Incumbents Few in Santa Monica Races : Elections: The decision of most officeholders to forgo reelection will change the face of local governmental bodies.

There will be many new faces at the meetings of the elected governmental councils in Santa Monica come November. Across the board, most incumbents have chosen not to seek reelection.

For the Santa Monica City Council, where three seats are up for grabs Nov. 6, only one of the nine candidates is an incumbent. For the Santa Monica Rent Control Board, just one of the eight candidates running for four seats is an incumbent.

For the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education, where four seats are open, just one board member is seeking reelection against five newcomers. And for the Santa Monica Community College Board of Trustees, there are two incumbents among five candidates for four seats.

In the race for judge of the Municipal Court in Santa Monica, there are two candidates, neither an incumbent.

The Nov. 6 ballot will also include a $75-million bond measure to finance capital improvements for the school district and nine ballot measures, including two competing rent-control measures and three that would affect the future of beachfront development.

The race for the three City Council seats is expected to be the liveliest, and the most varied in terms of issues. Where most recent council elections have been one-issue affairs dominated by rent control, this time rent control is sharing the spotlight with other matters that have stirred spirited debate, particularly beach development and homelessness.

A symptom of this diversifying agenda is that neither of the two candidates backed by Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights, the big tenants’ organization, has used rent control as a significant campaign issue so far. Kelly Olsen, 36, a renter in the mid-city area, has been much more active in efforts to restrain growth and development. The other SMRR candidate, Tony Vasquez, 34, is a homeowner in Sunset Park who has been a leader in an effort to change City Council elections from an at-large system to one where members are elected by districts.

Issues raised by the ballot measures are expected to spill over into the council campaigns.

One measure that clearly has divided some candidates is the proposal to make the city attorney an elected official rather than an appointee. Sponsors of the measure are seeking to oust City Atty. Robert M. Myers because of his reluctance to prosecute homeless people for some nonviolent crimes.

Four candidates, including incumbent Christine Reed, have said independently that they are running in part to crack down on aggressive panhandlers. The other candidates are pharmacist Robert T. Holbrook, 48, a member of the local school board; Donna Alvarez, 54, a retired administrator who ran unsuccessfully for the City Council two years ago, and Larry Jon Hobbs, 48, an educator.

SMRR and its two candidates oppose the measure, as does another candidate, Jean Gebman, 44, an engineer and RAND Corp. policy analyst.

Two nonaligned candidates who could capture votes from various sides are Kathleen Schwallie, an attorney, and Sharon L. Gilpin, 38, who owns a communications business. Both are active in the emerging slow-growth movement.

Schwallie, a Sunset Park homeowner, recently helped to organize a coalition of neighborhood groups advocating slow-growth.

Gilpin was a leader in a referendum drive that forced the City Council earlier this year to rescind its approval of a large commercial and office development at Santa Monica Municipal Airport.

Another ballot measure expected to separate the candidates is one asking voters whether the City Council’s recent approval of a luxury hotel and conference center proposed by restaurateur Michael McCarty should be repealed.

SMRR considers the measure so divisive that the group decided not to take a position on it.

Schwallie, Gilpin, Olsen, Gebman and Hobbs oppose the hotel. Reed voted for its approval. Alvarez supports the hotel, and Vasquez said he has not yet decided which way he will vote. Holbrook could not be reached for comment and did not express a position on the hotel in the campaign statements he filed with the city clerk.

SANTA MONICA ELECTION Here is a list of candidates for various offices in Santa Monica in the Nov. 6 election.

CITY COUNCIL

Nine candidates are seeking three at-large seats. Terms are four years.

Donna Alvarez, 54, retired

Jean Gebman, 44, policy analyst, engineer

Sharon L. Gilpin, 38, small-business owner

Larry Jon Hobbs, 48, educator

Robert T. Holbrook, 48, pharmacist/member of Santa Monica-Malibu Board of Education

Kelly Olsen, 36, writer/slow-growth advocate

*Christine Emerson Reed, 46, council member/environmentalist/homemaker

Kathleen Schwallie, attorney

Tony Vasquez, 34, community planner/educator

RENT CONTROL BOARD

Six candidates are vying for three four-year terms. Two candidates are running for one two-year term.

Four-year terms

Suzanne Abrescia, child-development specialist

*Jay P. Johnson, 47, sales representative of wholesale apparel/rent board commissioner

Robert Madok, 26, student

Barbara J. Miller, 46, certified shorthand reporter

Lisa Monk Borrino, 35, tenant attorney

Ed Simonian, manager, chemical engineering group

Two-year term

James L. Jacobson, 38, property management consultant

Robert Niemann, substitute math teacher

JUDGE OF THE MUNICIPAL COURT, SANTA MONICA

Two candidates are competing for one seat.

James M. Bambrick, 50, Santa Monica Community College Board of Trustees/attorney

David B. Finkel, 58, Santa Monica City Council member/attorney

SANTA MONICA-MALIBU BOARD OF EDUCATION

Six candidates are seeking four seats. Terms are four years.

Pam Brady, 44, management consultant/youth advocate

Brenda Gottfried, 45, educator/mediator

Michael Hill, 47, teacher/marriage, family counselor

*Patricia Hoffman,41, school board member

Thomas N. Kayn, 46, businessman/designer

Joanne Leavitt, 50, community volunteer

BOARD OF TRUSTEES, SANTA MONICA COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

Five candidates for four seats. Terms are four years.

*Carole Lundgren Currey, 54, executive assistant

George Hickey, 58, clinical engineer

*Colin C. Petrie, 75, retired educator

Alfred T. Quinn, 67, college dean emeritus

Ralph R. Villani, 60, educator

*denotes incumbent

Times staff writer Barbara Koh contributed to this story.