# Burlingame City Council, District 3 Compare records and positions simply between Howard Wettan or Jen Faber for Burlingame City Council, District 3 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold one of Burlingame's five district-elected City Council seats. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this San Mateo County city of about 31,400 residents. The term is four years. The Council selects a Mayor and Vice Mayor from among its own members each year rather than voters choosing either office directly. - Jurisdiction: City of Burlingame - 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/burlingame-council-3 - 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: September 7, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 83 out of 100 (Strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Howard Wettan** — City Commissioner / Attorney - **Jen Faber** — Education Foundation Director A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. The District 3 seat is open. Sitting Mayor Michael Brownrigg, who held it, chose not to seek another term. Jen Faber is a past president of the Burlingame Community Education Foundation. She led the Measure GG parcel-tax campaign. She faces Howard Wettan, an attorney and the sitting Vice Chair of the city's Parks & Recreation Commission. The winner holds one of Burlingame's five district-elected City Council seats for a 4-year term. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this San Mateo County city of about 31,400 residents, plus a share in the Council's rotating Mayor and Vice Mayor chairs, which the Council fills from among its own members rather than by direct election. Both candidates come to this open seat from adjacent but different tracks of city civic life: Faber's case rests on a fundraising and school-finance record built outside City Hall, while Wettan's rests on years already spent inside it, on a city commission that advises the Council directly. Neither has held elected office before. ## Jen Faber Faber is a past president of the Burlingame Community Education Foundation, or BCE. That nonprofit funds grants to Burlingame's public schools. Her campaign site credits her leadership with growing BCE's annual grants from $2.4 million to $3.2 million. It also credits her with leading the successful Measure GG campaign. That campaign secured roughly $3.4 million in recurring annual funding for Burlingame teachers. Her platform centers on the long-planned Broadway Grade Separation project. She calls for a clear action plan with transparent timelines and neighborhood traffic protections. Her platform also covers pedestrian and cyclist safety, fire and home-safety resources, and stronger city-business communication. **Strengths:** A concrete fundraising and ballot-measure track record. BCE's grant growth and the Measure GG campaign speak directly to school and budget finance, a recurring council concern. **Trade-offs:** No prior elected or appointed city-government experience. Her civic record runs through a school-support nonprofit rather than City Hall itself. **Keep in mind:** BCE's grant and Measure GG figures come from her own campaign site. The dollar amounts were not independently verified against BCE's or the school district's own financial records. ## Howard Wettan Wettan is an attorney and the sitting Vice Chair of Burlingame's Parks & Recreation Commission. That commission advises the City Council and city staff on parks and recreation policy. Their role is confirmed independently on the city's own commission roster page. It matches their filed ballot designation, 'City Commissioner / Attorney.' Beyond their commission role and profession, no campaign site or independent published platform was found for them. **Strengths:** Direct, sitting experience on a city commission that advises the Council. That is a closer institutional vantage point on how City Hall actually works than an outside candidacy offers. **Trade-offs:** No campaign site or independently reported platform was found. Their stated priorities for the seat beyond their existing commission work are not documented here. **Keep in mind:** The roster lists no campaign website or public email for them. No local news coverage profiling them individually was found. If a platform surfaces, the weekly refresh will catch it. ## Why this seat is open Michael Brownrigg, Burlingame's sitting Mayor, held the District 3 seat and chose not to seek another term; the community blog Burlingame Voice reported his decision on May 14, 2026, dating his public service in Burlingame to a 2001 Planning Commission appointment. That same reporting described both Faber and Wettan as well-positioned, early-campaigning candidates with assembled endorsements, and noted that neither of Burlingame's other two 2026 contests -- Districts 1 and 5 -- drew a challenger to the sitting officeholder. ## Review notes - Jen Faber for Burlingame City Council (District 3) -- candidate's own campaign site may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [San Mateo County ACRE -- Roster of Candidates, Qualified Candidates Only, November 3, 2026 General Election (CFMR009), dated 2026-08-25: names all three Burlingame City Council district seats on the ballot this cycle (Districts 1, 3, 5), each flagged 'On Ballot: Yes,' the qualified candidate(s) per seat, filing/qualification dates, and each candidate's filed ballot designation](https://smcacre.gov/system/files/2026-08/52_candidateroster0825.pdf) 2. [City of Burlingame -- official 'Meet the Council' roster page (names Michael Brownrigg as Mayor, Andrea Pappajohn as Vice Mayor, and Donna Colson, Desiree Thayer, Peter Stevenson as Councilmembers), 'District Elections' page (the January 17, 2020 CVRA demand letter, intent Resolution 032-2020, Ordinance 2003 adopted January 18, 2022 with Draft Map D, and that Districts 2 and 4 elected in 2024), 'Running for City Council' page (the candidate-filing period and required state disclosure forms), and the city's January 20, 2026 'Council Assignments' PDF (confirming the sitting five-member council and that Brownrigg, not Stevenson, holds the committee slots the Mayor appoints)](https://www.burlingame.org/1111/Meet-the-Council) 3. [Wikipedia -- 'Burlingame, California': 2020 Census population figure (31,386) only; the article's claim that Peter Stevenson is the current Mayor is treated as stale against the city's own current council roster page and not repeated in this dataset](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlingame,_California) 4. [California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- a negative-result campaign-finance search: a direct query for each of Burlingame's four 2026 City Council candidates (Pappajohn, Faber, Wettan, Stevenson) returned only a blocked, unrenderable page in every attempt this session, the same recurring bot-detection failure mode documented elsewhere in this dataset. Cal-Access also covers only state-level committees, not local city-council candidates](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/list.aspx) 5. [Jen Faber for Burlingame City Council (District 3) -- candidate's own campaign site: self-describes her as a past president of the Burlingame Community Education Foundation who 'grew school grants from $2.4M to $3.2M' and led the Measure GG parcel-tax campaign ('approximately $3.4 million in recurring annual funding for Burlingame teachers'), and states her platform on the Broadway Grade Separation, traffic and public safety, fire safety, and business support](https://www.faberforburlingame.com/) 6. [City of Burlingame -- Parks & Recreation Commission roster page: names Howard Wettan as the commission's sitting Vice Chair, independently corroborating his filed District 3 ballot designation, 'City Commissioner / Attorney'](https://www.burlingame.org/192/Parks-Recreation-Commission) 7. [Burlingame Voice (community blog) -- 'City Council: At least District 3 will be competitive' (May 14, 2026): reports Mayor Michael Brownrigg's decision not to seek another term, opening District 3 to Jen Faber and Howard Wettan (both characterized as 'strong candidates' with early campaigns and endorsements), and that Districts 1 and 5 drew no challengers to Pappajohn and Stevenson -- also corrects the blog's own earlier account of Brownrigg's tenure, dating his public service to a 2001 Planning Commission appointment rather than 16 years](https://burlingamevoice.com/2026/05/14/city-council-at-least-district-3-will-be-competitive/) ## The rest of the ballot Burlingame City Council, District 3 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, "Burlingame City Council, District 3 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/burlingame-council-3 (sources last retrieved September 7, 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.