# El Cajon City Council, District 1 Compare records and positions simply between Chuck Kaye, Osama Bayati, or Patrick Grillot for El Cajon City Council, District 1 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on El Cajon's 5-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside the citywide-elected mayor. The term is four years. - Jurisdiction: City of El Cajon - 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/el-cajon-council-1 - 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: 93 out of 100 (Very strong), across 2 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Chuck Kaye** — Retired Police Chief - **Osama Bayati** — Civic Affairs Director - **Patrick Grillot** — Healthcare Manager/Parent A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Three candidates are running for El Cajon City Council, District 1, an open seat left by the retirement of longtime Councilmember Gary Kendrick: Chuck Kaye, Patrick Grillot, and Osama Bayati. Whichever candidate receives the most votes on November 3 wins the seat outright; there is no runoff. This person holds District 1's seat on El Cajon's 5-member City Council, alongside the citywide-elected mayor. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The term is four years. The seat opened up when Gary Kendrick, a longtime councilmember who began as a Republican before later re-registering as a Democrat, chose not to seek reelection. Of the three candidates running to replace him, Chuck Kaye is a Republican, Patrick Grillot is a Democrat, and Osama Bayati's party affiliation was not reported in the coverage found for this dataset. ## Chuck Kaye Chuck Kaye is a career law-enforcement officer; the county's own candidate list gives their ballot designation as "Retired Police Chief." A Republican, they're campaigning on public safety, lower taxes, and keeping El Cajon family-friendly. **Strengths:** A law-enforcement career directly relevant to a council seat that votes on the city's police budget and public-safety policy. **Trade-offs:** No specific policy proposals beyond their campaign's stated themes were found in the reporting located for this dataset -- a documented gap, not a claim their platform is thin. **Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS lookup for them was completed in this pass, and no cash-on-hand figure was found in news coverage -- see Financial info. ## Patrick Grillot Patrick Grillot's ballot designation is "Healthcare Manager/Parent." A Democrat, they have served on a city oversight committee for police and fire facility funding, and is campaigning on public safety, economic development, and homelessness. **Strengths:** Direct experience on a city oversight committee tied to public-safety facility funding, one of the same budget areas this seat votes on. **Trade-offs:** No independent news profile beyond the party-and-platform summary found in the reporting located for this dataset -- a documented gap, not a claim about the depth of their actual involvement. **Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS lookup for them was completed in this pass, and no cash-on-hand figure was found in news coverage -- see Financial info. ## Osama Bayati Osama Bayati's ballot designation is "Civic Affairs Director." His party affiliation was not reported in the coverage found for this dataset. He's campaigning to support young people and small businesses, impose term limits on city officeholders, and oppose what he calls the "unnecessary expansion" of Flock Safety license-plate-reader cameras in the city. **Strengths:** The most specific, checkable policy position in this race -- opposition to expanding a named surveillance technology -- rather than only general themes. **Trade-offs:** No party affiliation and no independent news profile beyond the platform summary found in the reporting located for this dataset -- documented gaps, not claims about his actual positions or backing. **Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS lookup for him was completed in this pass, and no cash-on-hand figure was found in news coverage -- see Financial info. ## Sources 1. [San Diego County Registrar of Voters -- Candidate List, November 3, 2026 General Election (current through the 8/24/2026 2:44pm snapshot): confirms Mayor, City Council Districts 1 and 3, City Clerk, and City Treasurer as Carlsbad's five November 2026 races, and Mayor plus City Council Districts 1 and 3 as Poway's three November 2026 races, each Vote for 1](https://www.sdvote.com/content/dam/rov/en/election/nov-3-2026-gubernatorial-general-election/candidate-list.pdf) 2. [San Diego Union-Tribune (reporter Hannah Elsmore) -- "Socialist challenges conservative incumbent Mayor Bill Wells in El Cajon, three vie for open council seat": profiles both El Cajon mayoral candidates (Bill Wells, Alexander Kraft) and all three District 1 council candidates (Chuck Kaye, Patrick Grillot, Osama Bayati), including party, occupation, platform, and June 30, 2026 cash-on-hand figures for the mayoral race; the original SDUT page was not independently reachable in this pass, so it's cited via its Aug. 26, 2026 Yahoo News syndication, which attributes the underlying reporting to the Union-Tribune throughout](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/socialist-rivals-circle-longtime-california-210326480.html) ## The rest of the ballot El Cajon City Council, District 1 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, "El Cajon City Council, District 1 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/el-cajon-council-1 (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.