# Canyon Lake City Council Compare records and positions simply between Paul Kakis, Monica Lyons, or Jeremy Smith for Canyon Lake City Council at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds one of two at-large seats up this cycle. Canyon Lake's City Council has five members. They vote on city laws, the budget, and public-safety and lake-management decisions. Canyon Lake is a gated, private-lake community off Railroad Canyon Road. The term is four years. Canyon Lake has no separately elected Mayor. The five councilmembers choose a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem among themselves each year. - Jurisdiction: City of Canyon Lake - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Seats: 2 - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/canyon-lake-council - 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: 89 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 - **Paul Kakis** - **Monica Lyons** - **Jeremy Smith** — Incumbent A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Three candidates qualified for two of Canyon Lake's five at-large City Council seats on the November 3 ballot, per the city's own certified Notice of Nominees: incumbent Mayor Jeremy Smith is seeking another term, against two newcomers, Paul Kakis and Monica Lyons. The two winners each serve a four-year term on Canyon Lake's five-member, at-large City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and public-safety and lake-management decisions for this gated, private-lake community off Railroad Canyon Road. Canyon Lake doesn't directly elect a mayor -- the five councilmembers choose a Mayor and a Mayor Pro Tem from among themselves each year, per the city's own City Council page. The two seats up this cycle belong to Mayor Jeremy Smith and Mayor Pro Tem Kasey Castillo, whose terms both end December 2026. The city's own Notice of Offices certifies that nomination papers were furnished to both incumbents as of early August 2026, but Castillo does not appear on the final, post-deadline Notice of Nominees -- only Smith filed and qualified. That leaves one incumbent facing two first-time candidates for the two open seats, rather than a field of returning officeholders. No specific 2026 platform could be confirmed for any of the three beyond their appearance on the certified nominee list, despite a genuine search effort; no candidate has a dedicated city biography page, and no independent local reporting on this race was found. ## Paul Kakis Paul Kakis is a newcomer running for one of Canyon Lake's two open City Council seats. No ballot designation, independent biography, occupation detail, or platform statement was found for Kakis beyond the city's own certified candidate record. **Strengths:** None could be independently confirmed in this research pass beyond the city's own certified candidate record. **Trade-offs:** No independent biography, professional background, or stated platform was found beyond that filing record. **Keep in mind:** With no public record of their priorities beyond qualifying to run, this is a vote based on the ballot itself, not a documented record. ## Monica Lyons Monica Lyons is a newcomer running for one of Canyon Lake's two open City Council seats. No ballot designation, independent biography, occupation detail, or platform statement was found for Lyons beyond the city's own certified candidate record. **Strengths:** None could be independently confirmed in this research pass beyond the city's own certified candidate record. **Trade-offs:** No independent biography, professional background, or stated platform was found beyond that filing record. **Keep in mind:** With no public record of their priorities beyond qualifying to run, this is a vote based on the ballot itself, not a documented record. ## Jeremy Smith Jeremy Smith is the incumbent, currently serving as the council-selected Mayor. Their current term ends December 2026, and they are seeking a new term on the council. No independent biography, occupation detail, or platform statement was found for Smith beyond the city's own record of their current officeholder status. **Strengths:** A term already served, including current selection by their council colleagues as Mayor. **Trade-offs:** No independent (non-city) reporting on Smith's record in office, and no dedicated city biography page of the kind some sibling cities publish for their officeholders, was found. **Keep in mind:** Smith is the only one of the two incumbents whose seats are up this cycle who actually filed to run again -- Smith's Mayor Pro Tem, Kasey Castillo, was furnished nomination papers but did not go on to qualify for this ballot. ## Sources 1. [City of Canyon Lake -- "Notice of Election": "a General Municipal Election will be held in the City of Canyon Lake, California, on Tuesday, November 3, 2026" for "Two (2) Members of the City Council" with a "Full term of four years"; states the nomination period (July 13-August 7, 2026, extendable to August 12 for an incumbent's seat with no incumbent filer) and vote-center hours.](https://canyonlakeca.govoffice3.com/uploads/dm/11748/Notice_of_Election_website.pdf) 2. [City of Canyon Lake City Clerk/Elections Official Sheryl Garcia -- "Notice of Offices and Nominations" (Elections Code section 10224.5), posted August 4, 2026: certifies "nomination papers have been furnished to two incumbents for the two open offices" as of that date -- read against the later Notice of Nominees (below), which names only one of those two incumbents among the final qualified candidates, showing the other incumbent (Kasey Castillo) was furnished papers but did not go on to file.](https://canyonlakeca.govoffice3.com/uploads/dm/11749/Notice_of_Offices_and_Nominations_SB_386_8324.pdf) 3. [City of Canyon Lake City Clerk/Elections Official Sheryl Garcia -- "Notice of Nominees for Public Office": "the following persons have been nominated for the offices designated to be filled" at the November 3, 2026 general municipal election -- "For Member of the City Council, vote for no more than two: Paul Kakis, Monica Lyons, Jeremy Smith" -- the final, post-filing-deadline qualified-candidate roster for the only contest this dataset builds from this notice (a companion public-safety/emergency-response sales-tax measure also appears on this notice but is not built here, consistent with this dataset's citywide descoping of ballot measures from display).](https://canyonlakeca.govoffice3.com/uploads/dm/11974/Notice_of_Nominees_website.pdf) 4. [City of Canyon Lake -- Resolution No. 2026-28, adopted June 10, 2026 (5-0, Castillo/Steeber/Terry/Welty/Smith all voting aye): calls the November 3, 2026 general municipal election "for the purpose of electing two (2) Members of the City Council for the full term of four years," requests consolidation with the County of Riverside, and sets regulations for optional 200-word candidate statements (filed with nomination papers, printed at the candidate's own expense) and for resolving a tie vote by lot -- signed by Mayor Jeremy Smith and City Clerk Sheryl L. Garcia.](https://canyonlakeca.govoffice3.com/uploads/dm/11750/ResolutionNo.202628Calling2026MunicipalElection.pdf) 5. [City of Canyon Lake -- "City Council" government page: "The City of Canyon Lake is governed by a five-member City Council elected by the community" at-large (not by district); "Each year, the City Council selects one of its members to serve as Mayor and another to serve as Mayor Pro Tem for a one-year term" -- confirms Canyon Lake has no separately elected Mayor. Current roster: Mayor Jeremy Smith and Mayor Pro Tem Kasey Castillo (terms end December 2026, the two seats on this cycle's ballot), and Council Members Josh Steeber, Mark Terry and Dale Welty (terms end December 2028, not up this cycle).](https://www.canyonlakeca.gov/citycouncil) 6. [City of Canyon Lake -- "November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election" page: states two Council seats for full 4-year terms are up, gives the nomination-period dates and candidate-qualification requirements, and links the city's election notices, the Campaign Filings portal, the Riverside County Registrar of Voters, and past election results.](https://www.canyonlakeca.gov/election) 7. [City of Canyon Lake -- "Fair Political Practices Commission" government page: directs Form 700 (Statement of Economic Interests) lookups to the FPPC's own statewide Form 700 search tool or the City's Public Records Portal, links a Laserfiche "Campaign Filings" portal for other disclosure forms, and links the city's own Form 806 filing -- neither the FPPC's JavaScript-only Form 700 search tool nor the Laserfiche portal's document listing could be retrieved with the tools available in this pass, so no financial-disclosure content is asserted for any 2026 council candidate.](https://www.canyonlakeca.gov/fppc) ## The rest of the ballot Canyon Lake City Council 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, "Canyon Lake City Council — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/canyon-lake-council (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.