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City of King City · Statewide General Election

King City Council, District 1

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On the ballot

This person would represent King City Council District 1 on the city's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions for this Monterey County city of 13,332 residents (2020 Census) in the Salinas Valley. A 4-year term. The Council's five district seats serve staggered terms; King City's Mayor is a separate, directly elected 2-year-term office not part of this race, and is not up in 2026.

Jonas Lalehzadeh is the only candidate whose name will be printed on the November ballot for King City Council District 1. Incumbent Oscar Avalos is also running -- but as a certified write-in candidate, so voters have to know to write his name in for it to count.

District 1 elects one member to a 4-year term on King City's 5-member City Council, which sets the budget, land use, and city ordinances for this Salinas Valley city of 13,332 residents (2020 Census), while a professional city manager runs day-to-day operations. King City's Mayor is a separate, directly elected 2-year-term office and isn't part of this race. Only Districts 1 and 2 are up in November 2026; Districts 3, 4, 5 and the Mayor are not.

This seat has been open since February 2023, when three-term incumbent Darlene Acosta resigned for health reasons. The council appointed Avalos -- over two other applicants -- to serve out the remainder of her term, which runs through December 2026, which is why the seat is back on the ballot now. According to Monterey County Weekly, Avalos initially considered not seeking a full term of his own, then changed course and filed as a write-in after concluding the seat would otherwise go to Lalehzadeh unopposed.

Jonas Lalehzadeh

Jonas Lalehzadeh, 37, is a former professional basketball player -- he played in Iran's Super League and in the NBA's G League -- who studied criminology and law at UC Irvine before moving to King City in 2021, where he has since invested in property, retail development, and agriculture, including cultivation sites for various plants and botanicals. This is his second council bid: he ran for District 5 in 2024 and lost to incumbent Robert Cullen by roughly 30 points. His platform centers on a mentorship program he calls "King City Mentors," aimed at connecting young adults ages 18-30 -- what he describes as a "lost generation" facing few career paths beyond low-wage work -- with established professionals in fields like real estate, contracting, trades, and technology. He has described the council seat itself as a temporary vehicle for convening people around that issue rather than a long-term political career.

Strengths

A concrete, specific proposal (a named mentorship program) rather than a general platform; local investment and business ties to King City since 2021.

Trade-offs

No prior elected office, and a prior council bid (District 5, 2024) lost by a wide margin; he says he sees this run as a temporary project rather than a lasting commitment to serving a full term.

Keep in mind

He is the only candidate whose name appears on the printed ballot for this seat -- but that does not mean he is unopposed. A write-in candidate is still competing for the same seat.

About the write-in candidacy: Oscar Avalos

Oscar Avalos is the appointed incumbent, seated by a unanimous council vote in March 2023 to fill Darlene Acosta's unexpired term after her resignation. He is not a printed candidate on this ballot -- he is running as a certified write-in, so this section covers him as context for the race rather than as a profiled option. Before his appointment he had already built a civic record in King City: service on the Planning Commission and the city's Sales Tax Advisory Committee, Vice President of the Salinas Valley Fair, Chair of the Southern Monterey County Foundation, an active Rotary Club member, and the city's 2022 "Friend of the Community." He has said serving District 1 "has been one of the most rewarding chapters" of his career. Because he filed as a write-in rather than through the regular candidate-filing process, his name will not appear on the printed ballot -- voters who want to support him have to write in his name themselves for it to be counted.

On Avalos's write-in bid: strengths -- more than three years of incumbent experience completing Acosta's term, plus a civic record in King City predating his appointment. Trade-offs -- a write-in bid is a real structural disadvantage: many voters who would otherwise support him may not realize he's running, or may not know to write his name in. Keep in mind: he was appointed to this seat, not elected to it -- this is his first time actually appearing before District 1 voters for it, even informally as a write-in.

Source review: Very strong (90/100) · 10 cited sources

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

  • countyofmonterey.gov (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Elections -- official "Candidate List" page for the November 3, 2026 General Election: within the City section, exactly two King City rows appear (abbreviated by the county's own document to "CITY OF KING") -- "MEMBER, CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 1" and "...DISTRICT 2" -- confirming Districts 3, 4, 5 and the separately elected Mayor are not up this cycle. Like the county's own BOE rows used elsewhere in this dataset, the page's DOM renders office titles only, never per-seat candidate names.
  • kingcity.com (opens in a new tab)City of King City -- official City Council page: names the sitting five officeholders -- Mayor Mike LeBarre, Mayor Pro Tem Carlos DeLeon, and Councilmembers Carlos Victoria, Robert Cullen, and Oscar Avalos -- with no District 2 member named.
  • kingcity.com (opens in a new tab)City of King City -- official "Government Structure" page: "The 5-member City Council is elected by districts to 4-year staggered terms," and the Mayor "serves a two year term" -- a separate, shorter-cycle, directly elected office.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "King City, California": 2020 Census population (13,332); Salinas Valley location on U.S. Route 101; incorporated Feb. 9, 1911; used narrowly for population and background, not for anything about the 2026 election.
  • montereycountynow.com (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Weekly / Salinas Valley Now (montereycountynow.com) -- "Former pro basketball player Jonas Lalehzadeh runs for King City Council" (Royvi Hernandez, Aug. 18, 2026): reports Lalehzadeh's candidacy and platform (a youth mentorship program, "King City Mentors"), his background (37, former Iran Super League and NBA G League player, UC Irvine, moved to King City in 2021, invests in local property/retail/agriculture), his 2024 District 5 loss to Robert Cullen, and that incumbent Oscar Avalos -- after considering stepping aside -- filed as a write-in candidate rather than let the seat go uncontested, quoting Avalos's own statement and listing his prior civic record (Planning Commission, Sales Tax Advisory Committee, Salinas Valley Fair, Southern Monterey County Foundation, Rotary Club).
  • kingcityrustler.com (opens in a new tab)The King City Rustler -- "Extended filing period opens for unfilled seats in Monterey County" (Aug. 10, 2026): lists King City's District 1 council seat as one of the offices whose filing period was extended to Aug. 12 "because an eligible incumbent did not file for reelection" by the regular Aug. 7 deadline -- no other King City seat appears on the list, meaning District 2 drew a sufficient field by the regular deadline (ruling out a Section 10229 cancellation for District 2).
  • kingcityrustler.com (opens in a new tab)The King City Rustler -- "General Election 2024: Cullen retains King City Council seat" (Nov. 6, 2024): reports incumbent Robert Cullen's District 5 win over Jonas Lalehzadeh, 150 votes (64.38%) to 83 votes (35.62%); also independently confirms Carlos DeLeon (District 3) and Carlos Victoria (District 4) each ran unopposed in the same election.
  • kingcityrustler.com (opens in a new tab)The King City Rustler -- "King City Councilmember Acosta announces resignation" (Feb. 8, 2023): reports Darlene Acosta's resignation from the District 1 seat, effective Feb. 14, 2023, for health reasons, after serving since 2014 and having recently been reelected to a third term.
  • kingcityrustler.com (opens in a new tab)The King City Rustler -- "Avalos swears in as new King City councilmember" (April 5, 2023): reports Oscar Avalos's unanimous council appointment (over two other applicants, Michael Oliveira and Erica Gonzales) on March 22, 2023, sworn in March 28, "to serve the remainder of Acosta's term, which ends in December 2026" -- explaining why District 1 is on the 2026 ballot -- and his prior civic record (18-year resident, Planning Commission, Sales Tax Advisory Committee, Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture ambassador, 2022 Friend of the Community).
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer searches for Jonas Lalehzadeh and Oscar Avalos: every query returned only a bot-detection challenge page, not usable results, consistent with Cal-Access's documented scope of state-level filings only, which excludes local candidates.

Last updated September 1, 2026.