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City of Hollister · Statewide General Election

Mayor of Hollister

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On the ballot

This person would serve a 2-year term as Hollister's Mayor, elected at-large and presiding over a four-member, district-elected City Council under a council-manager government where an appointed City Manager runs day-to-day city operations. Hollister (San Benito County's seat and largest city, incorporated Aug. 6, 1872, population about 41,700) added a directly elected Mayor to its structure only in 2012. Incumbent Mayor Roxanne Stephens did not file for reelection this cycle, after an unsuccessful June 2026 primary bid to unseat District 4 County Supervisor Angela Curro.

Hollister's incumbent Mayor, Roxanne Stephens, did not file for reelection -- she made an unsuccessful June 2026 primary bid to unseat District 4 County Supervisor Angela Curro instead. Three candidates qualified for the open seat: former District 4 Councilmember Tim Burns, retired city employee Tina Garza, and entrepreneur Scott McPhail.

This person would serve a 2-year term as Hollister's Mayor, elected at-large and presiding over a four-member, district-elected City Council under a council-manager government where an appointed City Manager runs day-to-day city operations. Hollister (San Benito County's seat and largest city, incorporated Aug. 6, 1872, population about 41,700) added a directly elected Mayor to its structure only in 2012, when Ignacio Velazquez became its first. The nomination period for Mayor and District 2 was extended to Aug. 12 specifically because their incumbents did not file -- District 3 and Treasurer's incumbents did file, and are both running for reelection in their own races on this same ballot.

Roxanne Stephens' primary bid against Angela Curro was itself covered by BenitoLink ahead of the June 2026 primary. Curro remains San Benito County's District 4 Supervisor as of this pass's retrieval, per the county's own current officeholder listing, indicating Stephens' challenge was unsuccessful; this dataset did not independently verify the certified June primary vote count for that race, which is a county contest and not built here.

Tim Burns

Tim Burns represented Hollister's District 4 on the City Council from 2021 to 2024, losing his 2024 reelection bid to Priscilla De Anda, who won 52.6% of the vote. While on the Council, he filed an October 2024 public-records request to the city for "any and all public records from the police department including investigations and reports" naming then-Councilmember Rolan Resendiz, saying he was concerned about Resendiz "regularly violating the code of conduct and how he addressed other council members." After nearly two years of litigation, a San Benito County Superior Court judge approved release of the (redacted) records on Aug. 27, 2026. Resendiz, for his part, told BenitoLink the request was "clearly politically driven" because Burns "was ousted by me in the last election" -- referring to their earlier 2020 council race, not the 2024 De Anda race. Resendiz was censured by the Council multiple times during his tenure (starting in 2020 and again in 2024) for his conduct toward fellow councilmembers.

Strengths

Prior elected experience (District 4, 2021-2024); a documented records fight over a fellow councilmember's conduct shows how he used his prior seat's oversight tools.

Trade-offs

Resendiz calls the records fight a political vendetta, not good-faith oversight; the records' contents weren't yet public. Burns lost his 2024 reelection bid, 52.6%-47.4%.

Keep in mind

This dispute doesn't involve any of Burns' three current mayoral opponents -- it's about his conduct in a since-vacated council seat, evaluated here because it's the most substantive, on-the-record material available about how he used elected authority.

Tina Garza

Tina Garza -- identified by BenitoLink as "Christina Garza" -- is a retired city employee. No further independent record of her specific role with the city, platform, or civic background beyond that was found in this pass; no campaign website, news profile, or public candidate forum coverage turned up in a genuine search of local outlets and the open web.

Strengths

Prior experience inside city government as a former city employee, which BenitoLink independently confirms (though not which department or role).

Trade-offs

No platform, policy positions, or civic-involvement record beyond that one descriptor was found in this pass.

Keep in mind

Two names ("Christina" in BenitoLink's reporting, "Tina" on the City's own qualified-candidate list and her 2026 campaign-committee registration) point to the same person -- consistent record-keeping, not a discrepancy about who she is.

Scott McPhail

Scott McPhail is an entrepreneur who ran unsuccessfully as a write-in candidate for San Benito County Supervisor, District 4, in the June 2026 primary -- the same seat Mayor Stephens also unsuccessfully sought. No further independent record of his business, platform, or civic background was found in this pass.

Strengths

A second recent countywide campaign (the June write-in bid for Supervisor) shows sustained interest in local office, independently confirmed by BenitoLink.

Trade-offs

No platform, occupation detail beyond "entrepreneur," or civic-involvement record was found. A write-in bid for a different office shows persistence, not a record of positions taken.

Keep in mind

Running and losing a write-in county race earlier the same year is unusual but not disqualifying -- it reflects genuine, repeated interest in local office rather than a single opportunistic run.

Source review: Very strong (90/100) · 7 cited sources

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

  • sanbenitocounty-ca-cre.gov (opens in a new tab)San Benito County Department of Elections -- "Final Qualified Candidate List" for the November 3, 2026 General Election (all 75 qualified candidates countywide; retrieved via a real browser session since the county site 403s non-browser clients).
  • hollister.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Hollister -- City Clerk, "Elections" page: the November 3, 2026 election timeline, the four offices on the ballot, each candidate's nomination filing dates, the extended-filing notice for Mayor and District 2, and the city's own statement of its Council-City Manager structure and term lengths.
  • hollister.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Hollister -- "City Council" page: current Mayor, District 1-4 Councilmembers, and City Treasurer, with each one's election/reelection date and term-expiration date.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia, "Hollister, California": used narrowly for the 2020 Census population (41,678), the Aug. 6, 1872 incorporation date, and the city's 2012 shift to a directly elected Mayor (Ignacio Velazquez, its first).
  • benitolink.com (opens in a new tab)BenitoLink -- "Familiar faces seek to return to Hollister city council chambers in general election" (by Noe Magaña): a dedicated preview of Hollister's Nov. 2026 races naming and describing Tim Burns, Christina/Tina Garza, Scott McPhail, Bill Avera, and Dolores Morales, plus the countywide qualified-candidate roster as of Aug. 7-8, 2026.
  • benitolink.com (opens in a new tab)BenitoLink -- "Judge approves release of Hollister council member's police records" (by Noe Magaña): Tim Burns' Oct. 2024 public-records request for Councilmember Rolan Resendiz's police records, the resulting nearly-two-year court fight, the judge's Aug. 27, 2026 release order, and on-the-record quotes from both Burns and Resendiz.
  • public.netfile.com (opens in a new tab)City of Hollister's public campaign-finance portal (NetFile, agency code HOL), queried directly via its public filer-list API: shows a 2026 campaign committee registered for Burns, Avera, Morales, Benjamin, Garza, McPhail, and Chavez (all "Pending" state FPPC IDs except Chavez's, already assigned), a long-standing local filer record for Machado, and no 2026 committee of any kind for Jonathan Casey.

Last updated September 2, 2026.