Those expecting a close race for Santa Clarita City Council’s first district-based election were not disappointed, as the results indicated the tally was too close to call as of press time Tuesday night.  Two members of the Santa Clarita Planning Commission, Patsy Ayala and Tim Burkhart, and Bryce Jepsen, who serves as secretary for the Santa Clarita Valley LGBTQ Center, are all seeking to be the first representative of District 1, a territory that’s mostly Newhall and a gerrymandered portion of west Canyon Country.  As of press time Tuesday, Burkhart led on the early returns, with 2,499 votes, or 36.19%, ahead of Ayala, who has 2,220 votes, or 32.15%, and Jepsen, who was 33 votes behind Ayala.   The city voted to move to a district-based election, choosing the seats and the districts after a lengthy public-outreach process last year, as the result of a lawsuit.   District 1 was on the ballot because it was considered the “remedial district,” in the lawsuit settlement.   A group of Hispanic/Latino voters sued the city around the start of the pandemic claiming that the city’s “at large” election format deprived them of a chance to vote for their candidate of choice.  The city settled the suit with the electoral change. The move also left Councilman Jason Gibbs running unopposed in District 3, and he was appointed to another term by his fellow council members in August.    Burkhart has said previously he has no concerns about representing a community he’s lived in his whole life, where he started as a ride operator at Magic Mountain before retiring from a spot at the park’s corporate global headquarters.  Someone long familiar with City Hall as a planning commissioner with more than two decades of experience, he said the campaign trail this past year has been about strategy and selecting the right times to engage with voters, he said Tuesday, ahead of the early returns that had him up.  His focus was on engaging in the final stretch, he added, and regardless of whether he wins, he felt he had the best team he could have put together and he was happy he did everything he could have.   “We started out with a specific strategy and we followed that strategy all the way through to today, and to me, it just rang every bell as we went along the way,” he said from an election watch party the patio of Salt Creek Grille.  Ayala said her experience in legislative work and in crisis management was something that voters valued, as well as her experience in representing the diverse population that represents District 1.  “For me, the most important thing for the voters is that they are represented by somebody that has experience in government,” Ayala said Tuesday.  For his part, at a few opportunities Jepsen worked to separate himself from what he saw as the status quo for the city, campaigning against two more experienced City Hall operators.  He thanked those who supported his campaign and helped in the canvassing effort, which he said Tuesday night from the headquarters that he began in earnest about six months prior.  “I didn’t write anything,” said Jepsen, “I just wanted to say thank you to everyone.”  The post City Council race tight with early results  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.