# Mission Viejo City Council, District 2 (Short Term) Compare records and positions simply between Saga Conroy or Peter Molinari for Mission Viejo City Council, District 2 (Short Term) at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Mission Viejo's five-member City Council. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. An appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. Each year, the council picks a Mayor from its own members. It also picks a Mayor Pro Tem. This particular term is a short, two-year term. Normal terms are four years. This shorter term is part of the city's move to staggered council elections. - Jurisdiction: City of Mission Viejo - 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/mission-viejo-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: August 31, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 90 out of 100 (Very strong), across 6 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Saga Conroy** — Community Outreach Director - **Peter Molinari** — Small Business Owner A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Saga Conroy faces Peter Molinari for Mission Viejo City Council, District 2 -- an open seat, since incumbent Brian Goodell isn't running again. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff. This particular term is a short, 2-year term through 2028 -- see note below. This person holds your district's seat on Mission Viejo's 5-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. Mission Viejo is a general-law city with a council-manager government -- an appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations, and the council elects a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem from among its own members each year. This particular term is a short, 2-year term (see note below) rather than the usual 4 years, part of the city's transition to staggered council elections. This seat is open: Brian Goodell, on the council since 2016 (including a stint as Mayor Pro Tem) and a 1976 Olympic gold-medal swimmer for the Mission Viejo Nadadores turned real-estate broker, did not file for re-election. Neither candidate has held elected office before, and no independent news coverage of either was found in this pass beyond their county-filed ballot occupations. ## Saga Conroy A first-time candidate whose ballot occupation is listed as "Community Outreach Director." No independent news profile or campaign website was found for them in this pass -- a documented gap, not a claim about their background. **Strengths:** A community-outreach background suggests direct experience engaging residents, relevant to a district-level council seat. **Trade-offs:** No public record of prior civic board or elected service was found in this pass, and no news coverage describes their specific platform. **Keep in mind:** CAL-ACCESS and the city's own campaign-disclosure portal were both unreachable in this pass -- see Financial info. ## Peter Molinari A first-time candidate whose ballot occupation is listed as "Small Business Owner." No independent news profile or campaign website was found for them in this pass -- a documented gap, not a claim about their background. **Strengths:** Small-business ownership suggests firsthand experience with the kind of local regulation and permitting a council seat oversees. **Trade-offs:** No public record of prior civic board or elected service was found in this pass, and no news coverage describes their specific platform. **Keep in mind:** CAL-ACCESS and the city's own campaign-disclosure portal were both unreachable in this pass -- see Financial info. ## Sources 1. [Orange County Registrar of Voters — "Contest/Candidate Proof List," General Election 11/3/2026 (printed by the county 8/28/2026 3:47-3:48pm): Mission Viejo's five City Council district contests (pages 130-134 of 188), each candidate's filing date, ballot occupation, and incumbency, and the "Short Term" label on Districts 2 and 4](https://ocvote.gov/fileadmin/user_upload/data/candlog/GEN2026/candlog.pdf) 2. [City of Mission Viejo — Election Information page: the same nine-candidate, five-district roster as the county's Proof List, plus the city's own explanation that Districts 2 and 4 serve a short 2-year term (through 2028) while Districts 1, 3, and 5 serve the normal 4 years, to stagger future elections](https://www.missionviejo.gov/departments/city-clerk/election-information) 3. [City of Mission Viejo — City Council page: the sitting 5-member council, one per district (Ruesch D1, Goodell D2, Vasquez D3, Kelley D4, Bucknum D5/Mayor), council-manager government, and the annual council-selected Mayor/Mayor Pro Tem](https://www.missionviejo.gov/government/city-council) 4. [Orange County Register — "Candidate fields take shape for City Council elections in Orange County": independently corroborates all five Mission Viejo district pairings, the two-year "staggered rotation" terms for Districts 2 and 4, and that Steven Thornton is unopposed in District 5; read via its Wayback Machine snapshot after a live fetch was blocked](https://www.ocregister.com/2026/08/14/candidate-fields-take-shape-for-city-council-elections-in-orange-county/) 5. [City of Mission Viejo — Districting Plan A packet (Dec. 2021): the adopted five-district map and per-district population figures (total city population 93,760) that took effect for the city's first, November 2022 by-district council election](https://www.missionviejo.gov/sites/default/files/PLAN_A_packet_MV2022.pdf) 6. [City of Mission Viejo — official council-member biography for Brian Goodell (District 2, Mayor Pro Tem, not seeking re-election in 2026): a 1976 Olympic gold-medal swimmer for the Mission Viejo Nadadores turned real-estate broker/developer, on the council since 2016](https://www.missionviejo.gov/departments/city-manager/brian-goodell) ## The rest of the ballot Mission Viejo City Council, District 2 (Short Term) 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, "Mission Viejo City Council, District 2 (Short Term) — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/mission-viejo-council-2 (sources last retrieved August 31, 2026). 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