# Montclair City Council Compare records and positions simply between Bill Ruh, Alice Garcia, Corysa Martinez, or Victor Mendez for Montclair City Council at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold one of two open seats on Montclair's City Council. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. A separately elected Mayor also serves on the council. The council has four seats in total, elected citywide rather than by district. Terms are four years and staggered. The other two seats are held by Benjamin Lopez and Xavier Mendez. Those seats were last up in November 2024. They are not on this ballot. Every two years, the council appoints a member as Mayor Pro Tem. - Jurisdiction: City of Montclair - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Seats: 2 - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/montclair-council - 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: 89 out of 100 (Strong), across 12 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Bill Ruh** — Councilmember/Policy Analyst · Incumbent - **Alice Garcia** — Project Coordinator - **Corysa Martinez** — Councilmember, City of Montclair · Incumbent - **Victor Mendez** — Deputy Sheriff A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Four candidates are running for Montclair's two open, at-large City Council seats on the November 3, 2026 ballot. They are incumbents Bill Ruh and Corysa Martinez, plus challengers Alice Garcia and Victor Mendez. Whoever gets the two highest vote totals wins outright. There is no primary or runoff. This person would hold one of two open seats on Montclair's City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside the separately elected Mayor. All four Council seats are elected citywide rather than by district, on staggered 4-year terms -- the other two seats (currently Benjamin Lopez and Xavier Mendez, term exp. 11/2028) aren't on this ballot. The Council appoints one of its own members to serve as Mayor Pro Tem after each biennial election. Ruh, first elected in 1998, and Martinez, on the Council since a 2019 appointment and now the sitting Mayor Pro Tem, are both seeking another term. Garcia and Mendez, both first-time candidates for this office, are challenging them for the two seats. ## Bill Ruh Bill Ruh is a lifelong Montclair resident first elected to the City Council in November 1998, after ten years on the Planning Commission (1988-98) and election, in 1991, to the Monte Vista Water District board as its then-youngest-ever member. He served as Mayor Pro Tem from 2012-14 and again 2020-22, and chaired the oversight board for the city's former Redevelopment Agency from 2012-18. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of La Verne and has spent his career in legislative and government affairs -- including work for the California State Assembly, State Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives -- and currently chairs the State Water Resources Control Board's Santa Ana Region. His filed ballot designation is "Councilmember/Policy Analyst." In 2019, when the Council was weighing whether to appoint a relative of the late Councilwoman Trisha Martinez to her vacant seat, Ruh publicly opposed the appointment on principle, telling the Council, "It...violates my beliefs and strong moral opinion that democracy is best served by an election," and "I do not believe in dynasties or legacies." **Strengths:** 28 years of continuous Council service. A record of regional-agency leadership in water quality, transit, and redevelopment oversight. An on-record break with his colleagues on principle. **Trade-offs:** No independent news coverage of his current 2026 campaign was found. None was found of recent council votes beyond the 2019 appointment episode. **Keep in mind:** 28 years in office is an unusually long tenure for a city council seat. Weigh that against the continuity and committee experience it represents. ## Alice Garcia Alice Garcia is a 25-year Montclair resident and a first-time candidate for City Council. Her filed ballot designation is "Project Coordinator." In her own candidate statement she describes a background in grassroots resident advocacy. She says her professional focus on "oversight, complex problem-solving, and managing operational budgets" would carry into city governance. Her stated priorities are public safety, fiscal accountability, and support for small businesses. No independent news coverage of Garcia was found. **Strengths:** A stated professional background in project and budget oversight. A long personal history in the city, 25 years. Self-described grassroots organizing experience. **Trade-offs:** No independent check of her platform or background beyond her own filed statement was found. Her campaign has not yet filed an itemized financial disclosure. **Keep in mind:** As a first-time candidate, she has no past voting or committee record to weigh. Her filed statement is the fullest account of her views available. ## Corysa Martinez Corysa Martinez is Montclair's sitting Mayor Pro Tem. She was appointed to the City Council in November 2019, at 29. She filled the seat left vacant by the death in office of her mother, Councilwoman Trisha Martinez. She beat out several other applicants for the appointment, per the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin's reporting at the time. She won a 2020 special election for the seat uncontested. She was re-elected to a full term in November 2022. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Anthropology from USC, earned in 2012. She holds a J.D. from the University of La Verne College of Law, earned in 2015. She holds a Master of Tax Law from Loyola Law School, earned in 2019. She has practiced law since 2015. Her filed ballot designation is "Councilmember, City of Montclair." **Strengths:** Nearly seven years of Council experience. A legal background distinct from her colleagues. An origin story that was reported and contested at the time, not just her own account. **Trade-offs:** No independent coverage of her council record beyond the 2019 appointment story. Her latest disclosure reclassifies a forgiven personal loan as a contribution, not new outside fundraising. **Keep in mind:** In the same period, Montclair made two council appointments to a family member of a departing or deceased official. Hers was one of them. Mayor Paul Eaton's wife was appointed to his seat in 2018. That context is worth knowing given how her own service began. ## Victor Mendez Victor Mendez is a 27-year Montclair resident and a first-time candidate for City Council. Their filed ballot designation is "Deputy Sheriff." Per their own campaign material, they have served 24 years as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy. Their assignments have covered patrol, custody, transportation, and courts as a bailiff. They have been a member of the Montclair Town Center Homeowners Association for 13 years. They have been its president for the past 11. They are bilingual in English and Spanish. No independent news coverage of Mendez was found. They are a different person from sitting Montclair Councilmember Xavier Mendez, whose seat is not up until 2028. **Strengths:** A stated multi-decade law-enforcement career. More than a decade of HOA leadership in Montclair itself. **Trade-offs:** No independent check of their record or platform beyond their own campaign site was found. Their campaign has not yet filed an itemized financial disclosure. **Keep in mind:** As a first-time candidate, they have no past voting or committee record to weigh. Their law-enforcement career is relevant context for a campaign that centers public safety. ## Review notes - Each candidate's own campaign site, self-description attributed in text: Bill Ruh's (billruh.com, confirms election at-large, adds detail consistent with and fuller than the city's own biography of him -- degree, career history, boards and civic involvements, and his 2026 priorities); Javier "John" Dutrey's (montclairmayordutrey.com, consistent with the city's own biography, adds his current policy priorities and objectives); and Victor Mendez's (victor4montclair2026.com -- the only source found for his biography: 24-year Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy across patrol, custody, transportation, and courts; Montclair Town Center HOA member 13 years, president the last 11; youth soccer coach). No campaign site was found for Alice Garcia beyond her filed candidate statement. may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- "Offices Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election" (the same document as sb-offices-up-2026, a different section): the "City of Montclair" section lists exactly two offices, each a 4-year term -- Mayor (1 seat) and Member, City Council (2 seats, no district number given).](https://uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov/ROV/Elections/2026/1103/Report_OfficesUpForElection.pdf) 2. [San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- statewide "Report_CandidateList.pdf" candidate-filing report (the same document as sb-candidate-list-2026, a different section): the "City of Montclair" section (pp. 152-155 of 249) names one qualified 2026 Mayor candidate -- Javier "John" Dutrey (flagged Incumbent), unopposed -- and four qualified City Council candidates for two seats -- Victor Mendez, Alice Garcia, Bill Ruh (Incumbent), Corysa Martinez (Incumbent) -- each with their filed ballot designation, "Last Updated: 8/28/2026."](https://uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov/ROV/Elections/2026/1103/Report_CandidateList.pdf) 3. [City of Montclair -- "November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election" page: a "City Offices on the Ballot" table confirming Mayor (1 seat, 4 years) and Council Member (2 seats, 4 years), and an "Incumbents of Offices on the Ballot" table naming Javier "John" Dutrey (Mayor, term exp. 11/2026), Bill Ruh (Council Member, term exp. 11/2026), and Corysa Martinez (Mayor Pro Tem, term exp. 11/2026) -- reached directly with a browser User-Agent; a plain WebFetch of cityofmontclair.org returns HTTP 403, but curl does not.](https://www.cityofmontclair.org/november-3-2026-general-municipal-election/) 4. [City of Montclair -- "Qualified Candidates" list (dated 8/7/2026), hosted directly by the city's own site: gives each of the five 2026 candidates' ballot designation, office sought, voluntarily provided contact info and campaign website, and the dates their nomination documents were issued, filed, and qualified -- Ruh's and Martinez's documents were issued and filed weeks after Garcia's, Mendez's, and Dutrey's, consistent with each being an incumbent filing near the deadline.](https://storage.googleapis.com/proudcity/montclairca/2026/08/qualified-candidates-08-07-2026-3f23e667.pdf) 5. [City of Montclair -- "List of Qualified Candidates for November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election," hosted directly by the city's own site: gives the certified ballot order (by the Secretary of State's random-alphabet drawing) as Ruh, Garcia, Martinez, Mendez for City Council and confirms which candidates filed a first-person candidate statement -- Ruh, Garcia, and Martinez did ("Yes"); Dutrey and Mendez did not ("No").](https://storage.googleapis.com/proudcity/montclairca/2026/08/2026-qualified-candidates-and-contact-info-5215c8d9.pdf) 6. [City of Montclair -- "City Council" government page: confirms the Mayor and four Council Members are all elected citywide by Montclair voters (no districts), on staggered 4-year terms, with the Council appointing one of its own members as Mayor Pro Tem following each biennial election; lists the current five-member roster -- Dutrey (Mayor), Martinez (Mayor Pro Tem), Ruh, Benjamin "Ben" Lopez, and Xavier Mendez (the last two, term exp. 11/2028, are not on this year's ballot).](https://www.cityofmontclair.org/departments/city-council/) 7. [City of Montclair -- "City Council Biographies" page: city-authored (not campaign-authored) biographies for each sitting Council Member. Dutrey: lifelong resident, Montclair HS class of 1983, BA Political Science and MA Public Administration (both Cal State San Bernardino), son of Basque immigrants, elected to Council in 1996 (after Planning Commission 1990-96) and Mayor in 2018, serves on SBCTA/Omnitrans/SCAG/Metrolink/Foothill Gold Line boards. Martinez: on Council since Nov. 2019, elected uncontested in 2020 to complete the term and re-elected to a full term in 2022, BA Anthropology (USC, 2012), JD (University of La Verne College of Law, 2015), LL.M. in Tax Law (Loyola Law School, 2019), practicing attorney since 2015. Ruh: elected to Council in Nov. 1998 (after Planning Commission 1988-98 and election to the Monte Vista Water District board in 1991 as its then-youngest-ever member), Mayor Pro Tem 2012-14 and 2020-22, BA Political Science (University of La Verne), career in legislative/government affairs including the state Assembly and Senate and the U.S. House, currently chairs the State Water Resources Control Board's Santa Ana Region.](https://www.cityofmontclair.org/city-council-biographies/) 8. [Wikipedia -- "Montclair, California": incorporated April 25, 1956 as "Monte Vista," renamed Montclair in 1958; a General Law city (City Council-City Manager form of government); independently corroborates the current roster (Mayor Javier "John" Dutrey; Mayor Pro Tem Corysa Martinez; Council Members Bill Ruh, Benjamin "Ben" Lopez, and Xavier Mendez) -- confirming Xavier Mendez, a sitting Council Member, is a different person from 2026 Council candidate Victor Mendez.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montclair,_California) 9. [City of Montclair's own electronic campaign-finance filing system at montclair.efile.systems (distinct from the NetFile platform other San Bernardino County cities in this dataset use) -- a client-rendered Next.js app whose underlying JSON API this pass reverse-engineered from the app's own downloaded JS bundles, queried directly for all five 2026 candidates and their committees, then used to pull and locally parse (pypdf/pdfplumber) specific FPPC Form 460 filings, unredacted and fully itemized unlike the NetFile filings documented elsewhere in this file. Dutrey's committee (FPPC #1409162, active since a 2018 Form 410) reported $1,000 in itemized contributions for Jan-June 2026 (two $500 gifts: Cole Burr, President of Burrtec Waste Industries, and Edison International), zero expenditures, a $14,910.05 ending cash balance, and a $5,500 outstanding debt (Dutrey's own loan to his committee, dated 12/31/2018). Ruh's committee (FPPC #982027, active since 2018) filed an amended Jan-June 2026 report (2026-08-21) showing zero contributions, zero expenditures, and a flat $4,325.78 cash balance carried forward. Martinez's committee (FPPC #1446356, active since 2020) reported $1,689.09 in contributions for the same period -- $1,589.09 of it a reclassification of a prior loan she personally made to the committee into a contribution, plus a new $100 itemized cash contribution, also from Martinez herself -- for a net cash increase of $100 to a $301.00 ending balance. Garcia's and Mendez's committees had each filed only a Form 410/501 as of this retrieval, no Form 460 yet -- the city's first pre-election filing deadline (Sept. 24, 2026) had not yet passed.](https://montclair.efile.systems/public/search/campaign/by-name) 10. [City of Montclair -- the full first-person candidate statements filed with the City Clerk by Bill Ruh, Alice Garcia, and Corysa Martinez, each hosted as its own PDF on the city's official election page; self-authored by each candidate, treated as first-person self-description and attributed in text, not as independent evaluation.](https://storage.googleapis.com/proudcity/montclairca/2026/08/candidate-statement-ruh-bill-03e35cdf.pdf) 11. [Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Steve Scauzillo) -- "Daughter of late Montclair councilwoman appointed to fill her vacant seat": read in full. Reports, with named on-the-record quotes, that the Montclair City Council appointed Corysa Martinez, 29, on Nov. 18, 2019 to fill the seat left vacant by the death in office of her own mother, Councilwoman Trisha Martinez; that she had passed the bar and was practicing law in Upland; and that fellow Councilman Bill Ruh publicly objected to the appointment on principle ("It...violates my beliefs and strong moral opinion that democracy is best served by an election," "I do not believe in dynasties or legacies").](https://www.dailybulletin.com/2019/11/19/daughter-of-late-montclair-councilwoman-appointed-to-fill-her-vacant-seat/) 12. [Each candidate's own campaign site, self-description attributed in text: Bill Ruh's (billruh.com, confirms election at-large, adds detail consistent with and fuller than the city's own biography of him -- degree, career history, boards and civic involvements, and his 2026 priorities); Javier "John" Dutrey's (montclairmayordutrey.com, consistent with the city's own biography, adds his current policy priorities and objectives); and Victor Mendez's (victor4montclair2026.com -- the only source found for his biography: 24-year Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy across patrol, custody, transportation, and courts; Montclair Town Center HOA member 13 years, president the last 11; youth soccer coach). No campaign site was found for Alice Garcia beyond her filed candidate statement.](https://billruh.com/) ## The rest of the ballot Montclair City Council 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, "Montclair City Council — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/montclair-council (sources last retrieved August 31, 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.