurer has been extended through Wednesday, Aug. 13 because incumbent Joe Modica will not seek re-election. The council seats currently held by Brian Sturtevant and Heather Moreno are up for grabs this November.

The candidates for Atascadero City Council are incumbents Brian Sturtevant and Heather Moreno, and Atascadero Planning Commissioner Len Colamarino and past Planning Commission Chuck Ward. Colamarino sought a seat in 2008, but after losing, he joined the planning commission. Ward served on the planning commission and then ran for city council in 2012. Moreno was appointed to the council nearly two years ago after O’Malley was elected mayor and vacated his council seat.

“I am running for council because I want to maintain continuity with the progress we’ve made in Atascadero,” Moreno wrote in a statement. “We have a council that works well together, emphasizes building consensus, and does what is in the best interests of the city and its residents.”

Colamarino said in a statement that he entered the race because he wants “to give Atascadero voters the opportunity to vote for someone who is moderate and independent. I understand the importance of balancing competing interests in governing and I am uninfluenced by the agendas of any political groups or ideologies. I consider every matter on its own merits, without fear or favor of anyone or anything.”

“The position of city councilman is important during these times of stagnant local business development,” Ward wrote on his website. “What is needed is a catalyst to establish a long overdue path to realize the economic development potential of our city. I feel the city council needs at least one person who has executive business experience outside of the area that could look at something and say ‘that’s not right.'”

In 2012, Mayor Tom O’Malley ran unopposed and became the city’s first elected mayor. In the 2010 election, Atascadero voters decided to have an elected mayor and that seat should be up for re-election every two years. O’Malley will be challenged by Charles Scovell, owner of Charlie Scovell Tree.

“It was an honor to serve my home town as our city’s first elected mayor during our centennial and grand reopening of our historic City Hall,” O’Malley wrote in an email. “We are now poised to develop a solid economic foundation that can meet so many unmet needs in our community. I will continue to work hard to see that foundation achieved, build community consensus and fulfill the E.G. Lewis vision of an enjoyable community for residents and visitors.”

Scovell said that he was unsettled that O’Malley ran unopposed for mayor in 2012.

“My oldest son lost both his uncles within a few years of each other to the drug problem that has crippled our town, I refuse to sit by and watch our best and brightest go down the drain. James Freeman Clarke said, ‘A politician thinks of the next election, and a statesman the next generation.’ That’s why I’m running for mayor of Atascadero 2014,” Scovell wrote in a statement.

Current Atascadero City Clerk Marcia McClure Torgerson will run, once again, unopposed for that seat. City Treasurer Joe Modica will not seek re-election, and Gere Sibbach, who retired from the county of San Luis Obispo County as the elected auditor-controller recently, is the only candidate for that seat right now. However, candidates may file to run for city treasurer until Wednesday, Aug. 13 at 5 p.m. To find out more about running for that seat, contact Torgerson at (805) 470-3400.

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