A Woodland resident who applied to fill a vacancy on the City Council has made good on his promise to run for election in the 5th District.
James Vorhees — who told the council last week it was his intent to seek election if not appointed — announced his campaign for the November election on Friday.
Vorhees joins incumbents Jim Hilliard and Tom Stallard, who are running against one another in the Second District; and Enrique Fernandez and Joe Romero, who are running in District 4. Also expected to announce shortly is incumbent Sean Denny, who will also be running in the District 4.
Another potential 5th District candidate is Xochitl Rodriquez, who is expect to announce in the next several days.
In a prepared statement, Vorhees, who works at the Target Warehouse in Woodland, said he could “provide experience, knowledge and commitment to the city.” He cited his membership on the Woodland Traffic Safety Subcommittee in 2014 as his background in local government.
He also said his Woodland Community College experience has allowed him to gather “hundreds of units in multiple college courses to obtain degrees in social behavior, social science, and history, and by the end of this election a bachelor’s in the field of social science.
“These courses have allowed me to understand what citizens want and need in a community in order for them to feel fulfilled in their daily lives,” Vorhees stated.
Vorhees said if elected he would put his focus on “youth, their education, and their future.”
“With the development of housing we will see an increasing of individuals still in our schooling system,” Vorhees stated. “I would like to work with the Woodland School District to develop more schools, or after-school, programs that would better educate our young through lack of crowding, and provide a stronger sense of character and moral direction through programs while parents are still at work.”
In his application materials submitted to the council, Vorhees said the inspiration for his seeking public office is former Woodland Councilman Bill Marble, who resigned earlier this month to travel to Peru for his church. Vorhees “when going door-to-door for his re-election in 2010 we had a brief discussion of the importance of having honest, hard working, and intellectual representatives of our great city.”
Those main issues Vorhees sees facing the city include the “development of homes and communities in the 5th District, the return of small businesses in the historic downtown area and development of parks and schools on city-owned land along with putting to use the land that has become barren and unused.”
Vorhees said he lives near the old Willow Springs school located on Gibson Road east of Hwy. 113 and drives by “not seeing an old school building, but an opportunity to develop this land into a new modern middle school that would educate the youths on the eastern side of Woodland” since Douglass is the nearest middle school for children living on the eastern side of town.
