# Jurupa Valley City Council, District 1 Compare records and positions simply between Armando Carmona or Jose Luis Godinez for Jurupa Valley City Council, District 1 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Jurupa Valley's five-member City Council. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. The term is four years. The council does not elect its Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem by citywide vote. Each year, the council picks one member to be Mayor. It also picks one member to be Mayor Pro Tem. An appointed city manager runs daily operations. - Jurisdiction: City of Jurupa Valley - 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/jurupa-valley-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: August 31, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 91 out of 100 (Very strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Armando Carmona** — Jurupa Valley Councilmember · Incumbent - **Jose Luis Godinez** — Educator/Parks Director A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Two candidates are running for Jurupa Valley's District 1 City Council seat: incumbent Armando Carmona against challenger Jose Luis Godinez. The winner serves a four-year term on Jurupa Valley's five-member City Council, which sets city ordinances, adopts the budget, and decides land use citywide. The council doesn't elect its Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem by separate citywide vote — each year, the council selects one of its own members to serve as Mayor and one to serve as Mayor Pro Tem — and day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager. Both candidates have a real record to run on: Carmona is finishing their first term as District 1's councilmember, while Godinez has spent six years on the elected board of the local parks district. The choice is between continuity with Carmona's council tenure and a challenger whose public record so far comes from a different, though related, local government body. ## Armando Carmona Armando Carmona is the incumbent District 1 councilmember, first elected in 2022. In their own candidate statement, they point to strengthened neighborhood cleanup efforts, increased fines for illegal dumping, funding to address flooding in the Mira Loma and Pedley areas, and describe their focus as responsible growth, public safety, and preserving Jurupa Valley's rural and equestrian character. They are running for reelection to continue that work. **Strengths:** One full term as District 1's sitting councilmember, with specific, checkable accomplishments named in their own statement (dumping-fine increases, Mira Loma/Pedley flood funding). **Trade-offs:** Carmona's statement is their own account of their record; no independent local-news coverage of their tenure was checked in this pass. **Keep in mind:** They frame their four years as independence and willingness to "stand up" even when residents disagree with a given vote — a claim about style as much as substance. ## Jose Luis Godinez Jose Luis Godinez is an educator and, by their own statement, has served six years on the Jurupa Area Recreation and Park District's elected board. They say that district's budget doubled during their tenure, 62 acres of parkland were added, and eleven additional parks entered development, including one long planned for the Mira Loma/Pedley area; they also cite work on inclusive programming, energy upgrades, and water conservation there. They are a Jurupa Valley High School and UC Riverside graduate, pursuing a PhD in Spanish linguistics with dissertation research based in the city, and say they are running for City Council to bring that same track record to the full city. **Strengths:** A six-year record on a different local elected board (the parks district) with specific, checkable figures in their own account (budget growth, acreage added). **Trade-offs:** That record is on a special-district board, not the City Council itself — relevant to a voter weighing their fit for the council, but self-reported and not independently verified in this pass. **Keep in mind:** Both candidates' park-related claims (Carmona's flood funding, Godinez's parkland additions) center on the same Mira Loma/Pedley area — worth comparing directly. ## Sources 1. [City of Jurupa Valley — November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election page: offices on the ballot (3 City Council seats, Districts 1, 3 and 5, 4-year terms), nomination period, and links to the List of Candidates and Randomized Alphabet Drawing documents](https://www.jurupavalley.org/641/November-3-2026-General-Municipal-Electi) 2. [City of Jurupa Valley — Election Information page: general elections procedures, including that "all campaign and conflict of interest filings required by the Fair Political Practices Commission are centralized in the City Clerk's Office" (no public campaign-finance portal or NetFile link found on this page)](https://www.jurupavalley.org/159/Election-Information) 3. [City of Jurupa Valley — District-Based Elections page: the city is divided into 5 single-member council districts, with 3 seats moved to by-district election in Nov. 2018 and the remaining 2 in Nov. 2020](https://www.jurupavalley.org/160/District-Based-Elections) 4. [City of Jurupa Valley — City Council page: current officeholder roster by district (Mayor Brian Berkson/District 3, Mayor Pro Tem Chris Barajas/District 5, Councilmembers Carmona/District 1, Silva/District 2, Sanchez/District 4), and that the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem titles rotate annually among council members rather than being elected at-large](https://www.jurupavalley.org/215/City-Council) 5. [City of Jurupa Valley — "List of Candidates for Website": official roster by district with candidate-statement, papers-pulled, papers-filed and qualified-for-election dates, incumbents marked with an asterisk; notes Elias Ascencio (District 3) as qualified but "Declined by candidate" for a statement, and that District 5's nomination period was extended because the incumbent did not seek reelection](https://www.jurupavalley.org/DocumentCenter/View/5804/List-of-Candidates-for-Website) 6. [City of Jurupa Valley — "City Council Candidate List by District, November 3, 2026 (In Randomized Alphabet Drawing Order)": ballot order, each candidate's self-reported occupational designation, and each campaign's own website/email](https://www.jurupavalley.org/DocumentCenter/View/5825/Jurupa-Valley-2026-Candidate-List---Randomized-Alphabet-Drawing) 7. [Armando Carmona's own filed Candidate's Statement, District 1](https://www.jurupavalley.org/DocumentCenter/View/5742/Armando-Carmona-Candidate-Statement---District-1) 8. [Jose Luis Godinez's own filed Candidate's Statement, District 1](https://www.jurupavalley.org/DocumentCenter/View/5746/Jose-Luis-Godinez-Candidate-Statement---District-1) ## The rest of the ballot Jurupa Valley 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, "Jurupa Valley City Council, District 1 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/jurupa-valley-council-1 (sources last retrieved August 31, 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.