Amid the whirl of state and county issues on Tuesday’s ballot, residents of Auburn and the Auburn School District have their own races and issues to settle in the all-mail election, from the mayoral contest to the race for City Council Position 5, from the Auburn School Board to the Auburn School District’s proposed $46.4 million capital improvements levy to fund necessary repairs and essential improvements at the district’s aging facilities.

Two-term incumbent Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis and Auburn City Councilwoman Virginia will settle a rancorous contest that will determine the city’s chief executive and the direction the city takes for the next four years.

Lewis, a former banker, is a proponent of downtown redevelopment and wants to continue with work now underway in the downtown. Haugen, a Boeing retiree and former partner in her ex-husband’s business, insists that the City doesn’t have the money and should dramatically scale back its plans so it can concentrate on providing basic services.

If Auburn City Councilman Gene Cerino, who has served 12 years on the Council, is to win another term he will have to beat back a spirited challenge from John Partridge, the City’s former fire and police chaplain and the owner of Partridge Insurance Agency.

Cerino, a retired school teacher who nonetheless substitutes in the Auburn School District, says his long experience in city government is invaluable given the current economic climate and amid potential flooding of the Green River posed by the compromised holding capacity of the Howard Hanson Dam. Partridge insists the time has come for a new face and a fresh perspective on the City Council.

Council members Rich Wagner and Nancy Backus are running uncontested for their own four-year terms.

In the race for Auburn School Board, incumbent Lisa Connors, an administrative assistant for a private company, with three children in the district, hopes to retain her seat, but will have to get past Clarissa Ruston, a recreation coordinator for the City of Auburn’s Parks, Arts and Recreation Department with two children in the District. Connors beat Ruston two years ago in the bid to fill the unexpired term of long time school board member Ted Leonard after Ruston had been appointed temporarily to the seat. The winner will serve a full four-year term.

An earlier story on the school board race that said Connors had served as an appointed director at the same time as Ruston was in error.

Municipal Court Judge Patrick Burns is running uncontested.

If school district voters approve the levy, the total local school tax rate, including previously approved measures, is estimated to be a level rate of $4.93 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2010. The tax rate is 55 cents more per $1,000 from the 2009 rate, which equates to $165 on a $300,000 home.

King County has ballot drop boxes throughout the county to provide voters with a way to securely return their ballots without the cost of postage.

For the Nov. 3 general, ballot drop boxes opened on Friday, Oct 16 and will close at 8 p.m. on election day, Nov. 3 at the Auburn Library, 1102 Auburn Way S.