November elections

Golden Hills Community Services District

The five members of the Golden Hills Community Services District Board of Directors are all elected at-large, meaning they do not represent any specific area.

Each is elected for a four-year term. Terms for three of the directors will be up for election in November. Directors David Benham and Joe King have filed for reelection. Director David Shaw has chosen not to run again. Two other candidates have filed for a seat on the Board. They are retired firefighter Matthew Guggemos and small business owner Jamie Papsadore. The top three candidates will be elected to the Board.

Tehachapi Unified School District Board

In 2022, the Tehachapi Unified School District voted to divide the district into geographic areas with a board members elected from each area. Area Three is Golden Hills. Jackie Wood will be running against Joe Wallek in this race. Wood has been a board member since 2001 and Wallek was elected to the Board in November 2014. When his term was up in 2022, Wallek had to resign as he was living in the same district as Wood after the redistricting. Now that Wood is up for election, Wallek is able to run.

County Board of Supervisors – District 2

With the resignation of Zack Scrivner as Kern County Supervisor for District 2 on Aug. 2, the Board of Supervisors took steps to make sure that the office would appear on the Nov. 5 ballot. By the filing deadline, six candidates had filed to run for the remaining two years of Scrivner’s term. They are Dale Cisneros, Kelly Lee Carden, Jr., Ben Dewell, Bernita Jenkins, Chris Parlier and Pete Graff. Four of the candidates come from East Kern. Cisneros, Dewell and Graff come from Tehachapi and Carden from Rosamond. Jenkins and Parlier are from Bakersfield.

Dale Cisneros is listed as a local farmer and realtor. Ben Dewell is a scientist and a member of the Stallion Springs CSD Board of Directors. Pete Graff is listed as a watch commander federal and was once an officer with the Tehachapi Police Department. Carden filed as a small business owner. Bernita Jenkins identified herself as a retired labor representative. Chris Parlier is listed as retired law enforcement; however, he also served on the Bakersfield City Council representing Ward 7 for eight years until 2022.

Canceled elections

In elections where only one candidate has filed for an office, an organization has the option to cancel the election and proclaim that candidate appointed to office. This was the case in three Tehachapi organizational races.

City of Tehachapi

During their Aug. 19 meeting, the Tehachapi City Council voted unanimously to cancel the city election, thus saving the city $30,000. The following candidates were appointed:

City Council District 2, 4-year term – Jeanette Pauer

City Council District 3, 4-year term – Michael Davies

City Council District 5, 2-year term – Hannah Chung

City Clerk, 4-year term – Victoria “Tori” Marsh

City Treasurer, 4-year term – Marianna Gutierrez

Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District appointed candidates:

Division 2 – Jonathan Hall – 4-year term incumbent

Division 3 – John Ables – 2-year term appointed 2023

Division 4 – Rick Zanutto – 4-year term incumbent

Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District appointed candidates:

Carl Gehricke – 4-year term

BreAnne Patterson – 4-year term

Christine Sherrill – 2-year term