Who should lead Modesto?

Change is coming to the Modesto City Council.

Five of the seven positions are on the Nov. 8 ballot, and three current members — Mayor Jim Ridenour and Councilmen Brad Hawn and Garrad Marsh — are being forced off by term limits.

Collectively they have 24 years' of council experience, while the remaining four members have less than nine years among them.

And even if Hawn or Marsh eventually wins the mayoral contest, the city's governing body will have at least two new faces and a lot less experience.

While Modesto's elected and appointed leaders have done a good job of reducing spending in this bad economy, the new council faces some daunting challenges:

• Continuing budget problems, including the need to cut an additional $12 million for 2012-13 on top of the millions in earlier reductions. The budget considerations will hit every area and include everything from outsourcing services to partnerships with other government agencies to staff reductions and possibly even permanent pay cuts.

• Labor issues. Given the budget situation and the need for pension reform, negotiations with employee unions will be tough. Most of the contracts expire in 2012 or 2013.

• The pervasive problems associated with foreclosures, from neighborhood blight to vandalism.

• Ongoing safety concerns, from auto thefts to gang violence and killings.

• The need to create a "business friendly" environment that nurtures new and existing enterprises.

• A variety of growth decisions, including trying to establish a long-term urban growth limit for the city.

• Repairing and improving streets and storm drains and staying on track with water and sewer upgrades.

Along with the great challenges come great opportunities. The new council needs to:

• Encourage, empower and equip individuals and groups to take responsibility for the community, from adopting parks to volunteering service to cleaning up neighborhoods to mentoring youth.

• Look for ways to work with other public entities, nonprofits and the private sector.

We hope the new council will have a vision that balances short- and long-term priorities in a way that will help the city not only survive these tough times but position it to thrive in the better times that eventually will come.

This election will be the first in which there will not be runoffs in the council races. As a result of changes to the City Charter approved in recent years, the top vote-getter in each of the four council district races will be the winner, regardless of whether he or she gets more than half the votes.

For the mayor's contest, however, if no candidate gets 50 percent plus one vote on Nov. 8, there will be a runoff in February.

In making our recommendations for the five council positions, we took into account The Bee editorial board's meetings with the candidates, their answers to our questionnaire, their performance at community forums and additional reporting. Third-quarter visiting editors Jim Sahlman and Stefan Edh also participated in the ed board meetings and subsequent discussions.

The candidates' biographies and the opening questions from our meetings are available at www.modbee.com/elections.

Our recommendations:

District 1

We're seeing that in the northwest Modesto district, where two longtime residents with virtually no experience in government are running campaigns on shoe-string budgets.