Former council member a runoff winner

Incumbent also victorious in race for Pasadena seats

Saturday’s runoff elections for two Pasadena City Council seats resulted in victories for an incumbent and a former council member.

District A incumbent Ruben Villarreal defeated Ignacia Garcia, a coordinator for Harris County Precinct 2, with 55.48 percent of the vote. In a race for District G, Ornaldo Ybarra defeated clientcare specialist Paola Velasco with 57.99 percent of the vote.

“I’m going to do my best to be the best city councilman I possibly can be for everyone in my district,” Villarreal, a pastor who had been appointed to the District A position in February, wrote on his Facebook page.

Ybarra, a police officer, had served as the District A council member until he resigned in January.

Ybarra cited flooding as a priority issue in District G.

“It was a long five months, and I have personally walked every street (in my district), but we built good relationships,” Ybarra said Monday. “I got to see firsthand what the issues are, and we’re going to hit the ground running.”

Ybarra served on the council from 2009 to 2017, when he was forced out by term limits. In 2019, he was voted back into office.

The runoffs resulted after no one among multiple candidates for each seat in the May 6 election garnered more than half of votes.

In that election, Ybarra received 36.7 percent of votes compared with 29.3 for Velasco. Other candidates who sought the District G seat were insurance agent Salvador Serrano Jr., who received almost 25 percent of the vote, and Robert Marquez, who works in school safety and security and received 9 percent.

Villarreal and Garcia had made the runoff by being the top vote-getters May 6 in a three-way race that included retiree Keith Nielsen. Villareal received 45.6 percent of the vote and Garcia 39.5.