Sentinel staff report–
Three seats are up for election on the Citrus Heights City Council this year, and at least two of those seats will see new faces join the council, as a pair of long-tenured council members have both announced they will not seek another four-year term.
The City Council seats for districts two, four, and five are up for election on Nov. 8 this year, with those seats currently being at-large seats held by Mayor Porsche Middleton and council members Jeannie Bruins and Steve Miller. Both Miller and Bruins have said they are retiring from their positions on the council.
Bruins announced last month during a prospective candidate forum that she will not be seeking a sixth term in office. She was first elected in 2002, six years after the city incorporated, and subsequently won re-election every four years over the past 20 years.
Miller announced in a July 23 news release that he will be seeking a position on the San Juan Unified School District’s governing board and will not seek re-election to the City Council, after serving in that position since 2005.
“It has been a pleasure and blessing serving on our city council for the past 17 years and I am proud of everything we have accomplished,” said Miller, highlighting the formation of a police department and building of a new City Hall. “…I am comfortable stepping down knowing our finances are solid, the Sunrise Mall redevelopment plan is in place, and our city is moving forward under the leadership of our new City Manager, Ash Feeney.”
Related: Want to run for Citrus Heights City Council? Here’s what you should know
Commenting on his bid school board, Miller said he wants “to make Citrus Heights schools the number one choice for our parents and students.”
Miller is seeking a newly created seat on the SJUSD board, which the board recently voted to expand to seven members, up from five. One of the new seats, Area 7, encompasses most of Citrus Heights, and is the seat Miller is running for.
The race to fill Miller and Bruins’ seats on the City Council is still taking shape, with residents having until Aug. 12 to submit nomination papers to run for one of the seats on the council. Mayor Porsche Middleton has announced she will seek another four-year term on the council, seeking to represent District 5 in the southeastern area of Citrus Heights.
As of Monday at 3:30 p.m., the City Clerk’s Office reported that a total of six residents have pulled papers to run for City Council. MariJane Lopez-Taff and Michael Nishimura are seeking the District 2 seat, Manuel Perez and Jayna Karpinski-Costa are seeking the District 4 seat, and Natalee Price and Porsche Middleton are seeking the District 5 seat.
None of the six residents who pulled papers so far have filed the required nomination papers, but candidates still have a little over two weeks to do so.
The other two current members of the council representing Districts 1 and 3, Bret Daniels and Vice Mayor Tim Schaefer, are not up for election until 2024. Daniels and Schaefer both won election two years ago in the first election held by district. The remaining three at-large seats are transitioning to district seats this year.
While Citrus Heights previously held its elections “at-large,” where anyone in the city could run for a position on the council, a district-based system was created in 2019 after the city was threatened with a lawsuit. Cities around the state have made similar changes in their election systems, when faced with lawsuits alleging that at-large voting disenfranchises minorities and violates the California Voting Rights Act.
Previously, all of the voters in Citrus Heights could vote on all five positions on the council, whereas voters can now only vote for candidates in the district of the city where the voter lives.
To see a district map of the city, see prior story: Filing period to run for Citrus Heights City Council opens
