Esther Lemus, Rosa Reynoza running for Windsor mayor

Election filings opened Monday for Windsor Town Council and by Wednesday five candidates had made their intentions known for the four available seats.

Vice Mayor Esther Lemus and Council member Rosa Reynoza will vie for the mayoral spot, Council member Mike Wall for a council seat in District 1 and current Mayor Sam Salmon and former Council member Maureen Merrill will compete for a seat in District 2. Lemus will file Monday, she said. No candidates have yet filed to run for the open seat in District 4.

Filings must be returned by Aug. 12 with the required number of signatures.

The Nov. 8 election will be the first determined by district. Following months of hearings in 2019, the council voted to create the system in response to a letter from Malibu attorney Kevin Shenkman, who threatened to sue over the town’s “racially polarized voting.” In the 2018 letter, he accused the town of violating the California Voting Rights Act by not giving Latino candidates a fair shot at being elected because minority votes were diluted by the at-large system.

Beginning with this year’s election, four council members will be elected by district, the mayor will serve a two-year term and council members will serve four-year terms. Term expirations were staggered so not all terms would expire at the same time. This time District 2 is a two-year term.

Reynoza, who earned her seat through a May 2021 special election, said Wednesday she had been talking to people in the community “and they were really looking for a new face to represent Windsor. … I really honestly look forward to being the representative for all the residents of Windsor.”

She said she wants to reinforce the idea of the town as a family-friendly place, and a tourist destination for families.

“I feel I’m embedded in the community,” she said. “I do everything locally.”

“Rosa and I have sort of a similar constituency, although it’s not the same,” said Salmon, a retired attorney. “I can for sure live without being the mayor. … (However) When people come up and thank you, it’s pretty rewarding. And we got through some pretty hard times.”

Salmon, who has served on the council for 28 years, was appointed last year as mayor to take the place of disgraced former Mayor Dominic Foppoli, who resigned after he was accused in 2021 of sexually assaulting at least a dozen women. Foppoli has denied any wrongdoing.

Foppoli surprised the community in September 2021 by filing papers indicating his intention to run for office in November 2022. Nothing has been heard from him publicly about that since, nor has he yet taken out papers, according to the town.

Lemus, an attorney, was elected to the council in 2018. She announced her candidacy Thursday morning in a news release.

“Now more than ever, Windsor needs solutions-oriented leadership,” she said in the release. “On the City Council, I’ve taken on the hard fights, working to ensure opportunity for every Windsor resident and getting results. With the increased threat of wildfires, the lingering effects of COVID, and rising costs, it’s more important than ever that we have leadership that knows how to get results.”

She said she had been “an integral leader on local and regional governing bodies: advocating for housing and homelessness issues, climate action, drought response fire prevention and preparedness.”

Lemus is among Foppoli’s known accusers, and previously told The Press Democrat her council colleague sexually assaulted her and subsequently sought to attack her in the media when she brought her allegations to law enforcement.

With only four left on the council after Foppoli’s departure, together Reynoza and Salmon butted against Lemus and Council member Deb Fudge, whose term is not up until 2024, on important votes, such as council election issues and the proposed civic center project at the Town Green.

Wall won a seat on the council in an April special election for the remainder of Salmon’s term and was seated in June, returning the council to five members.

Many believe the April election was largely based on a singular issue: whether to renew an exclusive negotiating agreement the town had with developer Robert Green that was up in June. Wall campaigned against the project and the agreement and won handily with about more than 50% of the vote against Windsor Unified School District board member Stephanie Ahmad, who was willing to negotiate with Green.

The November election is expected to fall along similar lines, with Reynoza and Salmon campaigning against the revival of the project and Merrill campaigning in favor of it.

Lemus said she’s willing to explore options at the site, depending on what the community wants.

You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.com at 707-521-5209.

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