# Jurupa Valley City Council, District 3 Compare records and positions simply between Edgar Castelan, Elias Ascencio, and 2 more for Jurupa Valley City Council, District 3 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-3 - 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 9 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Edgar Castelan** — Parks Director/Analyst - **Elias Ascencio** — Social Services Clerk - **Brian Scott Berkson** — Jurupa Valley City Council Member, District 3 · Incumbent - **Christobal “Chris” Rosales** — Planning Commissioner/Businessman A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Four candidates are running for Jurupa Valley's District 3 City Council seat: incumbent Brian Scott Berkson against challengers Edgar Castelan, Christobal "Chris" Rosales, and Elias Ascencio. The winner serves a four-year term on Jurupa Valley's five-member City Council. The council 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 picks one of its own members as Mayor and one as Mayor Pro Tem. Day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager. Per the city's own roster, Berkson now holds their council seat. They also hold the Mayor title for this council year. Berkson runs on a specific, itemized list of council-term accomplishments in their own statement. Castelan and Rosales each bring a different kind of local-government experience. Castelan comes from the elected parks-district board. Rosales comes from an appointed seat on the Planning Commission. Ascencio is a qualified candidate but did not file a statement. There is little to compare their candidacy against the other three on. ## Brian Scott Berkson Brian Scott Berkson is the incumbent District 3 councilmember and, per the city's own roster, the sitting Mayor for this council year. In their own candidate statement they list specific results from their term: approval of the Shops at Jurupa Valley retail development, launching the city's Emergency Operations Center, passing a balanced budget with a surplus while adding public-safety staff, approving affordable veterans housing, a stated 30%-plus reduction in homelessness, a retail-theft program they say recovered over $10 million in stolen property, and $13 million allocated to street and traffic improvements. They describe themselves as a 20-year Jurupa Valley resident and longtime business owner, say they support responsible growth while opposing development that threatens the city's equestrian character, and state they are endorsed by Riverside County Supervisors Karen Spiegel and Jose Medina. **Strengths:** They have served a full council term. Their statement lists specific claimed results on the budget, homelessness, veterans housing, and street funding. They also name political endorsements. **Trade-offs:** Every figure above is from their own statement. The homelessness percentage, the $10 million theft-recovery total, and the $13 million street allocation. None of it was independently verified. **Keep in mind:** Berkson is both District 3's councilmember and the council's rotating Mayor. That gives them more citywide visibility than any challenger in this field. ## Edgar Castelan Edgar Castelan describes themselves as a lifelong Glen Avon resident who has served as a Parks Board Director on the Jurupa Area Recreation and Parks District since 2020. In their own statement they cite work securing the Jurupa Mountains Discovery Center ("the home of Eddy the Mammoth"), new parkland and equestrian-arena upgrades in Rubidoux, and renovation of the Jurupa Community Center and Veterans Memorial Wall. They also say they currently work as a City Council Field Representative, hold a Master's in Public Policy from UC Riverside, and pledge not to accept corporate PAC money. **Strengths:** They have a parks-district board record since 2020, with specific named projects. They also work inside City Hall now as a council field representative. **Trade-offs:** Their claims, like the other candidates', are self-reported and not verified. Their parks-district record is on a different governing body than the seat they now seek. **Keep in mind:** They name a specific stance, opposing warehouse and data-center development in neighborhoods. Berkson's and Rosales's statements do not mirror it. ## Christobal “Chris” Rosales Christobal "Chris" Rosales describes themselves as a longtime Jurupa Valley resident who recently retired after more than 35 years with SoCalGas and currently serves as a Planning Commissioner. In their own statement they say they have been a consistent advocate for "responsible, purposeful growth" that protects neighborhoods and the city's equestrian character, cite decades of volunteer work with their wife establishing parent-student programs at Granite Hill Elementary, and list fiscal responsibility, transparent government, and public safety as priorities. **Strengths:** They hold a current seat on the city's Planning Commission. That is direct, relevant land-use experience. They also bring a long private-sector career. **Trade-offs:** Their statement is broader on values such as transparency and fiscal responsibility than on specific past actions or votes. Berkson offers an itemized list and Castelan names projects. **Keep in mind:** Like Castelan, they hold an appointed city position, not an elected one. That is a different kind of public record than Berkson's elected council term. ## Elias Ascencio Elias Ascencio is a declared candidate for District 3, listed by the city as a Social Services Clerk on the official randomized candidate list. Their nomination papers qualified July 20, 2026, but the city's own List of Candidates document records their candidate statement as "Declined by candidate," and no independent biographical information or campaign platform surfaced in this pass. **Strengths:** Not established beyond qualifying as a declared, ballot-eligible candidate. **Trade-offs:** They filed no statement or platform, and drew no independent coverage. There is nothing to weigh against the other three candidates' accounts of their own records. **Keep in mind:** They are on the ballot and eligible to win. The absence of a statement does not remove them from contention. It just leaves nothing here to describe beyond their listed occupation. ## 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. [Edgar Castelan's own filed Candidate's Statement, District 3](https://www.jurupavalley.org/DocumentCenter/View/5745/Edgar-Castelan-Candidate-Statement---District-3) 8. [Brian Scott Berkson's own filed Candidate's Statement, District 3](https://www.jurupavalley.org/DocumentCenter/View/5743/Brian-Berkson-Candidate-Statement---District-3) 9. [Christobal "Chris" Rosales's own filed Candidate's Statement, District 3](https://www.jurupavalley.org/DocumentCenter/View/5744/Christobal-Rosales-Candidate-Statement---District-3) ## The rest of the ballot Jurupa Valley City Council, District 3 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 3 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/jurupa-valley-council-3 (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.