Skip to main content

City of Clearlake · Statewide General Election

Clearlake City Council

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 hold one of two seats up this cycle on Clearlake's 5-member City Council (elected at-large) -- city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Lake County city of about 16,000 residents. A 4-year term.

Five candidates are running for two seats on the Clearlake City Council: incumbent Russell Cremer and challengers Dean Clark, Zabdy Neria, Carlos Ramos, and Alvaro Valencia.

Clearlake's City Council has five members, all elected at-large (no districts) to staggered 4-year terms, for this Lake County city of about 16,000 residents. Two seats are up this November. Whoever gets the two highest vote totals wins outright, with no runoff.

A separate City Treasurer seat is also on this ballot, but drew zero qualified candidates -- there is no roster to present for that office regardless of the outcome of a separate measure on the same ballot that would make the office appointive going forward.

Russell Cremer

The incumbent, seeking another term. His filed candidate statement cites 8 years on the Council, including 3 terms as Mayor, and points to the Measure V roads-funding campaign, an animal-shelter turnaround, and service on the Planning Commission, the Lake County Fire Protection District, the Lake Transit Authority, and Rotary.

Strengths

Eight years of current council experience, including three terms as Mayor, and a specific record of cited accomplishments (Measure V, the animal shelter).

Trade-offs

A long incumbency means this race is partly a referendum on his own tenure, not just a comparison of newcomers.

Keep in mind

His statement is self-authored -- worth weighing against independent local coverage of his record where you can find it.

Dean Clark

Clark's filed candidate statement describes him as a Marine Corps veteran and special-education teacher, with degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, City College of San Francisco, and San Francisco State University.

Strengths

A military-service and special-education-teaching background, plus multiple degrees relevant to public service.

Trade-offs

No prior elected or appointed local office was cited in his statement or found independently this pass.

Keep in mind

As a first-time candidate, his statement is the main source available on his priorities -- read it directly if you can.

Zabdy Neria

Neria's filed candidate statement describes her as a second-term Konocti Unified school board member and past board president, a two-term Rotary Club president, and a licensed clinical social worker who owns a private practice.

Strengths

Current elected school-board experience and civic leadership (Rotary presidency) plus a clinical social-work background relevant to community services.

Trade-offs

Her elected experience is on the school board, not city government specifically -- a different, though related, kind of public service.

Keep in mind

Her clinical/social-work background could inform how she'd approach city social-service and public-health issues -- worth asking her directly.

Carlos Ramos

Ramos's filed candidate statement cites service on the Lake County Chamber of Commerce board, the Measure V Oversight Committee, and the Latino Advisory Council, along with education at Woodland Community College and Sacramento State.

Strengths

Chamber of Commerce and oversight-committee experience gives him some direct exposure to city fiscal and business issues.

Trade-offs

No prior elected office was cited in his statement or found independently this pass.

Keep in mind

His Measure V Oversight Committee service overlaps with incumbent Cremer's own cited Measure V work -- worth asking both how they'd approach that program going forward.

Alvaro Valencia

Valencia is Vice-President and co-owner of A&B Collision, a Gold Class/AAA-certified auto body shop in Lower Lake he and Bill Stone purchased in 2005, after starting a 17-year career in the collision-repair industry; he holds an associate's degree in business administration from Heald Business College. He has a long local civic record: a city appointment to the Abandoned Vehicle Authority (2011), service as a Clearlake Planning Commissioner (2015), a 2010 Small Business of the Year award and 2012 Youth Advocate of the Year award, the presidency of the Lakeshore Lions, and current Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce board service, including organizing the Redbud Parade and Festival. He did not file a candidate statement for this year's ballot.

Strengths

The deepest, longest-running local civic record in the field -- business ownership, a city commission appointment, and continuous Chamber of Commerce leadership spanning more than a decade.

Trade-offs

Did not file a 2026 candidate statement, so his current platform and priorities for this specific race are not in his own words anywhere this dataset found.

Keep in mind

His record predates this specific campaign by over a decade -- worth asking directly what he'd prioritize now, since his statement doesn't say.

Source review: Strong (82/100) · 10 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • clearlake.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Clearlake -- official Administration/Council page (clearlake.ca.us/141): states the City Council is 5 members, directly elected at-large to staggered 4-year terms.
  • clearlake.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Clearlake -- Resolution No. 2026-29, "A Resolution ... Calling For ... the General Municipal Election ... on the 3rd Day of November, 2026 for the Purpose of Electing TWO City Council Members, Each to Hold a Term of Four Years, and ONE City Treasurer," adopted July 16, 2026 (a scanned document, read via vision extraction). Also carries the full text of Ordinance No. 287-2026 ("Making the Office of City Treasurer Appointive") on the same Nov. 3, 2026 ballot as Measure D.
  • clearlake.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Clearlake -- Official Candidate List (CivicAlert dated Aug. 14, 2026, signed by City Clerk Melissa Swanson), cross-checked against Lake County's own identical posted document: names 5 qualified City Council candidates -- Dean Clark (Education Specialist), Russell Cremer (incumbent), Zabdy Neria (Clinical Social Worker), Carlos Ramos (Business Owner), Alvaro Valencia (Business Owner) -- and states outright, "There were no qualified candidates for City Treasurer."
  • elections.lakecountyca.gov (opens in a new tab)Lake County Elections -- "Councilmember Candidate Statements" (4-page PDF, posted for the City of Clearlake): full first-person statements of qualifications for Dean Clark, Russell Cremer, Zabdy Neria, and Carlos Ramos. No statement from Alvaro Valencia (optional, fee-based under CA law -- its absence is informative but not disqualifying).
  • abcollision.net (opens in a new tab)A&B Collision (Lower Lake) -- the business's own "About Us" page: Alvaro Valencia is Vice-President/co-owner, having purchased the Gold Class/AAA-certified auto body shop with Bill Stone in 2005; 17 years in the collision-repair industry, an associate's degree in business administration from Heald Business College, bilingual (Spanish/English).
  • lakeconews.com (opens in a new tab)Lake County News -- "Clearlake city council candidates spotlight: Alvaro Valencia" (2012, a prior council run): age 36 at the time, part-owner of A&B Collision; 2010 "Stars of Lake County" Small Business of the Year award; 2012 Youth Advocate of the Year; president of the Lakeshore Lions; Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce director; founding member of Clean Up Clearlake Day; Clearlake Youth Center volunteer.
  • record-bee.com (opens in a new tab)Lake County Record-Bee (Feb. 2011): reports Alvaro Valencia's appointment to the City of Clearlake's Abandoned Vehicle Authority.
  • clearlake.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Clearlake -- a March 2015 Planning Commission meeting agenda naming "Commissioner Alvaro Valencia" as a sitting member of the city's Planning Commission.
  • clearlakechamber.org (opens in a new tab)Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce -- its own site listing Alvaro Valencia as a current board director, including a 2025 board nomination, and as an organizer/contact for the Redbud Parade and Festival; also identified in Lake County News reporting as past president of the Clearlake Oaks-Glenhaven Business Association.
  • southtechhosting.com (opens in a new tab)A negative-result access attempt: Lake County's own CampaignDocs eRetrieval campaign-finance portal is a stateful ASP.NET/DevExpress search form with no GET-queryable results page, not reachable by this session's non-browser fetch tooling for any of the 5 Clearlake Council candidates.

Last updated September 2, 2026.