Healdsburg City Council Candidates Grow to 6

When the dust cleared yesterday at 5 p.m. there were six people standing -- with at least one surprise last-minute entry in the Nov. 2 race.

Timothy Meinken, a local business owner, was qualified and filed on Wednesday to run for a seat on City Council, after pulling papers on Monday, according to Healdsburg City Clerk Maria Curiel.

Meinken joins five other candidates -- two incumbents and three other local residents -- already declared for the race.

Also Wednesday, officials from the received word from the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters that they were eligible to cancel their board election since all three candidates -- all incumbents -- were unopposed.

"This will allow the District to cancel the election and save the cost," said
one of the three incumbents seeking reelection, along with Gary Anderson and Bill Hawn.

Meanwhile, in addition to Meinken, the other five certified candidates for Healdsburg City Council are:

Incumbent Gary Plass, a former Healdsburg Police Sergeant and a real estate agent.

Incumbent Tom Chambers, an executive with a local optical coating business.

Shaun McCaffery, a mechanical engineer and a volunteer with the and the

Vern Simmons, a former Healdsburg Planning Commissioner and a retired U.S. Navy commander.

Dennis James Brown, chief of medical imaging for the State of California Correctional Division.

In the local Healdsburg Unified School District board elections, all three incumbents -- Genevieve Llerena, Ted Crowell and Judy Velasquez -- are unopposed and are seeking re-election.

As with the North Sonoma County Healthcare District board elections, since the three HUSD board candidates are all incumbents and all unopposed, they will not appear on the Nov. 2 ballot as an official race, even though their candidacies will still go forward.

In the Alexander Valley Union School District, two candidates are unopposed for two seats: Incumbent Annie Holden, who is seeking re-election; and Yvonne Kreck, a local business owner, who is seeking to fill the seat of Dan Winberg, who has declined to seek re-election.