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City of Chico · Statewide General Election

Chico City Council, District 6

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 would represent District 6 on Chico's seven-member City Council. Chico is a charter city, the largest in Butte County with a 2020 Census population of 101,475, governed under the council-manager form: an appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations while a seven-member, district-elected City Council sets policy. The Council chooses one of its own members to serve a two-year term as Mayor -- Kasey Reynolds has held the role since December 2024 -- so there is no separately elected Mayor seat on this ballot. Council seats serve staggered 4-year terms; Districts 1, 3, 5, and 7 are not up again until 2028.

Councilmember Tom van Overbeek is seeking re-election to his District 6 seat against challenger Megan Thomas Petty, a Chico attorney of 28 years.

This person would represent District 6 on Chico's seven-member City Council. Chico is a charter city, the largest in Butte County with a 2020 Census population of 101,475, governed under the council-manager form: an appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations while the district-elected Council sets policy and the budget. The Council chooses one of its own members to serve a two-year term as Mayor, so there is no separately elected Mayor seat on this ballot. Council seats serve staggered 4-year terms; Districts 1, 3, 5, and 7 aren't up again until 2028.

With two names on the ballot for one seat, District 6 is decided by whichever candidate gets more votes on November 3 -- no ranked-choice voting or runoff.

Tom van Overbeek

The incumbent, seeking another term; per his own council-provided biography, he grew up on a vineyard in Modesto and has spent most of his life in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys. He built most of his career as a technology executive in the San Jose area, and was elected to the Chico City Council in 2022 because, in his own words, "I saw a lot of things in Chico that needed fixing and thought I could help." He and his wife Kim have three grown children and six grandchildren.

Strengths

A full term's experience on the Council plus a private-sector executive background before taking office.

Trade-offs

This dataset found no independent news coverage of his record in office this pass beyond his own council-provided biography.

Keep in mind

His pre-council career was in the private technology sector, not local government or nonprofit work, a different background than several of Chico's other current councilmembers.

Megan Thomas Petty

A challenger; filed ballot designation "Attorney at Law." Per her own campaign site, she grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri, the oldest of four children of an Army-veteran father, and holds a political-science degree from the University of Missouri. She began law school at UMKC before transferring to Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, specializing in environmental law. She has practiced law in Chico for 28 years -- medical-malpractice defense, family law, property law, estate planning, and business law, plus pro-bono work and, for the past four years, freelance work on mobile-home-park and eminent-domain cases for a San Diego firm. She raised two children in Chico's public schools.

Strengths

The most extensively documented platform in this contest: 28 years of local legal practice plus a long civic-commission record, including chairing the Bidwell Park and Playground Commission.

Trade-offs

As a non-incumbent she has no council voting record, and this dataset found no independent news coverage of her campaign beyond her own site.

Keep in mind

Her law practice includes medical-malpractice defense work, which some voters may want to weigh alongside her stated civic priorities.

Source review: Strong (81/100) · 8 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Megan Thomas Petty's own campaign site, biography page (meganforchicocitycouncil.com/biography), fetched directly: grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri, the oldest of four children of an Army-veteran father; political-science degree with a Spanish minor from the University of Missouri; began law school at UMKC before transferring to Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, specializing in environmental law with an honors certificate in natural resources and environmental law; an attorney in private practice in Chico for 28 years handling medical-malpractice defense, family law, property law, estate planning, and business law, plus pro-bono work and four years freelancing on mobile-home-park and eminent-domain cases for a San Diego firm; raised two children in Chico's public schools. and Megan Thomas Petty's own campaign site, candidate-statement page (meganforchicocitycouncil.com/candidate-statement), fetched directly: lists extensive civic-commission service -- chair of the Bidwell Park and Playground Commission (2018, 2021-present), Vice-Chair of the Human Resources Commission (2007-2010), the Urban Forest Master Plan Working Group (2021-2023), two school-site-council presidencies, the Chico Central Little League board, and the Chico Green City Coalition board -- and a platform emphasizing fact-based decision-making, parks and greenspaces, public safety, responsible growth, and local businesses. may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • buttevotes.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)Butte County -- "Final Qualified Candidate List" for the Nov. 3, 2026 General Election (report CFMR009, contest IDs 4002-6806, print date 8/27/2026), fetched and read directly as a PDF: names three City of Chico contests as "On Ballot: Yes," "Vote For: 1" -- Contest 4112 (District 2, incumbent Kasey Reynolds vs. Shelby Hebert), Contest 4114 (District 4, incumbent Addison Winslow vs. Tracy Vincent), and Contest 4116 (District 6, incumbent Tom van Overbeek vs. Megan Thomas Petty). No other City of Chico contest appears anywhere in the document.
  • chicoca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Chico -- official City Council Directory page: confirms Mayor Kasey Reynolds (District 2, term 2022-2026, Mayor since Dec. 4, 2024, elected 2018 and 2022), Addison Winslow (District 4, term 2022-2026, elected Nov. 8, 2022), and Tom van Overbeek (District 6, term 2022-2026, elected Nov. 8, 2022) as the three councilmembers whose terms expire this cycle, and links each sitting member's own self-provided biography PDF.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia, "Chico, California": 2020 Census population 101,475; a charter city with a council-manager government; "Chico's city council consists of seven nonpartisan council members each elected from one of the seven districts in November of even-numbered years. The districts were officially created in February 2020." Used narrowly for this background, not for any 2026 election content.
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)A negative-result local campaign-finance check: Chico's NetFile public portal returns only a bare, client-rendered "Public Portal" shell with no server-side filer or committee content on direct fetch, the same access gap documented dataset-wide for other NetFile jurisdictions.
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)A negative-result access check: California's statewide Cal- Access campaign-finance filer/candidate search returned an Incapsula bot-detection challenge page instead of results on direct fetch, the same recurring block documented elsewhere in this dataset.
  • d16k74nzx9emoe.cloudfront.net (opens in a new tab)City of Chico -- Councilmember Tom van Overbeek's own council- provided biography PDF: grew up on a vineyard in Modesto, spent most of his life in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys, and built most of his career as a technology executive in the San Jose area; elected to the Chico City Council in 2022 because, in his own words, "I saw a lot of things in Chico that needed fixing and thought I could help"; he and his wife Kim have three grown children and six grandchildren.
  • meganforchicocitycouncil.com (opens in a new tab)Megan Thomas Petty's own campaign site, biography page (meganforchicocitycouncil.com/biography), fetched directly: grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri, the oldest of four children of an Army-veteran father; political-science degree with a Spanish minor from the University of Missouri; began law school at UMKC before transferring to Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, specializing in environmental law with an honors certificate in natural resources and environmental law; an attorney in private practice in Chico for 28 years handling medical-malpractice defense, family law, property law, estate planning, and business law, plus pro-bono work and four years freelancing on mobile- home-park and eminent-domain cases for a San Diego firm; raised two children in Chico's public schools.
  • meganforchicocitycouncil.com (opens in a new tab)Megan Thomas Petty's own campaign site, candidate-statement page (meganforchicocitycouncil.com/candidate-statement), fetched directly: lists extensive civic-commission service -- chair of the Bidwell Park and Playground Commission (2018, 2021-present), Vice-Chair of the Human Resources Commission (2007-2010), the Urban Forest Master Plan Working Group (2021-2023), two school- site-council presidencies, the Chico Central Little League board, and the Chico Green City Coalition board -- and a platform emphasizing fact-based decision-making, parks and greenspaces, public safety, responsible growth, and local businesses.

Last updated September 2, 2026.