I thought Paul Miller was already set on retiring but this news story says he hasn't made up his mind yet.

Are you surprised?

If Mayor Miller runs again Steve Sojka said he would not. I assume Barbra Williamson wouldn't run against him either but I don't know enough about what motivates Bob Huber to say if he would run against Paul Miller.

The union that represents Simi Valley police officers has been raising money for the upcoming city elections. But unless there is a strong challenger for mayor I don't think they would spend a significant amount of money. Simi Valley City Council and School Board races don't often draw many challengers that have experience running campaigns.

Steve Sojka has announced he is running for mayor on the contingency that Paul Miller retires from the position. The other two candidates that I have heard mentioned are Council Member Barbra Williamson and Community College Board Trustee Bob Huber. My prediction is that only 2 out of the three names above end up running.

Seems like this could be a good time to review how to pronounce his name. It is pronounced Soy-Kuh. Sojka has served on the council since he was originally appointed in 1998. He owns a local direct mail business and has promoted small businesses through the Shop Simi Valley First Campaign.

Check out his old campaign site.

( Note: I deleted Glen Beccerra because he has said he is running for re-election to the city council and I removed Michelle Foster because I am presuming she isn't going to run against a long time ally of hers.)

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Simi Valley blogger Mike Chandler created the first Barack Obama themed image for me and now I am addicted. Let's make this the official photo of Mayor Paul Miller. Do me a favor and post it on your blog or post links on other blogs linking back to this entry.

Now, back to serious news. Mayor Paul Miller will be giving his annual State of the City address to the Chamber of Commerce. Tickets are $55 for the public. If you don't want to pay or don't have the time I will try to find the text of the speech and post it.

Mike, are you going to go? Any chance you can video it for everyone that wants to see it?

Click here for the newstory with the details.

Simi Valley - Be sure before you vote status quo!

( In this video a Bruce Witkin supporter points out that Paul Miller hasn't updated his website since 2004. But it says more information coming soon. Do you think Paul Miller is very confident to the point he isn't campaigning much?)

Bruce Witkin's campaign has a new website up and has a few youtube videos up too.

Bruce answered questions from my readers which you can read by clicking here.

Do you have any more questions for Bruce?

Do you think there should be any debates in this campaign?

The current mayor, Paul Miller is obviously the favored candidate at this point. But if Bruce is able to run a good campaign I expect to see him running again in the future.

Looks like someone is looking to run for mayor against Paul Miller in Simi Valley. Check back for details.

UPDATE: Here is a Craigslist.org ad for paid positions working on the campaign.

More information to come soon.

UPDATE 2: I have communicated with the candidate and they said they haven't done anything official yet but in a few weeks I can get the exclusive if I don't post their name. Check back in a few weeks. In the meantime, what issues do you think a successful challenger would run on? I think there is a consensus that Paul Miller would be tough to beat. Any suggestions? How many of you would vote for him if you could? Anyone looking for a change at city hall?

The Tony Strickland for State Senate campaign has announced the support of many Simi Valley City officials and other Simi Valley citizens. You can click on continue reading to read the whole list. Rep. Elton Gallegly is one of the most prominent, but so far it looks like a who's who of the Simi Valley Republican Party. Most of them could be relied upon to endorse the GOP candidate in most campaigns.

The list includes the entire city council except for Michelle Foster. Anyone know why Michelle didn't join with the rest of the council? The other prominent names not mentioned are Republican school board members Eric Lundstrom and Janice Difatta,

On a personal note, thank you to Tony Strickland and his staff . Tony has put together a quick responding and young staff. Thanks for your help! I will write about it more later.

I will have a Hannah Beth Jackson campaign update next week. But in the meantime enjoy their new campaign widget:

( Thanks to loyal contributer Brian Mack for another amazing photoshop. For the record Britney Spears is not currently trashing Simi Valley. Yet. Seriously, why don't those cities get their own dump? Are they too good for it? )

UPDATE FOR THE BRITNEY SPEARS FANS. THE TRASH FROM MALIBU REFERS TO THE TRASHBAG, NOT BRITNEY SPEARS. PLEASE STOP E_MAILING COMPLAINTS!

The Star has an article today about the proposed expansion of the Simi Valley landfill. The proposed expansion will continue to take trash from the surrounding region. This story will be dominating local politics and elections for a long time. Personally, I want to open a massive dump in Thousand Oaks and put all of our trash there. Maybe even a used tire lot. Who's with me?
UPDATE: It is a joke. I am not in favor of turning Thousand Oaks into a dump.
Here is the article from The Star. Kind of surprising that other council members ( besides Barbra Williamson) or Peter Foy weren't quoted. Maybe in the future? I don't want my city leaders to comment at the very end. I want them to be there the entire time working in public view. This a tough issue and I expect ALL city leaders to comment.

The article does mention former ( or current if he runs for State Senate) candidate Jim Dantona though.

Also, click on continue reading for more information.

Here is an article to prepare you to discuss Paul Miller's State of the city speech.

As with most of you I didn't attend the speech because I have a day job and the event organizers usually put it in the middle of a work day.

But for those of you that did keep sending in photos.

So, what do you guys think? Here are the things that stood out to me:

$300 million for new sewage pipes? Does this mean sewage fees are going up? Does anyone here still remember the sewage fee recall of 1978 ( was it '78?) that lead to a new crop of city leaders? I hope the city is better able to explain the need this time. I don't want crappy pipes in our town breaking down.

And about time we sync the traffic lights again. I hit so many lights this morning I almost finished reading The Acorn in the car driving across town.