Who You're Voting For in November

Some will be competing vigorously to be elected leaders of Banning and Beaumont cities, area school boards and other agencies in the Nov. 6 election. And some will just retain their seats, because there are no challengers.

Here is the area ballot lineup, according to the Riverside County Registrar of Voters and Banning and Beaumont city clerk offices:

Banning City Council, six candidates, three seats: Longtime council members John Machisic and Barbara Hanna are not seeking re-election. (Machisic, however, is running in November for a seat on the San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency.) Don Robinson, currently serving as Banning's mayor, is seeking re-election and has qualified for the ballot, according to Jessica Hicks, assistant to the city clerk. Other contenders qualified for the ballot are Adam S. Buchanan, Edward Miller, Don M. Peterson, Larry L. Tucker and former longtime councilman Art Welch, according to the Banning city clerk's office.

Beaumont City Council, three candidates, two seats: Councilman Jeff Fox and Councilwoman Nancy Gall, both first elected in 2008, are seeking re-election. According to the Beaumont city clerk's office, their challenger on the November ballot is Brenda Knight, who has served on the city Planning Commission.

Beaumont Unified School District, six candidates, two seats: Wayne Hackney, who is on the board via appointment, is running for election. Trustee Mark Orozco is not. Other candidates for the two seats are: Gunnar Gerald Hardy; Lloyd White; Steve Hovey; David A. Sanchez and Edward Brown.

Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District, seven candidates, three seats: Board members Jane Smith, Chuck Christie and Jim Taylor all are running for re-election and their challengers are Eli Gillespie, Jason "Jay"Jimenez, Jan Leja, and Isaac Perez.

San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency, director at large, four candidates, one seat. Incumbent Mary Ann Harvey-Melleby, who was appointed to a vacancy, is running for election. Three are opposing her: John Machisic, a longtime Banning City Council member who is not running for re-election on the Banning council; Paul Clark Lewis; Blair M. Ball. 

The remaining three seats won't be on the ballot because there are no opponents to the incumbents who sought election. In San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency, Division 1, Ronald Allen Duncan, appointed to his post, gets to keep it. He is unopposed. Same in San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency, Division 2, where Bill Dickson also is unopposed; and in San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency, Division 5, where Ted Haring is unopposed.

In Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District, Division 1, Ryan Woll was unopposed and that election won't be on the ballot. Division 2 and Division 3 seats need to be decided by voters, however: Incumbent Ken Ross faces challenger Lindsey M. Burcham in Division 2; in Division 3 John Melvin Halliwill, appointed to a vacancy, is challenged by Daniel J. Slawson.

Others spared a campaign run:

• In Mt. San Jacinto Community College's election, longtime trustee Gene Kadow, who represents a large area that includes Beaumont and Banning, is unopposed; he will retain his seat and will not be on the ballot, Riverside County elections officials said.

• In Beaumont-Cherry Valley Recreation and Park District, no one challenged board members Gabriel M. Salinas, Dan Hughes, or Adrian D. Chatigny, so those three seats won't be on the ballot.

• All three San Gorgonio Memorial Care members, Ludwig Cibelli, Dorothy Ellis and Joe Dotan, will retain their posts.

• No Banning Library District incumbent filed for re-election and no one stepped forward.