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City of Millbrae · Statewide General Election

Millbrae City Council, District 3 (Short Term)

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On the ballot

This person would hold 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. The council chooses a Mayor and Vice Mayor from among its own members each year, rather than voters electing either office directly. This particular term is short (see note below): the winner finishes the balance of a departed councilmember's unexpired term, through December 2028, rather than serving a full 4 years.

This short-term seat has no incumbent: Mayor Reuben Holober resigned from District 3 in May 2026 for a private-sector job, and the winner serves only the balance of his term, through December 2028. Former Mayor Ann Schneider -- who had to sue the city for the right to run at all -- faces business consultant Juan Gámez.

This person would hold 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. The council chooses a Mayor and Vice Mayor from among its own members each year, rather than voters electing either office directly.

This particular term is short: Holober was two years into a 4-year term when he resigned effective May 12, 2026 to avoid a conflict of interest with a new private-sector credit-rating job, and Vice Mayor Stephen Rainaldi moved up to Mayor under the city's own succession rules. Whoever wins in November finishes the balance of Holober's term rather than starting a full 4 years.

Why did Ann Schneider have to sue to run?

Schneider served three consecutive 4-year terms as a councilmember and mayor before terming out in 2024 -- the maximum allowed under Measure FF, which voters used that year to extend council term limits from two terms to three. At a July 7, 2026 special meeting, the sitting council voted 3-1 to interpret the city's term-limit law as requiring anyone who has maxed out those three terms to sit out a full four years before running again, which would have kept Schneider off this November's ballot. She sued; a judge ordered the city to issue her candidate papers on July 23, then granted her a preliminary injunction on July 31 blocking the city from enforcing the rule. On August 8, the council voted 3-0 not to appeal, clearing her to run.

Ann Schneider

Schneider is a former Millbrae mayor and community volunteer who served three consecutive terms on the council before terming out in 2024. She is listed as one of six former Millbrae mayors endorsing Albert Yam's separate District 4 campaign this cycle. She filed to run for District 3 only after her lawsuit against the city cleared the way, and this dataset found no independent 2026 campaign platform for her beyond that legal fight.

Strengths

Three consecutive terms on the council, including time as mayor, plus a demonstrated willingness to go to court for her own ballot access.

Trade-offs

No independent 2026 platform was found; her own campaign website is a parked domain, and news coverage of her this cycle covers the lawsuit, not policy positions.

Keep in mind

The same council majority that appointed District 2's and District 4's current incumbents voted 3-1 to adopt the rule that would have blocked her candidacy -- a fight over her return already shaped this cycle before any November vote.

Juan Gámez

Gámez is a business consultant and parent, per his filed candidate ballot designation -- the only biographical detail this dataset could independently confirm. The campaign website listed for him in the county's own candidate roster, juangamez.com, resolves to a parked-domain landing page with no campaign content.

Strengths

The county's own roster lists him as a business consultant and parent -- the only independent detail found in a genuine, multi-source search this cycle.

Trade-offs

No independent news coverage, endorsement, or campaign platform was found anywhere; his listed campaign website is a parked domain with no content.

Keep in mind

This dataset searched San Mateo County's roster, the city's own election pages, San Mateo Daily Journal, Local News Matters, Ballotpedia, and his listed site -- none surfaced anything beyond his filed occupation.

Source review: Strong (80/100) · 16 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: This dataset's own documented record of Juan Gámez's listed campaign website: juangamez.com, as named in the county's own certified roster, redirects to a GoDaddy/wsimg.com domain-parking lander page ('window.LANDER_SYSTEM="PW"') with no campaign content of any kind, This dataset's own documented record of Ann Schneider's listed campaign website: electann.com, as named in the county's own certified roster, is a Namecheap domain-parking page stating the domain was 'recently registered,' with no campaign content of any kind, and Albert Yam's own campaign site (albertyam.com): his biography (Vice Chair, Millbrae Chamber of Commerce; Art & Wine Festival leadership; prior neighborhood advocate in La Quinta, CA), his six-priority platform, his endorsement list (Mayor Stephen Rainaldi; six former Millbrae mayors including Ann Schneider, Janet Fogarty, Robert Gottschalk, Gina Papan, Dan Quigg, and Paul Seto; and state Sen. Josh Becker), and FPPC filer ID 1494774 may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides 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.
  • smdailyjournal.com (opens in a new tab)San Mateo Daily Journal -- "Millbrae Mayor resigning: Reuben Holober is stepping down from City Council to pursue job in..." (May 9, 2026): staffed reporting that Holober's resignation from the District 3 seat took effect May 12, 2026, to avoid a conflict of interest with a new private-sector public-finance job at a credit- rating agency; confirms he was two years into a 4-year term ending 2028, and that Vice Mayor Stephen Rainaldi moved into the mayoral role under Millbrae's own succession rules; paywalled beyond its opening paragraphs as retrieved, used only for the facts reachable there
  • smdailyjournal.com (opens in a new tab)San Mateo Daily Journal -- "Millbrae interprets term-limit break policy to mean 4-year hold for former councilmembers who've..." (July 9, 2026): staffed reporting that at a July 7, 2026 special meeting the sitting council voted 3-1 to interpret the city's elections law as requiring councilmembers who've served three consecutive terms -- the limit voters extended from two terms via Measure FF in 2024 -- to sit out a full four years before running again; paywalled beyond its opening paragraphs as retrieved, used only for the facts reachable there
  • smdailyjournal.com (opens in a new tab)San Mateo Daily Journal -- "Former Millbrae Mayor Ann Schneider takes legal action against city for term-limit rule" (July 16, 2026; updated Aug. 3): staffed reporting confirming Schneider left office in 2024, has expressed intent to run for the remainder of the open District 3 term, and that the seat's prior occupant, former Mayor Reuben Holober, resigned in May; paywalled beyond its opening paragraphs as retrieved, used only for the facts reachable there
  • smdailyjournal.com (opens in a new tab)San Mateo Daily Journal -- "Judge orders Millbrae to issue Ann Schneider candidate papers" (July 24, 2026): staffed reporting that a San Mateo County Superior Court judge ruled July 23 that Schneider must be issued the District 3 candidate paperwork while her case against the city's term-limit interpretation proceeds, and that the council had voted 3-1 to adopt that interpretation; paywalled beyond its opening paragraphs as retrieved, used only for the facts reachable there
  • smdailyjournal.com (opens in a new tab)San Mateo Daily Journal -- "Judge grants Millbrae's Ann Schneider injunction in term-limit dispute" (Aug. 4, 2026): staffed reporting that San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Nicole Healy granted Schneider a preliminary injunction on July 31, 2026, barring the city from enforcing its 4-year sit-out interpretation while the case continues, following an earlier temporary restraining order; paywalled beyond its opening paragraphs as retrieved, used only for the facts reachable there
  • smdailyjournal.com (opens in a new tab)San Mateo Daily Journal -- "Millbrae won't appeal ruling clearing Ann Schneider's council run" (Aug. 8, 2026): staffed reporting that the City Council voted 3-0 not to appeal the injunction, clearing Schneider to proceed in her run for the remainder of the District 3 term
  • smdailyjournal.com (opens in a new tab)San Mateo Daily Journal -- "San Mateo County election races take shape across cities, schools" (Aug. 11, 2026): countywide roundup of the November 3, 2026 filing landscape as of the county elections office's Aug. 7 deadline, including Millbrae's District 3 race as a headlined item; corroborates that Schneider's candidacy proceeded following the council's decision not to appeal
  • albertyam.com (opens in a new tab)Albert Yam's own campaign site (albertyam.com): his biography (Vice Chair, Millbrae Chamber of Commerce; Art & Wine Festival leadership; prior neighborhood advocate in La Quinta, CA), his six-priority platform, his endorsement list (Mayor Stephen Rainaldi; six former Millbrae mayors including Ann Schneider, Janet Fogarty, Robert Gottschalk, Gina Papan, Dan Quigg, and Paul Seto; and state Sen. Josh Becker), and FPPC filer ID 1494774
  • electann.com (opens in a new tab)This dataset's own documented record of Ann Schneider's listed campaign website: electann.com, as named in the county's own certified roster, is a Namecheap domain-parking page stating the domain was 'recently registered,' with no campaign content of any kind
  • juangamez.com (opens in a new tab)This dataset's own documented record of Juan Gámez's listed campaign website: juangamez.com, as named in the county's own certified roster, redirects to a GoDaddy/wsimg.com domain-parking lander page ('window.LANDER_SYSTEM="PW"') with no campaign content of any kind -- confirmed by direct retrieval, not a rendering failure on this dataset's end

Last updated September 1, 2026.