Seal Beach Incumbent, Commissioner Win; Mayor Ahead in Voting

A Seal Beach city councilman was reelected Tuesday night, and the mayor appeared to have won the race for her seat.

In a third Cith Council race, in District 5, which includes most of Leisure World, Joseph Hunt, a planning commissioner, won a over a fellow Leisure World resident.

With all ballots counted in District 1, Councilman Victor Grgas won by 488 votes to Charles Antos’ 381 votes.

Mayor Leading

With two of three precincts counted in District 3, Mayor Joyce Risner was ahead with 251 votes to Marjorie Ary’s 28 votes. Write-in candidate John McCants had received 29 votes.

In District 5, final results showed Hunt beating Robert Jaeschke by 929 votes to 399. Absentee votes had not been counted.

Turnout was less than 30% in most precincts, lower than the 35% expected from the three districts’ 11,341 voters, said City Clerk Joanne Yeo.

Allowing development while maintaining Seal Beach’s quaint seaside village atmosphere had been the main issue in races for the three council seats.

Program Defended

In District 1, a city program that would allow developers to build without providing additional parking was hotly debated. The district includes 3,032 voters from the downtown and Surfside areas.

Grgas defended the program, which requires developers to pay into a fund that will be used to create parking. He said through better management of existing parking spaces and the parking fund, the city can continue to grow. But Antos said projects should be scaled down if developers cannot provide sufficient parking.

Grgas is a director of development planning for the Los Angeles County Community Development Commission.

In District 3, the two challengers hoped to split the vote and force a runoff. Both McCants and Ary criticized Risner for supporting the controversial Bixby Ranch Co. plan to build a business park on 18 acres, which voters approved in a referendum last year. Risner said she was following the choice of her constituents.

Low-Key Race

The district includes 3,384 voters from the Marina Hill area, the southerly tip of Leisure World and the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. Risner is a field representative for the U.S. Department of Commerce and a representative to the California League of Cities.

Hunt and Jaeschke ran a low-key race for the seat left vacant by Oscar Brownell in a district with 4,925 voters.

Both Leisure World candidates said they are concerned with driver safety in Leisure World after an accident in which a car driven by an elderly, unlicensed man struck and killed a pedestrian in a shopping center. Hunt favors a voluntary program for seniors to give up their licenses if they are unfit to drive, but Jaeschke wants city police to enforce the law.