# Monterey Park City Council, District 5 Compare records and positions simply between Steven Kung or Vinh T. Ngo for Monterey Park City Council, District 5 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Monterey Park's 5-member City Council. They vote on 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. - Jurisdiction: City of Monterey Park - 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/monterey-park-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: August 31, 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 - **Steven Kung** — Filmmaker/Community Organizer - **Vinh T. Ngo** — Monterey Park City Councilmember · Incumbent A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. 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. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions. The term is four years, 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 their first run for office, is campaigning on extending the momentum from the anti-data-center organizing they 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 their first run for office. They 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 them to run. They're 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 — their record is community organizing and filmmaking, not council or commission experience. **Keep in mind:** Their 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. ## Review notes - 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. ## Sources 1. [City of Monterey Park — City Clerk's Office, "Certified Candidates in Ballot Order," November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election (dated 8/28/2026)](https://www.montereypark.ca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/19520/Candidate-Status-Table-ballot-order-08282026) 2. [City of Monterey Park — City Clerk's Office, "Candidate Filing Status" table for the November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election (dated 8/13/2026; superseded by the 8/28/2026 certified list)](https://www.montereypark.ca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/19456/Candidate-Status-Table-08132026) 3. [City of Monterey Park — "November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election" information page (offices on the ballot, term length, key dates)](https://www.montereypark.ca.gov/1738/2026-General-Election-Information) 4. [City of Monterey Park — Staff Directory: Vinh T. Ngo, Council Member, District 5 (official biography)](https://www.montereypark.ca.gov/m/directory/employee?eid=171) 5. [City of Monterey Park — FPPC Disclosure Reports & Filings (per-candidate index of filed campaign-statement forms, dates only)](https://www.montereypark.ca.gov/142/FPPC-Disclosure-Reports-Filings) 6. [KCRW — "Monterey Park becomes a hub for data center resistance" (Aug. 18, 2026; profiles Steven Kung's role co-founding No Data Center Monterey Park)](https://www.kcrw.com/shows/kcrw-reports/stories/monterey-park-data-centers-san-gabriel-valley) 7. [Pasadena Star News (Southern California News Group) — "They championed the fight against a Monterey Park data center. Now they're running for office" (Aug. 18, 2026; paywalled beyond its lead paragraph)](https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2026/08/18/they-championed-the-fight-against-a-monterey-park-data-center-now-theyre-running-for-office/) 8. [Steven Kung for Monterey Park City Council — campaign site](https://www.kungformpk.com/) ## The rest of the ballot Monterey Park 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, "Monterey Park City Council, District 5 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/monterey-park-council-5 (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.