Residents of only one City Council ward, Ward 4, will elect a councilman this year.
That contest will be between the current Ward 3 incumbent, John Govella Fulghum, and challenger Ralph “Lee” Arismendez.
Fulghum filed in Ward 4 after the incumbent in that ward, David Carabajal, decided to run in Ward 3 instead.
Carabajal and the Ward 2 councilman, Mayor Santiago “Jimbo” Martinez, did not have opponents this year.
Elections in those two wards were canceled. Carabajal and Martinez will later be declared the winners of those seats.
Early voting by personal appearance will continue until May 8, and the official election day will be on May 12.
All voters in the city will be asked to cast ballots this year to decide whether to continue placing one-eighth of the city’s 4B sales tax receipts into a street maintenance fund.
That has averaged about $200,000 for the last four years.
According to state law, cities may opt to use one-eighth of the 4B sales tax money for the maintenance of existing city streets. But the program must be reapproved every four years by the voters.
The city uses that money mostly to pay for annual seal coating. The remainder of approximately $800,000 a year collected in 4B sales taxes is spent on economic development projects.
Voters casting ballots by mail have been able to apply for those ballots for several weeks now. May 4 will be the final day registered voters can send those applications to City Hall.
Mail ballots that are returned to City Hall by the morning of May 12 will be counted.
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