Seal Beach : Incumbents Winning in Race for Council Seats

Unofficial vote tabulations show that incumbents Joyce Risner and Victor Grgas easily won reelection to the City Council Tuesday despite aggressive campaigns by anti-development opponents.

In District 3, Risner, the mayor, received 594 votes, Write-in candidate John McCants received 252 votes, and Marjorie Ary, 70. The district includes the Marina Hill area, the southern tip of Leisure World and the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. According to City Clerk Joanne M. Yeo, McCants lost about 80 votes because his name was not been written correctly on the ballots.

Councilman Victor Grgas outdistanced Charles Antos 524 to 370 in District 1, which includes the downtown and Surfside areas, according to the tabulations. Planning Commissioner Joseph Hunt was the top vote getter in the council elections, with a landslide victory for the District 5 seat held by Oscar Brownell, who decided not to seek another term. The district includes most of the Leisure World retirement community. Hunt received 1,024 votes; his opponent, Robert Jaeschke, received 433.

About 28% of 11,341 eligible residents voted. City officials had expected a 35% turnout.

In his campaign, Antos criticized Grgas for supporting a downtown development program that allows project developer to pay into a fund to be used to create parking spaces rather than meet city parking space quotas.

McCants and Ary said they wanted to unseat Risner because she supported a Bixby Ranch Co. plan to build a business park on 18 acres of land near Rossmoor. City residents approved the plan in a referendum last year. McCants, a former school principal, said that although he did not expect to win, he wanted to give Risner some opposition.