ELECTIONS / MOORPARK : Fields Still Small in Mayor, City Council Races : Politics: Lawrason, hoping for another term, says ‘a lot is happening in the city.’ Many familiar figures plan to sit out this campaign.

A majority of Moorpark City Council seats will be up for grabs when residents go to the polls later this year, and incumbents and challengers are already mulling council and mayoral bids.

“Absolutely, I am going to run for the office again,” said Mayor Paul Lawrason, who is 65. “A lot is happening in the city. We’re on the edge of a lot of things and I would like to be around to help.”

Councilman Bernardo Perez, initially elected to the council in 1988 and its only Latino member, also plans to seek reelection in November.

“I really enjoy working for the community in that role,” he said. “I really enjoy the very local level of public service.”

Councilman John Wozniak, a former planning and parks commissioner elected to the council in 1990, said the end of his first term will cap a 14-year career in city government and might be the time to bow out of local politics.

“At some point you have to draw the line and say, ‘That’s enough,’ ” said Wozniak, 46, who recently found a job with the Moorpark Unified School District after being unemployed for more than a year.

“It’s difficult to get a job and then say, ‘Oh, by the way, I do this and I need this time off and I need to go to these meetings,’ ” Wozniak said. “At this point it would be a coin toss. I haven’t even sat down with the family yet to discuss it.”

Councilmen Scott Montgomery and Pat Hunter--the top vote-getters in the last council race two years ago, have two years left in their terms.

But Montgomery may still be politically active this year. He is considering a run for County Supervisor Vicky Howard’s seat or possibly contesting Lawrason’s mayoral bid. Montgomery expects to announce his intentions within the next few weeks. But he said he already considers a faceoff with Lawrason extremely unlikely, preferring to run for a political office that carries a four-year term.

“The likelihood that I would run for mayor is very, very small,” he said. “The biggest problem is it’s a two-year term. . . . I think it’s unfair that whoever is in that position has to run every two years.”

One potential council candidate is former Councilman Roy Talley, who in 1992 lost his council seat after finishing only 50 votes behind Perez.

“After watching the council for the past year, I think I need to be back,” Talley said. “There are a lot of things that can be done in the community and I still feel like I have something to contribute, so I’ll just have to see how I feel when it gets closer to filing time.”

Talley won a special election in 1991 to serve out the remainder of Lawrason’s first term on the council after Lawrason became the city’s first elected mayor midway through it.

Perez said that coming so close to losing his council seat showed him how much he valued it.

“That election really helped me see how much I appreciated being a member of the City Council,” said Perez, who blamed his poor finish on his own lazy campaign efforts. “It wasn’t a matter of anything that I did wrong, it was a matter of I didn’t do anything. . . . I will never again be in danger of becoming complacent in my election campaign.”

Another potential challenger is Planning Commissioner Mike Wesner. Wesner, who has served on the commission since 1990, said he is interested in joining the council but is unsure if he wants to take on the time commitment, including several meetings a week and other duties.

“I’m sitting here evaluating whether I can invest the time in the City Council for four years,” Wesner said. “I’ve got to sit down with my wife and say, ‘Well, this is a four-year commitment, what do you want to do?’ ”

Wesner plans to make his decision by the end of the month.

Regardless of who eventually decides to run, this year’s Moorpark race may be significantly shaped by the fact that candidates who have spiced up local politics in the past plan to avoid this year’s campaign.

Former councilwoman and frequent council critic Eloise Brown, who has run for city office three times since losing her seat in 1990, said she does not intend another bid in 1994.

“I really am having a wonderful time with what I’m doing,” Brown said of her role as Moorpark’s most active gadfly. “This way, I can irritate both the council and the school board.”

And, former councilman and current school board member Clint Harper, a slow-growth advocate who has clashed with Lawrason and Montgomery, said he has no plans to vie for a council seat this year.

Planning Commissioner Steve Brodsky said he recently considered running for one of the open council seats but decided to concentrate on business and family for now.

Commissioner Bart Miller was rumored to be considering a mayoral bid, but he said that Lawrason’s decision to run again will keep him on the sidelines.

“I’m going to put all my energy into reelecting Paul Lawrason,” Miller said. “I think he’s doing a good job.”

Wesner and other officials said the lack of willing council candidates is not surprising. “People have begun to realize that it’s a boring, tedious job,” Wesner said. “It’s thankless and you’re always wrong. I think people are really asking themselves, ‘Why would I want to get involved in that for four years?’ ”

And while Wozniak is wondering whether to run at all, Lawrason finds himself left to wonder who--if anyone--will challenge him. No clear opposition has emerged, and his major foe last time around--staunch conservative Helen Taylor--said she has no plans to run.

“In the past years, you could kind of pick out who the candidates would be. I can’t do that now,” Lawrason said. “We’re not being followed in recent months by vocal, obvious groups who have a leader who might run.”

Perez said he is not surprised or concerned by the lack of council or mayoral candidates.

“My first response to so few names would be, ‘Whew!’ We’re still a long way from filing, though.”