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City of Arcadia · Statewide General Election

Arcadia City Council, District 2

Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

This person holds your district's seat on Arcadia's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use.

Incumbent Sharon Kwan, first elected in 2022 and a former turn as Arcadia's first female Asian American mayor, faces retired law-enforcement sergeant and former city commissioner Burton Brink for the District 2 seat on the Arcadia City Council.

The winner serves a four-year term on Arcadia's five-member City Council, which sets city ordinances, adopts the budget, and decides land use citywide — and holds a share in the ceremonial mayor's chair, which the council fills by rotating it among its own members rather than by direct election.

Kwan is running on a record already made: two-plus years in the seat and a turn as mayor. Brink is running on decades spent outside elected office but inside the city's own institutions, as a former commissioner and a career law-enforcement officer. The choice turns less on differing platforms than on whether continuity or a change in kind better serves the district.

Sharon Kwan

Kwan is the sitting District 2 councilmember, a small-business owner and former financial-services professional first elected in 2022. She previously led the Rancho Santa Anita Property Owners Association for a decade and served on the USC Arcadia Foundation and Downtown Arcadia Improvement Association boards. In April 2025 she became Arcadia's first female Asian American mayor, a rotating post the council fills from among its own members.

Strengths

A full term already served, plus a turn as mayor and a decade leading the district's largest property-owners association before that.

Trade-offs

Her platform for a second term is not separately documented beyond her record — no stated agenda for what changes next.

Keep in mind

She is the only candidate in this race with governing experience, which cuts two ways: the clearest record to judge, and the hardest promises to separate from what already happened.

Burton Brink

Brink is a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's sergeant with nearly 40 years in law enforcement and an eight-year former member of an Arcadia city commission. He is self-funding his campaign and not accepting contributions. His platform centers on public safety, government transparency, and fiscal accountability, per his campaign site.

Strengths

Decades of law-enforcement experience plus eight years already inside Arcadia's civic process as a commissioner.

Trade-offs

No experience in an elected legislative seat, where budget and land-use votes differ from a commission's advisory role.

Keep in mind

Declining contributions removes one question voters often weigh — whose money funds the campaign — but it also means less is publicly documented about who is organized behind him.

Source review: Strong (86/100) · 4 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Arcadia District 2, 3 and 5 candidates' own campaign sites and social pages (Burton Brink, Steve Rhee, Grace Arabella Lee) may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

Last updated August 30, 2026.