Pacifica City Council Election: Ervin, Nihart, O'Neill Win

Pacifica voters on Tuesday cast their ballots in a complicated two-tiered city council race and re-elected a councilwoman and welcomed two newcomers to the five-member council.

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, incumbent Mary Ann Nihart and former Pacifica School District Trustee Karen Ervin took the most votes in the race for the two four-year term council seats.

Pacifica School Board member Michael O'Neill won the most votes in the race to fill the spot left by Jim Vreeland, who resigned earlier this year for health reasons. O’Neill will serve a two-year term.

In all, 13,485 voters turned out to the polls for the election.

Nihart and Ervin were camped out at Ervin’s home throughout the night with family, friends and food, anxiously waiting for the polling numbers to come in.

As soon as the numbers started being reported, they were constantly checking the computer between breaks spent mingling with their guests and watching the presidential election on a TV in the family room.

Nihart said she already felt like a winner even before the night was over because, outside of the election, she had just received some good news about her career. On Monday, she got a promotion at her job. On Wednesday, she will be getting a presitigious award from the American Psychiatric Nurses Association.

She won’t be resting on her laurels, though.

With Pacifica's financial sustainability, economic development and environmental protection as major issues for the next council, Nihart said, some difficult decisions are going to have to be made.

“It's harder when you have a track record,” she said. “But I’ll try to explain my decisions” so that everyone can be on the same page.

She added: “I’m just excited that we’ll have new blood, we can move forward and that we’ll have thoughtful, logical people like Karen to serve with.”

Ervin, who received the most votes out of all of the candidates with 7,663, said she was humbled by the election.

“This is the city I grew up in,” she said, “and it’s an incredible honor and privilege to serve it.”

Like Nihart, Ervin said the city has some difficult decisions to make soon.

“But if we all work together, we can start progressing toward a more stable future,” she said.

O’Neill decided to hang out at home with his family, friends and a small group of campaign supporters.

He said he was happy with the outcome of the election, and he felt like the results showed that residents had confidence in his experience on the school board and Planning Commission.

“I look forward to working with everybody over the next couple of years,” O’Neill said when reached by phone.

The other candidates in the election were: former Chamber of Commerce President Susan Vellone, Economic Development Coordinator Victor Spano, Planning Commissioner and attorney Richard Campbell, and former San Bruno Mayor Gary Mondfrans.

The results of their race can be found here:

Pacifica City Council (four-year term) — vote for two

Votes

Percent

Karen Ervin

7,663

38.9%

Mary Ann Nihart 

6,967

35.3%

Susan Vellone

5,091

25.8%

Pacifica City Council (two-year term) — vote for one

Votes

Percent

Michael O'Neill

3,878

34.9%

Victor Spano

3,016

27.1%

Richard Campbell

2,954

26.6%

Gary Mondfrans

1,275

11.5%

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