# Desert Hot Springs City Council, District 3

Compare records and positions simply between Jan Pye or Joseph Erndt for Desert Hot Springs City Council, District 3 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Desert Hot Springs's City Council. The council has four district seats. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The term is four years. Desert Hot Springs also directly elects a citywide Mayor. The Mayor serves a separate four year term, limited to two terms. That Mayor's seat is not up this cycle. Districts 2 and 4 are also not up this cycle. They were last elected in November 2024. They are next up in 2028, on a staggered schedule. Districts 1 and 3 share that schedule.

- Jurisdiction: City of Desert Hot Springs
- 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/desert-hot-springs-council-3
- 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 3, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 78 out of 100 (Mixed), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Jan Pye** — Incumbent
- **Joseph Erndt**

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

Two candidates -- Joseph Erndt and incumbent Jan Pye -- are on the November 3, 2026 ballot for Desert Hot Springs's District 3 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. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The term is four years. 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.

Pye's incumbency is confirmed by the city's own certified candidate roster, which marks her with an asterisk. Both candidates maintain their own campaign sites, discovered from the reply-to addresses on their filed nomination papers: Erndt (electjoe.org) is a first-time candidate describing themselves as an operations professional; Pye (janfordistrict3.com) describes over three decades living in the city. No independent news coverage beyond each candidate's own site was found for either.

## Joseph Erndt

Joseph Erndt is a first-time candidate and District 3 resident challenging for the seat. Their own campaign site describes them as an operations professional with a background spanning hospitality and spa operations, construction and project coordination, budgeting, marketing, vendor management, and business development. They frame their platform around infrastructure basics (roads, drainage, street safety, lighting), fiscal accountability, and supporting local businesses and entrepreneurship.

**Strengths:** A stated professional background relevant to city operations (construction, budgeting, vendor management), and specific, itemized policy priorities.

**Trade-offs:** No independent biography, employment history, or news coverage beyond their own campaign site; their occupational claims are self-reported.

**Keep in mind:** As a first-time candidate against a sitting councilmember, this is in part a vote on outside operational experience versus continuity.

## Jan Pye

Jan Pye is the incumbent District 3 councilmember, seeking reelection after living in Desert Hot Springs for more than three decades. Her own campaign site emphasizes wellness tourism built around the city's mineral-water and spa assets, expanding local retail and entertainment options, and continuing in-progress initiatives including the BLVD and downtown plans and the Pierson Boulevard/Highway 62 gateway project.

**Strengths:** Incumbency and long-term residency (30+ years), plus specific in-progress city projects she cites continuing rather than only promises.

**Trade-offs:** Nearly all detail about her record and platform comes from her own campaign site; no independent news coverage of her tenure was found.

**Keep in mind:** A vote for continuity in a seat she already holds, against a first-time challenger with a differently focused platform.

## Review notes

- Joseph Erndt for Desert Hot Springs City Council, District 3 -- campaign site: a District 3 resident and self-described operations professional with a background in hospitality/spa operations, construction and project coordination, budgeting, marketing, vendor management, and business development; platform priorities are infrastructure, fiscal accountability, and local economic development and Jan Pye for Desert Hot Springs City Council, District 3 -- campaign site: a 30+ year city resident and the sitting District 3 councilmember seeking reelection; platform priorities are wellness tourism built around the city's mineral-water and spa assets, expanding local retail/entertainment/dining, and continuing in-progress projects (the BLVD and downtown plans, the Pierson Blvd./Highway 62 gateway) may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

## Sources

1. [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.](https://www.cityofdhs.org/general-municipal-election-november-3-2026/)
2. [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.](https://www.cityofdhs.org/departments/city-council/)
3. [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.](https://www.cityofdhs.org/district-elections/)
4. [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")](https://voteinfo.net/sites/g/files/aldnop371/files/2026-02/Annual%20Election%20Calendar%202026.pdf)
5. [Joseph Erndt for Desert Hot Springs City Council, District 3 -- campaign site: a District 3 resident and self-described operations professional with a background in hospitality/spa operations, construction and project coordination, budgeting, marketing, vendor management, and business development; platform priorities are infrastructure ("Better Basics"), fiscal accountability ("Responsible Government"), and local economic development ("Stronger Local Opportunity").](https://electjoe.org)
6. [Jan Pye for Desert Hot Springs City Council, District 3 -- campaign site: a 30+ year city resident and the sitting District 3 councilmember seeking reelection; platform priorities are wellness tourism built around the city's mineral-water and spa assets, expanding local retail/entertainment/dining so residents don't have to leave the city for them, and continuing in-progress projects (the BLVD and downtown plans, the Pierson Blvd./Highway 62 gateway).](https://janfordistrict3.com)
7. [City of Desert Hot Springs NetFile public campaign-disclosure portal — candidate and committee filing search](https://netfile.com/public/DHS/campaign/search-entities)

## The rest of the ballot

Desert Hot Springs City Council, District 3 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, "Desert Hot Springs City Council, District 3 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/desert-hot-springs-council-3 (sources last retrieved September 3, 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.