Marina picks a new mayor for the first time since 2008, and weighs a 7 percent utility tax
Three candidates vie to succeed longtime Mayor Bruce Delgado, while Measure Q would raise about $3.83 million a year for city facilities.
Marina voters will choose a new mayor for the first time since 2008 on Nov. 3, as longtime Mayor Bruce Delgado steps aside, and will decide a utility tax measure the city says it needs to replace aging facilities.
Three candidates are running for mayor: Councilmember Liesbeth Visscher, who represents District 4; Mike Moeller, a health care professional; and Ana Luz Acevedo-Cabrera, a Hartnell College professor. Burciaga, Imamura and Simmons are running for the District 4 council seat Visscher would vacate.
On the same ballot, Measure Q would impose a 7 percent utility users tax on water, gas, electricity, telecommunications and video services in Marina, with a reduced 3.5 percent rate for low-income CARE customers and seniors 65 and older. The city estimates it would raise about $3.83 million a year and needs only a simple majority to pass.
The council voted July 7 to place the measure on the ballot. City officials say Marina needs $58 million for new facilities, pointing to city offices still housed in trailers dating to 1975 and a fire station built in 1993. A 2024 bond for the same purpose failed with 60 percent of the vote, short of the two-thirds then required.
Visscher has said the city has little choice. "The only way we can get enough money then is by cutting services... It will be recreation," Visscher said, warning that parks and recreation programs would face cuts without new revenue.
Acevedo-Cabrera has argued the current leadership is out of touch, calling it "disconnected from the reality of the community."
Moeller has said 7 percent is too steep a rate for residents to absorb.
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