# Garden Grove City Council, District 1 Compare records and positions simply between William Zylla, Long Nguyen, or Roger Flanders for Garden Grove City Council, District 1 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Garden Grove's six-member City Council. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. Garden Grove also has a citywide-elected Mayor. An appointed city manager runs daily operations. Not all six council districts are elected the same year. Only Districts 1, 3, and 4 have terms expiring in 2026. The term is four years. - Jurisdiction: City of Garden Grove - 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/garden-grove-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: October 7, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 91 out of 100 (Very strong), across 5 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **William Zylla** — Retired Emergency Technician - **Long Nguyen** — Urgent Care Doctor - **Roger Flanders** — Court Investigator A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Three candidates -- William Zylla, Long Nguyen, and Roger Flanders -- are running for Garden Grove City Council District 1's open seat. Incumbent and Mayor Pro Tem George S. Brietigam III did not file for re-election. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff. This person holds District 1's seat on Garden Grove's 6-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside the citywide-elected Mayor and an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. Not all six council districts are elected the same year -- only Districts 1, 3, and 4 have terms expiring in 2026. The term is four years. This is Garden Grove's one genuinely open council seat this cycle: no incumbent is on the ballot, and none of the three candidates has held elected office in the city before, as far as this dataset could confirm. Beyond each candidate's own filed occupation, no campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source could be found for any of the three despite a real, per-candidate search effort -- documented below as a gap, not filled in with speculation. ## William Zylla Filed their candidacy under the ballot designation "Retired Emergency Technician." In their Vote411 questionnaire they describe 12 years as an emergency room technician and 16 years in city government, a neighborhood-preservation award from the Mayor of Huntington Beach, a Neighborhood Leadership Academy they developed, and a public-safety volunteer program they say reduced city costs. Their three stated priorities are community safety and accountability, which they describe as holding the company GKN accountable for a past hazardous-materials incident, expanding emergency preparedness, and fully staffing police and fire; economic revitalization of local retail centers, especially the Valley View Corridor; and neighborhood preservation, meaning the area's character, its infrastructure, and safe, clean parks. On Flock cameras they say the city should scale back its use until strict oversight is in place. They cite the privacy risk of a private vendor holding residents' data and, as they tell it, an LAPD Inspector General audit that found frequent false alerts. **Strengths:** By their own account, 12 years as an emergency room technician and 16 in city government, a background that bears directly on public safety and emergency preparedness. **Trade-offs:** Their call to scale back Flock cameras until oversight is set gives up a police tool in the meantime, a cost if you want it kept at full use. **Keep in mind:** Their work record, including the Huntington Beach award and the volunteer program's cost savings, is self-reported and not independently confirmed. See Financial info. ## Long Nguyen Filed their candidacy under the ballot designation "Urgent Care Doctor." No campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source describing their background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort. **Strengths:** A medical career suggests direct, practical familiarity with community health needs. **Trade-offs:** No campaign statement or platform was found in this pass, so voters have no confirmed sense of their priorities beyond their listed occupation. **Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for their campaign in this pass -- see Financial info. ## Roger Flanders Filed their candidacy under the ballot designation "Court Investigator." No campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source describing their background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort. **Strengths:** A court-system investigative background suggests direct, practical familiarity with public-safety and legal processes. **Trade-offs:** No campaign statement or platform was found in this pass, so voters have no confirmed sense of their priorities beyond their listed occupation. **Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for their campaign in this pass -- see Financial info. ## Sources 1. [OC Registrar of Voters -- Contest/Candidate Proof List, General Election 11/3/2026 -- City of Garden Grove section (pages 94-99 of 188): confirms Mayor (2 qualified candidates), City Council District 1 (3), District 3 (3), and District 4 (4) as the city's four November 2026 races, each Vote for 1, with incumbent flags and every candidate's filed ballot designation](https://ocvote.gov/fileadmin/user_upload/data/candlog/GEN2026/candlog.pdf) 2. [City of Garden Grove -- Election Information page: confirms the same four offices up in the November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election ("Mayor at Large; Council District 1; Council District 3; and Council District 4") and links the city's own candidate list and incumbency-information documents](https://ggcity.org/election-information) 3. [City of Garden Grove -- 2026 Official Candidate List (the city clerk's own spreadsheet-to-PDF): every candidate's name, filing dates, ballot designation, and contact email/phone for all 12 candidates across the four contests -- independently matches the county's Proof List exactly](https://ggcity.org/sites/default/files/official-candidate-list-2026.pdf) 4. [City of Garden Grove -- City Council page: the full sitting 7-member roster (Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein; George S. Brietigam III, Mayor Pro Tem/District 1; Phillip Nguyen, District 2; Cindy Ngoc Tran, District 3; Joe DoVinh, District 4; Yesenia Munoz-Munoz, District 5; Ariana Arestegui, District 6) -- confirms which three districts (1, 3, 4) have terms expiring in 2026 and that District 1's incumbent, Brietigam, is not among the three qualified 2026 candidates for his own seat](https://ggcity.org/city-council) 5. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of Garden Grove City Council Member, District 1' 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?; What is your position on the use of Flock cameras or similar devices? Answers on file from William Zylla. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/garden-grove-council-1.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote) ## The rest of the ballot Garden Grove 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, "Garden Grove City Council, District 1 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/garden-grove-council-1 (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.