Gloria Sanchez announces another run for City Council seat

Longtime Menifee resident Gloria Sanchez has officially announced her plans to run for a City Council seat as District 4 representative once again.

Sanchez, who lost to incumbent John Denver in 2014, was at City Hall on Tuesday to request a letter of intent to run for that council seat. Candidates must wait until July to pull formal application papers. Denver, who has served on the City Council since Menifee's incorporation in 2008, will be leaving office this fall because of term limits.

Daniel Moreno, a resident of the Heritage Lake community, is the only other resident to publicly announce a run for the District 4 seat so far.

Sanchez, a 17-year resident of Menifee, lives in The Oasis, a senior community at the southern end of District 4. She serves as chair of the Menifee Senior Advisory Council and the Riverside County Office of Aging. She serves hundreds of volunteer hours each year, including organizational work with the Menifee Better Together campaign. In addition, Sanchez was recently selected a Community Champion by the California Parks & Recreation Society for her efforts to improve the quality of life for residents in Menifee.

"District 4 has been in the background too long," Sanchez said of the district, a diverse area that includes over-55 communities, a Heritage Lake development full of young families, and the original Romoland community at the far northeast corner of Menifee. "We need to look at it as an important part of the city. A lot of development is going on.

"People are concerned about how their lives will be affected by all this housing going in. They want services closer to home -- grocery stores, a pharmacy. And transportation is a big issue for them."

Editor's note: Menifee 24/7 will take an in-depth look at District 4 and the challenges City Council candidates face there in the May 1 newspaper and online next week.