# Colton City Council, District 4 Compare records and positions simply between Joseph Paulino, Lawrence "Larry" Rivas, and 1 more for Colton City Council, District 4 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold your district's seat on Colton's four-member City Council. All four seats are elected by district. Members vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. Terms are four years and staggered, so not every district is up each November. Colton's Mayor is a separate office, elected directly and citywide to a four-year term. The Mayor's race is also on this November's ballot. - Jurisdiction: City of Colton - 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/colton-council-district-4 - 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: 88 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 - **Joseph Paulino** — Retired Police Chief - **Lawrence "Larry" Rivas** - **Adrianna Escarcega** — Commissioner / Workforce Manager A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Three candidates -- Joseph Paulino, Adrianna Escarcega, and Lawrence "Larry" Rivas -- are running for Colton's open City Council District 4 seat on the November 3, 2026 ballot. It's open because sitting District 4 councilmember John R. Echevarria is running for Mayor instead of reelection to this seat. Whoever gets the most votes wins outright. This person would hold District 4's seat on Colton's 4-member, district-elected City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. Terms are four years, staggered so only some districts are up in any given November -- Colton's Mayor is separately, directly elected citywide (also on this November's ballot). Escarcega, a sitting Colton Planning Commissioner and workforce manager, and Rivas, a sitting Utilities Commission At-Large member, are both already city appointees moving toward elected office; Paulino, whose filed designation is "Retired Police Chief," has no city-committee record found in this pass beyond that self-reported title. ## Joseph Paulino Joseph Paulino is a candidate for Colton's open District 4 council seat. Their filed ballot designation is "Retired Police Chief." No department, city, or independent record corroborating that designation was found in this pass -- it comes from their own filing, not from independent confirmation. **Strengths:** A law-enforcement leadership background, if their filed designation is accurate, distinct from either opponent's civic-commission experience. **Trade-offs:** This dataset could not independently confirm which department they led or when; no platform statement or news coverage was found; financial info was likewise unavailable. **Keep in mind:** An unconfirmed but specific self-reported credential is a real gap to ask them about directly, not evidence one way or the other about their background. ## Adrianna Escarcega Adrianna Escarcega is a candidate for Colton's open District 4 council seat. Her filed ballot designation, "Commissioner / Workforce Manager," is independently confirmed by the city's own Maddy Act Appointment List: she has served as the District 2 Planning Commissioner since July 18, 2023, a term running through 2028 that she would presumably leave if elected to the council. **Strengths:** Sitting Planning Commission experience since 2023, familiarity with the land-use process the council oversees; a workforce-management occupation corroborated by city records. **Trade-offs:** No independent news coverage of her Planning Commission tenure was found in this pass; financial info could not be retrieved (see note below). **Keep in mind:** Her Planning Commission seat represents District 2, not District 4 -- worth noting since she'd be seeking to represent a different district on the council than the one she currently serves on the Planning Commission. ## Lawrence "Larry" Rivas Lawrence "Larry" Rivas is a candidate for Colton's open District 4 council seat. They requested no ballot designation. The city's own Maddy Act Appointment List shows them as the Utilities Commission's At-Large member since January 17, 2023, a term running through 2026 -- a sitting city appointment they did not list on the ballot. **Strengths:** Three-plus years of sitting Utilities Commission experience, relevant to a council overseeing the city's electric and water utilities -- though at-large, not District 4-specific. **Trade-offs:** No occupation, platform statement, or independent news coverage was found anywhere in this pass; financial info was likewise unavailable. **Keep in mind:** Choosing not to list "Commissioner" as their ballot designation, despite holding that title, is worth noting -- this dataset surfaces the omitted fact rather than assuming it means something either way. ## Sources 1. [San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- "Offices Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election": lists County Board of Education Areas A, B, and D (under the School category) as the county's only expiring-term seats this cycle -- no Board of Supervisors, row office, or Superior Court seat appears anywhere in the 11-page document](https://uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov/ROV/Elections/2026/1103/Report_OfficesUpForElection.pdf) 2. [San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- statewide "Report_CandidateList.pdf" candidate-filing report linked from the county's own November 3, 2026 candidates page: within the San Bernardino County section, only Area B carries any candidates (Rita Fernandez-Loof, Miki R. Inbody, Kimberly L. Watson); Areas A and D, both confirmed expiring this cycle by the county's own Offices Up for Election document, have no candidates anywhere in the report and will not appear on the November ballot](https://uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov/ROV/Elections/2026/1103/Report_CandidateList.pdf) 3. [City of Colton -- City Clerk's "Election Information 2026" page: states "Offices Open for Election: Council Member -- District 3, Council Member -- District 4, Mayor -- City Wide," plus the nomination period (July 13 -- August 7, 2026) and candidate eligibility requirements.](https://www.coltonca.gov/1094/Election-Information-2026) 4. [City of Colton -- "Candidate Filing Update (FINAL UPDATE)" for the week of August 7-12, 2026: names all seven qualified candidates across the city's three November 2026 offices with their nomination-paper pull/file/qualify dates -- John Echevarria and Frank J. Navarro for Mayor; Luis S. González and Eugene Valdez for District 3; Joseph Paulino, Adrianna Escarcega, and Lawrence "Larry" Rivas for District 4 -- in full agreement with the county's own candidate-filing report.](https://www.coltonca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/10189) 5. [City of Colton -- "City Council" page: names each sitting member by seat (Frank J. Navarro, Mayor; David J. Toro, District 1; Kelly J. Chastain, District 2; Luis S. González, District 3; John R. Echevarria, District 4) and each one's term-expiration date -- Mayor, District 3, and District 4 all expire December 2026 (this cycle); District 1 and District 2 expire December 2028 (not on this ballot).](https://www.coltonca.gov/118/City-Council) 6. [City of Colton -- "Maddy Act Appointment List" (updated August 19, 2026), the city's Government Code Sec. 54970-54974 disclosure of every board and commission appointee: shows Adrianna Escarcega as the District 2 Planning Commissioner since July 18, 2023 (term through 2028), corroborating her "Commissioner" ballot designation, and Lawrence "Larry" Rivas as the Utilities Commission's At-Large member since January 17, 2023 (term through 2026), despite his own ballot designation being "No Ballot Designation Requested."](https://www.coltonca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/9636) 7. [City of Colton -- "Proposed Mural Sign" planning document (165 East "O" Street, South Colton): a community-beautification concept intended to establish an inventory of historical local-business brands and logos and deter graffiti, naming Eugene Valdez as the person behind the proposal -- the only independent record found of District 3 challenger Eugene Valdez's community involvement.](https://www.coltonca.gov/documentcenter/view/8708) ## The rest of the ballot Colton City Council, District 4 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, "Colton City Council, District 4 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/colton-council-district-4 (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.