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City of Irwindale · Statewide General Election

Irwindale City Council

Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.

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 holds one of Irwindale's five at-large City Council seats: the city budget, land use, and city ordinances for one of the smallest incorporated cities in Los Angeles County. A 4-year term. The council doesn't elect its mayor directly -- members choose one of their own to serve as mayor and mayor pro tem each year, presiding over meetings but casting only one vote like every other member.

Two of Irwindale's five City Council seats are on the November 3 ballot: incumbent Mayor H. Manuel Ortiz is seeking another term, while Mayor Pro Tem Albert F. Ambriz — whose seat is also up — did not file for reelection, leaving two challengers, Marguerite Lopez-Sapien and Maricela Romero Frymark, to compete for the open seat alongside Ortiz.

Irwindale's council is five members, all elected citywide on staggered 4-year terms; the other three seats — held by Mark Breceda, Larry Burrola, and Manuel Garcia — aren't up this cycle. The council chooses one of its own to serve as mayor and mayor pro tem each year, so voters elect a councilmember, not a mayor directly. Whoever wins holds the seat for four years, setting the budget, land use, and city ordinances for a city of about 1,470 residents — one of the smallest and most industrial in Los Angeles County, built on sand-and-gravel quarrying, a sriracha factory, and a former MillerCoors brewery site rather than housing.

With one incumbent, one repeat challenger, and one first-time candidate campaigning for two seats, this is a plurality race decided in a single round — the two highest vote-getters win outright. Ortiz is the only sitting officeholder in the field, so the practical question for voters is who takes the second seat: a candidate who narrowly lost a citywide race two years ago, or a political newcomer who already sits on the city's Planning Commission.

H. Manuel Ortiz

H. Manuel Ortiz is Irwindale's sitting mayor, first elected to the City Council in November 2005 and reelected in 2009, 2013, 2018, and 2022, now seeking a sixth term. He is running on the priorities his official council biography lists: fiscal accountability, expanded youth and senior programs, public safety, and housing opportunities. His council colleagues have chosen him mayor four separate times — 2006, 2009, 2020, and 2022 — more than anyone else on the current council.

Strengths

Two decades of council experience and four terms as mayor give him more institutional knowledge of Irwindale's budget and its quarrying-dependent economy than either challenger.

Trade-offs

Two decades in the same seat draws the standard incumbent critique: no fresh outside perspective, and no independent reporting on his tenure surfaced to weigh against his own account.

Keep in mind

Nothing adverse surfaced in coverage of his tenure — but coverage itself is thin: a city of about 1,470 people draws little independent local news, so most of what's known about his record comes from the city's own materials, not outside reporting.

Marguerite S. Lopez-Sapien

Marguerite S. Lopez-Sapien is a repeat council candidate, running again after finishing fourth of four candidates for three seats in the November 2024 general election. No campaign platform, website, or public candidate statement for her 2026 run turned up in this research. She lost her 2024 bid by a thin margin — election-night counts had her trailing the third-place finisher by 27 votes, with all four candidates separated by just 52 votes as ballots were still being tallied.

Strengths

A second citywide run in two years gives her more name recognition among Irwindale's roughly 1,470 residents than a true first-time candidate would have, in a race this small.

Trade-offs

She has never held elected or appointed office, and no campaign website, platform, or public statement for this run was found — voters have little besides her name and her narrow 2024 loss.

Keep in mind

Her 2024 loss was close enough to read as a real base of support, not a token run — but this research found no news coverage, finance filing, or public statement from her 2026 campaign, so her current platform is simply unknown.

Maricela Romero Frymark

Maricela Romero Frymark is a first-time council candidate who currently chairs Irwindale's Planning Commission, the appointed board that recommends land-use decisions to the City Council. No campaign website, platform statement, or news coverage of her candidacy turned up in this research. Her Planning Commission role is the one confirmed, substantive fact available about her going into this race.

Strengths

Sitting as Planning Commission chair gives her direct, recent experience with the same land-use and development questions the City Council decides — a credential neither opponent can claim.

Trade-offs

She has never held elected office, and no campaign website, platform statement, or independent news coverage of her 2026 candidacy was found in this research.

Keep in mind

Her Planning Commission chairmanship is confirmed by the city's own website, but this research could not confirm anything else about her platform — her public record on the issues she'd vote on as a councilmember is effectively blank.

Source review: Strong (80/100) · 11 cited sources

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

  • irwindaleca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Irwindale — City Council General Municipal Election page (candidate ballot order finalized Aug. 17, 2026, and a Status of Candidate Filing table, last updated Aug. 6, 2026: H. Manuel Ortiz, Marguerite S. Lopez-Sapien, and Maricela Romero Frymark all qualified for the City Council's 2 open seats)
  • irwindaleca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Irwindale — Notice of Offices and Nominations for the Nov. 3, 2026 General Municipal Election (For Two (2) Members of the City Council, full 4-year term; nomination period July 13-Aug. 7, 2026; confirms one incumbent, H. Manuel Ortiz, had filed as of Aug. 3, with a second, unnamed eligible incumbent still required to file by the original Aug. 7 deadline)
  • irwindaleca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Irwindale — City Council (current roster and official biographies: Mayor H. Manuel Ortiz and Mayor Pro Tem Albert F. Ambriz, both with terms expiring Nov. 3, 2026, plus Councilmembers Mark A. Breceda, Larry G. Burrola, and Manuel R. Garcia, each with a term expiring Nov. 7, 2028 -- confirming Ambriz's, not Ortiz's, is the second seat in play since Ambriz is not on the qualified-candidate list)
  • irwindaleca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Irwindale — Planning Commission (current roster: Maricela Frymark, Chair; the appointed advisory board that recommends land-use decisions to the City Council, 4-year appointed terms)
  • sgvtribune.com (opens in a new tab)San Gabriel Valley Tribune — "2024 Election Results: Several San Gabriel Valley, Whittier-area races on razor thin margins," naming Irwindale's 4-candidate, 3-seat 2024 City Council race and Marguerite Lopez-Sapien's fourth-place position, trailing the third-place finisher by 27 votes with all four candidates separated by 52 votes, as counting continued (not paywalled; full article read)
  • sgvtribune.com (opens in a new tab)San Gabriel Valley Tribune (Southern California News Group) — "Marguerite Lopez-Sapien, Irwindale City Council candidate, 2024 election questionnaire" (paywalled beyond its opening line; used only to corroborate that she ran and was covered by name in the 2024 cycle, not for any paywalled content)
  • ballotpedia.org (opens in a new tab)Ballotpedia — Marguerite S. Lopez-Sapien (Irwindale City Council At-large, California, candidate 2024): confirms she ran in the Nov. 5, 2024 general election (3 seats, 4 candidates) and did not complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey; the page itself states Ballotpedia "did not receive biographical information for this candidate"
  • theballotbook.com (opens in a new tab)The Ballot Book — City of Irwindale Candidates (unofficial, automated-monitoring aggregator; independently returns the identical 3-candidate field for the city's 1 open office)
  • theballotbook.com (opens in a new tab)The Ballot Book — Marguerite S. Lopez-Sapien (person profile: finished 4th in the Nov. 5, 2024 general election; no election committees found on record)
  • theballotbook.com (opens in a new tab)The Ballot Book — Maricela Romero Frymark (person profile: no prior election history and no election committees found on record, consistent with a first-time candidate)
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — Irwindale, California (council-manager city government with a five-member, at-large City Council; 2020 census population of 1,472; economic profile built on sand-and-gravel quarrying, a Huy Fong Foods sriracha factory, and a former MillerCoors brewery site)

Last updated August 31, 2026.