3 Incumbents on Moorpark Council May Face Challengers

Months before voters will decide three open seats on the City Council, the race is already looking crowded: All three incumbents have announced reelection plans and at least two challengers are mulling bids.

Councilmen John Wozniak and Bernardo Perez and Mayor Pat Hunter all plan to seek reelection in the fall. And city planning commissioners Gary Lowenberg and Keith Millhouse say they may consider running.

“I’m giving it very serious consideration,” said Millhouse, who--like Lowenberg--has been on the commission two years.

Wozniak and Perez said they will run for reelection but do not plan to challenge Hunter for mayor. Voters have directly elected the mayor in Moorpark since 1988.

All three incumbents are stressing their experience and the benefits of stability on the council.

Hunter, a sergeant in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said six years of experience on the council have given him something to show the voters.

“I am no longer forced to tell people what I like to do. . . . Now they have the benefit of looking at my record, some of my accomplishments as a basis for determining my qualifications as mayor.”

*

Among his accomplishments, Hunter said, is an ordinance he pushed through requiring fees on developers to purchase materials for the Moorpark Library.

Perez, who will retire this month from his 30-year job at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, has been on the council since 1988.

“The value that I bring to the City Council is a sense of history,” Perez said. “I’ve been involved since prior to incorporation.”

Perez has pushed for affordable housing in Moorpark. In 1986, he helped produce Measure F, intended to cap the rate of development in the city.

Wozniak, a warehouse supervisor for the Moorpark Unified School District, said he has worked to keep the public informed about what happens at City Hall and pushed hard to create the Arroyo Vista Recreation Center.

He joined the council in 1990 and is proud that the city has avoided major lawsuits since then.

“I’ve always tried to work for the compromise so you don’t end up in lawsuits,” Wozniak said.