Maywood City Council

Strengths

A sitting Planning Commission seat, confirmed by the council's own April 2026 vote, gives her direct land-use experience most challengers in this race don't have.

Trade-offs

Barely four months on an appointed advisory body is not an elected record, and no independent account of her views on the budget, policing, or services has surfaced.

Keep in mind

Her Planning Commission seat came from this same council; voters weighing continuity versus change should note she was picked by the body she now wants to join as a member.

Strengths

A licensed therapist with a master's in rehabilitation counseling, she's spent her career on homelessness and youth financial-aid work — expertise most colleagues don't bring to the dais.

Trade-offs

Her term already shows the churn voters are being asked to judge: she was removed as the council's appointed Mayor in 2025 by her own colleagues, replaced by Heber Marquez.

Keep in mind

That removal was a routine reassignment of the rotating Mayor title, not a documented scandal — but voters weighing her record should know the title changed hands mid-term.

Strengths

She has lived at the same Maywood address for more than two decades, per public records — a long personal stake in the city she's asking to represent.

Trade-offs

No campaign platform, endorsement, or news coverage documents what she would do in office; voters have her residency and her name on the ballot, and little else.

Keep in mind

If she has a platform, it has not surfaced anywhere searchable as of this retrieval — contact the campaign directly for her positions before voting.

Strengths

Thirteen years on the council, including a term as Mayor, is the deepest institutional record anyone in this race can claim — he has navigated a budget crisis and a recall attempt.

Trade-offs

That same long tenure is the case against him for voters wanting change: he is part of the council majority whose management some challengers are running against.

Keep in mind

He was among six officials served recall notices in Sept. 2016 over a marijuana-zoning dispute; he told the LA Times he was targeted for opposing the majority, not the zoning. It failed for lack of signatures by March 2017.

Strengths

A second run gives her a track record voters can compare to 2020, and an active campaign presence — a paid Facebook page soliciting contributions — most challengers here lack.

Trade-offs

She lost her only previous bid for this seat by a wide margin, and no news coverage or endorsement has weighed in on what's different this time.

Keep in mind

Her 2020 platform is not preserved anywhere searchable; judge her current run on her 2026 campaign material, not an assumed repeat of an unknown platform.

Strengths

No campaign material, endorsement, or news coverage documents her background or platform as of this retrieval — a documented absence, not a judgment on her candidacy.

Trade-offs

The same absence cuts against her: voters have no independent account of her experience or positions, only her name on the qualified-candidate list.

Keep in mind

Judge her, if at all, on what surfaces before November — nothing public exists yet to evaluate her candidacy against, one way or the other.

Strengths

She has shown up and spoken at council meetings this year, per the city's own minutes — direct engagement with the body she's asking voters to let her join.

Trade-offs

Attending meetings is not a platform: no policy position, endorsement, or campaign material documents what she would do differently in office.

Keep in mind

Her public council appearances are documented; her positions on the budget, land use, or public safety are not — ask her directly before voting.

Strengths

Decades of hands-on civic history in Maywood — an early member of a 1998 water-rate protest and later general manager of the city's Mutual Water Company — outrun most of this field.

Trade-offs

The state Fair Political Practices Commission fined him $4,500 in Jan. 2014 for a 2012 cash-for-check scheme tied to a Southeast LA County political committee and a wider influence probe.

Keep in mind

News archives under this name and city describe one consistent person across 1998-2018 by age, occupation, and location; no coverage yet addresses the fine against this 2026 run.

Strengths

Prior council experience, including through a city financial crisis covered by the LA Times, gives him direct experience with the job voters are being asked to fill.

Trade-offs

That record includes the crisis itself: as a sitting councilman he backed hiring the outside manager the LA Times reported the city needed, and he was a recall target over a zoning vote.

Keep in mind

He was among six served recall notices in Sept. 2016 over marijuana-zoning; it failed for lack of signatures by March 2017. He shares that history with candidate Eddie De La Riva, on the dispute's other side.