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City of Atascadero · Statewide General Election

Mayor of Atascadero

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On the ballot

This person would serve a 2-year term as Atascadero's directly, citywide-elected Mayor -- presiding officer of the 5-member City Council and the city's ceremonial head. Atascadero, a San Luis Obispo County city of about 29,773 residents (2020 Census), runs under a council-manager government, with an appointed City Manager handling day-to-day operations.

Incumbent Mayor Charles Bourbeau is running unopposed for a second two-year term -- he is the only candidate who qualified for the office.

Atascadero's Mayor is directly elected citywide to a two-year term, separate from the city's four Council seats. The Mayor presides over Council meetings and serves as the city's ceremonial head, sitting on a five-member City Council -- the Mayor plus four Council Members, all elected at large -- that sets the budget, land use, and city ordinances for this San Luis Obispo County city of 29,773 residents (2020 Census). Day-to-day operations are run by an appointed City Manager under the city's council-manager government.

Bourbeau did not file a new candidate statement for this cycle, consistent with an unopposed incumbent; the only statement of qualifications on file for him in the city's public-records portal is from his 2024 mayoral race, also uncontested.

Charles Bourbeau

Charles Bourbeau is Atascadero's incumbent Mayor, first elected to the City Council in 2016 after two years on the city's Planning Commission, and elected Mayor in 2022. A Cal Poly graduate, he spent nearly three decades as a full-time officer in the California National Guard, retiring as a Colonel responsible for federal funds, property, and equipment, and later served a period as Finance Director for the City of San Luis Obispo. He and his wife Melissa, a longtime Atascadero Schools teacher, have lived in the city since 1985. His 2024 candidate statement cites a Council record of expanding police and fire staffing, repairing over 30 miles of neighborhood roads, adding park facilities, allowing smaller houses and more apartments to encourage affordable housing, and revitalizing Downtown, and describes a history of local volunteering including police graffiti-abatement work, CASA foster-youth mentoring, and Rotary Club leadership.

Strengths

Two terms on the Council plus prior Planning Commission service, a cited record on public-safety staffing and road repair, and a decades-long California National Guard career.

Trade-offs

No independent news coverage of his current term was found this pass; the fullest account is his own 2024 campaign statement, and he filed no new statement this cycle.

Keep in mind

Running unopposed, he is effectively re-elected regardless of turnout -- this is a vote to confirm him for a second term, not a comparison between candidates.

Source review: Strong (87/100) · 7 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • atascadero.org (opens in a new tab)City of Atascadero -- own "2026 General Election" page: states, in the city's own words, that the Nov. 3, 2026 Consolidated General Election fills "One (1) Mayor for a full term of two (2) years," "Two (2) Members of the City Council for full terms of four (4) years," and "One (1) Treasurer for a full term of four (4) years," and links the city's Notice of Election, Notice of Offices and Nominations, and Notice of Nominees.
  • atascadero.org (opens in a new tab)City of Atascadero City Clerk's Office -- official "Notice of Nominees for Public Office" (signed by Assistant City Manager/City Clerk Lara K. Henderson, dated Aug. 25, 2026, after the nomination period closed): names the final certified field for the Nov. 3, 2026 General Municipal Election -- Mayor, Vote for One: Charles Bourbeau; Member of the City Council, Vote for Two: Mike Avila, Ian Denchasy, Emily Baranek, Susan Funk; Treasurer, Vote for One: Jeri Rangel.
  • atascadero.org (opens in a new tab)City of Atascadero -- own "Candidates & Committees" page: independently confirms the identical five-name roster (Charles Bourbeau for Mayor; Ian Denchasy, Emily Baranek, Susan Funk, and Mike Avila for the two Council seats; Jeri Rangel for Treasurer) and lists each candidate's Form 501 filing date and the dates their nomination paperwork was pulled, returned, and qualified for the ballot -- all five between July 22 and Aug. 5, 2026 -- and links each candidate's filed Candidate Statement of Qualifications and the city's NetFile campaign-disclosure portal.
  • atascadero.org (opens in a new tab)City of Atascadero -- own "Mayor, Council & Treasurer" page: names every current officeholder and term (Mayor Charles Bourbeau, 2024-2026; Mayor Pro Tem Mark Dariz, 2024-2028; Council Members Susan Funk and Heather Newsom, both 2022-2026; Council Member Seth Peek, 2024-2028; Treasurer Jeri Rangel, term ending 2026), confirms the Council is a 5-member body elected at large under a council-manager government, and gives each current member's own biography -- including Bourbeau's 2016 Council election, prior Planning Commission service, and nearly 30-year Army National Guard career; Funk's 2018 election, 2022 re-election, MBA, and 25-year healthcare-management-consulting career; and Rangel's Dec. 2024 appointment as Treasurer (filling predecessor Gere Sibbach's unexpired term), Certified California Municipal Treasurer designation, and role as the city's Administrative Services Director since 2013.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia, "Atascadero, California": used narrowly for the fixed, dated 2020 Census population figure (29,773) and as an independent cross-check of the city's council-manager government structure and five-member, at-large City Council.
  • public.netfile.com (opens in a new tab)A negative-result local campaign-finance check: the City of Atascadero's own Candidates & Committees page names public.netfile.com/pub2/?AID=atasc as its FPPC campaign-disclosure filing portal, but that portal is a fully client-rendered single-page application -- every direct fetch attempted this pass, including several guessed REST API paths, returned only the same empty application shell, with no live-browser fallback available this session. Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source for every candidate in this shard, not any candidate's actual finances.
  • records.atascadero.org (opens in a new tab)Charles Bourbeau's own filed Candidate's Statement of Qualifications for Atascadero Mayor, filed with the City Clerk's Office for his 2024 (also uncontested) mayoral race -- the only statement of qualifications on file for him in the city's public-records portal, since he did not file a new one for this cycle. Used narrowly for his own self-described background, not presented as 2026 campaign material.

Last updated September 2, 2026.