Bakersfield City Councilman Zack Scrivner

Bakersfield City Councilman Zack Scrivner will run next year for Kern County supervisor, leaving the balance of power on the City Council up for grabs next year.

Scrivner made his announcement in a news conference Monday morning.

Scrivner’s move leaves his 7th Ward — a swing district in south-central Bakersfield — for the taking. And with Councilman Ken Weir likely to attract opposition in the northeast in 2010, it means the Abernathy Republicans will have to fight to keep their already-tenuous hold on the council.

It also means Scrivner won’t be part of a domino effect made possible by the end of Roy Ashburn’s Senate career.  Assemblywoman Jean Fuller could run for the termed-out Ashburn’s seat. If she does, Scrivner, her district director, had been considered a natural for the seat.

But Scrivner said he ruled that out in part because spending four days in Sacramento “isn’t really a schedule that’s conducive to a young family.” Scrivner and his wife have two sons, ages 3 years and 9 months.

Scrivner will be running for the 2nd District seat, which covers south-central Bakersfield and southeastern Kern County — Tehachapi, Mojave, Rosamond, California City and Boron. Incumbent Don Maben is not running for re-election.

Scrivner’s move practically guarantees an expensive race. He’s drawn the enmity of the city’s police and fire unions for targeting their pensions as too expensive. And consultant Mark Abernathy has shown a willingness to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a council seat.

As a county supervisor, he said, he would bring the same focus on fiscal issues that he’s had at the city, and the same focus on constituent services he’s had for Fuller.

Scrivner said he knows the area in part because as district director for Fuller, and before that for then-Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy, he’s been to all the communities covered by the 2nd District.

Scrivner will face at least two other candidates — Mary Beth Garrison and Steve Perez, who held the post before.

Scrivner was first elected to the city council in 2004, to serve out the half-term left by the retiring Mark Salvaggio. He then won re-election in 2006.

The last Bakersfield city councilman to go to the county was Mike Maggard, who made the jump in 2006.

Also up for re-election next year is Councilman David Couch. Councilwoman Irma Carson is not expected to run again in the southeast.

The seat is officially nonpartisan, but Scrivner is a Republican. Maben won his last term with 64 percent of the vote.