LATHROP – There will be five candidates vying in the November elections for two open councilman positions on the Lathrop City Council. The list includes incumbent Sonny Dhaliwal whose four-year term is expiring at the end of this year.

The other four whose nomination papers were confirmed by the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters as of 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 6, which was the filing deadline, were former Lathrop Youth Ambassador Omar Ornelas, chocolatier Rosalinda Valencia who works at the Lathrop Ghirardhelli chocolate factory, Lathrop-Manteca Fire District deputy fire chief Gene Neely, and former construction worker Brent Maynor who currently attends DeVry University.

For the mayor’s seat which becomes vacant in December when the two-year term of Mayor Kristy Sayles ends, four have picked up papers including the incumbent. However, as of Friday, only Stephen A. Dresser, a former councilman and retired Pac Bell employee who currently works part-time with the Escalon Unified School District, had his nomination papers confirmed by the Registrar of Voters. Sayles and businessman J. “Chaka” Santos submitted their papers at City Hall before the 5 p.m. deadline on Friday; however, at 4:45 p.m. their nomination papers have not yet been confirmed by the Registrar of Voters, said City Clerk Mitzi Ortiz.

To be an eligible candidate, one has to collect at least 20 signatures of voters in the area where they are running, and each signature has to be confirmed as valid by the Registrar of Voters.

The fourth person to pick up papers for the mayor’s position was Gary L. Charles. A few minutes before the 5 p.m. deadline on Friday, Charles has not yet filed his papers at City Hall, Ortiz said.

City Hall is not normally open on a Friday since furlough Fridays were instituted earlier this year as a way to trim the city’s $2.5 million deficit which is currently down to less than a million dollars. However, Ortiz said her office – as well as some service departments at City Hall – was kept open on Friday due to the election deadline.

The third vacant seat on the council was left open when former councilman Robert K. Oliver retired in mid-March and moved to Southern California with wife Vivian to be closer to their children and grandchildren. Instead of holding a special election in June, and to save the estimated $20,000 election cost, and since it is a general election year, the rest of the council voted to have Oliver’s vacant seat included in the November ballot.

For Sayles, who runs and operates a home-based child care business, this is her second try at running for re-election. If successful in November, this would be her third term as mayor, two terms shy of the record set by her uncle, Lathrop’s first mayor Steve McKee. The retired Lathrop farmer ran unopposed in his last two mayoral elections.