# Mayor of Milpitas

Compare records and positions simply between Hon Lien, Santosh Sahoo, Carmen Montano, or Voltaire Montemayor for Mayor of Milpitas at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would serve as Mayor of Milpitas. Milpitas is a Santa Clara County city of about 80,000 people. The Mayor presides over City Council meetings and casts one vote. The Mayor also has ceremonial duties. The term is two years. Other Council members serve staggered four year terms. All five seats, including Mayor, are elected citywide, not by district.

- Jurisdiction: City of Milpitas
- 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/milpitas-mayor
- 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: August 31, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 86 out of 100 (Strong), across 14 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Hon Lien** — Councilmember, City of Milpitas
- **Santosh Sahoo** — Tech Entrepreneur
- **Carmen Montano** — Mayor / Educator · Incumbent
- **Voltaire Montemayor** — Retired Geologist

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

Four candidates are running for Mayor of Milpitas on the November 3, 2026 ballot, including incumbent Carmen Montano and a sitting City Councilmember challenging her for the job. Whoever gets the most votes wins outright -- there is no primary or runoff.

This person would serve as Mayor of Milpitas, a Santa Clara County city of about 80,000. They preside over City Council meetings and cast one vote as a member of the five-person Council, alongside the ceremonial duties of the office. The term is two years, half the length of the other four Council seats, which serve staggered 4-year terms. All five seats, Mayor included, are elected citywide (at-large) rather than by district.

Milpitas is a council-manager city; day-to-day operations are run by an appointed City Manager, not the Mayor. Two Council seats (Evelyn Chua and William Lam, both elected 2024) aren't up this cycle; the other two, held by Hon Lien and Garry Barbadillo (both elected 2022), are -- Lien is a candidate in this Mayor's race rather than seeking reelection to her own seat, and Barbadillo is running for reelection to his Council seat, a separate contest on this same ballot.

## Hon Lien

Hon Lien has served on Milpitas's City Council since 2022, filing for Mayor under the ballot designation "Councilmember, City of Milpitas." She immigrated from Vietnam by boat in 1978, spent 13 months in a Malaysian refugee camp, and resettled in the U.S. in December 1979; she co-founded the Bay Area seafood distributor Sunnyvale Seafood Corp. in 1987, later expanding into food exports through a second company. Before Council, she served as a Milpitas Planning Commissioner (2014-2017) and on the Milpitas Unified School District board (2017-2020), including as Board President. She lost a 2024 mayoral bid to incumbent Carmen Montano and is running again, citing high turnover among city executives and delayed permitting as reasons for new leadership. Her 2026 mayoral committee has filed its organizing paperwork (Form 410, Form 501) but no Form 460 financial disclosure as of this retrieval.

**Strengths:** Direct, current Council experience. She came here through refugee resettlement. She then spent three decades building a Bay Area food-export company. No other candidate here has that.

**Trade-offs:** She lost the 2024 mayor's race to this same incumbent. Her critique of city-manager turnover and permitting delays is not independently verified.

**Keep in mind:** She is a sitting Councilmember. A Lien win would leave her Council seat vacant. State law fills it by appointment or special election. That is worth weighing alongside the separate Council race on this ballot.

## Santosh Sahoo

Santosh Sahoo is a first-time candidate for Milpitas office, a self-described tech entrepreneur running on the message "Transparent Government. Responsible Leadership You Can Trust." His platform centers on pedestrian and bike safety at dangerous intersections, aligning infrastructure and school capacity with new housing growth, and making city budgets, permits, and project timelines easier for residents to follow. He filed no candidate statement with the city and has no news coverage found in this pass beyond his own campaign site. His 2026 committee has filed only a Form 501 candidate-intention statement as of this retrieval -- no Form 410 organizing a committee, and no Form 460.

**Strengths:** A private-sector "execution mindset" pitch. His platform is itemized. It names intersections, budget transparency, and growth-to-infrastructure alignment.

**Trade-offs:** No independent news coverage was found. Every claim about his background traces to his own campaign site. He has organized no committee yet, which is unusual this late in filing.

**Keep in mind:** He filed no candidate statement with the city. The certified candidate list flags this. Voters will not see his platform in official ballot materials. They will see it only where his campaign reaches them directly.

## Carmen Montano

Carmen Montano is Milpitas's incumbent Mayor, first elected in 2022 and reelected in 2024 (Mayor serves 2-year terms), now seeking a third term. A Milpitas resident since 1964 and semi-retired educator with 26 years teaching Milpitas Unified and other county districts, she served on City Council in two earlier stints (2012-2016 and 2018-2022, including as Vice Mayor 2014-2016), co-founded the Sunnyhills Neighborhood Association in 1991, and helped establish two school-based Family Resource Centers. Her campaign lists public safety, affordable housing, business development, infrastructure, and fiscal transparency as priorities. Her 2026 committee, "Re-elect Mayor Montano 2026," has filed its organizing paperwork but no Form 460 financial disclosure as of this retrieval.

**Strengths:** Incumbency and name recognition from two prior Council stints and two mayoral wins. Hers is the only priorities list in this race spanning five distinct policy areas.

**Trade-offs:** She is the incumbent. Current permitting delays and staff turnover fall at least partly on her watch. That is the critique her chief rival raises. It is not independently verified.

**Keep in mind:** Milpitas Beat quotes her saying "Serving as Mayor of Milpitas has been the greatest honor of my life." That is her own account of running for a third term.

## Voltaire Montemayor

Voltaire Montemayor, a geologist who has never held elected office, is running his sixth campaign for Milpitas Mayor per Milpitas Beat's reporting -- prior committees on file show runs in at least 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024. He serves as president of the Balunga Association of America, in leadership roles with the Knights of Columbus and the Milpitas Executive Lions Club, and previously sat on the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Commission; he's known for attending nearly every Council meeting. His platform draws on his geology background for earthquake and disaster preparedness, pairs support for small businesses with attracting larger retailers, and proposes a moratorium on housing and rent prices alongside pageant- and tournament-style community events. He filed no candidate statement with the city. His 2026 committee has filed only a Form 501 as of this retrieval -- no Form 410, no Form 460.

**Strengths:** Sustained civic engagement. He attends nearly every Council meeting and leads three community organizations. His geology background brings disaster prep experience no other candidate has.

**Trade-offs:** He has run and lost multiple prior campaigns since at least 2018, by the count of his filed committees. A housing and rent-price moratorium is a substantial claim that is not evaluated here.

**Keep in mind:** His platform mixes concrete proposals with a stated goal of local pageants and tournaments. The concrete ones include earthquake preparedness and a big-box anchor tenant. This is reported as Milpitas Beat and his own record describe it.

## Review notes

- Santosh Sahoo's own campaign site (votemilpitas.com), self-description attributed in text: describes him as a tech entrepreneur running on "Transparent Government. Responsible Leadership You Can Trust," listing public safety (dangerous intersections, speeding), growth-to-infrastructure alignment, transparency, and city-services funding as priorities, plus his FPPC filer ID (#238373). may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

## Sources

1. [City of Milpitas -- City Clerk Suzanne Guzzetta's certified "Certified List of Candidates for Elective Office in the City of Milpitas, Municipal Election - November 3, 2026" (in SOS randomized-alphabet order, dated Aug. 13, 2026): names all four qualified Mayor candidates ("One (1) 2-Year Term Expiring 2028") and all five qualified City Council candidates ("Two (2) 4-Year Terms, At Large, Expiring 2030"), each with filed ballot designation and qualification date.](https://www.milpitas.gov/DocumentCenter/View/10552/List-of-Qualified-Candidates-2026-PDF)
2. [City of Milpitas -- official bilingual "Notice of General Municipal Election, November 3, 2026," signed by City Clerk Suzanne Guzzetta: confirms exactly "One Mayor... full term, two years" and "Two Members of City Council... full term, four years," and cites Elections Code section 10229 as the appointment mechanism if a seat draws no or only one nominee.](https://www.milpitas.gov/DocumentCenter/View/10350/Notice-of-Election-2026-PDF)
3. [City of Milpitas -- the City Clerk's own "Public Candidate Contact List" for the 2026 election: each candidate's office sought and voluntarily provided email, campaign website, and phone number.](https://www.milpitas.gov/DocumentCenter/View/10558/Public-Candidate-Contact-List-2026)
4. [City of Milpitas -- "Elections" page: states the city's structure directly -- "four councilmembers and one Mayor, all elected at-large," with Council serving 4-year terms and the Mayor 2-year terms.](https://www.milpitas.gov/191/Elections)
5. [City of Milpitas -- "2026 Election" page: confirms the November 3, 2026 date, the Aug. 13, 2026 randomized-alphabet drawing, and lists Mayor Carmen Montano and Councilmembers Garry Barbadillo and Hon Lien as the eligible incumbents for this cycle's seats.](https://www.milpitas.gov/1441/2026-Election)
6. [City of Milpitas's own NetFile-hosted public campaign-finance portal (aid=MIL), queried directly for all nine 2026 candidates via its own QuickNameSearch and filings/byFiler JSON API (reverse-engineered from the portal's own downloaded JS bundle), with each available Form 460/470 downloaded directly via the portal's own CampaignDocuments/download endpoint. Seema Kanani reported $3,555 in monetary contributions plus a $5,000 self-loan ($8,555 total) against $2,889.03 in expenditures, ending cash $5,665.97. Bill Chuan reported $9,313 in monetary contributions, $500 nonmonetary, and a $1,000 self-loan ($10,813 total) against $864.56 in expenditures, ending cash $9,448.44. Ha Phan filed a Form 470 (a scanned image PDF, read by rendering it to PNG) declaring she does not expect to raise or spend more than $2,000 for the year. The other six candidates have filed only organizing paperwork (Form 410/501), or in Dipak Awasthi's case a Form 410 alone, with no Form 460 on file as of this retrieval.](https://netfile.com/public/MIL/campaign/elections)
7. [City of Milpitas -- "City Council" page: names the current five-member Council -- Mayor Carmen Montano, Vice Mayor Garry Barbadillo, and Councilmembers Evelyn Chua, Hon Lien, and William Lam.](https://www.milpitas.gov/512/City-Council)
8. [Wikipedia's Milpitas, California article -- 2020 census population (80,273) and council-manager form of government.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milpitas,_California)
9. [City of Milpitas -- Mayor Carmen Montano's own city-hosted biography page: a Milpitas resident since 1964, a semi-retired educator (26 years teaching, including Milpitas Unified), two earlier Council stints (2012-2016 and 2018-2022, including Vice Mayor 2014-2016), co-founder of the Sunnyhills Neighborhood Association (1991), and 2013 Milpitas Citizen of the Year.](https://www.milpitas.gov/1027/Mayor-Carmen-Montano)
10. [City of Milpitas -- Councilmember Hon Lien's own city-hosted biography page: immigrated from Bac Lieu, Vietnam in 1978 and resettled in the U.S. in December 1979 after 13 months in a Malaysian refugee camp; co-founded Sunnyvale Seafood Corp. in 1987 and later L&D Enterprise (2002); Milpitas Planning Commissioner (2014-2017) and Milpitas Unified School District Board Member (2017-2020, including Board President); elected to Council in November 2022.](https://www.milpitas.gov/1030/Councilmember-Hon-Lien)
11. [The Milpitas Beat -- "Milpitas Mayor Carmen Montano announces she will run for re-election" (by Rhoda Jordan Shapiro, Jul. 16, 2026), read in full: confirms Montano became Mayor in 2022 and is in her second mayoral term (began 2024), now seeking a third; quotes her saying "Serving as Mayor of Milpitas has been the greatest honor of my life."](https://milpitasbeat.com/milpitas-mayor-carmen-montano-announces-she-will-run-for-re-election/)
12. [The Milpitas Beat -- "Councilmember Hon Lien launches campaign for Milpitas Mayor" (by Alice Nguyen, Jul. 30, 2026), read in full: confirms Lien lost the 2024 mayoral race to Montano and is running again, quotes her citing "For the past five or six years, we had 10 executive directors leaving our city."](https://milpitasbeat.com/councilmember-hon-lien-launches-campaign-for-milpitas-mayor/)
13. [The Milpitas Beat -- "Voltaire Montemayor launches sixth campaign for Milpitas mayor" (by Alice Nguyen, Aug. 27, 2026), read in full: confirms this is Montemayor's sixth mayoral run and details his platform (earthquake/disaster preparedness, small-business support alongside attracting a big-box retailer, a housing/rent price moratorium, and pageant- and tournament-style community events).](https://milpitasbeat.com/voltaire-montemayor-launches-sixth-campaign-for-milpitas-mayor/)
14. [Santosh Sahoo's own campaign site (votemilpitas.com), self-description attributed in text: describes him as a tech entrepreneur running on "Transparent Government. Responsible Leadership You Can Trust," plus his FPPC filer ID (#238373).](https://www.votemilpitas.com)

## The rest of the ballot

Mayor of Milpitas 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, "Mayor of Milpitas — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/milpitas-mayor (sources last retrieved August 31, 2026).

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