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City of Monterey Park · Statewide General Election

Monterey Park City Council, District 5

Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.

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 your district's seat on Monterey Park's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. Council members choose one of their own to serve as mayor and mayor pro tem, presiding over meetings but casting only one vote like any other member.

Incumbent Vinh T. Ngo, the council's current mayor and the member who brought forward the city's data-center ban, faces Steven Kung, the community organizer who co-founded the resident group that campaigned for that same ban, for the District 5 seat.

This person holds the District 5 seat on Monterey Park's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions. A 4-year term ending in November 2030. Council members choose one of their own to serve as mayor and mayor pro tem, presiding over meetings but casting only one vote like any other member.

Ngo is campaigning on his record as mayor, including shepherding the council's data-center ban into law, alongside two terms on the Garvey School District board and long-running nonprofit board leadership. Kung, making his first run for office, is campaigning on extending the momentum from the anti-data-center organizing he co-led into supporting local small businesses, revitalizing downtown, and keeping city government in direct dialogue with residents.

Vinh T. Ngo

Vinh T. Ngo is the incumbent, first elected to the council in November 2022 and the council's current mayor. He's a Senior Vice President and risk executive at Bank of America overseeing its commercial real-estate portfolio, and previously served two terms on the Garvey School District board (2017-2022) and as chair of the Chinatown Service Center. As councilmember, he brought forward the ordinance banning data centers that the council adopted in 2026. He's running for a second term.

Strengths

A full term as mayor, two prior terms on the Garvey school board, and years of nonprofit board leadership give him more governing experience than his opponent.

Trade-offs

He brought the data-center ban forward as a councilmember, but the public pressure behind it came from a resident campaign his opponent helped lead.

Keep in mind

He also chairs or co-chairs several regional and nonprofit boards alongside a full-time bank executive role — a workload a second council term would extend.

Steven Kung

Steven Kung is a filmmaker and community organizer making his first run for office. He co-founded No Data Center Monterey Park, the resident group whose organizing campaign led to the city's data-center ban, and says the experience is what convinced him to run. He's campaigning on supporting local small businesses, revitalizing the city's commercial centers and downtown, and keeping city government directly engaged with residents.

Strengths

Co-founded the resident group whose campaign led directly to the city's data-center ban — a concrete, recent record of building public support for an outcome.

Trade-offs

No prior elected or appointed public service — his record is community organizing and filmmaking, not council or commission experience.

Keep in mind

His candidacy grew directly out of that organizing campaign, so it's a record tested by public organizing, not yet by a vote or by governing.

Source review: Strong (85/100) · 8 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: Steven Kung for Monterey Park City Council may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

Last updated August 31, 2026.