# Buena Park City Council, District 5 Compare records and positions simply between Sharena Walker or Brandon Schooner for Buena Park City Council, District 5 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Buena Park's City Council. The council has five members. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. An appointed city manager runs day to day operations. Buena Park has no separately elected Mayor. The council elects a Mayor and Vice Mayor from among its own members. This happens each year. Not all five council districts are elected the same year. The term is four years. - Jurisdiction: City of Buena Park - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/buena-park-council-5 - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: August 31, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 74 out of 100 (Mixed), across 3 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Sharena Walker** — Director of Marketing - **Brandon Schooner** — City of Buena Park Commissioner A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Two candidates, Brandon Schooner and Sharena Walker, are running for Buena Park City Council District 5's open seat. Incumbent Connor Traut, the city's sitting Mayor, did not file for re-election -- he is instead a candidate for Orange County Supervisor, 4th District. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff. This person holds District 5's seat on Buena Park's 5-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. Buena Park is a general-law city with no separately, citywide-elected Mayor -- the council elects a Mayor and Vice Mayor from among its own members each year, and District 5's outgoing officeholder, Connor Traut, currently holds that Mayor title. Not all five council districts are elected the same year. The term is four years. This is Buena Park's only open council seat in 2026 -- the other race, District 2, has an incumbent on the ballot. Beyond each candidate's own filed occupation, no campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source could be found for either despite a real, per-candidate search effort -- the city's own elections page confirms it published an individual candidate statement for each of them, but both of those statement PDFs 404 on the city's document system. Documented below as a gap, not filled in with speculation. ## Brandon Schooner Filed their candidacy under the ballot designation "City of Buena Park Commissioner," indicating current service on one of the city's boards or commissions. No campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source confirming which commission or describing their platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort -- the city does not publish a combined, searchable commissioner roster that could independently confirm this designation. **Strengths:** Their filed designation indicates current city-commission service, suggesting some existing familiarity with Buena Park's governance and processes. **Trade-offs:** No campaign statement or platform was found in this pass, so voters have no confirmed sense of their priorities beyond their listed designation. **Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for their campaign in this pass -- see Financial info. ## Sharena Walker Filed their candidacy under the ballot designation "Director of Marketing." No campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source describing their background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort. **Strengths:** A marketing-director background suggests communications and outreach experience relevant to public-facing city work. **Trade-offs:** No campaign statement or platform was found in this pass, so voters have no confirmed sense of their priorities beyond their listed occupation. **Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for their campaign in this pass -- see Financial info. ## Review notes - No cited source describes the candidates; add descriptive coverage to lift the cap. ## Sources 1. [OC Registrar of Voters -- Contest/Candidate Proof List, General Election 11/3/2026 -- City of Buena Park section: confirms City Council District 2 (2 qualified candidates) and District 5 (2) as the city's two November 2026 races, each Vote for 1, with incumbent flags and every candidate's filed ballot designation](https://ocvote.gov/fileadmin/user_upload/data/candlog/GEN2026/candlog.pdf) 2. [City of Buena Park -- City Council page: the full sitting 5-member roster and district assignments (Mayor Connor Traut, District 5; Vice Mayor Lamiya Hoque, District 4; Joyce Ahn, District 1; Carlos Franco, District 2; Susan Sonne, District 3), confirming the council elects a Mayor and Vice Mayor from among its own members each year and that Traut is not among the qualified 2026 candidates for his own District 5 seat](https://www.buenapark.com/city_departments/city_council/council_members.php) 3. [City of Buena Park -- Elections and Voter Services page: lists all four qualified November 2026 City Council candidates by district (Yong Choi and Carlos Franco, District 2; Brandon Schooner and Sharena Walker, District 5) with filing and qualification dates, and confirms Joyce Ahn was appointed to the District 1 seat on August 19, 2026 as its sole candidate, canceling that district's election](https://www.buenapark.com/city_departments/city_clerk/elections_and_voter_services/index.php) ## The rest of the ballot Buena Park City Council, District 5 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Buena Park City Council, District 5 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/buena-park-council-5 (sources last retrieved August 31, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.