FILLMORE : Gunderson Won’t Run for 2nd Term

Fillmore City Councilman Donald Gunderson has announced that he will not seek reelection due to the long hours the job requires and the increasing amount of time he spends away from his family.

Gunderson, 59, who in his duties as a Fillmore council member also has served on the Ventura Regional Sanitation District and several city committees, has served one four-year term on the panel.

“I came to the realization that I wasn’t in control of things anymore,” Gunderson said. “I was being run by meetings and agendas. I’d lost control of the ability to control my own time.”

A retired U. S. Navy captain who works as a consulting engineer, Gunderson won election to the City Council as a first-time candidate in 1990, five years after moving to the city of 12,000.

He credits his wife, Ruthie, for helping him win the campaign.

“I married Ruthie and I think she got me half the votes,” he said. “Most people figured any guy that married Ruthie had to be OK.”

Gunderson said he is most proud of helping to get the Fillmore steam train up and running during his term. The biggest disappointment, he said, was the inability to achieve greater success in marketing north Fillmore industrial lots to new businesses.

Longtime Fillmore Councilman Roger Campbell said the city would miss Gunderson’s expertise on various subjects.

“Don was a real asset to the council,” Campbell said. “He’s one of the more intelligent people I’ve known. The city was better off for the time he served.”

Gunderson’s term expires after the November election.