Three Oxnard City Council Members Seeking Reelection

Oxnard voters will decide the makeup of nearly half their City Council on Tuesday, Nov. 3, when three incumbents face four challengers in nonpartisan district elections that will shape the city's direction for the next four years.

District 1 Councilmember Bert Perello, District 2 Councilmember Gabe Teran and District 5 Councilmember Gabriela Basua are all seeking reelection, according to Vida Newspaper. Winners will begin new four-year terms in December — and for the incumbents, a win this cycle would be their last under Oxnard's newly adopted term limits.

The contests draw sharp contrasts in some districts: a 22-year prosecutor challenging the council's longest-serving member, a businesswoman who once sought an appointment now challenging the man who got it, and a neighborhood council chair taking on a first-term incumbent in the city's southern districts.

District 1: Perello's Long Tenure Meets a Fiscal Critic

Perello has served on the council since 2013, when he won a special election to fill the seat vacated by Tim Flynn after Flynn was elected mayor. Since then he has been reelected in 2014, 2018 and 2022, and survived a recall election — a record of endurance few local officeholders can match.

The retired postal worker points first to the city's fiscal turnaround. "We were able to go from $9 million in debt to solvency," Perello told Vida Newspaper, crediting a combination of factors: the Amazon facility on Sakioka Drive that employs 1,500 people, the Measure O sales tax, city-obtained grants, and tens of millions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funds.

"Bert Perello didn't do it, but the council did it," he said. "I'm lucky I was along for the ride."

Perello is urging voters to pass Measure E, which he emphasized is not a new tax but would make the existing Measure O sales tax permanent. Without it, the tax is set to sunset on March 31, 2029.

He faces two opponents: consultant Eduardo Huerta, who ran against him in 2022, and Deputy District Attorney John Barrick, a Ventura County prosecutor for 22 years who is making fiscal stewardship the centerpiece of his campaign.

"I'm not confident the city spends its money wisely," Barrick told Vida Newspaper, pledging to push for accountability and public transparency. He criticized what he sees as the current council's orientation: "To be on the city council you have to be there to serve the public – they seem to think we serve them."

District 2: Teran and Nañez Meet Again

Teran's path to the council began with an appointment. When Carmen Ramirez left the council after her election to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in 2021, Lizanne Nañez was among 13 residents who applied for the vacancy. The council chose Teran, who then won a special election to keep the seat.

Now Nañez, a businesswoman, is challenging him at the ballot box.

Teran touts the same fiscal record as his fellow incumbents. "I'm glad that I've been part of the particular council that steered the city toward continued (fiscal) improvement," he told Vida Newspaper. "We did not spend money wildly, this has been a very responsible city, and I'm proud of that."

His recent accomplishments include a new city e-bike ordinance with an education component — "This is different than riding a regular bike, these are very fast machines," he said — a cap on tobacco retailers in Oxnard, where more than 100 currently operate, and, alongside Councilmember Michaela Perez, a summer program introducing 10th through 12th graders to city departments.

Teran, a former parks and recreation commissioner, said he hopes to see the groundbreaking of Campus Park on the Fifth Street site where Oxnard High School once stood. "If I get reelected, I look forward to following through on that," he said.

District 5: Basua Points to Tenant Protections

Basua, who serves as Port Hueneme's Housing and Facilities Maintenance Director, points to what she describes as the strongest tenant protections on the Central Coast as her signature achievement — noting that Santa Barbara later adopted similar rules.

"So I think I set an important precedent in order to protect our renters," she told Vida Newspaper.

She also cited keeping Fire Station 2 open, street resurfacing in the Lemonwood neighborhood and new lighting in the Cypress neighborhood.

One unfinished goal: breaking ground on a long-planned aquatic center. The project was delayed by a lawsuit the city eventually won, but bonding costs for construction remain an obstacle. Basua said the city is now in talks with the YMCA about a partnership to get it built.

Her opponent is Noemi Corpuz, a registered nurse who chairs the Cypress Neighborhood Council.

What's at Stake for Oxnard Residents

Beyond the individual races, the election carries broader weight. If Measure E passes, it locks in a permanent revenue stream that incumbents credit with the city's climb out of deficit — a central question for voters weighing Barrick's spending criticisms against the incumbents' record.

The council's decisions in the coming term will touch everyday life across Oxnard's roughly 200,000 residents: renter protections, park construction, public safety staffing and how the city manages its budget in a tight fiscal environment.

Early turnout patterns and district-level results will be watched closely Nov. 3, with winners seated in December. Perello, for one, is hoping for a sweep: "I hope all three incumbents are reelected, because all three have done incredible work to keep the city in the direction it's going."