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City of Del Rey Oaks · Statewide General Election

Del Rey Oaks 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 at-large seats up this cycle on Del Rey Oaks's five-member City Council -- the directly elected Mayor (not part of this race) plus four councilmembers who set the budget, land use, and city ordinances for this Monterey County city of 1,592 residents (2020 Census), while an appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. Del Rey Oaks elects its Council at-large, not by district; this seat carries a 4-year term.

Three candidates are running for two seats on the Del Rey Oaks City Council: incumbent Jeremy Hallock, and challengers Cheryl Parker and Shelley Cabanillas. The two highest vote-getters on November 3 win the seats; there is no runoff.

Del Rey Oaks elects its City Council at-large, not by district: alongside a directly elected Mayor who is not part of this race, four councilmembers set the budget, land use, and city ordinances for this Monterey County city of 1,592 residents (2020 Census), while an appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. These two seats carry 4-year terms.

This race needed Monterey County's Aug. 7-12, 2026 extended filing period to draw a full field: the King City Rustler's own list of offices with extended filing names "City of Del Rey Oaks -- Two City Council members" specifically, meaning fewer than three candidates had filed for the two seats by the regular Aug. 7 deadline. By the time the county's own candidate list was next captured (Aug. 23, 2026), the field had grown to three names, avoiding a Section 10229 cancel-and-appoint outcome and making this a genuine contest.

Jeremy Hallock

Jeremy Hallock is the council's incumbent, first elected in November 2022. Monterey County Weekly's January 2023 reporting on a separate council-appointment process describes him declining to support a fellow newly elected councilmember's motion to directly appoint a candidate to a vacant seat without first opening an application process, saying he was "not prepared to move forward this evening without a deeper dive there." No campaign website, filed candidate statement, or dedicated 2026 campaign coverage was found for him this pass.

Strengths

A full first term as sitting Councilmember, plus one documented example of favoring an open process over a quick appointment.

Trade-offs

No 2026 campaign website, filed statement, or news profile was found this pass -- no account of his stated priorities for a second term.

Keep in mind

As the only incumbent in this race, a vote for him is in part a referendum on his first term, distinct from Parker's and Cabanillas's outsider bids.

Cheryl Parker

Cheryl Parker is a licensed civil engineer with a Master's degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering and nearly two decades of experience in public infrastructure, environmental, and transportation projects, including work with local, state, and federal agencies and a volunteer stint with Engineers Without Borders designing a clean-water system in Honduras. A Del Rey Oaks resident since 2020, she says on her own campaign website that the city is at "an important crossroads" over the development of its remaining Fort Ord land, and calls for a transparent process with real public input before major commitments are made. Her platform also includes traffic-calming measures for residential streets, transparent oversight of public infrastructure projects, and support for the city's Public Safety Officers.

Strengths

A civil-engineering background in public infrastructure and environmental review, directly relevant to the council's pending Fort Ord land-use decisions, laid out in detail on her own site.

Trade-offs

As a non-incumbent, her platform is stated intentions, not a voting record; no independent news profile was found, so this account rests on her own self-description.

Keep in mind

She frames herself explicitly as not "a polished politician," positioning her outsider status and technical background as a contrast to the incumbent.

Shelley Cabanillas

Shelley Cabanillas is a challenger for one of the two council seats, listed on the county's own candidate filing with the ballot designation "Community Volunteer." No campaign website, filed candidate statement, or news coverage of her candidacy was found this pass -- this dataset's account of her candidacy is limited to her name and reported occupation as confirmed by the county's own filing.

Strengths

Not established by available public record -- no statement, site, or profile was found beyond her name and ballot designation, confirmed by the county's own filing.

Trade-offs

Her near-total absence from public record is itself the trade-off: no filed statement, interview, or campaign material in her own words was found.

Keep in mind

This thin record reflects what could be found, not a shortcut taken here -- a first-time candidate's record in a city under 2,000 residents is often this sparse, distinct from Hallock's and Parker's fuller records.

Source review: Strong (83/100) · 6 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: Cheryl Parker's own campaign website (cherylfordro.com): her background as a licensed civil engineer with a Master's degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering and nearly two decades in public infrastructure work, a Del Rey Oaks resident since 2020, and her stated platform on Fort Ord land-use decisions, infrastructure oversight, and traffic-calming public safety measures. may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • countyofmonterey.gov (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Elections -- official "Candidate List" page for the November 3, 2026 General Election, reached via a Wayback Machine snapshot (captured 2026-08-23) after the live page 403'd on every direct fetch attempted this pass: within the City section, exactly two Del Rey Oaks rows appear -- "Mayor, Vote for One" (Scott Donaldson, ballot designation "Mayor of Del Rey Oaks") and "Member, City Council, Vote for no more than 2" (Cheryl Parker, "Civil Engineer"; Jeremy Hallock, "Incumbent"; Shelley Cabanillas, "Community Volunteer") -- unlike the office-titles-only DOM this dataset's county-level Monterey shard encountered on the same page, this snapshot rendered the full per-candidate roster.
  • kingcityrustler.com (opens in a new tab)The King City Rustler -- "Extended filing period opens for unfilled seats in Monterey County" (Staff Report, Aug. 10, 2026): lists every Monterey County office where an eligible incumbent did not file for reelection by the regular Aug. 7 deadline. Del Rey Oaks Mayor does not appear on the list, confirming Donaldson filed and qualified by the regular deadline (ruling out a Section 10229 cancellation for that seat). The article's own "Full list of offices with extended filing" table does carry "City of Del Rey Oaks -- Two City Council members," confirming the council race alone needed the Aug. 7-12 extended window to draw a full field.
  • montereycountynow.com (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Weekly -- "With a four-person council, the process to fill a vacant seat in Del Rey Oaks might get interesting" (David Schmalz, Jan. 12, 2023): confirms the city's five-member City Council structure (a directly elected Mayor, chosen citywide rather than by the Council, plus four at-large councilmembers), reports Scott Donaldson won the Nov. 2022 mayoral election after serving as a councilmember, and reports Jeremy Hallock was newly elected to the Council in that same Nov. 2022 election -- independently corroborating both men's incumbency this cycle. Also documents Hallock declining to support a direct council appointment to fill a different 2023 vacancy without first opening an application process.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Del Rey Oaks, California": 2020 Census population (1,592); used narrowly to corroborate a directly elected Mayor. Not used for the 2026 election itself.
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer searches for Scott Donaldson, Cheryl Parker, Jeremy Hallock, and Shelley Cabanillas: every query hit the same Incapsula bot-block already documented elsewhere in this dataset for Cal-Access; no live-browser fallback was available this session either.
  • cherylfordro.com (opens in a new tab)Cheryl Parker's own campaign website (cherylfordro.com): her background as a licensed civil engineer with a Master's degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering and nearly two decades in public infrastructure work, a Del Rey Oaks resident since 2020, and her stated platform on Fort Ord land-use decisions, infrastructure oversight, and traffic-calming public safety measures.

Last updated September 2, 2026.