# Millbrae City Council, District 2

Sissy Riley is running uncontested for Millbrae City Council, District 2. Full ballot at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds one of Millbrae's five district-elected City Council seats. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. Millbrae is a San Mateo County city of about 23,200 residents. An appointed City Manager runs day-to-day operations. The term is four years. Each year, the council chooses a Mayor and Vice Mayor. Both come from among its own members. Voters do not elect either office directly.

- Jurisdiction: City of Millbrae
- 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/millbrae-council-2
- 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: 88 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

- **Sissy Riley** — Appointed Incumbent · Incumbent

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

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. They vote on 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. The term is four years. 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 they got here. The council appointed Riley to this seat on October 8, 2024, after voters recalled Riley's predecessor, Angelina Cahalan, that July over a contested vote to convert a hotel into permanent supportive housing; this election decides whether Riley 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; they later served as Vice-Chairman and General Manager of the Jing Li Development Company. They belong to the National Association of Realtors, the California Association of Realtors, the San Mateo County Association of Realtors, and the Millbrae Cultural Committee, and have volunteered with the Green Hills Elementary School PTA, Habitat for Humanity, and Wigs for Kids. Their 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 they cite for budget priorities, and a historic first for the city's council.

**Trade-offs:** No contested campaign has tested their record since their October 2024 appointment; their platform is stated on their own site, not checked here against a specific voting record.

**Keep in mind:** They were appointed after their predecessor's recall over a contested vote converting a hotel into supportive housing -- worth knowing their own view on similar land-use fights before granting them a full term unopposed.

## Review notes

- 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.

## 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 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](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 Millbrae races are on the November ballot (City Council Districts 2, 3, and 4) and none else](https://smcacre.gov/system/files/2026-08/52_candidateroster0825.pdf)
3. [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](https://www.ci.millbrae.ca.us/380/City-Council)
4. [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](https://www.ci.millbrae.ca.us/723/November-3-2026-General-and-Special-Muni)
5. [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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millbrae,_California)
6. [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.](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/)
7. [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](https://www.ci.millbrae.ca.us/604/Councilmember-Sissy-Riley)
8. [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](https://www.sissyriley.com)
9. [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](https://www.ci.millbrae.ca.us/593/Application-for-District-2-and-District-)
10. [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](https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/vote-shows-recall-for-2-in-millbrae/article_e1a16a40-496a-11ef-95a1-13591088820d.html)

## The rest of the ballot

Millbrae City Council, District 2 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, "Millbrae City Council, District 2 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/millbrae-council-2 (sources last retrieved September 1, 2026).

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