Monday was the first deadline for candidates or officeholders who have a controlled committee, or who have raised or spent or will raise or spend $1,000 or more during a calendar year in connection with election to office or holding office to file the statements.
The six candidates running for the Santa Paula City Council are two-term incumbents Ralph Fernandez and Bob Gonzales, Jennifer Crosswhite, John Demers, Ginger Gherardi and John Procter.
There are three open seats; Mayor Rick Cook declined to run for another council term.
The first filing showed contributions and expenditures through September 30. From now until the election if a candidate raises or spends $1,000 they must report it within 24 hours; the next pre-election filing is due October 23.
The top money raiser was Gherardi who reported contributions of $7,540, including an $815 self loan and $385 in-kind contributions.
Among her notable donations was $1,000 from J. Chapman Morris Jr., $750 from Firefighters for Better Government, $500 from CREPAC-C.A.R. and $250 from David Wilkinson, owner of the Fillmore & Western Railway. Troy Helton, Gordon Kimball and Scott Rushing also donated $250 each and the balance of contributions listed by Gherardi’s treasurer Maria Bombara were $200 and less; Gherardi had 18 $100 donations including one from Procter who is also running for council.
Gherardi’s campaign spent $5,441 - mostly on signage and mailers - and had a closing balance of $2,484.
Crosswhite, a pastor, reported raising $7,320.
Among Crosswhite’s notable donations were $4,000 from Trina M. Nagele and $750 from Firefighters for Better Government. Jim Procter and David Manning each donated $300. She had seven $100 donations, a $200 donation from fellow candidate John Procter and among her $150 donors was Councilman Martin Hernandez.
She showed accrued expenses of $625 and expenditures of $2,695, mostly spent on newspaper advertising and signage. Crosswhite’s treasurer Felix C. Villanueva reported an ending balance of $5,250.
Former City Councilman and Mayor Procter, who did not run for a third term in 2008, had donations of $4,395.13; $420.13 of that amount was donations under $100.
Procter’s treasurer Robert Orlando reported Procter had a self-loan of $5,000 not included in the total.
Notable donations to Procter’s campaign were $750 from Firefighters for a Better Government, $1,000 from Jim Procter and $500 from Scott Rushing. Councilman Martin Hernandez donated $250 to Procter’s campaign.
Procter’s filing did not list any expenditures to date.
Fernandez, an architect instructor and two-term councilman listed one donation, $300 from Delton Lee Johnson. Fernandez’s treasurer Mary Doll reported one unspecified expenditure of $50 and a cash balance of $250.
Gonzales, also a two-term incumbent and the city’s retired police chief, reported a $775 loan to himself. Campaign treasurer Bob Russell reported a $625 expenditure to the City of Santa Paula for Gonzales’ campaign statement, accrued expenses of $80 and an ending balance of $100.
The largest amount ever collected by a Santa Paula City Council candidate was more than $17,000 raised by Martin Hernandez for his successful 2012 campaign.
Candidate Demers had not filed a statement by the press deadline.
