The District One City Council runoff election will be held Jan. 29. At Monday night’s council meeting, City Clerk Robin Roberts said the runoff would be held by mail.
That same night, council members discussed for implementing Measure BB, the 1 cent sales tax increase approved by voters last month. (For details, see the story at the top of this page.)
In related news, Mike Varipapa, of District Three, and Sandra Massa-Lavitt, of District Five, were sworn in for their second terms on the Seal Beach City Council Monday night, Dec. 10.
District One run off
The January runoff race will be between Joe Kalmick and Peter Amundson, the top-two vote getters in the District election. In Seal Beach, a candidate must receive 50 percent of the vote, plus one, to win a council seat.
According to the “Certificate of Registrar of Voters,” the results of the November election were:
• Joe Kalmick received 988 votes
• Peter Amundson received 673
• Scott Levitt received 635 votes
• John Waller received 144 votes
In all, 2,767 votes were cast in District One. Of those, 1,606 votes were cast by mail. 33 votes were early voting ballots.
The current city budget includes $19,000 for a runoff election, according to the Dec. 10, 2018, staff report by Roberts.
The last time a Seal Beach council race went into a runoff was in 2010. That year four candidates sought the Old Town and Surfside seat. Ellery Deaton fell nine votes shy of the required number of votes—50 percent plus one—and was forced into a runoff against Joe Kalmick. In the November 2010 race, Ellery Deaton received 981 votes or 49.6 percent, Joe Kalmick received 657 votes or 33.2 percent, Scott Levitt received 204 votes or 10.3 percent and Robert Aguilar Jr. received 137 votes or 6.9 percent.
In the January 2011 District One runoff election, 1,340 people voted. Deaton received 826 votes and Kalmick received 514 votes.
Massa-Lavitt and
Varipapa sworn in
Roberts, who was appearing at her last council meeting before her retirement to the private sector, administered the oath of office to re-elected District Three Councilman/outgoing Mayor Mike Varipapa and District Five Councilwoman Sandra Massa-Lavitt. Varipapa and Massa-Lavitt ran unopposed in their respective council districts. The audience applauded.
Your information is wrong. John Waller received 144 votes. Votes Cast total and votes cast for this seat are 2 different numbers. Total Votes Cast in Old Town/Surfside was 2767. However, only 2,440 of those voted down ballot to the City Council Seat (-11.1%) did not either care or did not know who to vote for.
You are right. It appears the reporter (Charles M. Kelly) put the number in the wrong place and neither he, nor the editor, nor the proofreaders caught it. We have edited the online article to correct the error.