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City of Goleta · Statewide General Election

Goleta City Council, District 2

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 would represent one of Goleta's four council districts on the city's five-member City Council -- the citywide budget, land use, and oversight of city staff for this Santa Barbara County city of 32,690 residents (2020 Census), alongside a directly elected, at-large Mayor who is not part of this race. Goleta moved from at-large to district council elections in 2022; this seat serves a four-year term.

Two candidates are running for Goleta City Council District 2: incumbent James Kyriaco and challenger Phebe Mansur. Vote for one -- no primary.

Goleta's City Council districts were created in 2022. District 2 elects one member to a four-year term on the city's five-member Council -- four district seats plus a directly elected, at-large Mayor who is not part of this race. The council sets the citywide budget, land use, and oversight of city staff for this Santa Barbara County city of 32,690 residents (2020 Census).

Kyriaco has held this seat since before districts existed and successfully defended it in the city's first by-district election in 2022; Mansur is a first-time City Council candidate with a prior, unsuccessful run for a different local board.

James Kyriaco

James Kyriaco is the incumbent, re-elected to District 2 in November 2022 after already serving on the Council. He works for Santa Barbara County as a benefits specialist in Human Resources and is a lifelong Goleta resident. His 2022 campaign centered on environmental protection, family and childcare resources -- his stated signature issue -- public-safety funding, fossil-free energy, housing, and parks and recreation.

Strengths

The longest track record in this race -- already an incumbent heading into the 2022 by-district election and re-elected then, giving voters a multi-term record to evaluate.

Trade-offs

No independent, dedicated 2026 profile or platform statement was found for him -- the fullest independent account located dates to his 2022 re-election campaign.

Keep in mind

He has a 2026 campaign committee on file with the city, unlike Mansur, though no itemized dollar figures from it were reachable this pass.

Phebe Mansur

Phebe Mansur is a first-time candidate for Goleta City Council. This dataset found no campaign website, filed candidate statement, or independent 2026 news coverage describing her current occupation or platform. She previously ran for a seat on the Goleta Water District's Board of Directors in 2020, finishing fifth of six candidates with 11.92% of the vote; no other public candidacy for her was found.

Strengths

Prior experience as a public candidate -- her 2020 Goleta Water District run shows a longer-standing interest in local governance than a brand-new entrant to politics.

Trade-offs

No campaign website, filed statement, finance filing, or news coverage was found on her platform; her only confirmed record is a fifth-place finish in a six-candidate water-board race.

Keep in mind

This is a documented sourcing gap, not a claim she lacks a platform: no 2026 description was reachable this pass, and the city's own finance portal shows no committee on file for her.

Source review: Strong (87/100) · 10 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.

  • web.archive.org (opens in a new tab)City of Goleta -- "Mayor and City Council" page (Wayback Machine snapshot, captured 2026-06-10; cityofgoleta.org itself returned a hard Akamai edge block to every direct fetch attempted this pass): names the sitting five-member Council -- Mayor Paula Perotte, Mayor Pro Tempore Jennifer Smith (District 3), Luz Reyes-Martín (District 1), James Kyriaco (District 2), Stuart Kasdin (District 4) -- and confirms the four-single-member-district structure, adopted 2022, plus a directly elected, at-large Mayor
  • web.archive.org (opens in a new tab)City of Goleta -- "November 5, 2024, General Municipal Election" page (Wayback Machine snapshot, captured 2026-04-10, the most recent archived capture of this URL): states in the city's own words that the first by-district election, in 2022, covered Districts 1 and 2, and the 2024 election covered Districts 3 and 4 plus the at-large Mayor (a four-year term); its own certified 2024 candidate list shows Jennifer Smith and Stuart Kasdin winning Districts 3 and 4 that year -- used to independently confirm that only Districts 1 and 2 are up in November 2026, not the Mayor or Districts 3/4
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Goleta, California": used narrowly for the 2020 Census population (32,690); its account of city government (at-large council elections, a two-year Mayoral term) is stale and superseded by the city's own councilroster and election-page sources above, and it does not cover the 2026 election
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)City of Goleta's own official campaign-finance disclosure system (Netfile, agency code GOL, linked directly from cityofgoleta.org's own FPPC reporting page), queried live via its public JSON API: api/elections?aid=GOL returns a "11/03/2026 General Election" entry (id 214993037); api/elections/details for that id returns exactly two seats, "City Council District 1 - City of Goleta" and "City Council District 2 - City of Goleta"; api/elections/seat for each seat id returns the candidates the city itself has associated with that seat for this specific election -- District 1: Luz Reyes-Martín alone (committee id 204151442); District 2: James Kyriaco (committee id 204150684) and Phebe Mansur (no committee id on file)
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)City of Goleta's own official Netfile campaign-finance portal, QuickNameSearch API (empty query, returning the portal's full roster of Goleta filers past and present): shows exactly two committees with "2026" in their name, "Luz Reyes-Martin for Goleta City Council 2026" (prior name on file: "...2022") and "James Kyriaco For Goleta City Council 2026" (prior name on file: "...2022") -- consistent with both being their respective incumbents' re-election committees, and no committee of any kind on file for Phebe Mansur
  • independent.com (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara Independent -- "Two Candidates Announce for Goleta City Council" (June 14, 2022): profiles Luz Reyes-Martín's first campaign for District 1 (then-president of the Goleta School Board, VP of community engagement for Planned Parenthood of California Central Coast, former Santa Barbara City College spokesperson, master's degrees from USC, Stanford undergraduate) and incumbent James Kyriaco's District 2 re-election bid (Santa Barbara County HR benefits specialist, lifelong Goleta resident, childcare policy as a signature issue)
  • independent.com (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara Independent -- "Santa Barbara Votes: 2022 General Election Results" (Nov. 8, 2022): certified Goleta Council results -- District 1, Reyes-Martín 1,321 votes (56.07%) over incumbent Roger Aceves 1,024 (43.46%); District 2, Kyriaco re-elected 514 votes (57.82%) over Sam Ramirez 373 (41.96%)
  • independent.com (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara Independent -- "Vote Rosen, Bosio, Mansur for Goleta Water" (Oct. 26, 2020), a Goleta Water District boardmember's endorsement letter: names Phebe Mansur as one of three candidates he recommended for that board's three open seats that year -- used narrowly to confirm she is a real, previously public-facing local candidate, not solely a name in the Netfile election-seat record
  • independent.com (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara Independent -- "Santa Barbara Votes: 2020 General Election Results" (Nov. 3, 2020): certified Goleta Water District result including Phebe Mansur, 9,000 votes (11.92%), fifth of six candidates, behind winners Lauren Hanson, Bill Rosen, and Farfalla Borah
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- direct filer searches for "Reyes-Martin," "Kyriaco," and "Mansur" each returned a blank result page, no committee or candidate filer registered under any of the three names. Cal-Access's own Power Search home page states its data covers state-level campaign finance and excludes local government filings in any case, so this documents an absence of a reachable disclosure source for all three candidates, not a claim about any of their actual finances

Last updated September 1, 2026.