After 20 years on the Bakersfield City Council representing Ward 3, Ken Weir said he won\u2019t seek re-election this year.<\/p>\n
In a letter to The Bakersfield Californian he dropped off Monday, he wrote that serving on the council has been an honor and he looks forward to endorsing a successor, but was also critical of city spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite my objections, such monies are are being used to buy and remodel old motels for the homeless, support an $8 million per year 300-bed center that allows transients to stay indefinitely, fund park expansions, and the social missions of numerous private organizations,\u201d Weir said, referring to the city\u2019s use of Public Safety and Vital Services money.<\/p>\n
Weir was absent from half of last year\u2019s council meetings, and in November revealed he had been undergoing treatment for cancer. His letter on Monday thanked his constituents for their patience.<\/p>\n
Weir was first elected to the council in 2006, and is currently the longest-serving member on the council.<\/p>\n
In 2024, he unsuccessfully ran for the 32nd Assembly District, after the previous incumbent, Vince Fong, won a special election to the U.S. House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
Weir\u2019s Ward 3 seat is one of four on the council up for election this year, the others being Wards 1, 4 and 7.<\/p>\n
In February 2025, a local professional fighter, JC Llamas \u2014 known as \u201cthe leg-lock monster \u2014 announced his intention to run for the Ward 3 seat.<\/p>\n
The nomination period for City Council seats is from July 13 to Aug. 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 20 years on the Bakersfield City Council representing Ward 3, Ken Weir said he won\u2019t seek re-election…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,25934,153,152,1610,32333,147578,9965],"class_list":["post-363250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-city-council","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-city-council","tag-ken-weir","tag-the-bakersfield-californian","tag-weir"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}