# Fontana Mayor Compare records and positions simply between Jackie Heredia, Acquanetta Warren, Sal Casillas, and 4 more for Fontana Mayor at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person is Fontana's directly elected, citywide Mayor. They preside at City Council meetings. They also vote as a full member of the five-member Council. The council has the Mayor plus four district members. It sets city laws, the budget, and land use. An appointed City Manager runs day-to-day operations. The term is four years. - Jurisdiction: City of Fontana - 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/fontana-mayor - 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: October 7, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 87 out of 100 (Strong), across 10 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Jackie Heredia** — Community Engagement Coordinator - **Acquanetta Warren** — Mayor of Fontana · Incumbent - **Sal Casillas** — Business Owner - **Mylinda Carrillo** — Community Outreach Volunteer - **Nicholas Ortega** — Account Representative - **Jocelyn "Joz" Sida** — Nonprofit Chapter Director - **Lourdes Goñi Garcia** — Music Director / Businesswoman A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Four-term incumbent Mayor Acquanetta Warren, first elected in 2010, seeks a fifth term against six challengers on the November 3, 2026 ballot, including community organizer Jocelyn "Joz" Sida, who is running as part of a five-candidate reform slate called Fontana United. Whichever candidate gets the most votes wins outright; there is no runoff. Fontana's Mayor is elected citywide. The Mayor leads City Council meetings. The Mayor also casts a full vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. Four district Council Members hold the other votes. An appointed City Manager runs the city day to day, not the Mayor. Fontana is a general-law, council-manager city. The term is four years. Of the seven candidates, only Warren has held elected office before. Five of the six challengers filed for the first time this cycle. They are Nicholas Ortega, Mylinda Carrillo, Jackie Heredia, Lourdes Goñi Garcia, and Sal Casillas. No public record was found for them beyond their filed ballot titles. Sida is the only challenger who filed a paid candidate statement. She is also the only one with outside organizing support, through the Fontana United slate. That slate also backs candidates for City Council District 1 and District 4. It backs candidates for City Clerk and City Treasurer as well. They share a platform opposing further warehouse development. ## Jackie Heredia Jackie Heredia is a challenger for Fontana Mayor, filing under the ballot designation "Community Engagement Coordinator." No independent information about their background or platform was found beyond their filed ballot designation. **Strengths:** None could be documented in this research pass. **Trade-offs:** No campaign site, news coverage, or independent profile was found beyond the filed ballot designation. **Keep in mind:** A first-time candidate with no public record yet is not necessarily weaker -- only less documented; weigh the ballot designation on its own. ## Acquanetta Warren Acquanetta Warren is Fontana's incumbent Mayor, first elected in 2010 and now seeking a fifth term. She holds a bachelor's degree in political science and urban studies from Occidental College and is the first woman and first African American to serve as Fontana's mayor, per the city's own biography. In her Vote411 questionnaire she describes joining the City Council in 2002 and a career spanning public safety, economic development, infrastructure, housing, homelessness and education. She credits her relationships with helping the city secure tens of millions of dollars in housing and transportation funding. She also points to a Mayor's Education Coalition, Youth Advisory Council and Homeless Advisory Council as ways residents take part. Her three stated priorities are affordability, which she would address with more housing, jobs closer to home, support for local businesses and help for seniors and eligible homeowners with essential home repairs; economic development, including less red tape and faster permitting to grow the tax base; and public safety, which she says Fontana's standing among the safest cities of its size reflects. She also describes regional work on homelessness, citing the regional Navigation Center. **Strengths:** Sixteen years as Mayor, more experience than any other candidate in this race, plus stated regional water and land-use leadership roles. **Trade-offs:** Choosing her continues the current direction of city growth; no independent reporting weighing her tenure was found. **Keep in mind:** The funding and safety results described above are her own account in the questionnaire, not an independent review. She has held the office since 2010. ## Sal Casillas Sal Casillas is a challenger for Fontana Mayor, filing under the ballot designation "Business Owner." No independent information about their background or platform was found beyond their filed ballot designation. **Strengths:** None could be documented in this research pass. **Trade-offs:** No campaign site, news coverage, or independent profile was found beyond the filed ballot designation. **Keep in mind:** A first-time candidate with no public record yet is not necessarily weaker -- only less documented; weigh the ballot designation on its own. ## Mylinda Carrillo Mylinda Carrillo is a challenger for Fontana Mayor, filing under the ballot designation "Community Outreach Volunteer." In Carrillo's Vote411 questionnaire they describe a career that began at entry level and rose into management at a major corporation, where they say they managed people and operations and trained employees. They also describe organizing community initiatives and coordinating volunteers, and they present themselves as a working professional rather than a career politician. No independent information about their background was found. Carrillo's three stated priorities are public safety, with support for police and first responders and practical work on crime, blight and homelessness; economic growth that brings good jobs and small businesses without overwhelming roads and neighborhoods, including a higher accountability standard for new industrial projects; and protecting quality of life through spending on roads, parks and public spaces. **Strengths:** A stated management background and a clear three-part platform, by their own account, including a higher accountability standard for industrial projects. **Trade-offs:** Carrillo has not held public office, so there is no voting record to weigh, and no independent reporting on their background was found. **Keep in mind:** Carrillo's management career and community work come from their own questionnaire answers and were not independently confirmed. ## Nicholas Ortega Nicholas Ortega is a challenger for Fontana Mayor, filing under the ballot designation "Account Representative." No independent information about their background or platform was found beyond their filed ballot designation. **Strengths:** None could be documented in this research pass. **Trade-offs:** No campaign site, news coverage, or independent profile was found beyond the filed ballot designation. **Keep in mind:** A first-time candidate with no public record yet is not necessarily weaker -- only less documented; weigh the ballot designation on its own. ## Jocelyn "Joz" Sida Jocelyn "Joz" Sida is a community organizer running for Fontana Mayor as "The People's Mayor," and as the lead candidate of the five-person Fontana United slate. Her campaign platform opposes further warehouse development and truck traffic, favors affordable housing over developer-friendly deals, and frames core city services as a baseline, per her own campaign site. In her Vote411 questionnaire she says she was born in El Monte, has lived in Fontana since age 14, and has more than 15 years of grassroots campaign experience. She describes leadership roles at national progressive and civic organizations, including as the first chapter director of the Sierra Club's San Gorgonio chapter and as a state director for a voter-registration group in Nevada. Her three stated priorities are clean air and environmental health, which means pushing back on the concentration of warehouses, truck traffic and land-use decisions that affect neighborhoods; housing stability and affordability, with tenant protections, preserving existing housing and community benefits required in new projects; and a local economy built around working families, with fair wages, workforce pathways and support for neighborhood businesses. **Strengths:** The only Mayor challenger with organized outside campaign support (the Fontana United slate), plus a specific platform on warehouses, housing and wages. **Trade-offs:** Her priorities lean toward limiting warehouse growth and adding tenant and community-benefit rules, which voters who want faster industrial development would give up. **Keep in mind:** Her organizing record and the platform come from her own campaign site and questionnaire answers, not an independent evaluation of either. ## Lourdes Goñi Garcia Lourdes Goñi Garcia is a challenger for Fontana Mayor, filing under the ballot designation "Music Director / Businesswoman." No independent information about their background or platform was found beyond their filed ballot designation. **Strengths:** None could be documented in this research pass. **Trade-offs:** No campaign site, news coverage, or independent profile was found beyond the filed ballot designation. **Keep in mind:** A first-time candidate with no public record yet is not necessarily weaker -- only less documented; weigh the ballot designation on its own. ## Review notes - Fontana United -- coalition campaign site naming a coordinated 5-candidate slate across this cycle's Fontana races: Joz Sida (Mayor), Nubia Diaz (Council District 1), Ben Vasquez (Council District 4), Joe Alvanez (City Clerk), and Kamal Namou (City Treasurer); self-describes as "an inclusive alternative" to incumbent leadership with a shared platform opposing warehouse expansion, backing evening meeting times and language access, and supporting police accountability and opposing "federal immigration abuses" and Jocelyn "Joz" Sida for Fontana Mayor -- campaign site: a community organizer running as "The People's Mayor" on a platform opposing further warehouse development and truck traffic, prioritizing affordable housing over developer deals, and treating core city services as a baseline; states endorsements from the mayors of Moreno Valley and Lemon Grove and from HonorPAC and Run for Something may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- statewide "Report_CandidateList.pdf" candidate-filing report (the same document as sb-candidate-list-2026 above, a different section): within its "City of Fontana" section (pp. 133-142 of 249), five contests appear, each "Number to be elected: 1" -- Mayor (7 candidates on the ballot, 2 with a candidate statement filed), Member of the City Council District 1 (2), District 4 (3), City Clerk (3), and City Treasurer (2); Districts 2 and 3 do not appear anywhere in the Fontana section](https://uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov/ROV/Elections/2026/1103/Report_CandidateList.pdf) 2. [City of Fontana -- "Candidate List, November 3, 2026 Election" (public record, DocumentCenter #50272): alphabetical-by-office roster of all 17 qualified candidates with each candidate's own filed mailing address, phone, email, and campaign website where provided; matches the county's statewide filing report exactly](https://www.fontanaca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/50272/Candidate-List-November-3-2026-Election_Public-Record) 3. [City of Fontana -- "Notice of Nominees for Public Office," dated August 18, 2026 and published in the Fontana Herald Newspaper August 28, 2026 (signed by Chief Deputy City Clerk Christina Rudsell, City Elections Official): the certified, randomized ballot order for all five contests, matching the candidate roster exactly](https://www.fontanaca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/50270/Notice-of-Nominees-for-Public-Office---November-3-2026-Election-English-Spanish) 4. [City of Fontana -- "November 3, 2026 Municipal Election" page: lists Mayor, Council District 1, Council District 4, City Treasurer, and City Clerk as the offices on the ballot (noting Council Districts 2 and 3 next go before voters in 2028) and gives the July 13 - August 7, 2026 candidate-nomination period](https://www.fontanaca.gov/3476/November-3-2026-Municipal-Election) 5. [City of Fontana -- "District Elections" page: the by-district system was adopted in 2017, with the current 4-district map adopted April 12, 2022 after 2020 Census redistricting; states the staggered schedule directly -- Districts 1 and 4 elected November 2022 (up again 2026), Districts 2 and 3 elected November 2024 (up again 2028) -- while Mayor, City Clerk, and City Treasurer remain elected at-large](https://www.fontanaca.gov/2760/District-Elections) 6. [City of Fontana -- Mayor Acquanetta Warren's official bio page: first elected 2010 (seeking a fifth term), first woman and first African American mayor in Fontana's history, priorities including logistics/manufacturing economic development, the city's 2019 education State of Emergency declaration, and the Healthy Fontana initiative](https://www.fontanaca.gov/2788/Acquanetta-Warren-Mayor) 7. [Jocelyn "Joz" Sida for Fontana Mayor -- campaign site: a community organizer running as "The People's Mayor" on a platform opposing further warehouse development and truck traffic, prioritizing affordable housing over developer deals, and treating core city services as a baseline; states endorsements from the mayors of Moreno Valley and Lemon Grove and from HonorPAC and Run for Something](https://www.jozsidaforfontana.com) 8. [Fontana United -- coalition campaign site naming a coordinated 5-candidate slate across this cycle's Fontana races: Joz Sida (Mayor), Nubia Diaz (Council District 1), Ben Vasquez (Council District 4), Joe Alvanez (City Clerk), and Kamal Namou (City Treasurer); self-describes as "an inclusive alternative" to incumbent leadership with a shared platform opposing warehouse expansion, backing evening meeting times and language access, and supporting police accountability and opposing "federal immigration abuses"](https://www.fontanaunited.com) 9. [City of Fontana's own NetFile-hosted public campaign-finance portal (agency code FTA, netfile.com/public/FTA), linked directly from the city's own "Campaign Finance Disclosure Statements" page (fontanaca.gov/3515) as public.netfile.com/pub2/?aid=FTA; queried directly by name for all seventeen 2026 candidates via the portal's own name-search and transaction-search tools. Jackie Heredia, Sal Casillas, Mylinda Carrillo, Nicholas Ortega, and Lourdes Goñi Garcia (Mayor) and Daniel Quiroga (City Clerk) have no filer of any kind registered with this portal. Benjamin "Ben" Vasquez Jr. (Council District 4) and Nubia Diaz (Council District 1) have each filed only Form 410/501 committee-registration paperwork, with no Form 460 or itemized transaction on record for either. Incumbent Mayor Acquanetta Warren's committee filed a semi-annual Form 460 for January-June 2026 (amended August 19) and has since filed six Form 497 late-contribution reports; itemized transactions include $2,000 from the California Real Estate PAC, $2,000 from retiree Noel Dunn, and $1,000 from Fontana developer/owner Rima Tahan, against expenditures including $1,700 (twice) to web consultant Blake Burum, $1,061.37 (twice) in online-fundraising-platform fees to Anedot, and $510.56 (twice) in literature costs to Minuteman Press; her committee has also made its own contributions this cycle to other local candidates' committees, including $1,087.50 apiece to Joe Armendarez's City Treasurer committee and Germaine Key's City Clerk committee (both reported in late August/early September 2026), plus contributions to a water-district and a school-board candidate. Jocelyn "Joz" Sida's committee filed a semi-annual Form 460 for January-June 2026 (August 10) plus a late-contribution report; itemized contributions include $3,621 aggregated through the ActBlue online platform, $2,000 from Nathan Schanfein (a project engineer at a local magnetics manufacturer), and $100 from Dan Silver, executive director of the Endangered Habitats League. Phillip Cothran's committee filed a semi-annual Form 460 for January-June 2026 (July 15) and has since filed five late-contribution reports in August 2026 alone totaling $15,600 -- $5,900 from the San Bernardino County Professional Firefighters Local 935 PAC and $2,500-$2,600 each from four logistics/construction businesses (Lord Constructors Inc, Naksas Enterprise LLC, Optimum Logistics Inc, South Start Logistics Inc) and a retiree, Ralph Thrasher. Luz Perez's committee (active since August 2025, despite her own campaign website not rendering readable text in this pass) filed a semi-annual Form 460 for January-June 2026 (July 31); itemized contributions are almost entirely small-dollar, $50-$250 gifts from individual Inland Empire donors (a registered nurse, a teacher, a union organizer, several self-employed workers), plus a $2,500 contribution from a state Assembly candidate's own committee (Juan Carrillo for Assembly 2026) and $686.41 in ActBlue processing fees. John B. Roberts's committee (active since at least 2020) shows a January-June 2026 contribution of $500 from Southern California Edison and $1,500 from a local teacher, Joseph Montalvo II, alongside a recurring pattern of several-hundred-to-several-thousand-dollar sponsorships paid from the committee to local community organizations and events (the Miss Fontana Pageant, Cherish Ministry, Working Dogs for Warriors, the Rescue Task Force, Fontana Middle School) going back multiple cycles. Germaine Key's committee filed a semi-annual Form 460 for January-June 2026 (July 15) and received a $1,087.50 contribution from Mayor Warren's committee in late August 2026. Joe Alvanez has filed only a Form 501 candidate intention statement (July 15, 2026), with no committee or itemized financial activity on record. Kamal Namou's committee filed a Form 410 (July 13) and a Form 501 (May 18), and has since filed a Form 497LCR late-contribution report (August 5, 2026) confirming at least one contribution of $1,000 or more, though the specific amount was not available through the portal's transaction search as of this retrieval. Joe Armendarez has run for local office repeatedly and been well-funded in the past -- a 2024 City Council campaign (its committee since renamed "Joe Armendarez for City Council 2028") raised well over $60,000, including a $13,600 loan from Protect Our County PAC and five-figure spending with a Rancho Cucamonga print shop -- and a City Treasurer-specific committee, "Armendarez for City Treasurer 2026," is confirmed active (it received the $1,087.50 contribution from Mayor Warren's committee noted above), but this dataset could not locate that committee's own filing history or itemized contributions separately from his older, differently named committees in the time available for this pass.](https://netfile.com/public/FTA/campaign/transactions) 10. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of Fontana Mayor' race (statewide All Races list): each candidate's self-submitted ballot designation and campaign contacts, plus answers to the League's questions -- If elected, what are your top 3 priorities?; What background, experience and/or education qualify you for this elected office? Answers on file from Acquanetta Warren, Mylinda Carrillo, Jocelyn "Joz" Sida. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/fontana-mayor.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote) ## The rest of the ballot Fontana Mayor 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, "Fontana Mayor — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/fontana-mayor (sources last retrieved October 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.