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

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

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

Gift was first elected to the board in 2020; she won 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 then — was the top vote-getter in that race, earning 1,295 votes or about 35 percent of the total vote.

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

Gift, 42, said he is focused on supporting families and small businesses during his time on the council.

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

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

Gift added that infrastructure is another pressing issue. There is a need to upgrade and maintain aging infrastructure, she said, so residents don’t face “exorbitant costs down the road.” That’s currently a problem with the city’s water and wastewater utilities — the rates residents pay for those utilities went up this year and will continue to go up every year until 2028.

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

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

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

In early 2022, Gift made her experience public with mental health struggles — which included a suicide attempt and an arrest on suspicion of violating the terms of a domestic restraining order — during the COVID-19 pandemic. She pleaded guilty in July 2023 to two counts of violation of the protective order and two counts of violation of 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 was then reinstated in July 2024 when she pleaded guilty to violating the protective order; she was also sentenced to a 10-day work program.

Lopez-Ortega, 60, is only the second Latino to hold elected office in the city. She said in an email to The Press Democrat that she feels Latino representation is needed so her community has the same opportunities as everyone else — and a good quality of life.

At the same time, Lopez-Ortega stressed that there is a great need to bring community members to engage with local government. Getting active and consistent community participation is often the most difficult task to accomplish, she said.

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

Lopez-Ortega added that community service runs in her blood. She is also a board member for Water Education For Latino Leaders, a nonprofit organization that provides water policy education to elected officials in California.

“I appreciate all the support from the Calistoga community and the opportunity to serve,” Lopez-Ortega wrote. “I’d like to continue working among all the residents here, but I’m part of this town anyway and I’ll be doing community work in one way or another.”

Lopez-Ortega was involved ia 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, she pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor; the other charges were dismissed through a plea bargain, according to court records. Lopez-Ortega was sentenced to one year of probation and one day in jail.

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