Five potential candidates have withdrawn papers for San Fernando City Council

Five people have filed nomination papers to run for two full-term seats on the San Fernando City Council. Once filed, their names will appear on the ballot for this fall’s municipal election, which will coincide with the statewide general election on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

The potential candidates so far include Sylvia Ballin, former mayor of the city of San Fernando; Patty Lopez, former California state representative; Sean M. Rivas, chairman of the San Fernando Valley Democratic Party; Jason D. Strickler, prevention program coordinator for Pueblo y Salud; and incumbent Victoria Garcia, who won a special election to fill the council seat left vacant after Councilwoman Cindy Montañez died last fall.

Voters in San Fernando will select two candidates, each of whom will serve a four-year term. The city council voted earlier this year to hold the municipal election on the same day as the 2024 general election. The city is estimated to cost $56,805, according to Julia Fritz, San Fernando City Clerk.

The official deadline for filing nomination papers, which each candidate must submit with 20 valid signatures from local registered voters, is Friday, August 9 at 5 p.m. The nomination period will be extended until Wednesday, August 14 if the second-ranking mayor, Celeste Rodriguez — whose council seat is one of two on the Nov. 5 ballot — does not file papers to run for an additional term.

Both Rodriguez and Garcia are bidding for the California State Assembly seat now held by Luz Rivas, who represents the 43rd District. Rivas is currently campaigning for Congress, for the House seat held by Rep. Tony Cárdenas, who announced his planned retirement last year.

Candidates have the option to run for both city council and state assembly simultaneously, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, but only Garcia is expected to hold both positions. Rodriguez, whose term expires this fall, has said she will not run for the local seat again.

Sylvia Ballin

Sylvia Ballin

Ballin, a graduate of the University of La Verne, has lived and raised her family in San Fernando for more than 47 years. This year, she is running for the second time in the municipal election. She was a candidate in the special election in March when Garcia was elected. She previously served on the city council for more than 11 years, including four terms as mayor. Ballin lost her re-election bid in 2022 to Mary Solorio.

Ballin is now retired after a long career as chief administrative analyst for the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), where she later served on the MWD Board of Directors. She was also a member of the California Water Coalition.

While Ballin was a city councilman, he established a scholarship program administered by the San Fernando Education Commission and worked closely with the city manager to put the city’s imperiled budget on a sounder footing.

During her campaign earlier this year, she said one of her top priorities was to look at the city’s current budget and “how we’re spending taxpayers’ money.”

“That’s really important to me,” Ballin said.

Ballin said she is “100 percent” confident the city now has more resources as a result of the work of previous councils and said she expects she can accomplish even more this time around if given the opportunity to serve on the council again.

“We’re on the right track,” Ballin explained, noting that she wants to help ensure San Fernando stays on a positive path and continues to grow.

Another major concern for Ballin is public safety and increasing the number of officers in the San Fernando Police Department.

“We need more officers – we’re almost at the level we wanted to be at, but we need more,” Ballin said of the SFPD, which expects to have 35 officers on staff in the coming months.

Victoria Garcia

Victoria Garcia

Garcia, currently the only incumbent representative seeking re-election, is a lawyer, wife and mother of three young children. She describes herself as a third-generation resident of the city of San Fernando.

She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and a juris doctorate from Stanford Law School.

Garcia previously ran a campaign focused on improving public safety, beautifying the city and supporting local businesses.

“Many residents have asked me to run for a full term,” Garcia wrote in a statement to the San Fernando Sun/the Sun. “While I have been able to push hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair our sidewalks and renew the city’s crumbling infrastructure during my first few months on the City Council, I am acutely aware that fixing our streets, increasing the number of police officers available to serve our community, proactively patrolling our streets, and revitalizing our downtown will take even more. I have listened to my neighbors and will continue to listen to them to stand up for our community.”

Before being elected to complete Montañez’s term as city councilman, Garcia served as the city’s Transportation and Public Safety Commissioner.

During her last campaign, Garcia received ardent support from members of the ultraconservative “parental rights” organizations SFV Alliance (Serving Family Values) and Leave Our Kids Alone (LOKA), and was endorsed by the Los Angeles Hispanic Republican Club (LAHRC) for her candidacy for City Council.

If Garcia were to win both the state assembly race and the city council seat, she would have to decide which position to run for, triggering a special election for the other position.

Patty Lopez

Patty Lopez

Lopez moved to the United States from Michoacán, Mexico at age 12 and taught herself to read and write in English. At age 18, she re-enrolled in an adult night school to earn her high school diploma. She later helped found the Padres Activos of the San Fernando Valley, an organization that helps immigrant parents secure academic rights for their children.

After becoming involved with local parent groups, she disrupted the status quo in 2014 and was elected to the State Assembly District 39 (now D 43) in a surprise victory over incumbent Raul Bocanegra. She served one term and was defeated by Bocanegra the following election cycle.

Perhaps her most important bill during her time in office was the “Right to Dry” law, which would prohibit apartment complexes and housing complexes from forcing people to dry their clothes outside.

Although Lopez has been a San Fernando resident for thirty years and is an active citizen, this will be her first run for the San Fernando City Council.

Although she previously ran as a Democrat, Lopez has ties to many conservative politicians, including LAHRC Chairman David Hernandez and local Republican Ricardo Benitez.

Lopez supported Garcia during her last campaign and compared Garcia’s surprise victory to her own.

“Victoria represents, in her time, what I did,” Lopez said during Garcia’s swearing-in. “And there will be others who will do the same — because the government has completely disconnected itself from the people and their families.”

Sean Rivas

Rivas, 36, has an associate degree in general education from College of the Canyons and is an administrative assistant for the LA Unified School District. The child of immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala, he grew up in the San Fernando Valley in a single-parent household and has lived in the city of San Fernando for the past two years.

Rivas, who is endorsed by Rodriguez, Luz Rivas and Cárdenas, said he felt motivated to run for City Council for a second time — he was on the ballot in the March special election — because he wants to “give back” to the community and serve as a positive role model, especially for children.

Although he is a Democrat, Sean Rivas described serving on the City Council as a nonpartisan role, and said he looks forward to working with fellow council members to work for “the common good” of serving the residents of San Fernando. He currently serves on the city’s Planning and Preservation Committee

“We may not always agree, but often we do have common ground,” he said, noting that the goal is to identify shared goals — including public safety concerns such as speeding, and how to best allocate the city’s resources — and grow from there.

“My hope, as someone who tries to take care of people as a whole, is that I stay as centered as possible in serving the city of San Fernando,” Rivas said.

Jason Strickler

Strickler, 28, is new to San Fernando politics and has experience as a social entrepreneur, community organizer and activist. He is prevention program coordinator for Pueblo y Salud, a local nonprofit led by Councilman Rodriguez’s father, Ruben Rodriguez.

Strickler grew up in Sylmar, earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies and a minor in Journalism from California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and recently graduated from Pepperdine University with a Masters Degree in Social Entrepreneurship and Change.

He has lived in the city of San Fernando for almost three years and calls it “the jewel of the San Fernando Valley: safe, beautiful, great food, great businesses, great neighbors.”

Strickler’s main platform points include supporting local law enforcement to ensure community safety, strengthening youth programming and encouraging local businesses. He described himself as an “approachable person” who wants to work together to find solutions and said the local city council is an “impartial” position where voters have more access to their council members.

“It’s about doing what’s right for our community,” Strickler said, adding that he wants to focus on “making sure the community feels safe, providing municipal services and making sure the money is being spent well in our community and bringing in more resources to grow our community.”

Strickler believes community and Latino representation in government is important and hopes to follow in the footsteps of local elected officials like Senators Alex Padilla, Cárdenas and Celeste Rodriguez.

For more information about the nomination process to run for city council, call (818) 898-1204 or visit the city’s elections page at www.sfcity.org/elections.

Related Posts