Political Landscape: Candidates line up for Costa Mesa Sanitary and Mesa Water district boards

Three challengers have signed on to run against board incumbents in the Costa Mesa Sanitary and Mesa Water districts this year.

Four candidates are vying for three seats up for grabs in November on the five-member sanitary district board: incumbents Bob Ooten, Arlene Schafer and Mike Scheafer and challenger David Snyder, who describes himself in his ballot statement as a business process consultant.

Board members currently are elected by voters throughout the sanitary district’s service area, but that will change in 2020, when the agency begins using voting districts.

The sanitary district provides sewer and curbside trash collection services to roughly 116,700 ratepayers in Costa Mesa, parts of Newport Beach and unincorporated sections of Orange County.

Mesa Water, which provides service to about 110,000 people in a similar area, already elects its five board members by voting districts.

In Mesa Water’s Division 3, incumbent Marice DePasquale — a public affairs professional who was appointed to the seat last year — will face off against Ryan James Ferryman, a property manager who is vice president of the Costa Mesa-Newport Harbor Lions Club and the son of sanitary district board member Jim Ferryman.

The race for Division 5 will see incumbent Shawn Dewane, who also is an elected Orange County Water District board member, square off against Anna Vrska, who chairs Costa Mesa’s Fairview Park Steering Committee and serves on the city’s Finance and Pension Advisory Committee.

Mesa Water board President Jim Atkinson is running unopposed in Division 4, according to the Orange County registrar of voters office.

For information about Mesa Water’s division boundaries, visit mesawater.org/leadership/board/election-information.

Women’s Democratic Club to host congressional and council candidates

Two congressional and two Costa Mesa City Council candidates are scheduled to appear at this month’s Newport Beach Women’s Democratic Club meeting.

Slated to speak are Harley Rouda and Katie Porter — the Democratic candidates in Congressional Districts 48 and 45, respectively — Katrina Foley, who is running for mayor of Costa Mesa, and Andrea Marr, who is seeking the council seat in Costa Mesa’s District 3.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Aug. 21 in the Oasis Senior Center at 801 Narcissus Ave., Corona del Mar. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

For more information or to register to attend, visit NBWDC.org. RSVPs are required.