Calistoga voters will decide who will fill two City Council seats in the Nov. 5 election.

The Calistoga mayor’s office, currently held by Donald Williams, is also up for election this year for a two-year term. Williams, who was first elected mayor in 2022 after serving two years on the council, is running unopposed to reclaim the seat.

There are three candidates running for the two council seats. Two of them are regular members of the council: Lisa Gift and Irais López-Ortega. The third is Marion Villalba, a local substitute teacher. The two candidates with the most votes will win seats on the council.

Gift was first elected to the council in 2020; he garnered 842 votes, or about 23% of the total vote in that race. Lopez-Ortega, who was appointed to a Calistoga council seat in 2013 and has been a council member since, was the top vote-getter in that race, earning 1,295 votes or about 35% of the total vote.

Villalba, 42, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. At a candidate forum Oct. 8, he identified housing, youth education and development of the Napa County Fairgrounds property, which the city purchased from the county for $2 million this year, as priorities in case of be elected, according to the Calistoga Tribune.

Gift, 42, said he is focused on advocating for families and small businesses while serving on the council.

He identified housing as the top priority facing the city. Calistoga is in the midst of a housing crisis, he wrote, with about 29% of local households spending between 30% and 50% of their income on housing and 12.6% spending more.

“This situation alienates families, limits long-time residents from raising their children here, impacts our sports organizations and school enrollment, and makes it difficult for local businesses to retain employees,” Gift said in an email. email to The Press Democrat.

Gift added that infrastructure is another pressing issue. Aging infrastructure needs to be improved and maintained, he said, so residents don’t face “exorbitant costs in the future.” That’s currently a problem with the city’s water and wastewater services: The rates residents pay for those services increased this year and will continue to increase each year until 2028.

Gift also said she believes diversity and inclusion are “fundamental pillars of a thriving community” and said city leaders should engage with LGBTQ+ and Latino organizations to gain deeper insight into the community’s needs.

If re-elected, Gift said she will continue to focus on initiatives that “empower small businesses and foster impactful housing solutions, all aimed at preserving the foundation of our community.”

“I may not have all the answers, and I don’t claim to, but I promise to continue listening to our residents and carefully consider every decision I make with every vote,” Gift wrote.

In early 2022, gift made public his experience with mental health issues, including a suicide attempt and an arrest on suspicion of violating the terms of a national restraining order, during the COVID-19 pandemic. She pleaded guilty in July 2023 to two misdemeanors for violating a protective order and two misdemeanors for violating a court order, and was sentenced to a 20-day work program, one day in jail and three years of probation.

That probation was later revoked in October 2023, but then reinstated in July 2024 when he pleaded guilty to another misdemeanor charge of violating the protective order; She was also sentenced to a 10-day work program.

López-Ortega, 60, is only the second person of Latino descent to hold elected office in the city. In an email to The Press Democrat, he said he feels Latino representation is necessary so his community can have the same opportunities as everyone else and a good quality of life.

At the same time, López-Ortega emphasized that there is a great need to attract community members to interact with local government. Achieving active and consistent community participation is often the most difficult task to achieve, he said.

“I believe that if we all want to live here, we must work together as a community and participate as much as possible in the decisions our government makes,” López-Ortega wrote.

López-Ortega added that community service runs in his blood. He also serves on the board of directors of Water Education For Latino Leaders, a nonprofit organization that provides water policy education to elected officials throughout California.

“I appreciate all the support from the Calistoga community and the opportunity to serve,” López-Ortega wrote. “I would like to continue working among all the neighbors here, but in any case I am part of this town and in one way or another I will do community work.”

López-Ortega was entangleda high profile court case in August 2021, after being charged with four counts of elder abuse by the Napa County District Attorney’s Office. In March 2023, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor; the other charges were dismissed through a plea negotiation, according to court records. López-Ortega was sentenced to one year of probation and one day in jail.

You can contact staff writer Edward Booth at 707-521-5281 or [email protected].