Ventura's three City Council incumbents have plenty of company in the race to keep their seats, as six challengers met Friday's filing deadline, including two small-business owners and a fiscal conservative newcomer.

Joining incumbents Bill Fulton, Christy Weir and Carl Morehouse on the ballot are business owners and past candidates Doug Halter and Jerry Martin, newly retired school official Lou Cunningham, first-timer Mike Gibson and perennial candidate Carroll Dean Williams.

Brian Lee Rencher, a former homeless man and City Hall watchdog who has run unsuccessfully for years, filed papers about 20 minutes before Friday's deadline, but his paperwork can't be verified until Monday, the City Clerk's Office said.

Former Ventura Police Chief Mike Tracy also gave the election serious thought at the urging of business leaders but ultimately passed.

The crowded field undoubtedly will spend the weeks leading up to the Nov. 6 election knocking on voters' doors, soliciting contributions and planting campaign signs as they vie for a four-year seat on the council that demands lofty amounts of time but pays a paltry $600 a month.

Friday also was the candidate filing deadline for two seats on the Ventura Unified School District board.

Challenging incumbents Debbie Golden and Barbara Fitzgerald are first-time candidate Lupe Hekelnkaemper, who runs a day care service out of her home and whose daughter will be a senior at Buena High School, and past challengers David Norrdin and Williams, who qualified for both races. Monique Dollonne filed papers Friday afternoon, but they can't be verified until Monday, officials said.

Incumbents historically have fared well among Ventura's roughly 60,000 registered voters. Morehouse, the city's current mayor, wasn't going to run, but the retired county planner changed his mind and is eyeing a third term on the seven-member council.

Weir, an author and current deputy mayor, and Fulton, a small-business owner and noted urban planning analyst, joined the council in 2003. Weir, if elected, would be in position to become Ventura's first female mayor since Harriet Kosmo Henson held the largely ceremonial post from 1978 to 1982.

Martin, 60, a Ventura native who runs a tax preparation business in midtown, came in fifth in the 2005 race for four seats. A soft-spoken former electrician who maintains strong union ties, Martin was endorsed in 2005 by the Service Employees International Union Local 998, the largest local union.

Halter, 47, a former Ventura Chamber of Commerce board president, owns a landscaping business. He ran unsuccessfully for council in 1999, losing by fewer than 500 votes. A founding member of the Rubicon Theatre and the now disbanded Downtown Community Council, Halter said he plans to focus on economic revitalization and common-sense government.

Newcomer Gibson, 51, moved to Ventura with his family two years ago, after 14 years in Port Hueneme. A self-described fiscal conservative, Gibson has worked for 13 years as a business manager for Santa Barbara County Parks, overseeing contracts and lease agreements.

He said he feels the council should spend more time on economic development and attracting more tax-producing businesses. He voted against last year's local ballot measure endorsed by the council that would have raised the local sales tax a quarter-cent to pay for increased public safety protection.

"I felt the council was too quick to go to voters to force them to dip into their own pockets, when they hadn't explored all opportunities to build the local tax base," Gibson said Friday.

Cunningham, 63, is chair of the city's Mobile Home Rent Review Board and is on the county Local Agency Formation Commission, commonly known as LAFCO. He retired this week from the Oxnard Union High School District, where he was director of facilities the past 12 years.

The 20-year local resident cited his experience dealing with budgets, infrastructure and land use as his reasons for running.

"After talking to residents and business owners, that lack of trust is what's keeping us all from working together and moving forward," he said. "I believe with my style of leadership I can bring people together."