Pasadena Candidates File Ballot Petitions

Jess Hughston, a member of the Pasadena Board of Directors for eight years, was virtually assured of another four-year term this week when the only candidate who had filed to run against him in the March 7 municipal election failed to qualify for the ballot.

City Clerk Pamela Swift said Suzanna Wilt, a systems analyst, was disqualified because one person who had circulated her nominating petitions failed to sign the form and another petition circulator was not a registered voter in the district. Wilt was left short of the 25 signatures needed on her nominating petitions.

Hughston will be the only candidate on the ballot in District 5, which serves the eastern part of the city. There will be contested elections for two other city board seats and for three seats on the Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education.

Mayor William E. Thomson Jr. will be opposed in District 7 in the southeastern part of the city by Shirley B. Mauller, a leader in the slow-growth group, Pasadena Residents in Defense of Our Environment.

Director Loretta Thompson-Glickman will not seek reelection in District 3 in northwest Pasadena. District 3 candidates who have qualified for the ballot are Chris Holden, a businessman; Gretchen Sterling, Farmers Market manager, and Michael L. Zinzun, a community activist. Swift said David John Wachtel, who describes himself as a homeless street performer, poet and graphic artist, also has filed for the office, but the city has not yet determined if he meets the residency requirement.

School board members Anne W. Pursel and James H. McBath filed for reelection. Pursel is opposed by Frank D. Rocha, a real estate broker. McBath is opposed by Wilbert Smith, a banker and educator, and by Alicia Woods, a business manager, and Dennis Scott, a personnel manager.

Candidates vying to succeed board member Noel Hatch, who did not file for reelection, are Juan Francisco Lara, an educator; Arlene Moncrief, an accountant-auditor, and George Padilla, an engineer.

Candidates who receive a majority of the votes cast will be elected. In those races in which no one gets a majority, the top two vote-getters will qualify for a runoff election April 18.