Two Imperial Beach City Council incumbents led their respective challengers in the districts 2 and 4 contests, early returns showed Tuesday.
John “Jack” Fisher was ahead of Martin “Marty” Mattes, a veteran and local business owner, in the race for District 2, which covers the northern part of the coast and the middle of Imperial Beach. Ben Swearingen, a public utilities regulatory analyst, was in third.
For District 4, Matthew Leyba-Gonzalez widely led Linda Kaye, a real estate broker.
“I’m positively optimistic,” Leyba-Gonzalez said from a watch party in Imperial Beach. “I appreciate everybody that was involved with my campaign and I’m very appreciative and thankful and we’ll see ultimately the end result once the final numbers are in.”
Whoever wins will serve part-time and receive a base monthly salary of $950. last four years.
Besides housing, public safety and traffic issues, addressing the ongoing cross-border sewage crisis was at the forefront of this year’s issues. The five candidates said their top priority is to work with the mayor and city council to resolve the environmental and health threats wreaking havoc on their small, coastal community of about 27,000.
Fisher, who is also one of the appointees representing the city on the San Diego Association of Governments board, said he will push to have the board setting aside toll revenue from the forthcoming Otay Mesa East border crossing for projects that can help mitigate sewage pollution. Establishing such an earmark for cross-border pollution mitigation would also require amending state law.
Leyba-Gonzalez and Swearingen said they would also push SANDAG to approve that effort.
Kaye said she wants more residents to get civically involved in tackling the sewage crisis. She created a website that sends residents a link to a complaint form with the San Diego Air Pollution Control District after she struggled to find and file one herself.
