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City of Desert Hot Springs · Statewide General Election

Desert Hot Springs City Council, District 1

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 holds your district's seat on Desert Hot Springs's 4-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. A 4-year term. Desert Hot Springs also directly elects a citywide Mayor to a separate 4-year term (limited to two terms), but that seat and Districts 2 and 4 are not up this cycle -- they were last elected in November 2024 and are next up in 2028, on a staggered schedule with Districts 1 and 3.

Two candidates -- Edouard Boumendil and incumbent Gary Gardner -- are on the November 3, 2026 ballot for Desert Hot Springs's District 1 City Council seat. Whoever gets the most votes wins a four-year term; there is no primary or runoff.

This person holds your district's seat on Desert Hot Springs's 4-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. A 4-year term. Desert Hot Springs also directly elects a citywide Mayor to a separate 4-year term, limited to two terms -- but that seat, along with Districts 2 and 4, is not up this cycle. Districts 1 and 3 were first elected by district in November 2022 and recur every four years; the Mayor and Districts 2/4 were first elected in November 2024 and recur on their own four-year cycle starting 2028.

Gardner's incumbency is confirmed by the city's own certified candidate roster, which marks him with an asterisk. His own campaign site describes roughly eight years on the council and a rental-registration ordinance he sponsored that the council adopted unanimously in early July 2026. No independent news coverage, campaign site, or biographical detail of any kind was found for Boumendil despite a genuine attempt, including guessing his own campaign-domain pattern and a targeted name search.

Edouard Boumendil

Edouard Boumendil is a challenger for Desert Hot Springs's District 1 City Council seat. No independent biography, occupation detail, campaign site, or platform statement was found for him beyond his name and nomination-paper filing dates on the city's own certified candidate roster.

Strengths

None could be independently confirmed; no occupation, background, or platform is documented for him beyond his name on the ballot.

Trade-offs

No independent biography, professional background, campaign site, or stated platform was found for him anywhere.

Keep in mind

With no public record of his priorities, this is a vote with essentially no documented basis -- a genuine, hard-tried search found nothing.

Gary Gardner

Gary Gardner is the incumbent District 1 councilmember, seeking reelection after roughly eight years on the council. His own campaign site frames his run around keeping the city safe, business-friendly, and fiscally responsible, and cites a rental-registration ordinance he sponsored -- aimed at protecting renters, whom he describes as almost half the city's population, from unsafe conditions -- that the council adopted unanimously in early July 2026.

Strengths

Roughly eight years of incumbency plus a concrete legislative record: a rental-registration ordinance he sponsored, adopted unanimously in July 2026.

Trade-offs

Nearly all detail about his record and platform comes from his own campaign site; no independent news coverage of his tenure was found.

Keep in mind

A vote for continuity in a seat he has already held for two terms, against a challenger with no public record to compare him to.

Source review: Strong (82/100) · 5 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Gary Gardner for Desert Hot Springs City Council, District 1 -- campaign site: roughly eight years on the council seeking reelection, describes District 1 as the area south of Pierson Boulevard and west of Palm Drive, cites a rental-registration ordinance he sponsored that the council adopted unanimously in early July 2026, and lists endorsements including Mayor Scott Matas, Rep. Raul Ruiz, and County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • cityofdhs.org (opens in a new tab)City of Desert Hot Springs -- City Clerk "General Municipal Election -- November 3, 2026" page: nomination period (July 13-Aug. 6, 2026) and requirements, plus two embedded images -- an office-count table ("FOR CITY COUNCIL": District 1 and District 3, each a 4-year term, each "Currently held by incumbent") and the City Clerk's own "08-10-2026 Final Roster of Candidates," naming all four qualified candidates (District 1: Edouard Boumendil, and incumbent Gary Gardner; District 3: Joseph Erndt, and incumbent Jan Pye) with each one's nomination-paper issued/filed/qualified dates. No Mayor, District 2, or District 4 race appears anywhere on the page.
  • cityofdhs.org (opens in a new tab)City of Desert Hot Springs -- City Council department page: current roster (Mayor Scott Matas; Mayor Pro Tem Dirk Voss, District 4; Gary Gardner, District 1; Daniel Pitts, District 2; Jan Pye, District 3), confirming by-district council elections since November 2022, staggered 4-year terms, an at-large 4-year Mayor limited to two terms, and an annually rotating Mayor Pro Tem selected by the council each December.
  • cityofdhs.org (opens in a new tab)City of Desert Hot Springs -- "District Elections" page: the council adopted Ordinance 754 on April 5, 2022 establishing by-district elections; Districts 1 and 3 were first elected November 2022 and recur every four years (i.e. 2026), while Districts 2 and 4 and the at-large Mayor were first elected November 2024 and recur every four years (i.e. 2028) -- the source for why no Mayor, District 2, or District 4 race is on the November 2026 ballot.
  • voteinfo.net (opens in a new tab)Riverside County Registrar of Voters — 2026 Annual Election Calendar (lists every November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election office by city, including "City of Cathedral City: City Council District 3 / District 4 / District 5 / City Treasurer")
  • gardnerfordhs.com (opens in a new tab)Gary Gardner for Desert Hot Springs City Council, District 1 -- campaign site: roughly eight years on the council seeking reelection, describes District 1 as the area south of Pierson Boulevard and west of Palm Drive, cites a rental-registration ordinance he sponsored that the council adopted unanimously in early July 2026, and lists endorsements including Mayor Scott Matas, Rep. Raul Ruiz, and County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez.

Last updated August 31, 2026.