Six candidates are vying in next month’s election to be the next supervisor in Monterey County’s District 2 to replace current Supervisor John Phillips.
Salinas Mayor Kimbley Craig received the endorsement from Phillips to replace him on the Board of Supervisors in the June 7 election, while small businessman Glenn Church, nonprofit executive Regina Gage, analyst Grant Leonard, nonprofit director Adriana Melgoza Ramirez and chief financial officer Steve Snodgross are also seeking the seat.
District 2, the northernmost district in Monterey County, includes part of Salinas as well as Castroville, Moss Landing, Prunedale, Aromas, Boronda, Las Lomas, Pajaro and Royal Oaks.
After serving as a prosecutor and Monterey County Superior Court judge, Phillips was first elected to represent the district in 2014 and won re-election in 2018.
Craig, who was initially elected to the Salinas City Council in 2010 as the city’s youngest woman ever elected to public office, is also president and CEO of the Monterey County Business Council and touts her track record in helping lead the city and county’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Church, whose father served for 12 years as a county supervisor in the area, says his family has lived in the north Monterey County area since 1868. He owns the family’s Church Christmas Tree Farms and is president of the landscape supply business Pacific Coast Soils.
Gage is the executive director of Meals on Wheels of Salinas Valley and is a member of the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare Board and says she has worked to expand health care and other services for seniors, children and other vulnerable county residents.
Leonard has worked as a transportation planner for the county for several years and is currently an affordable housing analyst with the city of Monterey, while Melgoza Ramirez, a director with the Salinas nonprofit Center for Community Advocacy, has been endorsed by the United Farm Workers, and Snodgrass has served on several governmental and nonprofit boards around the county.
More details about the June 7 election in Monterey County can be found at https://montereycountyelections.us/election-description/e/1125.