It didn’t take long once the city clerk’s office opened Friday morning for candidates to begin dropping off their paperwork.

Jerry Nankervis, who is running for the open District 2 seat on the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly, said he was there within minutes of the candidate filing period’s start at 8 a.m. Friday to put in his nominating petition. Loren Jones, one of two District 1 candidates, was right behind him.

By 9:25 a.m., City Clerk Laurie Sica and Deputy City Clerk Beth McEwen had checked their signatures against the voter rolls, verified at least 25 of them and called both men to give them the good news.

“You are officially a certified candidate,” McEwen told Jones.

Gayle Trivette dropped off the nominating petition for Andrea Story, vice president of the Juneau School District’s Board of Education, shortly after 10 a.m. Story will be out of town until after the filing period ends Aug. 13.

Speaking by phone Friday afternoon, Story said it feels good to know she is a certified candidate for what would be her fourth term on the school board.

“It’ll be a good fall, and it’ll be a good opportunity to talk about school issues,” Story said.

After Story’s signatures were dropped off, Sica and McEwen barely had to wait at all for the remaining race on the ballot to get an official candidate.

At 11 a.m. former Assembly member Merrill Sanford strolled into the clerk’s office with his nominating petition and a copy of the Alaska Public Offices Commission’s public official financial disclosure form, filled out by hand.

“About time you got here,” said Mayor Bruce Botelho, emerging from his office to greet the man who hopes to succeed him. The two men shook hands as Sica looked over Sanford’s forms.

“We’re official, man,” Sanford declared. “Here we are.”

Sanford announced his intention to run for mayor in March after being termed out of the Assembly last October. He was elected in 2002, one year before Botelho became mayor.

Botelho is prohibited from running again after serving three consecutive terms. Thus far, Sanford is the only declared candidate in the race to succeed him.

Sanford said he is ready to return to the Assembly after almost a year away.

“There’s always new issues that come up,” Sanford said. “Once you solve, or at least vote, on one issue, and it gets put on the table and put out there, there’s 10 more issues that come up and keep you busy and going … and trying to be a part of that, and bringing together a group of people to be able to come to some type of a consensus of some sort, is very important to me.”

While Nankervis’ name appears with those of Sanford, Story and Jones on the list of 2012 certified candidates on the CBJ’s elections website, Nankervis has yet to file his APOC financial disclosure with the city. The website lists its status as “pending.”

“I talked to Laurie (Sica) about that today, and they’re actually not due until the end of the filing period,” Nankervis said of the disclosure forms. “I don’t know how involved it is, and I didn’t even look at it yet. … So that’s my next project.”

By the close of business at City Hall Friday, four of the five contenders for office this year in Juneau listed on APOC’s website had filed with the city.

Paul Nowlin, Jones’ fellow candidate for the District 1 seat being vacated by Deputy Mayor David G. Stone this year, had planned on dropping off his nominating petition on Friday as well, but he said Friday afternoon that he would hold off until after the weekend.

“I’m going to do that Monday, because my father-in-law never got a chance to sign that and it’s important to him,” said Nowlin. He said he had already collected about 47 signatures.

• Contact reporter Mark D. Miller at 523-2279 or at mark.d.miller@juneauempire.com.