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City of Millbrae · Statewide General Election

Millbrae City Council, District 4

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.

Incumbent Bob Nguyen, appointed to this seat in October 2024 after voters recalled his predecessor, is seeking his first full term against Chamber of Commerce leader Albert Yam.

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.

The council appointed Nguyen on October 8, 2024, after voters recalled Maurice Goodman that July over the same contested hotel-to-supportive-housing vote that also cost District 2's Angelina Cahalan her seat. Nguyen had sought this same seat once before, as a write-in candidate in 2022, when he drew about 27% of the vote; Yam is a first-time candidate for elected office.

Bob Nguyen

Nguyen is a small business owner in medical device development who has lived in Millbrae with his wife and family for more than eight years. His platform centers on five priorities: maintaining streets, sidewalks, drainage, and utilities; fiscal responsibility and budget transparency; predictable regulation for local businesses; public safety; and regional advocacy on housing and transit decisions that affect Millbrae.

Strengths

Nearly two years of sitting council experience already, plus a specific five-point platform grounded in that record: infrastructure, fiscal discipline, and regional advocacy.

Trade-offs

His only prior electoral test was a 2022 write-in bid that drew about 27% of the vote; he reached the council by appointment, not election, until this ballot.

Keep in mind

He was appointed to replace a councilmember recalled over a contested housing vote -- worth watching how he's voted on land use since October 2024, which this dataset's sourcing does not independently detail.

Albert Yam

Yam is Vice Chair of the Millbrae Chamber of Commerce and has helped lead the city's Art & Wine Festival; he previously worked as a neighborhood advocate in La Quinta, California. His six-priority platform covers safe neighborhoods, fiscal responsibility, thoughtful development, local business growth, strong schools, and transparent leadership. His campaign is endorsed by Mayor Stephen Rainaldi, six former Millbrae mayors -- including Ann Schneider, this cycle's own District 3 candidate -- and state Sen. Josh Becker.

Strengths

Broad institutional backing -- the sitting mayor, six former mayors, and a state senator -- plus hands-on civic experience running the Chamber of Commerce and Art & Wine Festival.

Trade-offs

No prior appointed city commission or elected office experience; his six platform priorities read broadly, without much specific detail on individual issues.

Keep in mind

His endorsers include Ann Schneider, herself on this November's ballot for District 3 after suing the city -- a sign of how small and interconnected Millbrae's political circle is.

Source review: Strong (86/100) · 11 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: Bob Nguyen's own campaign site (bob4millbrae.com): his biography (Millbrae resident 8+ years), his account of running as a write-in candidate for District 4 in 2022 and drawing 26.69% of the vote before joining the council in 2024, his five-pillar platform, and FPPC filer ID 1485116 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.
  • ci.millbrae.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Millbrae -- official council biography for Councilmember Bob Nguyen: confirms he represents District 4 with a current term ending December 2026; career as a business owner in medical device development; and his stated leadership priorities (infrastructure, fiscal responsibility, public safety, and modernizing city services)
  • bob4millbrae.com (opens in a new tab)Bob Nguyen's own campaign site (bob4millbrae.com): his biography (Millbrae resident 8+ years), his account of running as a write-in candidate for District 4 in 2022 and drawing 26.69% of the vote before joining the council in 2024, his five-pillar platform, and FPPC filer ID 1485116
  • 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
  • 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.