Incumbents Harris, Rowlett lead Vacaville council race

VACAVILLE — There may not be any change in the City Council with incumbents Ron Rowlett and Dilenna Harris leading a five-candidate field with a little less than half of Vacaville’s voting precincts reporting in as of 11 p.m.

Rowlett and Harris campaigned to keep their seats on the council for another four years while Jennifer Goode, Deloris Roach and Bill Mueller tried to replace them.

With 14 of Vacaville’s 39 precincts reporting, Rowlett led the field with 35.72 percent of the vote. Harris followed with 25.1 percent. Goode came in third with 19.26 percent, followed by Roach with 12.02 and Mueller with 7.59 percent.

It was a race where the candidates agreed more than they disagreed on the city’s major issues of preserving public safety, restoring the battered budget and finding ways to bring more job- and revenue-creating businesses to Vacaville.

Rowlett said he was nervous as the night started because the race featured a lot of good candidates.

Later, he said he was excited that Vacaville voters showed that they were still behind him, allowing him “to serve the community for another four years.”

Rowlett said he was also pleased that both tax Measures I and M were passing, “which will protect out public safety services and allow us to focus on getting our (budget) reserves back.”

Harris said the numbers were trending very well for her campaign and believed that on Wednesday morning, she would still be on the council.

“I appreciate the support I have been given and am looking forward to giving it back to the community,” Harris said.

Harris said she was also pleased that both tax Vacaville tax measures were doing well.

“If they trend like they are now, this will put us in a better position to get us back on track and keep some of the services that would otherwise have been eliminated,” she said. ”Our focus will be economic development and job creation.”

Goode remained optimistic, and said she was pleased with her efforts to make herself a noticeable presence in the community and make her position heard for making Vacaville government more transparent and responsive.

“We made incredible progress from not being known, to being a considerable player in this race,” Goode said.

Goode said she is not ruling out another council run in two years when the seats held by Councilmen Mitch Mashburn and Curtis Hunt come up for election.

Roach said early in the eventing that she and her supporters “did the best we could with the resources we had” in her campaign to win a seat on the council.

“We are all feeling good, win or lose,” Roach said.

Roach based her campaign to getting the council to do more to reach out and listen to all of the Vacaville community. She said that stance changed the other candidates’ campaign conversation.

“More of them said they will be listening (to the people),” Roach said.

Council candidate Bill Mueller could not be reached Tuesday night for comment.

In other city races, financial adviser and former Vacaville School Board trustee Jay Yerkes handily beat out Brett Johnson to become Vacaville’s next city treasurer. Incumbent Michelle Thornburgh retained her job as city clerk, running unopposed.

Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or ithompson@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ithompsondr.

Ian Thompson

Ian Thompson has worked for the Daily Republic longer than he cares to remember. A native of Oregon and a graduate of the University of Oregon, he pines for the motherland still. He covers Vacaville and Travis Air Force Base for the Daily Republic. He is an avid military history buff, wargamer and loves the great outdoors.

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