Two City Council seats are on ballots this November in Placentia, with three candidates competing for the District 2 seat and two, including the incumbent, for the District 4 seat.
Councilmember Kevin Kirwin is not seeking reelection in District 2, guaranteeing a new face on the Placentia council after the election. Running for the seat are Santosh Sabnis, 49, a business owner and technology executive; Julie Suchard, 59, a community volunteer; and Matt Waugh, 51, a client success executive.
For the District 4 seat, incumbent Chad Wanke is facing a challenge from management analyst James Burandt.
We asked the candidates questions about housing, city finances, transparency, and more, which you can read in our voter guide.
District 2
All three candidates offered variations of the same theme: grow the economy before raising taxes, cut waste before cutting services, and present the city’s finances in language residents can actually understand.
Sabnis said City Hall should operate “the way every household expects its own finances to work,” by planning ahead, living within its means and fixing problems “before they become more expensive.”
“I wouldn’t start with another tax or another cut. I’d start with the bills,” he said, noting the city “just cut $1.46 million, including employees and services,” while its projected general fund reserve remains below the city’s own 25% target. Transparency, he said, should also mean making city spending understandable, not just available.
The tech exec said he wants every major city contract to show its original cost, plus the total cost to date, as well as what changed, and whether it was competitively bid before the council votes on it.
“Cut waste before services. Grow revenue before taxes. Pay what we owe. Rebuild our savings,” he said.
If elected, Sabnis said he would go “line by line” through major contracts and seek competitive bids where appropriate, adding that he has already identified several contracts that grew “substantially” over time without the city seeking other competitive bids.
On housing, he said the answer isn’t simply “build more” or “don’t build.”
Instead, he said approval for significant housing projects should first address four questions: whether streets, parking and public services can handle it, what infrastructure it requires, what the developer will pay for, and whether the project creates lasting value for the city.
“Growth should pay for its impact,” he said, adding that City Hall should also cut “unnecessary permitting delays and costs” that make housing more expensive.
Suchard said the biggest issue facing Placentia is the city’s revenue picture.
She argues the city has become “highly dependent on sales tax revenue,” partly because property tax revenue is “relatively static” due to low property turnover, which Suchard attributes to residents’ love for the city. But she warned that impending SNAP and Medicaid cuts could further suppress consumer spending.
“As families spend more on food, they forgo purchasing consumer goods which would otherwise generate sales tax. Lower sales tax revenues mean that our city needs to disburse funds judiciously and avoid frivolous expenditures,” Suchard said.
She said the city needs to review its current contracts and place stricter oversight on purchases, change orders and credit card usage by city employees, as well as stricter limits on travel expenses.
On housing, Suchard said Placentia “doesn’t have a lot of empty land” and said additional housing will likely be a challenge in the future.
She argued all future housing projects should incorporate parking prior to council approval. Without addressing those quality of life issues, residents, customers and local businesses will be impacted, she said, citing apartment complexes on Crowther Avenue as an example, which she said lack sufficient parking and have left local businesses “to compete with new residents for spaces.”
Suchard, who has made accountability her calling card, said the city hasn’t posted a Measure U report on its website since 2023 though the transparency was promised by the city when Placentia voters passed the 1% local sales tax measure in 2018.
Also running in District 2 is Waugh, who has lived in Placentia for more than 20 years.
Waugh and his wife – a local high school economics teacher for the last three decades – had both their children attend Placentia schools, he said. Experience, he said, that gives him a “personal connection to families, students, educators, homeowners, renters, workers, and local businesses.”
On housing, Waugh said the city should meet its legal obligations while concentrating growth along major corridors, underutilized commercial areas, and areas near transit, rather than “unnecessarily increasing density in established neighborhoods.”
He pointed to Placentia’s Old Town as an example of the type of balance the city should seek around re-development, one that encourages “thoughtful investment and compatible infill while preserving the character that makes the area special.”
He also cautioned that “simply zoning for more units does not necessarily produce housing that is affordable.”
On the budget, Waugh said Placentia needs to do three things at once: control spending, grow recurring revenue and protect essential services.
“I don’t believe the answer is simply to cut our way to fiscal health,” he said, adding he would not promise “specific cuts without first understanding the city’s finances in detail.”
“Economic development and diverse sources of recurring revenue have to be part of the solution,” Waugh said. “A stronger local economy means a stronger tax base and greater capacity to provide the services residents expect.”
District 4
Burandt, 29, said he would bring “a public service mindset” to the seat, drawn from his time in the Marines and his work for elected representatives in Washington, D.C. and Orange County. He also holds a master’s in public administration from Cal State Fullerton.
Roads and basic infrastructure should be one of the city’s biggest priorities, he said.
“Road maintenance should be treated as a long-term responsibility, not something we continually postpone when budgets get tight,” he said, promising to show residents “which streets are scheduled for work, how projects are prioritized, how much is being spent, and where funding is coming from.”
On housing, Burandt said he supports reducing minimum lot sizes so “smaller lots can allow more starter homes to be built without necessarily changing the character of existing neighborhoods.” Similar to Waugh in District 2, he said housing development should focus growth around underused commercial areas and transportation.
Rather than relying on cuts to fix the city budget, Burandt said he would rather have the city grow its way into a stronger financial position — through economic development that prioritizes filling vacant commercial space and growing sales-tax revenue.
If elected, Burandt said fiscal trust will be at the center of his leadership decisions. “Placentia has had understandable public skepticism about city finances over the years,” he said, adding that confidence is rebuilt “not with promises, but with clear information, strong oversight, and visible results in the neighborhoods people live in every day.”
Wanke is looking to add a fifth term to his time on the City Council. He previously served two years as the city’s treasurer in 2008. He said in his campaign statement that he has lived in Placentia for more than 31 years, where he and his wife, Leonie, are raising four children.
He offers a record of council accomplishments in his campaign statement, including having proposed amendments to help balance this year’s budget, approving “miles” of roadway repavement, the hiring of 10 new police officers and construction of a new playground at Parque De Arroyo Verde.
“The recent improvements have helped set Placentia on the right track, but there is still more to be done,” Wanke said, adding he would continue to focus on rebuilding roads and infrastructure, and maintaining “balanced budgets that benefit Placentia residents, not the bureaucracy.” He did not respond to an invitation to participate in the voter guide.
He also said he would continue his support for police and firefighters.
Read more of the voter guide, including what the candidates said would make them good leaders and how they would represent the city’s diverse community at ocregister.com/voter-guide.
Ballots may be returned by mail (must be postmarked by Nov. 3 and received within a week of Election Day) or to the OC Registrar of Voters’ drop boxes around town now, and the first vote centers will open for casting ballots in person on Oct. 24.