# Mayor of Kerman Compare records and positions simply between Gary K. Yep or Yazmine Enriquez for Mayor of Kerman at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would serve as Kerman's directly elected Mayor. The Mayor leads City Council meetings and casts one of five votes. The council votes on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The Mayor's term is two years, while four district Council seats serve four-year terms. - Jurisdiction: City of Kerman - 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/kerman-mayor - 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: September 1, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 90 out of 100 (Very strong), across 6 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Gary K. Yep** — City Council Member - **Yazmine Enriquez** — Small Business Manager A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. A genuine, contested race for an open seat: Gary K. Yep, the sitting City Council District 1 member, faces Yazmine Enriquez. Neither is the incumbent Mayor -- Maria Pacheco is not seeking reelection here. Kerman's Mayor is directly elected by voters -- unlike some nearby Fresno County cities, the Council doesn't choose its own Mayor here. The Mayor presides over City Council meetings and casts one of five votes on city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Fresno County city of about 16,000 residents. The term is two years, shorter than the 4-year terms held by the city's four district Council seats. Kerman has no separately elected City Clerk or City Treasurer; both are appointed staff positions under the City Manager. This seat is open because Mayor Maria Pacheco did not file for reelection. Independent local news reporting (GV Wire, January 2026) confirms why: Pacheco is running instead for Fresno County Supervisor, District 1, against City Councilmember Mike Karbassi -- a separate contest that does not appear on this ballot as a city race. Because the seat is open, whoever wins starts a fresh term rather than facing an incumbent. ## Gary K. Yep The sitting District 1 City Councilmember and current Mayor Pro Tem, running for the open Mayor's seat rather than seeking reelection to his own Council seat; his filed ballot designation is "City Council Member." The only independent, attributed record of his views found this session comes from a Council vote on a 2024 Gaza cease-fire resolution, where he was one of two abstentions: "I have a tough time because to me, it seems one-sided," he said, citing unverifiable casualty figures and saying he would have preferred the city send a personal letter instead of a formal proclamation. Beyond his Council record, no independent biographical detail -- occupation or background -- was found for him. **Strengths:** Sitting Council and Mayor Pro Tem experience, plus one documented, independently reported instance of him explaining a vote in his own words. **Trade-offs:** That one data point is a single abstention on a symbolic resolution, not a record on the budget, land use, or other city business a Mayor actually runs. **Keep in mind:** Moving from Council to Mayor would open his own District 1 seat regardless of who wins there -- see that separate contest on this ballot. ## Yazmine Enriquez Enriquez's filed ballot designation is "Small Business Manager." No independent biographical detail was found for them beyond that designation and the county's own filing record, despite a genuine multi-method search -- the city's own site, GV Wire's own site search, Google News RSS, and Ballotpedia (which carries no page for them). **Strengths:** A contested run for an open seat, with a stated professional background (small-business management) on file with the county. **Trade-offs:** No independent reporting evaluates Enriquez's record -- their filed designation is the only confirmed detail about them. **Keep in mind:** As a first-time candidate for this office, they have no council voting record to compare against Yep's. ## Sources 1. [Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters -- CFMR009 "Candidate List" for the Nov. 3, 2026 Consolidated Statewide General Election (printed 8/12/2026 5:37:13PM, post-filing-deadline): lists Kerman's three city contests -- 5090 Kerman Mayor (Vote For 1; Qualified: Gary K. Yep, "City Council Member"; Yazmine Enriquez, "Small Business Manager"), 5092 Kerman City Council No. 1 (Vote For 1; Qualified: Mayra Galvez, "Family Outreach Liaison"; Charles "Charlie" Jones, "Retired Bank Officer"; Michael Mudgett, "Small Business Manager"), and 5097 Kerman City Council No. 3 (Vote For 1; Qualified: Maria Berber Orozco, "Care Manager")](https://www2.fresnocountyca.gov/2850/post/2026NOV/CandidateList.pdf) 2. [Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters -- CFMR001 "Contest/Candidate Proof List," filtered to Contests on Ballot, for the Nov. 3, 2026 election (printed 8/18/2026 8:39:55AM): independently confirms all three Kerman contests as ON BALLOT and separately lists each seat's incumbent-of-record -- Maria Anita Pacheco (Elected) for Mayor, Gary K. Yep (Elected) for District 1, and Ismael Diaz Herrera (Elected) for District 3 -- none of whom is a qualified candidate for that same seat this cycle; confirms District 3's single-qualified-candidate contest remains ON BALLOT rather than cancelled under Elections Code Section 10229](https://www2.fresnocountyca.gov/2850/post/2026NOV/Contests%20on%20Ballot%20with%20Qualified%20Candidates.pdf) 3. [City of Kerman -- "City Council" page: states the Council has five members including the Mayor, with the Mayor directly elected by voters for a 2-year term and Council Members elected for 4-year terms; names the sitting Council -- Maria Pacheco (Mayor), Gary Yep (Mayor Pro Tem, District 1), Berdie Hall (District 2, not up this cycle), Ismael Herrera (District 3), and Raj Dhaliwal (District 4, not up this cycle) -- and lists City Clerk Dalia Santana-Zamudio among the City Manager's departments rather than as a separately elected office; no City Treasurer position appears anywhere on the site](http://www.cityofkerman.gov/245/City-Council) 4. [Wikipedia's Kerman, California article: population 16,016 (2020 census), incorporated July 2, 1946](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerman,_California) 5. [GV Wire -- "Kerman Mayor Objects to ICE Language in Law Enforcement Proclamation" (Jan. 19, 2026, fetched and read directly): identifies Maria Pacheco as Kerman's sitting Mayor and reports that she is "running for Fresno County supervisor in District 1" -- independent confirmation of why no incumbent filed for the Mayor's seat this cycle; also describes her as a critic of ICE tactics and a senior field representative for Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria](https://www.gvwire.com/2026/01/19/kerman-mayor-objects-to-ice-language-in-law-enforcement-proclamation/) 6. [GV Wire -- "A Fresno County First: Kerman Council Passes Amended Gaza Cease-Fire Resolution" (March 28, 2024, fetched and read directly): names the then-sitting Kerman City Council and records a 3-2 vote (Pacheco, Nijjer, Herrera in favor; Yep and Coleman abstaining); quotes Councilmember Gary Yep directly on his abstention: "I have a tough time because to me, it seems one-sided," citing unverifiable casualty figures and a preference for a personal letter instead](https://gvwire.com/2024/03/28/a-fresno-county-first-kerman-council-passes-amended-gaza-cease-fire-resolution/) ## The rest of the ballot Mayor of Kerman 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, "Mayor of Kerman — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/kerman-mayor (sources last retrieved September 1, 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.