# Manhattan Beach City Council

Compare records and positions simply between Amy Howorth, Mark Burton, Richard P. Montgomery, and 1 more for Manhattan Beach City Council at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds one of Manhattan Beach's five at-large City Council seats. They vote on the city budget, zoning and development rules, and city ordinances. The term is four years. The council does not elect its mayor directly. Members rotate through the mayor and mayor pro tem titles. That person leads meetings but casts only one vote, like every other member.

- Jurisdiction: City of Manhattan Beach
- Election: November 3, 2026 California general election
- Seats: 2
- Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements.
- Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/manhattan-beach-council
- 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: 84 out of 100 (Strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Amy Howorth** — Incumbent
- **Mark Burton**
- **Richard P. Montgomery**
- **Joseph Ungoco**

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

Four candidates are running for Manhattan Beach's two open City Council seats on November 3: incumbent Amy Howorth, a two-time former mayor, faces two past councilmembers trying to reclaim seats they've lost — Richard Montgomery and Mark Burton, both also former mayors — plus Joseph Ungoco, a two-term Planning Commissioner making their third bid for the council.

Manhattan Beach's council is five members, all elected citywide rather than by district, on staggered 4-year terms; the other three seats aren't up this cycle. The council chooses one of its own to rotate through the mayor and mayor pro tem titles, so voters elect a councilmember, not a mayor directly. Whoever wins holds the seat for four years, setting the budget, zoning, and city ordinances for a small, affluent beach city of roughly 35,000 people in the South Bay. The seat Howorth holds is up, and so is the seat of Councilmember David Lesser, who announced this summer that he would not seek re-election.

This is a plurality race decided in one round: the two highest vote-getters among the four win the seats outright, with no runoff. Fiscal questions dominate the campaign trail — the city budget swung from balanced two years ago to a multi-million-dollar projected deficit this year, and every candidate has staked out a position on spending, city-employee compensation, or both. A second axis is development: several candidates are campaigning against high-rise construction on Sepulveda Boulevard, a state-driven housing pressure point for small coastal cities. Weigh continuity from the sitting incumbent against two different flavors of "experienced outsider" comeback, or a genuine newcomer with no council voting record at all.

## Amy Howorth

Amy Howorth is the only true incumbent in the race: first elected to the council in 2011 after two terms on the school board, she served until 2019, returned in 2022, and was mayor most recently in 2024. She is running on continuity — fiscal stewardship of the city's AAA bond rating, the city's purchase of the downtown US Bank site to control its redevelopment, and opposing high-rises on Sepulveda Boulevard without exposing the city to a lawsuit over it.

**Strengths:** The only candidate with current council experience and a specific recent record. She makes a fiscal case for the AAA bond rating. She points to a concrete land-use move on the US Bank site.

**Trade-offs:** She is the incumbent on a council now facing a multi-million-dollar projected deficit. She owns that fiscal picture more than any challenger does, whatever the cause.

**Keep in mind:** She says she opposes Sepulveda Boulevard high rises. She will not back city litigation to block them. She calls that a financial risk on a fight state law likely wins anyway. Some read that as pragmatic and others as not combative enough.

## Richard P. Montgomery

Richard Montgomery is a former police officer and real estate/government-affairs manager who served four prior council terms (2005-2013 and 2017-2023) and was twice mayor, most recently stepping down in 2023. He's campaigning on a warning that the city's finances have deteriorated sharply on the current council's watch, and he holds several other regional public roles, including a Marina del Rey harbor commission seat.

**Strengths:** The longest council tenure in the race, at four terms, gives him the deepest institutional record. He is also the only candidate with a filed 2026 statement showing real fundraising activity.

**Trade-offs:** He left the council in 2023 after his most recent term. Voters weighing a comeback bid should ask what changed since then, and why now.

**Keep in mind:** A reader letter in a local community newsletter noted his 16 years on the council. It argued that span included the spending growth he now criticizes. His campaign answers that the deterioration is recent, concentrated in the last two years.

## Mark Burton

Mark Burton is a construction-industry litigation attorney and former Senior Assistant City Attorney for the City of Los Angeles who served one council term (2013-2017) before losing four subsequent bids to reclaim a seat, in 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2022. He's running again on fiscal accountability, opposing high-rise development, and a proposal for strict two-term limits on councilmembers.

**Strengths:** A municipal law background from his Los Angeles City Attorney career. He also has council experience on open-government work he says he championed, including a public city-employee salary database.

**Trade-offs:** Four straight losses since his single term ended in 2017. That is the most direct electoral verdict any candidate in this race carries. Voters can reasonably ask what would be different this time.

**Keep in mind:** He proposes strict two-term limits. If he means to apply that to himself, his current bid would start a fresh two-term cap. It would not add to his earlier term. Worth asking him to clarify.

## Joseph Ungoco

Joseph Ungoco is a two-term member of the city's Planning Commission who has never held elected office, having previously run for council in 2017 and 2019 without winning a seat. They are making their third bid for the council this year.

**Strengths:** Two terms on the Planning Commission give them direct land-use and development-review experience. The other three gained that only as elected officials, not as appointed reviewers.

**Trade-offs:** They have never won or held elected office. They have lost two prior council bids. That is the steepest track record to overcome of anyone in the race.

**Keep in mind:** Their Planning Commission service and two past candidacies are confirmed. Independent reporting on their 2026 platform is thinner here than for the other three. Each of them has a campaign site or a recent local press profile.

## Review notes

- Amy Howorth for MB City Council and Mark Burton for City Council 2026 may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

## Sources

1. [City of Manhattan Beach — City Clerk Elections page (Qualified City Council Candidates for the Nov. 3, 2026 General Municipal Election: Richard P. Montgomery, Amy Howorth, Mark Burton, Joseph Ungoco; plus a list of two candidates who pulled nomination papers but never filed, David Lesser and Tim Hageman)](https://www.manhattanbeach.gov/departments/city-clerk/elections)
2. [City of Manhattan Beach — City Council (current roster: Mayor Joe Franklin, Mayor Pro Tem Nina Trieu Tarnay, Councilmember Steve S. Charelian — none up for election this cycle — plus Amy Thomas Howorth and David Lesser, whose terms expire Dec. 2026)](https://www.manhattanbeach.gov/government/city-council)
3. [MB News (thembnews.com) — "One New Face as Candidates Are Set for Manhattan Beach City Council, School Board" (names the final four-candidate council field and each candidate's exact term history: Howorth three terms, Montgomery four terms 2005-2013 and 2017-2023, Burton one term 2013-2017 plus four later unsuccessful bids, Ungoco a two-term Planning Commissioner who first ran for council in 2017 and again in 2019; also reports David Lesser's decision not to seek re-election)](https://www.thembnews.com/2026/08/19/580480/one-new-face-as-candidates-are-set-for-manhattan-beach-city-council-school-board)
4. [Amy Howorth for MB City Council — campaign site (her own account of her prior School Board and Council service, 2003-2019 and 2022-present)](https://www.amyhoworth.net/)
5. [MB Weekly (mbweekly.net), 08/27/2026 issue — exclusive interview with Amy Howorth as a 2026 City Council candidate, in her own words on spending, compensation, taxes/fees, and high-rise development; the same issue carries a paid political ad from the Mark Burton campaign. A community bulletin/newsletter mixing local reporting, reader letters, and paid political content — cited only for the candidates' own on-the-record statements, not for its reader commentary or classifieds.](https://mbweekly.net/)
6. [Mark Burton for City Council 2026 — campaign site (his own account of his prior Council/Mayor service 2013-2017 and his career as a Senior Assistant City Attorney for the City of Los Angeles)](https://www.markburton4council.com/)
7. [Institute for Local Government (League of California Cities-affiliated nonprofit) — board-member bio for Richard Montgomery, independently corroborating his 2005-2013 and 2017 ("re-elected ... for a third term") Manhattan Beach Council/Mayor service and listing his other public roles (Independent Cities Association, LA County Sanitation Districts #5/#7, Marina del Rey Small Craft Harbor Commission)](https://www.ca-ilg.org/profile/richard-montgomery)
8. [City of Manhattan Beach — NetFile Public Portal for Campaign Finance (Candidates & Officeholders; checked for Howorth, Montgomery, Burton, and Ungoco on 2026-08-31 — Montgomery is the only one with a filed FPPC Form 460 (covering 1/1-6/30/2026) plus a Form 497 late-contribution report filed 8/24/2026; the other three have only organizational Forms 410/501 on file, no Form 460 yet)](https://netfile.com/public/cmb/campaign)

## The rest of the ballot

Manhattan Beach City Council 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, "Manhattan Beach City Council — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/manhattan-beach-council (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.