The curtain is closing on September and November approaches quickly, with October providing a moment to gather your thoughts and make a decision.
Voters in Chula Vista will be asked to choose a new city attorney by Nov. 7, election day.
Overachievers, quick studies, and already-decideds, however, can turn in their ballots starting in October when the Registrar of Voters sends out mail-in ballots to registered voters.
The three-way race has a mix of new and familiar faces wanting to be Chula Vista’s next legal mouthpiece.
Incidentally the role is currently being handled by a hired gun from the private law firm Lounsbery Ferguson Altona and Peak, LLP.
Jill Maland was tapped to fill the temporary role as needed after the city council, in February, voted to use the firm’s services because a permanent city attorney had not been available after the November 2022. That’s because Simon Silva was the electorate’s choice.
But Mr. Silva was dead. And he still managed to beat Dan Smith by almost 1,000 votes.
That’s the same Dan Smith who is running in this November’s election, but who identifies differently now.
In some campaign circles he is now known as Dan Smith Diaz, though presumably he is the same Dan Smith who ran for Chula Vista City Attorney in 2022 and Chula Vista City Council in 2014, losing both times.
Another candidate, Bart Miesfeld, was at one time the appointed Chula Vista City Attorney but when the city decided to make the position an elected one in 2010, he chose not to run and eventually left city hall in 2019.
Marco Verdugo is the third candidate for Chula Vista’s top lawyer and though his campaign material lists him as a deputy city attorney for the cities of Solana Beach and Coronado, the role was not bestowed upon him by voters or even their city councils. Rather it’s because of his work with Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP.
Verdugo or Miesfeld were not on the ballot last year. Technically neither was Dan Smith Diaz.
New faces and old. Voters have roughly 6 weeks to get to know these new, familiar faces that want to be their City Attorney.
CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this column stated former Chula Vista City Attorney Bart Miesfeld left city hall after the position became an elected office. When Glen Googins was elected the city’s first City Attorney, Miesfeld continued working in the city attorney’s office through 2019.
