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City of Millbrae · Statewide General Election

Millbrae City Council, District 2

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

This person holds one of Millbrae's five district-elected City Council seats: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this San Mateo County city of about 23,200 residents, under a council-manager government with an appointed City Manager. A 4-year term. The council chooses a Mayor and Vice Mayor from among its own members each year, rather than voters electing either office directly.

Only one candidate qualified for this seat. Appointed incumbent Sissy Riley -- the first Asian American woman immigrant to serve on Millbrae's council -- appears unopposed, so this contest is settled and your vote here does not change the outcome.

This person holds one of Millbrae's five district-elected City Council seats: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this San Mateo County city of about 23,200 residents, under a council-manager government with an appointed City Manager. A 4-year term. The council chooses a Mayor and Vice Mayor from among its own members each year, rather than voters electing either office directly.

With no opponent, the useful question is not who to choose but how she got here. The council appointed Riley to this seat on October 8, 2024, after voters recalled her predecessor, Angelina Cahalan, that July over a contested vote to convert a hotel into permanent supportive housing; this election decides whether she keeps the seat for a full 4-year term.

Sissy Riley

Riley is a real estate broker, insurance agent, and wealth manager who worked as an early-childhood educator in China before immigrating to the United States in 1995; she later served as Vice-Chairman and General Manager of the Jing Li Development Company. She belongs to the National Association of Realtors, the California Association of Realtors, the San Mateo County Association of Realtors, and the Millbrae Cultural Committee, and has volunteered with the Green Hills Elementary School PTA, Habitat for Humanity, and Wigs for Kids. Her stated priorities are neighborhood safety, small-business support, programs for families with special needs, and fiscal responsibility.

Strengths

Two years already on the council plus a real-estate and wealth-management background she cites for budget priorities, and a historic first for the city's council.

Trade-offs

No contested campaign has tested her record since her October 2024 appointment; her platform is stated on her own site, not checked here against a specific voting record.

Keep in mind

She was appointed after her predecessor's recall over a contested vote converting a hotel into supportive housing -- worth knowing her own view on similar land-use fights before granting her a full term unopposed.

Source review: Strong (88/100) · 10 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Sissy Riley's own campaign site (sissyriley.com): her biography, stated priorities (safe and inclusive communities, small-business support, family/accessibility programs, fiscal responsibility), and FPPC filer ID 1482497 in the required paid-for-by disclaimer may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • smcacre.gov (opens in a new tab)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 five qualified Millbrae City Council candidates across Districts 2, 3, and 4, their filed occupations/ballot designations, and qualification dates -- District 2 and District 4 flagged 'On Ballot: Yes, Vote for 1 (Full Term)', District 3 flagged '(Short Term)' with a single vacant seat and no incumbent
  • smcacre.gov (opens in a new tab)San Mateo County ACRE -- this dataset's own transcribed summary of the same CFMR009 roster's contest headers, confirming exactly three Millbrae races are on the November ballot (City Council Districts 2, 3, and 4) and none else
  • ci.millbrae.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Millbrae -- official City Council page: confirms a 5-member council elected by district to 4-year terms ($950/month compensation, meetings the second and fourth Tuesdays), lists the four sitting members (Mayor Stephen Rainaldi, District 1; Councilmember Sissy Riley, District 2; District 3 shown as vacant; Councilmember Bob Nguyen, District 4; Vice Mayor Anders Fung, District 5), and each member's individual bio-page link
  • ci.millbrae.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Millbrae -- dedicated November 3, 2026 General and Special Municipal Election page: confirms District 2 and District 4 are General Municipal Election (full 4-year term) seats while District 3 is a Special Municipal Election because 'there is no incumbent eligible to be elected to that office,' with a partial term ending December 12, 2028; lists all five qualified candidates by district and their filed occupations
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's Millbrae, California article -- confirms the City Council has 5 members including the Mayor and Vice Mayor, that Millbrae switched from at-large to district elections in 2022, that councilmembers serve 4-year terms while the Mayor and Vice Mayor are chosen by the council to serve 1-year terms, and the city's 2020 census population of 23,216
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)This dataset's own documented record of a dedicated, unsuccessful attempt to retrieve campaign-finance filings for all five Millbrae 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 five candidates, not any of their actual finances.
  • ci.millbrae.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Millbrae -- official council biography for Councilmember Sissy Riley: confirms she represents District 2, was appointed October 8, 2024, and that her current term ends December 2026; career as a real estate broker, insurance agent, and wealth manager; educator in China before immigrating in 1995; Vice-Chairman/General Manager of Jing Li Development Company; memberships and volunteer record; and her stated policy priorities
  • sissyriley.com (opens in a new tab)Sissy Riley's own campaign site (sissyriley.com): her biography, stated priorities (safe and inclusive communities, small-business support, family/accessibility programs, fiscal responsibility), and FPPC filer ID 1482497 in the required paid-for-by disclaimer
  • ci.millbrae.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Millbrae -- official page on the October 2024 District 2 and District 4 council-appointment process: following the July 23, 2024 recall of Angelina Cahalan (District 2) and Maurice Goodman (District 4), the city solicited applications (Sissy Yan Riley, John F. Mufarreh, and Donald Kung applied for District 2; Chris Hackley, Dzuong 'Bob' Nguyen, and Paul Seto applied for District 4) and the council appointed Riley and Nguyen on October 8, 2024 to partial terms ending December 8, 2026
  • smdailyjournal.com (opens in a new tab)San Mateo Daily Journal -- "Vote shows recall for 2 in Millbrae" (July 24, 2024): preliminary results reporting 70% in favor of recalling District 2's Angelina Cahalan (560-240) and 78% in favor of recalling Vice Mayor Maurice Goodman, following the council's contested vote to convert a La Quinta Inn into permanent supportive housing

Last updated September 1, 2026.