VILLA PARK : Low-Budget Race for Council Candidates

Most candidates around Orange County were busy filing their campaign finance statements to meet Thursday’s deadline. Not so the six men vying for two seats on the City Council here.

Because none of the six plan to spend more than $1,000, each is exempt from filing any more statements, city officials said Friday.

“All six of the candidates filed the short form when they took out their papers,” said Kaysene Miller, city clerk.

By filing Candidate Statement Form 470 at the beginning of the campaign, a candidate promises not to spend or raise more than $1,000 and does not need to file any additional financial statements.

“That’s typical for Villa Park,” said Miller, a 13-year city employee. “We’re a very small city, and so it doesn’t take much to run a campaign.”

The city has about 2,000 residences, Miller said. All of those are single-family houses; there are no apartments or condominiums.

“Most of the campaigning here is in the form of mailers and posters,” Miller said. “And if they use bulk mail, it’s just not that expensive.”

Incumbents John Frackelton and Harold H. Saldarini are facing challengers Michael Jacobs, Nick Rogers, Steve Loritz and Robert Patchin in the Nov. 3 election.

Underlying most of the issues in this campaign is how to maintain the semirural and close-knit atmosphere in the county’s smallest city, with about 6,300 residents.

“Everything here is low-key,” Miller said. “There are no hot issues, and we like it that way.”