Two days after the final votes were cast for the California primaries, the frontrunners for the three open seats on the San Fernando City Council are incumbents Mary Mendoza, Mary Solorio and Sean M. Rivas who would be new to the position.
All three have received more than 900 votes, with Rivas nearly 250 votes ahead of candidate Michelle Vergara in fourth place. Fernando Diaz, Sonia Navarro and Flor Sanchez round out the bottom three, respectively.
Mendoza has served for years on the council and has been both mayor and vice mayor at different points during her tenure. Solorio has served one term and was previously vice mayor.
Rivas has been a persistent candidate. This was Rivas’ third time running for the office. The first was the March 2024 special election after the passing of Councilmember Cindy Montañez, losing to current Vice Mayor Victoria Garcia. The second time was during that year’s general election, losing to Patty Lopez.
If sworn in, Rivas would occupy the seat left by Mayor Joel Fajardo who opted not to run again.
In response to the vote count as of press time, Rivas said he’s grateful to the residents for giving him an opportunity to serve the community.
“We’ve had a lot of great conversations with friends, neighbors and everybody throughout the city throughout all of our canvassing efforts, that it goes to show that as long as you’re persistent and people can feel your honesty, people will support [you], and I think that’s what happened here,” Rivas said.
When asked by the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol what would be his priorities if elected, Rivas said he will grow outside partnerships and, after considering budget constraints, possibly expand services to help families who are facing food insecurity. During his campaign, Rivas said that he talked to families who said they don’t have enough to feed their children and seniors who have faced cuts to programs they rely on.
He also aims to bring together what he called a “divided” City Council through effort on common ground and spaces “that we know we can all agree will benefit the community as a whole and not create division.”
There is no word yet on the exact date when Los Angeles County will certify the results, but the California secretary of state requires county election officials must finalize all of their official results by July 2.