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City of Danville · Statewide General Election

Danville Town Council

Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.

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 at-large seats up this cycle on Danville's 5-member Town Council: town ordinances, the budget, and land use for the Town of Danville. A 4-year term -- the Mayor and Vice Mayor rotate annually among council members rather than being separately elected.

Three candidates qualified for two of Danville's five at-large Town Council seats on the November 3 ballot: incumbent Vice Mayor Robert Storer is seeking re-election, and two newcomers — retired San Ramon Police Chief Denton Carlson and childcare-business owner Pratima Sonavne — are running for the seat left open by Councilmember Karen Stepper, who announced in April she would not seek another term after 24 years on the council.

The two winners each serve a four-year term on Danville's five-member, at-large Town Council: town ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions townwide. Danville doesn't directly elect a mayor — the five councilmembers rotate the Mayor and Vice Mayor titles among themselves annually, with new terms starting the first Tuesday each December.

One seat is a straightforward incumbent's bid for another term; the other is genuinely open, since Stepper isn't running again. That makes this less a referendum on the sitting council and more a choice between two newcomers with very different résumés — a three-decade local police executive and a small-business owner and HR professional — for whichever of the two lower vote totals doesn't go to Storer.

Robert Storer

The incumbent Vice Mayor has lived in Danville for 37 years and has been on the Town Council since 2009, after serving on the Planning Commission from 2001 to 2009. He's served three terms as Mayor under the council's rotating system, most recently in 2023, and currently sits on the town's Finance Committee, as council liaison to the San Ramon Valley Unified School District, and on the All Wars Memorial Board. His campaign lists public safety (citing Danville's six-time SafeWise "Safest City in California" designation), a balanced budget and healthy reserves, protecting the town's hillsides from development, and support for local schools, businesses, and veterans as his priorities.

Strengths

17 years on the Town Council plus 8 on the Planning Commission before that, three terms as Mayor, and a published set of priorities tied to public safety and the town's hillsides.

Trade-offs

The longest tenure of anyone in the race means the most ownership of the status quo — how Danville has been run these past 17 years is substantially his record too.

Keep in mind

He's the only incumbent in the field, running under the ballot designation "Vice Mayor, Town of Danville."

Denton Carlson

A 15-year Danville resident, Carlson retired in December 2025 as San Ramon's Police Chief after a 27-year law-enforcement career — joining the San Ramon Police Department at its 2007 founding after starting with the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office in 1998, then serving as SWAT commander, detective, and department spokesperson before his 2022 promotion to chief. He now works in a civilian role at Longeye, a San Francisco AI startup building digital-evidence tools for police, prosecutors, and public defenders, and sits on the California Police Chiefs Association and San Ramon Regional Medical Center boards. His campaign is focused on public safety, fiscal responsibility, well-managed growth, government efficiency, and a strong local economy with a well-preserved downtown.

Strengths

A 27-year law-enforcement career capped by three years leading a neighboring city's police department, plus seats on the California Police Chiefs Association and a regional hospital board.

Trade-offs

No prior elected or appointed Danville office — his leadership record is civic and professional, built at a neighboring city's police department rather than the town's own government.

Keep in mind

He filed first among the three candidates (July 28), before incumbent Storer, and campaigns as the field's public-safety specialist by profession as well as platform.

Pratima Sonavne

Sonavne founded the Kurious Kids childcare center in Danville, where she's lived for five years (a 14-year Contra Costa County resident overall), and holds a master's degree in Human Resource Management with more than 20 years of HR and operations experience. She ran for Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder in the June 2026 primary and lost to incumbent Kristin Connelly by more than a 4:1 margin; she's told DanvilleSanRamon she's drawing on that experience for this race, leading with "who I truly am" rather than a broader political profile. Her stated priorities are public safety, fiscal responsibility, smart growth, supporting families and small businesses, transparent government, and infrastructure and open space.

Strengths

20-plus years of HR and operations experience, ownership of a local childcare business serving Danville families, and a detailed six-point platform in a dedicated local-news interview.

Trade-offs

No service in elected or appointed town government, the shortest local residency of the three candidates, and a wide loss in her only prior run for office five months earlier.

Keep in mind

She filed last, within the deadline extension triggered by Stepper's exit, and Patch could not reach her for comment through her listed email addresses — a gap this dataset also could not close.

Source review: Very strong (91/100) · 12 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • contracostavote.gov (opens in a new tab)Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Positions Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election": the Cities section lists "Danville 2 Councilmembers" -- an at-large, vote-for-2 race, not a districted one, matching the local-authoring queue's 1-contest estimate for the Town of Danville
  • contracostavote.gov (opens in a new tab)Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Contest/Candidate Proof List" (8-27-26_candidatelist_detail_final.pdf), the county's post-certification, ballot-order-proofing export: shows contest 5401 "DanvilleCouncil," Town of Danville Member, Town Council, vote-for-2, as 3 candidates / 3 qualified / ON BALLOT -- Denton Carlson (qualified 7/28/2026), Robert Storer (incumbent, qualified 7/31/2026), and Pratima Sonavne (qualified 8/7/2026) -- and separately lists both sitting incumbents whose terms expire this cycle, Robert E. Storer and Karen G. Stepper, as "Appointed in Lieu," with Stepper absent from the candidate list, confirming she did not re-file
  • contracostavote.gov (opens in a new tab)Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Candidate List" (8-14-26_candidatelist_summary_final.pdf), the county's complete qualified-candidate roster: confirms "Vote for 2 Danville Council" with the same three qualified candidates and filing timestamps -- Denton Carlson (7/28/2026 4:38pm), Robert Storer (8/4/2026 11:37am), Pratima Sonavne (8/7/2026 1:00pm)
  • danville.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)Town of Danville -- City Clerk's own "Elections" page: states two seats on the Danville Town Council are up Nov. 3, 2026, names the same three qualified candidates (Denton Carlson, Pratima Sonavne, Robert Storer, with Storer marked incumbent) and their qualification dates, and confirms no separate election exists for city clerk, treasurer, or any other Danville office this cycle
  • danville.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)Town of Danville -- "Town Council" page: confirms the 5-member, at-large council on 4-year terms ("All members of the Town Council are elected on an at-large basis for four-year terms"), a Mayor/Vice Mayor rotation among members starting the first Tuesday in December each year, and the sitting roster with each member's term-expiration date -- Vice Mayor Robert Storer and Councilmember Karen Stepper each expire Nov. 2026 (the two seats up), Mayor Newell Arnerich, Mark Belotz, and Renee Morgan each expire Nov. 2028
  • patch.com (opens in a new tab)Patch (Michael Wittner, Patch Staff) -- "3 Candidates Vie For 2 Danville Town Council Seats" (Aug. 14, 2026): staff-bylined, dedicated reporting profiling all three qualified candidates -- Denton Carlson's 15-year Danville residency, 27-year law-enforcement career, and campaign priorities; Robert Storer's 37-year residency, council tenure since 2009, and priorities; Pratima Sonavne's Kurious Kids childcare center, HR master's degree, and her June 2026 Clerk-Recorder run -- and independently notes Patch's own attempt to reach Sonavne for comment failed (two listed email addresses returned undeliverable)
  • patch.com (opens in a new tab)Patch -- "Danville Candidate Filing Deadline Extended" (Aug. 7, 2026): reports the non-incumbent filing deadline was extended to Aug. 12 because an eligible incumbent (Karen Stepper) did not file for re-election, names the three candidates filed as of Aug. 7, and confirms Stepper announced in April 2026 she would not seek re-election after 24 years on the Town Council
  • patch.com (opens in a new tab)Patch -- "Vice Mayor Robert Storer Announces Re-Election Bid" (Aug. 5, 2026): Storer's own campaign-launch statement and priorities (public safety, citing Danville's six-time SafeWise "Safest City in California" designation; a balanced budget and healthy reserves; protecting the town's hillsides from development; and support for local schools, businesses, veterans, and the Chamber of Commerce), plus his Planning Commission service (2001-2009) and three terms as Mayor, most recently 2023
  • danvillesanramon.com (opens in a new tab)DanvilleSanRamon (Embarcadero Media) -- "Danville mother, childcare business owner Sonavne running for Town Council" (Aug. 24, 2026): a dedicated candidate profile built on an email interview, with direct quotes on her platform (public safety, fiscal responsibility, smart growth, supporting families/small businesses, transparent government, infrastructure/open space) and her account of losing the June 2026 Contra Costa Clerk-Recorder primary to incumbent Kristin Connelly by more than a 4:1 margin; names her campaign site as countonpratima.com
  • danvillesanramon.com (opens in a new tab)DanvilleSanRamon (Embarcadero Media) -- "SRPD Chief Carlson stepping down at end of year" (Sept. 16, 2025): reports Denton Carlson's retirement after a 27-year law-enforcement career, joining the San Ramon Police Department at its 2007 founding after starting with the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office in 1998, his 2022 promotion to chief as the department's fifth chief, and a 2016 San Ramon Chamber of Commerce employee-of-the-year honor
  • danvillesanramon.com (opens in a new tab)DanvilleSanRamon (Embarcadero Media) -- "Former San Ramon police chief takes new role at AI startup" (Jan. 18, 2026): an interview with Carlson on his post-retirement civilian role at Longeye, a San Francisco AI startup building digital-evidence tools for detectives, prosecutors, and public defenders, drawing on his own experience as a detective handling growing volumes of digital evidence
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)This dataset's own documented record of a dedicated, unsuccessful attempt to retrieve Danville Town Council campaign-finance filings: California's Cal-Access filer search (cal-access.sos.ca.gov) returned only an Incapsula bot-detection interstitial for every query attempted for Denton Carlson, Robert Storer, and Pratima Sonavne in this pass (via both WebFetch and direct curl), with no live browser session available in this worktree to work around it. Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source for this contest, not any candidate's actual finances.

Last updated September 1, 2026.