One of the three incumbents up for election in this year’s Loma Linda City Council race was displaced. Ovidiu Popescu, who was first elected to the council in 2008 and served four years in the capacity of mayor pro tem from 2010 to 2014, placed fifth in a field of five candidates.
Bhavin Jindal will succeed Popescu.
Gaining reelection were Rhodes Rigsby and John Lenart.
Loma Linda is an Adventist community, and historically there has been relative stability in its political leadership. In 2012, 2014 and 2016, the city held no election either because no one challenged the sitting incumbents or because no more candidates filed to run than there were offices up for election.
This year, Jindal and another challenger, Gabriel Uribe, ran. Uribe had run previously, in 2018.
In Tuesday’s polling, Lenart, who was previously on the city’s planning commission and was first elected in 2012, was the top vote-getter with 1,951 votes or 23.21 percent. Rigsby, who has been the mayor appointed by his council colleagues since 2010 and has been on the council since 2006,  received 1,793 votes or 21.33 percent. Jindal polled 1,698 or 20.29 percent. Uribe claimed 1,663 votes for 19.78 percent. Popescu, who was the city’s representative on the San Bernardino International Airport Authority, collected 1,302 votes or 15.49 percent.
-M.G.