# Menlo Park City Council, District 1 Compare records and positions simply between Wonman Lee or James Rohr for Menlo Park City Council, District 1 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would represent one of Menlo Park's five council districts on the City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions for Menlo Park. The term is four years. The Mayor and Vice Mayor are chosen by the council from among its own members each year, rather than elected separately. - Jurisdiction: City of Menlo Park - 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/menlo-park-council-1 - 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: 85 out of 100 (Strong), across 10 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Wonman Lee** — Parks and Recreation Commissioner - **James Rohr** A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. District 1 covers Belle Haven and the Bayfront. The seat is open. Two-term Councilmember Cecilia Taylor is not seeking a third term. She was the city's first Belle Haven representative. She was also the first African American woman on the council. Parks and Recreation Commissioner Wonman Lee and retired cybersecurity analyst James Rohr are running to replace her. Both live in Belle Haven. The winner serves a 4-year term as one of five district representatives on Menlo Park's City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use for the whole city, alongside district-specific advocacy. The Mayor and Vice Mayor are chosen by the council from among its own members each year, not elected separately. Menlo Park council races have no primary -- Rohr and Lee go straight to the November 3 ballot. Both candidates want more neighborhood-serving retail in a district that has gone without a full-service supermarket or pharmacy for decades, and both raise concerns about Team Sheeper, the city's aquatics contractor at Burgess Park and the new Belle Haven Community Center. Where they differ is emphasis: Lee, endorsed by Vice Mayor Jennifer Wise and Councilmember Jeff Schmidt, frames his campaign around a pro-housing 'Abundance' philosophy and easing permitting for the roughly half of Menlo Park's lots that don't meet current zoning. Rohr, recruited into local volunteering by Taylor herself, centers his campaign on preserving Belle Haven's existing character -- rent control and tenant protections over new development in a neighborhood he describes as "full." ## James Rohr Rohr, 48, is a retired cybersecurity analyst and Army veteran. He moved to Belle Haven in 2022 after seven years in Sunnyvale. He says then-Councilmember Cecilia Taylor welcomed him into the neighborhood. She recruited him to volunteer. With Taylor stepping down, Rohr says neighbors urged him to run. They wanted the district to have someone with the time to represent it. He is active in local gardening and community groups. He applied to the city's Library Commission earlier this year. That application was not successful. **Strengths:** Deep roots in Belle Haven's community groups, vouched for in person. Direct continuity with outgoing Councilmember Taylor. She recruited him to volunteer in the first place. **Trade-offs:** No past appointed or elected city service. His one commission application was to the Library Commission. It was not successful. Taylor was the only councilmember who voted for it. **Keep in mind:** He opposes most new development in a district he calls "full." He does support the downtown parking-lot plan with replacement parking. In public emails he has pushed the city to audit Team Sheeper's finances. He also wants the city to consider replacing it as pool operator. ## Wonman Lee Lee is a software engineer at the education-technology company Learneo. He is a former chair of Menlo Park's Parks and Recreation Commission. There he helped guide planning for the new Belle Haven Community Center. Before that he worked on Capitol Hill for two U.S. senators. Lee is the son of Korean immigrants. He was the first in his family to graduate college. He lives in Belle Haven with his wife, two children, and dog. His kids attend Belle Haven Elementary and All Five. **Strengths:** Direct, hands-on experience with city government from four years on the Parks and Recreation Commission. He also has past legislative-staff experience in Washington. **Trade-offs:** A self-described newcomer to elected politics with no council or planning-commission experience. His platform spans six broad areas. It is thin on execution or cost for several planks. **Keep in mind:** He supports the downtown parking-lot plan in concept but has not settled on specifics. He points to the city's fraught Belle Haven Community Campus naming debate. He says it turned unproductive. He says it shaped how he would handle disagreement on the council. ## What's the dispute with Team Sheeper? Team Sheeper, the contractor that runs aquatics programs at Burgess Park and the Belle Haven Community Center, broke its agreement with the city in 2025 after the City Council declined to approve several contract amendments, and has since reduced hours, citing financial strain from lower-than-expected attendance at the new Belle Haven center. Rohr has called for an external financial audit and questioned the company's executive compensation, and has described its conduct in public council emails as extortion. Lee says he wants the city to repair its relationship with the operator while making sure residents keep access to the pool. ## Review notes - Wonman Lee's own campaign site (wonmanlee.com): his 'About' page (career as a software engineer, prior U.S. Senate staff experience, Parks and Recreation Commission chairmanship, family at Belle Haven Elementary), full platform, and endorsements page (Vice Mayor Jennifer Wise, Councilmember Jeff Schmidt, several Menlo Park commissioners); footer publishes FPPC ID 1492742 and James Rohr's own campaign site (bellehaven.online): Belle Haven neighborhood history and his 'Ready to Build Our Future Together' platform page may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [San Mateo County ACRE -- Roster of Candidates, Qualified Candidates Only, November 3, 2026 General Election (CFMR009), dated 2026-08-25: the county's own certified candidate list, naming all six qualified Menlo Park City Council candidates (Districts 1, 2, and 4), their filed occupations/ballot designations, and qualification dates, each flagged 'On Ballot: Yes, Vote for 1'](https://smcacre.gov/system/files/2026-08/52_candidateroster0825.pdf) 2. [San Mateo County ACRE -- this dataset's own transcribed summary of the same CFMR009 roster's contest headers, confirming exactly three Menlo Park races are flagged 'On Ballot: Yes' this cycle (City Council Districts 1, 2, and 4) and none else](https://smcacre.gov/system/files/2026-08/52_candidateroster0825.pdf) 3. [The Almanac (Arden Margulis) -- "Council races at a glance: Atherton, Menlo Park, Portola Valley and Woodside" (July 23, 2026; updated July 24): staff-bylined roundup naming all three Menlo Park districts up this cycle, each district's boundary description, that Districts 1 and 4 are open seats (incumbents Cecilia Taylor and Mayor Betsy Nash each not seeking reelection) while Councilmember Drew Combs seeks reelection in District 2, and that Menlo Park council elections have no primary](https://www.almanacnews.com/election/2026/07/23/council-races-at-a-glance-atherton-menlo-park-portola-valley-and-woodside/) 4. [Wikipedia's Menlo Park, California article -- confirms the City Council is 'elected in districts to staggered four-year terms, in nonpartisan municipal elections,' that the Mayor and Vice Mayor are chosen from among council members rather than separately elected (one-year terms since 1976), and the city's 2020 census population of 33,780](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menlo_Park,_California) 5. [This dataset's own documented record of a dedicated, unsuccessful attempt to retrieve campaign-finance filings for all six Menlo Park City Council candidates: California's Cal-Access filer search (cal-access.sos.ca.gov) returned only an Incapsula bot-detection interstitial for every query attempted this session (via both WebFetch and direct curl), with no live browser session available in this worktree to work around it. Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source for these six candidates, not any of their actual finances.](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/) 6. [The Almanac (Arden Margulis) -- "Cecilia Taylor won't seek reelection to Menlo Park City Council" (June 29, 2026): staff-bylined reporting confirming Taylor -- the city's first Belle Haven district representative (elected 2018, when Menlo Park began district elections) and its first African American woman on the council -- will not seek a third term](https://www.almanacnews.com/election/2026/06/29/belle-haven-councilmember-cecilia-taylor-not-to-seek-reelection/) 7. [The Almanac (Arden Margulis) -- "Council candidate pushes housing and commercial growth in Belle Haven" (July 15, 2026): dedicated, quote-based profile of Wonman Lee -- his Parks and Recreation Commission service, career as a software engineer at Learneo, prior staff work for two U.S. senators, his 'Abundance' housing philosophy, substandard-lot permitting concerns, and his position on the downtown parking-lot housing proposal](https://www.almanacnews.com/election/2026/07/15/council-candidate-pushes-housing-and-commercial-growth-in-belle-haven/) 8. [The Almanac (Arden Margulis) -- "Menlo Park council candidate aims to preserve, beautify Belle Haven" (Aug. 20, 2026): dedicated, quote-based profile of James Rohr -- his residency since 2022, his account of being recruited to volunteer by outgoing Councilmember Taylor, his Army veteran background, his positions on rent control, the 80 Willow Road and downtown parking-lot housing proposals, Ivy Drive median beautification, food access, and the Team Sheeper aquatics-contractor dispute](https://www.almanacnews.com/city-politics/2026/08/20/menlo-park-council-candidate-aims-to-preserve-beautify-belle-haven/) 9. [James Rohr's own campaign site (bellehaven.online): Belle Haven neighborhood history and his 'Ready to Build Our Future Together' platform page -- expanding low-cost housing, tenant protections and legal aid, food access, and Ivy Drive median improvement](https://bellehaven.online) 10. [Wonman Lee's own campaign site (wonmanlee.com): his 'About' page (career as a software engineer, prior U.S. Senate staff experience, Parks and Recreation Commission chairmanship, family at Belle Haven Elementary), full platform, and endorsements page (Vice Mayor Jennifer Wise, Councilmember Jeff Schmidt, several Menlo Park commissioners); footer publishes FPPC ID 1492742](https://wonmanlee.com) ## The rest of the ballot Menlo Park City Council, District 1 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, "Menlo Park City Council, District 1 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/menlo-park-council-1 (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.