By Eliza Ridgeway

Kerr

The expiration of the terms of Mayor Dean Warshawsky and Councilman Breene Kerr will open two Los Altos Hills council seats for the Nov. 7 general election ballot.

Kerr and Warshawsky have declared they will run again but have not yet filed. No other candidates have announced their entrée into the race to date.

“This is an excellent council and we work well together, that’s one of the reasons I am leaning toward running again,” Kerr said. “We’d like to continue our good work as a team. We’ve tried to do what we could to unify the town.” He said that while the issue of redistricting had the potential to be divisive, he thought the council worked together to negotiate inclusively.

“At some point residents of the town will get a chance to vote on it,” Kerr said. “I think people will probably look forward to that day, and not try to make this (council race) a referendum on public

education.”

The field opened to council candidates July 17, when nomination papers became available. Potential councilmembers have until Aug. 11 to gather 20 signatures and file their candidacy at city hall, including an optional candidate’s statement.

Longtime resident and incumbent Mary Davey recently announced she would run for a fourth term on the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s Board of Directors, also on the November ballot.

“It’s the commitment I made years ago, to make sure that the district continues to buy land and care for it, to be the good stewards,” Davey said.

She ran without opposition in the 1998 and 2002 elections for the board of directors. One of the accomplishments she said she is most proud of during her time on the board is the district’s annexation of 140,000 square miles of San Mateo coastal lands, which as part of the district are now eligible for further district acquisition and protection.

The November ballot will decide the representative for California Assembly District 21, which includes Los Altos Hills and Los Altos. The incumbent, Ira Ruskin, is the candidate for the Democratic Party; Virginia Chang Kiraly is the Republican candidate.

Other issues of local interest in the upcoming election include the Los Altos School District’s parcel-tax renewal and a Santa Clara County land conservation initiative.