# Modesto City Council, District 5 Compare records and positions simply between Jeremiah Williams or Jared Sylvia for Modesto City Council, District 5 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would represent one of Modesto's six City Council districts. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. Modesto is Stanislaus County's largest city and county seat. It has 218,464 residents. A professional city manager runs day-to-day operations. The elected council sets city policy. The Mayor is elected citywide to a 4-year term. The Mayor's seat is not on this ballot. The six council seats are elected by district for staggered 4-year terms. Districts 2, 4, and 5 are up this November. - Jurisdiction: City of Modesto - 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/modesto-council-5 - 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: October 7, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 85 out of 100 (Strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Jeremiah Williams** — Councilmember/Businessman · Incumbent - **Jared Sylvia** — Data Scientist A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Incumbent Vice Mayor Jeremiah Williams seeks another term representing Modesto's District 5 against Jared Sylvia, a data scientist making his first run for elected office. Modesto is Stanislaus County's largest city and county seat, with about 218,464 residents per the 2020 Census, operating under a council-manager government with an at-large Mayor and six district-elected Council seats on staggered 4-year terms. District 5 is one of three Council seats up in November 2026 and draws two candidates for the one seat. Williams filed for re-election in late July; Sylvia filed on the last full day before the deadline. Their campaigns look very different so far: Williams has one large union-PAC contribution on record, while Sylvia has no campaign committee at all with the city as of the latest filings. ## How Modesto picks its Vice Mayor Modesto's Vice Mayor isn't a separately elected office. The Mayor is elected at-large citywide, but the Vice Mayor title is selected by the City Council from among its own six district-elected members -- currently Jeremiah Williams. It's a council leadership role, not an additional seat voters fill directly. ## Jeremiah Williams The incumbent and sitting Vice Mayor, whose ballot designation is "Councilmember/Businessman." He filed for re-election on July 24, 2026. His campaign's most recent filing shows a single itemized contribution, from Modesto's firefighters' union political action committee. In his Vote411 questionnaire he says he moved to Modesto in 1980, has volunteered on 27 boards over 36 years, and has owned a small business for 40 years. His three stated priorities are public safety; quality of life, through parks and outdoor experiences; and living-wage jobs with affordable housing. He credits voter-approved Measure H, a one-cent sales tax, with funding public safety, park revitalization and homelessness solutions, and says he would use his experience to provide fiscal oversight of tax dollars and to expand public-private partnerships that build a skilled workforce. **Strengths:** The Council's own choice for Vice Mayor. By his own account, 36 years of civic volunteering, including 27 boards, and 40 years as a small-business owner. **Trade-offs:** His fundraising is modest next to the District 2 and District 4 incumbents: $1,289 raised and on hand at the latest filing, all from one union PAC. **Keep in mind:** The results he credits to Measure H and his civic record are his own account in a questionnaire, so his council votes are the fuller record. His only itemized donor so far is a union PAC. ## Jared Sylvia A first-time candidate for elected office, with the ballot designation "Data Scientist." He filed on August 6, 2026, the day before the filing deadline closed. No campaign committee or financial filing of any kind was found for him with the City of Modesto, and no independent news coverage of his candidacy has been found. **Strengths:** A technical, analytical professional background that differs from the incumbent's, though no further independent detail about his employer or work was found. **Trade-offs:** No prior public office and no public record of campaign activity: no committee, no filed statements and no coverage found despite a genuine search. **Keep in mind:** The absence of a committee does not mean no campaign activity, since California candidates can raise or spend up to $2,000 before a committee is required. ## Sources 1. [Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters -- official "Unofficial Candidate List," General Election Nov. 3, 2026 (document timestamped by the county 7:57 AM 8/31/2026): under "MUNICIPAL OFFICES / CITY OF MODESTO," lists exactly three contests -- Council Member, District 2 (Vote for 1: *Eric E. Alvarez, Jon Rodriguez, Juan Telles), Council Member, District 4 (Vote for 1: *Nick Bavaro), and Council Member, District 5 (Vote for 1: *Jeremiah Williams, Jared Sylvia) -- with no Modesto Mayor contest and no county-level Stanislaus office anywhere in the document.](https://www.stanvote.gov/pdf/candidate-list.pdf) 2. [City of Modesto -- own "2026 General Municipal Election" page: confirms "Council Districts 2, 4, and 5" are up in November 2026, that the Mayor is "elected at-large on a nonpartisan basis for four-year terms" and not on this ballot, and gives the candidate nomination period (July 13 - Aug. 7, 2026).](https://www.modestogov.com/399/City-Election-Information) 3. [City of Modesto -- own "Election Candidate List - Sign Up List" page (the City Clerk's real-time filing record): District 2 -- Eric E. Alvarez (incumbent, filed 7/29/2026), Juan Telles (filed 8/6/2026), Jon Rodriguez (filed 8/6/2026); District 4 -- Nick Bavaro (incumbent, filed 7/20/2026), plus Matthew Gonzalez and Tyler Anthony Slacks, both marked "DID NOT RETURN" their nomination papers; District 5 -- Jeremiah Williams (incumbent, filed 7/24/2026), Jared Sylvia (filed 8/6/2026) -- independently corroborates the county's roster and supplies exact filing dates.](https://www.modestogov.com/411/Election-Candidate-List---Sign-Up-List) 4. [City of Modesto -- own "Council Members" page (live roster): Mayor Sue Zwahlen (at-large), District 1 Rosa Escutia-Braaton, District 2 Eric E. Alvarez, District 3 Chris Ricci, District 4 Nick Bavaro, District 5 Vice Mayor Jeremiah Williams, District 6 David Wright -- confirms the 6-district-plus-at-large-Mayor structure and that each incumbent listed above is the sitting officeholder for their district.](https://www.modestogov.com/706/Council-Members) 5. [Wikipedia -- "Modesto, California": used narrowly for its 2020 Census population figure (218,464) and for confirming the council-manager government type and the at-large-Mayor/by-district-council structure; its named current officials were not used where the city's own live pages (see modesto-cityclerk-councilmembers-2026) could confirm the same facts more directly.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modesto,_California) 6. [Jeremiah Williams's committee ("Jeremiah Williams for Modesto City Council District 5 2026") FPPC Form 460, semi-annual statement for 1/1-6/30/2026, filed 7/31/2026, downloaded via the City of Modesto's NetFile public API and read directly: a single itemized contribution this period, $1,289 from the Modesto Firefighters Association Local 1289 PAC (the same PAC that gave to Alvarez), $0 spent, $1,289 cash on hand as of 6/30/2026 -- a comparatively modest, still-building campaign relative to Alvarez's and Bavaro's.](https://netfile.com/api/public/sites/api/CampaignDocuments/download/217131961?aid=MOD&name=Williams&date=2026-07-31&form=460) 7. [A negative-result campaign-finance check: the City of Modesto's own NetFile public API (QuickNameSearch, aid=MOD) returned zero candidates, committees, or filings of any kind under either "Sylvia" or "Jared" as of this session's retrieval. Documents the absence of any campaign committee for Jared Sylvia, not a claim about his actual finances -- see the same $2,000 committee-formation-threshold caveat on Rodriguez's negative-result entry.](https://netfile.com/api/public/sites/api/QuickNameSearch?aid=MOD&query=Sylvia) 8. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of Modesto City Council Member, District 5' race (statewide All Races list): each candidate's self-submitted ballot designation and campaign contacts, plus answers to the League's questions -- If elected, what are your top 3 priorities?; What background, experience and/or education qualify you for this elected office? Answers on file from Jeremiah Williams. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/modesto-council-5.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote) ## The rest of the ballot Modesto City Council, District 5 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, "Modesto City Council, District 5 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/modesto-council-5 (sources last retrieved October 7, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.