# Highland City Council, District 4

Compare records and positions simply between Jason Isaacs or Christy Marin for Highland City Council, District 4 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold your district's seat on Highland's City Council. The council has five members. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. An appointed City Manager runs day-to-day operations. The term is four years, and there are no term limits. Highland does not directly elect a Mayor. Each year, the council selects one of its own members to serve as Mayor. Another member serves as Mayor Pro Tem. Penny Lilburn and Jimmy Saldana currently hold those roles. Terms are staggered. Three seats were up in 2024. Districts 2 and 4 are the two up this November.

- Jurisdiction: City of Highland
- 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/highland-council-district-4
- 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: August 31, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 88 out of 100 (Strong), across 9 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Jason Isaacs**
- **Christy Marin** — Retired School Administrator

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

Two candidates, Jason Isaacs and Christy Marin, are running for Highland's open City Council District 4 seat on the November 3, 2026 ballot. It's open because sitting councilmember John P. Timmer did not file for reelection by the regular deadline -- the city extended District 4's nomination period through August 12, 2026 as a result, standard practice when an eligible incumbent doesn't refile. Whoever gets the most votes wins outright -- there is no primary or runoff.

This person would hold District 4's seat on Highland's 5-member, district-elected City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use, under a council-manager form of government -- an appointed City Manager runs day-to-day operations. The term is four years, and there are no term limits. Highland does not directly elect a Mayor; each year the council selects one of its own members for that role and another as Mayor Pro Tem. Terms are staggered -- three seats (1, 3, 5) were up in 2024; Districts 2 and 4 are the two up this November.

Isaacs filed nomination papers before Marin, per the city's own records and independent county reporting; he requested no ballot designation, but his filings show he formed an actual campaign committee. Marin, a retired school administrator, filed later during the extended window and is the only one of the two who filed a candidate statement, but Marin's filings show no committee at all -- they filed the short-form declaration used by candidates not expecting substantial fundraising or spending. Neither appears on any Highland board or commission this pass could find.

## Jason Isaacs

Jason Isaacs is a candidate for Highland's open District 4 council seat. He requested no ballot designation, and filed no candidate statement. He filed a Form 410 (statement of organization for a campaign committee), later amended, alongside a short-form Form 470 and a 470 Supplement -- forms that together indicate he formed a committee for this race even though he also filed the short-form declaration used by candidates not expecting substantial fundraising or spending. No independent news coverage, campaign website, or civic-board record was found for him in this pass beyond his own city and county filings and two brief mentions in San Bernardino County Sentinel roundup coverage, which named him as a District 4 filer without further biographical detail.

**Strengths:** Filed earliest of the two District 4 candidates, per the city's records and independent Sentinel reporting; formed an actual campaign committee, not just a low-spending declaration.

**Trade-offs:** No stated occupation or platform -- no ballot designation, no candidate statement filed; no independent profile found; his committee's dollar figures could not be read (see note below).

**Keep in mind:** Declining both a ballot designation and a candidate statement leaves less for voters to go on directly from him than his opponent provided -- worth noting as a gap, not necessarily a red flag.

## Christy Marin

Christy Marin is a candidate for Highland's open District 4 council seat. Their filed ballot designation is "Retired School Administrator," and they are the only one of the two District 4 candidates who filed a candidate statement with the city -- though the statement's text itself was not published anywhere this pass could find (it was not yet posted to a public voter guide as of this retrieval). They filed only a short-form Form 470, the declaration used by candidates not expecting substantial fundraising or spending, with no campaign committee formed. No independent news coverage, campaign website, or civic-board record was found for them in this pass beyond their own city and county filings and one San Bernardino County Sentinel roundup article naming them as a District 4 candidate.

**Strengths:** A stated occupation (retired school administrator) and a filed candidate statement -- more voter-facing material than Marin's opponent provided, though the statement's text wasn't found.

**Trade-offs:** No independent news profile or civic-board record found anywhere; filed later than Isaacs, during the extended window; no campaign committee formed, per their own filing.

**Keep in mind:** Filing the short-form declaration and not forming a committee is a legitimate choice for a low-spending local campaign, not necessarily a sign of a less serious candidacy -- but it does mean less financial disclosure exists for them than a committee-based campaign would produce.

## Sources

1. [San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- "Offices Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election" (the same document as sb-offices-up-2026, a different section): the "City of Highland" lines list exactly two offices, each a 4-year term -- Member, City Council, District 2 (1 seat) and ...District 4 (1 seat) -- no Mayor line for Highland.](https://uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov/ROV/Elections/2026/1103/Report_OfficesUpForElection.pdf)
2. [San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- statewide "Report_CandidateList.pdf" candidate-filing report (the same document as sb-candidate-list-2026, a different section): the "City of Highland" section (pp. 150-151 of 249) names one qualified District 2 candidate -- Jimmy Saldana (Incumbent), ballot designation "Father / Businessman / Councilmember" -- and two qualified District 4 candidates -- Jason Isaacs (no ballot designation requested) and Christy Marin ("Retired School Administrator," the only one of the two who filed a candidate statement) -- neither flagged Incumbent, "Last Updated: 8/28/2026."](https://uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov/ROV/Elections/2026/1103/Report_CandidateList.pdf)
3. [City of Highland -- City Clerk's live "Elections" page: states the two November 2026 offices (Council District 2, District 4, both 4-year terms, no term limits), the regular nomination period (July 13-August 7, 2026) and the District-4-only extension through August 12, 2026 "because the incumbent did not file by the regular deadline," names Jimmy Saldana as the sole District 2 candidate and Jason Isaacs/Christy Marin as the two District 4 candidates, and lists which FPPC forms each candidate filed.](https://www.highlandca.gov/292/Elections)
4. [City of Highland -- City Clerk's "Qualified Candidate List" (PDF, updated 8/13/2026): a dated, closed snapshot naming Jimmy Saldana (Incumbent) as District 2's sole qualified candidate and Jason Isaacs and Christy Marin as District 4's two qualified candidates, with each one's ballot designation and whether a candidate statement was filed (Marin: yes; Isaacs: none) -- in full agreement with the county's own candidate-filing report.](https://www.highlandca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/6658/Qualified-Candidate-List-PDF)
5. [City of Highland -- "City Council" page: names the sitting five-member, district-elected council (Mayor Penny Lilburn, District 3; Mayor Pro Tem Jimmy Saldana, District 2; Gregory Hogan, District 1; John P. Timmer, District 4; Larry McCallon, District 5) and states the city's own governance structure: a General Law city incorporated in 1987 with a Council/City Manager government, the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem "elect\[ed\]" annually by the council from among its own members rather than by voters directly, terms "staggered so that three seats are available during one election cycle and two seats are available during the next," and no term limits.](https://www.highlandca.gov/169/City-Council)
6. [City of Highland -- "Campaign Disclosure Statements" page and its linked 2026 filings: Jimmy Saldana has an active committee dating to a 2025 Form 410, and filed a semi-annual Form 460 (a full, itemized statement of contributions and expenditures) plus Forms 501 and 700 for 2026; Jason Isaacs filed a Form 410 (statement of organization, later amended) alongside a short-form Form 470 and a 470 Supplement, plus Forms 501 and 700; Christy Marin filed only a short-form Form 470 (declaring she does not anticipate raising or spending $2,000 or more) plus Forms 501 and 700, with no committee formed.](https://www.highlandca.gov/324/Campaign-Disclosure-Statements)
7. [A documented financial-info gap, not a claim about any candidate's fundraising: the city's own filed Form 460 (Saldana) and Form 410s (Saldana, Isaacs) are scanned, non-OCR'd PDF images with no extractable text layer -- confirmed by downloading each file directly and parsing it locally with pypdf, which returned zero characters of text on every page -- so no dollar figures could be read despite the documents' existence and filing status (see highland-campaign-disclosure-2026) being confirmed. No OCR tooling was available in this pass to read the scanned images. Cal-Access was not separately attempted given this session's already-repeated documentation of its Incapsula bot wall on every San Bernardino County city pass so far.](https://www.highlandca.gov/324/Campaign-Disclosure-Statements)
8. [San Bernardino County Sentinel -- "City Council Races Shaping Up": reports that Highland's District 2 incumbent (named in the article as "Jesse Saldana") "has pulled candidacy papers and yet faces no opposition," and that District 4 incumbent John Timmer "has given no indication he will seek reelection," with Jason Isaacs having "taken out nomination papers" -- filed before Christy Marin's later filing during the extended window, consistent with her absence from this earlier article. The article's "Jesse Saldana" does not match "Jimmy Saldana" as the county's and the city's own records consistently name him -- an unresolved naming discrepancy disclosed here rather than silently resolved.](https://sbcsentinel.com/2026/07/city-council-races-shaping-up/)
9. [San Bernardino County Sentinel -- "More Clarity On November Mayoral And City Council Match-Ups": reports Highland District 2's incumbent (again naming him "Jesse Saldana," the same discrepancy against official records noted above) is "seeking reelection unopposed," and that District 4 incumbent John Timmer "is not pursuing another term," with "Jason Isaacs and Christy Marin" named as the two candidates vying to replace him -- independent confirmation of the county's and city's own rosters, and of the filing-deadline extension mechanics.](https://sbcsentinel.com/2026/08/more-clarity-on-november-mayoral-and-city-council-match-ups/)

## The rest of the ballot

Highland City Council, District 4 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, "Highland City Council, District 4 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/highland-council-district-4 (sources last retrieved August 31, 2026).

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