The council on Wednesday, Aug. 19, canceled the City Council elections in Districts Three and Five. According to City Clerk Gloria Harper, Seal Beach would save money by canceling the elections. (See below for details.) The council appointed the incumbents, who were running unopposed, to each serve a second four-year term in their districts.
The council voted unanimously to cancel the District Three race and appoint District Three Councilwoman Lisa Landau to a second term. (Landau is currently mayor. The council will select the next mayor in December.) All five council members were present.
The council voted 4-1 to cancel the District Five race and appointed District Five Councilman Nathan Steele to a second term.
District One Councilman Joe Kalmick cast the sole dissenting vote.
Landau and Steele will be sworn into their second terms after the District One election in November.
No one spoke during the public comment part of the special council meeting. According to Harper, no one was online. Only two people were in the audience for the meeting. The video of the meeting is 27 minutes long.
The meeting was held so staff could get direction from the council on whether to proceed with the District Three and Five elections.
“Just to clarify, District One is not a part of this item tonight,” Harper said.
“There are four qualified candidates for that district and the election will go forth on November 3rd for that district only,” Harper said.
“Under Election Code section 10229, when only one person has been nominated for an office, the council may do two things. First, they can either appoint the sole nominee to that office and cancel the election or they could hold the election. These actions can apply independently to each district,” Harper said.
If the council canceled the elections they could then appoint the incumbents to their seats.
“Once this appointment is made here tonight, write-in candidacy for that office cannot be accepted,” Harper said.
According to Harper’s staff report, the Orange County Registrar of Voters put the cost of holding the District Three election at $8,205 – $9,913. The estimated cost of a District Five election was put at $10,616 – $12,825.
“The cost of conducting the elections was budgeted in FY 2026-2027,” according to Harper’s staff report.
In a comment on the Sun’s Facebook page, District Two Councilman Ben Wong put the cost of canceling the two district elections saved Seal Beach almost $23,000.
Kalmick asked if the appointed council terms begin at the same time they would have if there had been an election.
“Correct. It’ll be the first meeting in December. The term doesn’t change,” Harper said.
Councilwoman/Mayor Landau asked if the council could do one motion or if they needed two separate motions?
Harper said they should make two separate motions.
“In principle, I would rather run the election and be on the ballot and have my neighbors in District Five give them the opportunity to put a check mark by my name,” Steele said.
“That kind of gives me the imprimatur of actually serving them as opposed to being appointed by the City Council, which is fine but, it’s a difference,” Steele said.
“The difference is the consent of the governed which is kind of a constitutional principle and so I would rather not cancel in District Five,” he said.
“But if we do cancel district five, I would appreciate or ask that we take the savings that would apply to that and put it into District Five in one way, shape or form,” Steele said.
“That would be in my view if the savings come in to the city that I can use that money for some way to benefit the people in District Five. So that would be my one of two requests. One, don’t do anything. Don’t cancel the election or, secondly, cancel the election and credit the $10,000 to my discretion so that I can use it for my neighbors. So that’s my statement,” Steele said.
Steele asked how that could be done.
“We’re going to have to look into that to be honest,” said City Manager Patrick Gallegos.
“I don’t have an answer tonight to give to you that would satisfy that, but we can certainly look at the possibility of savings,” Gallegos said.
He said he didn’t know if Senior Assistant City Attorney Amy Greyson had anything to say.
“Just that it’s not on the agenda, so you couldn’t take any action anyway, but I agree with the city manager. Staff can look into that,” Greyson said.
Neither of the two motions they voted on required a second reading and went into effect immediately.
In 2024, candidates Wong and Patty Senecal ran unopposed for open seats in Districts Two and Four. The sitting council members for those seats had termed out.
The 2024 election wasn’t canceled. Wong received 2,432 votes and became the District Two council rep. Senecal received 2,402 votes and became the District Four council rep.