by Steven Felschundneff | steven@claremont-courier.com

In Claremont’s first-ever municipal election since the city was divided into five council districts, both Corey Calaycay in District 1, and Sal Medina in District 5, have significant leads.

City Clerk Shelley Desautels told the COURIER that the drop boxes located in front of the library and the Hughes Center were locked Tuesday night at 8 p.m. and were picked up by the county Wednesday. Additionally, the county has until November 20 to count ballots sent through the US Postal Service that were postmarked on Election Day.

Claremont’s Public Information Officer Bevin Handel told the COURIER that in years past the city had a pretty good idea how many absentee ballots were outstanding the day after Election Day, but the process has been complicated by the large number of mail-in ballots this year. She said the registrar recorder should know the number of uncounted votes in Claremont by Friday, and city officials should be able to determine the winners by early next week. The county is scheduled to continue counting votes through November 30.

In District 5, Mr. Medina has received 1,151 votes—43.6 percent—well ahead of Mike Ceraso with 823 votes, Bennett Rea, 526 and Donell Clark, 135. Corey Calaycay appears to be headed to reelection with 1,424 votes—37.5 percent—ahead of Christine Margiotta, 1,062, Zach Courser, 881 and Ethan Reznik, 400.

With two open seats it appears that Kathy Archer, with 9,974 votes and Bob Fass, with 8,760, will be the next members of the Claremont Unified School District Board of Education. Chris Naticchia came in third with 5,452 votes.

Laura Bollinger has a significant lead with 6,460 votes—45 percent—and will most likely be the next member of the Citrus Community College Board of Trustees. Joe Salas came in second with 4,200 votes, followed by Eric Kaljumagi with 3,744.

It appears that voters have approved Measure Y, which would fund significant new construction at Citrus College.

Sal Medina has lived in Claremont for 13 years and owns Packing House Wines with his wife EV. On Wednesday the couple were busy meeting with vendors and helping customers.

Mr. Medina told the COURIER that if elected he believes his experience as a business owner will serve the community well as the city negotiates the difficult economic times brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

“We want to look at our budgets going forward and be mindful of how the money is spent,” Mr. Medina said.

He is a fan of districting in part because the concerns of residents in District 5 may not be the same as those in other parts of the city. By making himself accessible he hopes to increase civic engagement within the district and would like to see more area residents joining commissions.

“The further south you go in District 5, and as you get closer to the Claremont-Pomona border there is the sense that the city of Claremont may not be paying attention to the businesses off the 10 freeway versus the businesses in the Village, Foothill or Vons shopping center—as well as the residents off of American,” he said. “The conversations I have had with the people there, they hope by having districting their voices will be heard.”

At the same time he emphasized that every councilmember represents the whole city

and that has not changed even with the newly drawn districts.

Mr. Calaycay ran on the platform of retaining experience in a council which has three members with two years on the job, plus one who will be newly elected. If reelected, this will be Mr. Calaycay’s fifth term as a city councilmember after first joining the council in 2005.

“As the only candidate who possesses institutional memory and the only candidate who has been elected and served citywide, I am well positioned to continue serving the entire city, not only the district,” Mr. Calaycay wrote on his campaign page. “I have a proven record of listening and working constructively and effectively with my colleagues and community members to reach meaningful compromise and resolution to concerns and challenges while maintaining civility.”     

Brief profiles of all winning candidates will appear in a future edition of the COURIER.