Bruce Broadwater, who served 10 years as Garden Grove’s mayor, will return to that post after an eight-year hiatus.
City councilman Broadwater easily defeated three rivals – James Ybarra, Sherry Runnells Williams and Myke Cossota – to reclaim the position of Garden Grove’s top official.
At our deadline Wednesday morning, Broadwater had 57 percent of the vote, with Ybarra at 16.5 percent, Williams at 14.2 percent and Cossota at 12.1 percent.
In the city council race for two seats, incumbent City Councilman Steve Jones was headed for another term, with 24.7 percent. Challenger Chris Phan was in second place with 20.1 percent.
Phat Bui was in third at 15.4 percent, followed by appointed incumbent Kris Beard at 15.1 percent.
Other candidates – Jenny Nguyen, Josh McIntosh, John O’Neill and Zack Zamora – trailed with less than 10 percent of the vote.
Broadwater’s win in Tuesday’s vote to the mayor’s job will leave a vacancy in the city council. Although voters have approved an advisory measure urging the council to fill a vacant seat by selecting the top voter-getter among those not elected.
That would be Bui, but the council could also choose Beard, who has served the past two years on the council after being appointed to the seat.
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Councilman Tri Ta will be the next mayor of Westminster, taking the gavel from long-time city leader Margie Rice.
He will become the first Vietnamese-American mayor in Orange County history.
According to figures from the Orange County Registrar of Voters available Wednesday morning, Ta has 42.5 percent of the vote, with Penny Loomer in second with 30 percent.
Trailing in third place was Al Hamade (19.4 percent), followed by Ha Mach (4.4 percent) and Tamara Sue Pennington (3.8 percent).
In the race for two city council seats, incumbent Tyler Diep was in danger of being ousted in his bid for re-election.
Sergio Contreras, a member of the Westminster School District Boatd of Trustees, was on his way to win a seat on the council with 26.4 percent.
In second place was Diana Carey (20.7 percent), followed by Diep (18.7), Charlie Manh Chi (16.2) and three other challengers each with well under 10 percent of the vote. Leaving the council will be Rice, mayor since 2000, and Frank Fry, council member since 1966.
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Long-time incumbents Carol Warren and Al Ethans easily won election to the Stanton City Council in Tuesday’s election.
According to figures available Wednesday morning from the Orange County Registrar of Voters, Warren led with 43.1percent, followed Ethans with 31.1 percent.
Voters casting ballots in Garden Grove Tuesday.
Trailing in the council race were challengers Bryan Palomares (11.7 percent), Andrew Marques (10 percent) and Sou Moua (4.1 percent).
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Incumbents easily won re-election to the Garden Grove Unified School District Tuesday, while the race for seats on the Westminster School District board was much tighter.
According to results available from the Orange County Registrar of Voters Wednesday, Garden Grove school board incumbents Bao Nguyen, George West and Linda Paulsen-Reed were each easily winning another term.
The sole challenger, Linda Zamora, trailed fair behind.
In the Westminster elementary district, incumbent Jo-Ann Purcell was locked in a close race with challengers Amy Walsh and Jamison Power in a battle for the two seats available on the WSD board.
The GGUSD includes most of Garden Grove, as well as parts of Stanton and Westminster and other cities.
The WSD includes most of Westminster as well as parts of Garden Grove and Fountain Valley.
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Measure Y, the proposed increase in the hotel visitors’ tax in Garden Grove, was approved by voters in Tuesday’s election.
As of Wednesday morning the hike from 13 to 14.5 percent garnered 66.1 percent of the vote. Proponents of the increase claim it will bring $1.5 million annually into city coffers at a time when the City of Garden Grove has had to cut staffing and impose unpaid furloughs on employees in order to balance the municipal budget.
If hotels planned for the future are added to the existing lineup of mid- and high-rise hotels on Harbor Boulevard, the annual bump to city coffers could exceed $4 million.
Voters in the Coast Community College District were backing Measure M, a bond issue for the modernization for Coastline Community College, Golden West College and Orange Coast College.
The CCCD includes parts of Garden Grove and most of Westminster, as well as the cities of Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.
As of Wednesday morning, Measure M led by 55.9 percent to 44.1 percent.
