Endorsement: Mike Vahl for Riverside City Council in Ward 2

With Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes running for state Assembly, Riverside’s Ward 2 has an open seat to fill on the City Council.

Four candidates have emerged to succeed Cervantes.

Gracie Torres, a board member of the Western Municipal Water District, previously ran for county supervisor in 2024. Though she came in fourth in that race, she was up against serious competition, including Sen. Richard Roth and Assemblyman Jose Medina. This time, she has a much better shot with the backing of Riverside’s police and fire unions, as well as Mayor Patricia Lock-Dawson and Councilmembers Sean Mill, Philip Falcone and Steven Robillard.

Christen Montero serves on the city’s planning commission. She vows “to move City Hall away from vague updates and toward a live, public-facing accountability system that tracks our city's performance in real-time.”

Aram Ayra, an educator, serves on the city’s budget engagement commission. Like Torres, he has considerable backing in Democratic circles. He touts endorsements from Councilmember Cervantes, her sister Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, former Mayors Ron Loveridge and Rusty Bailey, and a vast coalition of labor unions and progressive organizations. This includes the hard-left Working Families Party.

And finally there’s local businessman Mike Vahl, who has the backing of the Riverside County Republican Party, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. Vahl is the clear fiscal conservative in this race with a focus on improving the city’s business climate.

All four candidates give thoughtful ideas about public safety and generally support making it easier to do business and build in the city.

One of the major dividing points among the candidates is on Measure Z, the city’s proposal to permanently extend and increase the city’s “temporary” sales tax approved by voters a decade ago. Vahl is clearly opposed to the tax measure. “The city has mismanaged Measure Z monies, spending on wants instead of needs,” he argues. “Until they start offering special taxes - for specific purposes like public safety - I will oppose new tax measures.”

Montero gave us a long but vague answer. While saying the tax measure should be approached with a “Taxpayer First” mindset, she stopped short of committing to a direct stance, instead saying she supported an “independent audit of our current spending and a commitment to exploring every alternative before asking our residents, who are already feeling the pinch of inflation at the grocery store and the gas pump, to pay more.” She later gave a similarly vague response to The Riverside Record, but settled on, “I do support the tax, but I don't support it forever.”

Ayra, meanwhile, responded with left-wing jargon about “a more balanced approach where growth pays its fair share, and where the impacts on our infrastructure, environment, and job quality are fully accounted for.”

Torres, meanwhile, was direct in her answer: “I support the proposed Measure Z extension because voters approved the measure in 2018 and we need to continue funding critical public safety services.” (Measure Z was, in fact, approved in 2016.) With her support for permanently higher taxes, we see why the police and fire unions support her.

On this front, we agree with Vahl.

On housing, the candidates are more divided.

Torres argues for a “balanced” approach to housing. “We need to create housing opportunities while ensuring projects fit the community and are handled responsibly,” she argues.

“I want to inspire a shift in how we view housing: from a source of conflict to a source of vitality,” explains Montero. “By streamlining the permitting process for high-quality, sustainable projects and incentivizing ‘missing middle’ housing like townhomes and duplexes, we can take the pressure off our existing neighborhoods.”

Vahl offers a more mixed answer. “I am a free market and property rights supporter, although not an absolutist,” he explained. “I believe in local control of land use issues. I am concerned about the impacts on existing residents and businesses of high-density housing, particularly for infill projects.”

On this front, we give the edge to Montero, followed by Vahl. Montero’s substantive, pro-housing approach is far preferable to Ayra’s interventionist approach that is sure to backfire as high fees deter development and the costs passed on to consumers.

Taken together, though, we endorse Mike Vahl. As the staunch fiscal conservative in the race, he’s appropriately skeptical of the corrupting relationship between public employee unions and elected officials. He’s supportive in concept of outsourcing city services when it makes sense. And he vows to use his business acumen to push for a simpler and more business-friendly permitting process.

That sounds good to us. Vote for Mike Vahl.

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This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 10:45 AM.