The Santa Clarita City Council held a special meeting on Monday, Aug. 19 to determine how to proceed in the Nov. 5 general election for the city council District 3 seat. The options were to appoint Jason Gibbs, the lone candidate who had filed for the seat, or to pay the cost for an election offering only one candidate.

The council voted to appoint current councilmember Jason Gibbs to the District 3 seat, without benefit of an election. Gibbs will serve another four-year term and be up for re-election in 2028.

The council exercised the option to appoint Gibbs after no other candidates filed to run against Gibbs by the Aug. 9 filing deadline.

Gibbs was first elected to the city council in November 2020. He will now represent the new District 3 which starts north of the “four corners” at the intersection of Bouquet Canyon Road and Soledad Canyon Road and encompasses much of Saugus up to Tesoro. View a map of the district here.

The Nov. 5 general election is the first election in city history where voters in the city of Santa Clarita will elect councilmembers by district.

The action by the council to appoint Gibbs saved the city approximately $120,000 it would have cost to have Gibbs run unopposed on the Nov. 5 ballot, according to information presented by the city clerk.

Voters will have the opportunity to vote a new city councilmember onto the council on Nov. 5 in the District 1 contest between Patsy Ayala, Tim Burkhart and Bryce Jepsen.

Residents who want to find out which district they reside in can visit residency.santa-clarita.com.

For more information on Santa Clarita City Council districts visit https://santaclarita.gov/district-elections/.