# Menlo Park City Council, District 4

Compare records and positions simply between Charlotte Reed or Laura Melahn for Menlo Park City Council, District 4 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-4
- 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: 84 out of 100 (Strong), across 9 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Charlotte Reed** — Communications Professional / Singer
- **Laura Melahn** — Entrepreneur / Nonprofit Director

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

Mayor Betsy Nash is not seeking reelection after two terms representing District 4. The district covers downtown, Allied Arts, and parts of central Menlo Park. Communications professional and singer Charlotte Reed is running to replace her. So is Downtown Menlo Fund co-founder Laura Melahn, who chairs the Finance and Audit Commission.

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. The Mayor and Vice Mayor are chosen by the council from among its own members each year, not elected separately, and Menlo Park council races have no primary -- Reed and Melahn go straight to the November 3 ballot.

Both campaigns are shaped by the fight over a roughly 300-unit affordable-housing plan for city-owned downtown parking lots -- and by Measure P, a November ballot initiative backed by downtown businesses and property owners that would require voter approval before the city can develop those lots. Reed supports the city's plan and warns that if Measure P passes, Menlo Park risks falling out of compliance with its state-mandated housing element. Melahn has published a detailed alternative that doesn't oppose housing broadly but argues the current plan is failing on its own terms -- zero building permits despite a promise of 345-plus affordable units by 2027 -- and says her approach works whichever way the Measure P vote goes.

## Charlotte Reed

Reed, 31, works in communications for the marketing platform Klaviyo. She is a two-time Grammy-nominated ensemble singer. She is also a cantor at St. Raymond Catholic Church in Menlo Park. Reed is originally from Connecticut and moved to Menlo Park two years ago. Her husband, Patrick, is a lifelong resident. She is active in the Junior League. She says it has directed local grants and volunteers toward Menlo Park nonprofits. That includes work with the city's Fire Protection District. She entered the race after a January 2025 council meeting on downtown housing. She says that meeting left the community "ripped apart."

**Strengths:** A downtown-focused platform. It proposes a Downtown Commission, public-private partnerships, and weekly office hours. She has a clear, stated position on the plan that dominates this race.

**Trade-offs:** Two years in Menlo Park, the shortest residency of any candidate in this cycle's three races. No past appointed city-commission service.

**Keep in mind:** She supports the downtown parking-lot plan and opposes Measure P's effect on it. Some voters value the measure's local-control mechanism, not just its target project. They should weigh her framing of the housing element as a genuine compromise.

## Laura Melahn

Melahn, 41, studied molecular biology at Princeton. She did biochemistry research at Oxford. Then came a career at Google and GV. She is now managing partner of Meadow Valley Partners, an investment and incubation firm. She has lived in Menlo Park six years with her husband and two sons, who attend Oak Knoll. In February 2025 she co-founded the Downtown Menlo Fund. The nonprofit has run events like the monthly Fourth Fridays series. It has also pushed to modernize which businesses can operate downtown. She has chaired the city's Finance and Audit Commission since May 2025.

**Strengths:** Direct fiscal-oversight experience chairing the Finance and Audit Commission. A track record of tangible downtown projects. A published, detailed alternative housing plan.

**Trade-offs:** In a May 2026 interview she declined to take a position on the parking-lot plan. She called it too divisive. Her site now critiques its execution. It does not name Measure P.

**Keep in mind:** Combs, the District 2 incumbent, has made an argument similar to Melahn's. That argument is that the city concentrated affordable housing in one place without fully exploring alternatives. It is worth reading alongside her housing plan.

## Review notes

- Laura Melahn's own campaign site (lauramelahn.com): a single-page site with her full bio (Princeton, Oxford, Google/GV, Meadow Valley Partners), her published downtown-housing plan (critical of the current parking-lot plan's zero permits against a promised 345-plus affordable units by 2027, without opposing housing broadly), her Finance and Audit Commission chairmanship, the Downtown Menlo Fund/Fourth Fridays record, and endorsements (former Menlo Park mayors Steve Schmidt and Paul Collacchi, Menlo Park Fire Protection District board vice president Rob Silano); footer publishes FPPC ID 1491445 and Charlotte Reed's own campaign site (charlotteformenlopark.com): her 'Meet Charlotte' bio (Junior League service, District 4's commercial-core description, the city's 2022 transition to district elections), 'Issues' platform page (a Downtown Commission, public-private partnerships, weekly office hours), and endorsements page; footer publishes FPPC ID 1489179 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) -- "First candidate for Menlo Park City Council race wants to unite city, build affordable housing" (March 19, 2026): dedicated, exclusive-interview profile of Charlotte Reed -- her career at Klaviyo, her Grammy-nominated singing/cantor work, her support for the downtown parking-lot housing plan and her stated concerns about the city's housing-element compliance if Measure P passes](https://www.almanacnews.com/news/2026/03/19/first-candidate-for-menlo-park-city-council-race-wants-to-unite-city-build-affordable-housing/)
7. [The Almanac (Arden Margulis) -- "Downtown vibrancy advocate joins race for Menlo Park City Council" (May 18, 2026): dedicated, quote-based profile of Laura Melahn -- her career in venture capital, her co-founding of the Downtown Menlo Fund, her Finance and Audit Commission service, her declining as of this article to take a position on the downtown parking-lot housing initiative, and her support for housing at the SRI International campus](https://www.almanacnews.com/election/2026/05/18/downtown-vibrancy-advocate-joins-race-for-menlo-park-city-council/)
8. [Charlotte Reed's own campaign site (charlotteformenlopark.com): her 'Meet Charlotte' bio (Junior League service, District 4's commercial-core description, the city's 2022 transition to district elections), 'Issues' platform page (a Downtown Commission, public-private partnerships, weekly office hours), and endorsements page; footer publishes FPPC ID 1489179](https://www.charlotteformenlopark.com)
9. [Laura Melahn's own campaign site (lauramelahn.com): a single-page site with her full bio (Princeton, Oxford, Google/GV, Meadow Valley Partners), her published downtown-housing plan (critical of the current parking-lot plan's zero permits against a promised 345-plus affordable units by 2027, without opposing housing broadly), her Finance and Audit Commission chairmanship, the Downtown Menlo Fund/Fourth Fridays record, and endorsements (former Menlo Park mayors Steve Schmidt and Paul Collacchi, Menlo Park Fire Protection District board vice president Rob Silano); footer publishes FPPC ID 1491445](https://www.lauramelahn.com)

## The rest of the ballot

Menlo Park City Council, District 4 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 4 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/menlo-park-council-4 (sources last retrieved September 1, 2026).

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