Additional Council Candidates Pull Papers

Twelve Mission Viejo residents have taken out nomination papers to begin the process of running for three open city council seats in the November election. The filing period began on July 12, and candidates have until Aug. 6 to file.

The list as of July 16 included Trish Kelley, Brian Skalsky, Dave Leckness, Neil Lonsinger, Steven D. Sperling, Sam Mamola, Mark Dobrilovic, Ken Golemo, Richard J. Sandzimier and Fred Carr.

By July 23, two more had jumped in: ex-councilman Lance MacLean, who was removed from office in the Feb. 2 recall election, and Daniel Avery, who surfaced in city politics as an advocate for MacLean.

Kelley and Leckness hold two of the seats that will be up for reelection on Nov. 2. Councilman John Paul Ledesma, who is completing his 12th year on the council, is termed out.

Of the challengers whose names are less familiar in city politics, Sperling and Mamola are attorneys, Golemo is a consumer marketing consultant, and Carr is a businessman. Avery is a Web designer. They listed their occupation as part of their candidate information when taking out nomination papers.

City watchdogs say they expect at least one more candidate to pull papers.

Another resident who has talked about running is Geoffrey Willis, a lawyer. In one of his blog posts last week, he scoffed at the notion he would run on a slate with Kelley and Leckness. In other blog posts, Avery distanced himself from MacLean, indicating his opposition to the recall election was not out of support for MacLean.

View candidate data at http://cityofmissionviejo.org/ViewDocument.aspx?id=11038