By Marion Gil |Staff Writer|
San Bernardino held its general elections on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
The major position up for election was mayor of San Bernardino while other certain parts of the city also had elections on who would be elected for ward members.
“Oh it’s all about who’s gonna be the new mayor, we really need someone who won’t screw up the city more than it is right now,” said a San Bernardino citizen who asked to remain anonymous.
According to sanbernardinoelections.com, there were 10 candidates for the mayoral position. As well as, three for ward one, two for ward two, and three for ward four.
The consequences of bankruptcy, rising crime rates, costly pension obligations, and overall lowered morale are the issues facing each candidate.
All the candidates had an idea on what the top priority of elected officials should be.
For example, in an interview with sanbernardinocitybankruptcy.com, mayoral candidate Karmel Roe explained that the top priority of San Bernardino should be to focus on the rising homeless population and claims it is the “root of our growing financial insolvency at city hall and in the business community.”
Meanwhile another mayoral candidate, Draymond Crawford, in an interview with sanbernardinobankruptcy.com explained the top priority of San Bernardino should be a safe community, clean streets and good schools.
The candidates also had different methods they intended to employ to fix the city.
According to the LA Times, mayoral candidate Richard Castro claimed he could whip the city into shape like boys on a wrestling team while Rick Avila wanted to make it easier to expand the city and build new businesses.
“That whipping thing is kind of bizarre, but it seems like all the candidates have good ideas and I’m sure whoever gets elected will bring needed changes to the city,” said student Connor Nance.
The citizens of San Bernardino also have their opinions on what the top priority of the city officials should be.
“Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. They need to make it so that more jobs are available because we really need it,” said a San Bernardino resident who asked to be quoted simply as Linda.
Ward members are assigned to specific sectors in the city corresponding with their number and are essentially representatives of their section of the city.
More recently, the elected officials of San Bernardino have placed blame on one another for the problems the city is facing.
However, some citizens feel that no one person can or should be blamed for these problems.
“Some are doing what they can, but we can’t pinpoint who’s actually at fault. Basically it’s like a team, everyone is at fault,” said San Bernardino resident Larry Diaz.
The final results will come Nov. 13, but the unofficial results came in Tuesday after the polls during press time.
Mayoral candidate Wendy Mccammack led with 24.64 percent of the vote.
For position of Ward 1 with 56.20 percent was Virginia Marquez.
Benito Barrios led with 55.23 percent for Ward 2 and Fred Shorrett led Ward 4 with 48.02 percent of the vote.
Mccammack will face Carey Davis in a run-off in February.
The citizens of San Bernardino are hopeful that the elections will help to bring change to the struggling city.
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