The prescription for Grand Terrace's growing pains: Elect officials who offer the right mix of resolve, experience and openness.

Mayoral candidate Walt Stanckiewitz and City Council candidates Richard Loder and Sylvia Robles are those officials.

Stanckiewitz, who was elected to council in 2008, has shown strong leadership in his brief tenure, and we believe he is best suited to shepherd this relatively young city to maturity.

Stanckiewitz faces three challengers for mayor: Sally McGuire, Doug Wilson and Denise Sternberg. The editorial board met with Stanckiewitz, McGuire and Wilson; Sternberg did not respond to our invitation.

The board admired McGuire for her commitment to building better relationships between City Hall and the people it serves, and was impressed with Wilson's long history of service with the Grand Terrace Planning Commission.

Stanckiewitz won us over with his frank talk about the city's finances - from the city's inability to balance its budget without borrowing from the Redevelopment Agency to the embarrassing realization that elected and appointed officials had not been paying taxes on their city stipends since Grand Terrace incorporated in 1978 - and his pledge to address those issues.

"We need to fix the foundation," Stanckiewitz said, ticking off a list of fiscal priorities that include balancing the budget, paying off the city's debt and updating purchasing and competitive bidding policies.

Political newcomer Richard Loder, a small-business owner, is similarly solution-oriented; he impressed us with his knowledge of Grand Terrace, his sincere concern for the community's well-being, and his commitment to help increase recreational opportunities for families. We liked his straight-forward approach - address mismanagement without pointing fingers - and hope this attitude will prevail on the dais.

He faces more seasoned candidates - Bea Cortes, who was elected to council in 2002, and former city manager Tom Schwab.

We thank Cortes and Schwab for their service in Grand Terrace but note that both bear responsibility for many of the city's financial problems - Schwab for his sloppy oversight at City Hall and Cortes for failing to act aggressively in her role as a steward of public funds.

Sylvia Robles, our pick for the short-term seat, understands well the council's responsibilities and we believe will be a strong advocate for the kind of oversight that will lead to improved decision-making.

Robles seeks to serve the final two years of former Councilman Jim Miller's term; he resigned in March before pleading guilty to conflict-of-interest charges for approving payments to a newspaper owned by his wife. We are confident Robles, a retired budget analyst with 25 years of experience in government, will avoid similar lapses in judgment.

She is an outspoken critic of using redevelopment funds to entice developers to build in Grand Terrace and would prefer the city put more energy and money into improving services such as the library, parks and public safety. Though we reserve judgment on the role of RDAs, we believe Robles' laser-like focus on the bottom line will be a great asset to the city as it balances decreasing or stagnate tax revenues with meeting the needs of residents.

Vote Stanckiewitz, Loder and Robles.

You know Gramps agrees with Stanckiewitz and Robles pick, but for the best interest of the community Sandoval should be elected to the 4 year seat and Loder to be appointed as Walt's Replacement after the election would make this old one happy. Loder is a nice guy, but, alone on a council with Wilson, Schwab, Garcia, McNoble, and Stanckiewitz if the election went against the hopes of an old man. Well, most likely he will defer to Schwab and Wilson's interpretation of what should be done. He would be my pick for the 5th crew member. (Star Trek reference not intended.)