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City of Novato · Statewide General Election

Novato City Council, District 5 (Short Term)

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On the ballot

This person would fill the balance of a term on Novato's 5-member City Council, representing District 5 (the Hamilton neighborhood and other parts of southern Novato) -- a Marin County city of about 53,225 residents (2020 Census). Novato's Council is elected entirely by district to staggered 4-year terms, with the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem chosen each year by the Council from among its own members rather than elected directly. District 5's seat became vacant when Mark Milberg died in office in October 2025; whoever wins this November's election fills the remainder of his term rather than starting a fresh 4-year term.

Appointed incumbent Sandeep Karkal is running unopposed for a full term representing District 5 on Novato's City Council -- he is the only candidate who qualified for this seat.

Novato's City Council has five members, each elected by district to a staggered four-year term; the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem are chosen each year by the Council from among its own members, rather than elected directly. District 5 covers the Hamilton neighborhood and other parts of southern Novato, a Marin County city of about 53,225 residents (2020 Census).

This is not a normal open seat: District 5's prior officeholder, Mark Milberg, died in office in October 2025. The City Council appointed Karkal at a Dec. 3, 2025 special meeting to serve, in the Marin Independent Journal's own words, "an 11-month term until the November 2026 election." Whoever wins this November fills the remainder of Milberg's unexpired term rather than starting a fresh four-year term -- the county's own candidate document labels the seat "Short Term" for that reason.

Sandeep Karkal

Sandeep Karkal is District 5's appointed incumbent. A Novato resident since 2004, he has worked for the Novato Sanitary District since 2004 and serves as its general manager. The City Council interviewed four candidates for the vacancy at a Dec. 3, 2025 special meeting before selecting Karkal; three of the four council members expressed initial support, and Councilmember Pat Eklund -- who had initially backed two other candidates -- ultimately joined the vote for unity. Former councilmember Susan Wernick and Hamilton Field of Marin Association president Marie Hoch both spoke in support of him during that meeting's public comment, with Hoch citing his professional familiarity with flooding, drainage, pumps, and levees as directly relevant to recurring flooding in the Hamilton neighborhood. At his appointment, Karkal named homelessness, housing affordability, and District 5 flooding as the issues he hoped to focus on, and said he intended to run for the seat in this November's election.

Strengths

Nine months already in the seat, plus a water/sewer engineering background -- drainage, pumps, levees -- that lines up directly with District 5's recurring Hamilton-area flooding problem.

Trade-offs

No 2026 campaign platform or independent news profile was found beyond coverage of his Dec. 2025 appointment -- his stated priorities come from that story, not a dedicated 2026 statement.

Keep in mind

Running unopposed, he is effectively re-elected regardless of turnout -- a vote to confirm him for the balance of the term, not a comparison. He would keep his day job as the separate Novato Sanitary District's general manager.

Source review: Strong (85/100) · 11 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.

  • marincounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Marin County Elections Department -- official "Status of local candidates for office 11/03/26" page: a table of contents of every county-administered and city/town contest in the county, listing "City of Novato Councilmember District 2/4/5 (Short Term)" as a verified, filed contest; the county's own page note states the list only shows contests with papers filed with the county, and that "City and town contests signify verification of nomination signatures only" -- no candidate names appear on this page, only office titles. Retrieved via a Chrome browser workaround in a prior session (2026-08-29); every direct WebFetch/curl attempt this session returned HTTP 403, and no browser tool was available this session to retry.
  • novato.gov (opens in a new tab)A negative-result access check: the City of Novato's own site (novato.gov, including its /departments/city-clerk/elections page and its root) returned a hard HTTP 403 bot-block on every direct fetch attempted this pass, by both WebFetch and a direct curl with a realistic browser user agent -- no city-published primary source was reachable at all for this shard. No Wayback Machine snapshot was found either. Documents an access gap, not any claim about the page's content.
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Callie Rhoades, "Novato appoints new City Council member" (Dec. 5, 2025): reports the City Council's Dec. 3, 2025 special-meeting appointment of Sandeep Karkal, general manager of the Novato Sanitary District and a Novato resident/Sanitary District employee since 2004, to fill the District 5 seat vacated by Mark Milberg's October 2025 death -- "He will serve an 11-month term until the November 2026 election." Quotes Mayor Tim O'Connor, Mayor Pro Tem Rachel Farac, Councilmember Kevin Jacobs, Councilmember Pat Eklund (who initially backed other candidates before endorsing Karkal "because I think it's really important for us to be united"), former councilmember Susan Wernick, and Hamilton Field of Marin Association president Marie Hoch, and reports Karkal's own stated priorities (homelessness, housing affordability, and Hamilton-area flooding) and his own statement that he intends to run in the 2026 general election.
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Dick Spotswood, "Seats across Marin are up for grabs in November" (July 18, 2026, a pre-filing-deadline preview): names Novato's three council posts up for election as District 4 (Pat Eklund, "the dean of Marin council members," serving since 1995), District 2 (Mayor Rachel Farac, expected to seek reelection), and District 5 ("newly appointed District 5 Councilmember Sandeep Karkal, who remains executive director of the Novato Sanitary District"), and states the candidate-filing period runs through Aug. 7 (Aug. 12 where an incumbent doesn't refile).
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Richard Halstead, "Slew of Marin offices up for grabs in November election" (July 27, 2026, an early-filing-period roundup): reports "In Novato, the terms of District 2 Councilmember Rachel Farac, District 4 Councilmember Pat Eklund, and District 5 Councilmember Sandeep Karkal are ending. Farac and Michael Little have filed for the District 2 seat. Eklund and Daniel Christian have filed for the District 4 seat. Karkal has filed to seek re-election as well."
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Keri Brenner, "Marin candidate list lengthens for November election" (Aug. 8, 2026, published as the initial filing deadline closed): reports "In Novato, the terms of Mayor Rachel Farac of District 2, Councilmember Pat Eklund of District 4 and Councilmember Sandeep Karkal of District 5 are ending. Farac, Bob Rasmussen and Michael Little have filed for the District 2 seat. Eklund, Luiggino Joseph Galletto, Chris Carpiniello and Daniel Christian have filed for the District 4 seat. Karkal has filed to seek reelection as well."
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Keri Brenner, "More contenders pile into Marin's fall elections" (published Aug. 13, 2026, updated Aug. 15, 2026, after the extended filing deadline closed): the final post-deadline roster, reporting "Novato City Council: Terms are expiring for Rachel Farac of District 2, Councilmember Pat Eklund of District 4 and Councilmember Sandeep Karkal of District 5. Farac, Bob Rasmussen and Michael Little have filed for the District 2 seat. Eklund, Luiggino Joseph Galletto, Chris Carpiniello and Daniel Christian have filed for the District 4 seat. Karkal has filed for reelection" -- an identical roster to the Aug. 8 piece, independently confirming no further filings or withdrawals occurred in the extension window for Novato.
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Dick Spotswood, "Marin candidates emerge as election filing closes" (published Aug. 15, 2026, updated Aug. 28, 2026): states "Two Novato council members will face opponents. Pat Eklund, first elected to the city council in 1995, faces three challengers in southwestern District 4. They include Chris Carpiniello, Dan Christian and Luiggino Galletto III. In her west Novato District 2, incumbent Rachel Farac faces two challengers: Bob Rasmussen and Mike Little." and "Appointed incumbent Sandeep Karkal is unopposed in southwest Novato District 5" -- an explicit, independent, dated statement (three days after the final filing deadline closed) that District 5 is an active, unopposed printed ballot race, with no mention anywhere of a Section 10229 cancellation, appointment, or council resolution for the seat.
  • public.netfile.com (opens in a new tab)A negative-result local campaign-finance check: three plausible NetFile agency codes for Marin County/Novato local candidates (MRN, NOVATO, MARIN) were each checked directly at public.netfile.com/pub2/ this pass -- every one returns only the same client-rendered single-page-application shell (a bare <div id="app"> with no server-rendered content), the same access gap documented dataset-wide for other NetFile jurisdictions. Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source, not any candidate's actual campaign finances.
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)A negative-result access check: California's statewide Cal-Access campaign-finance filer/candidate search was queried directly this pass and returned only a near-empty stub response (1,071 bytes, no candidate or filer content) -- consistent with the Cal-Access bot-wall documented elsewhere in this dataset. Local candidates for a seat like this typically file with the county/city rather than the state in any case. Documents an access gap, not a claim about any candidate's actual state-level filings.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia, "Novato, California": used narrowly for the fixed, dated 2020 Census population figure (53,225) and as an independent cross-check of the city's council-manager-style structure -- a 5-member Council elected entirely by district to staggered 4-year terms, with the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem chosen each year by the Council from among its own members -- and of the current officeholder roster (Kevin Jacobs D1/Mayor Pro Tem, Rachel Farac D2/Mayor, Tim O'Connor D3, Pat Eklund D4, Sandeep Karkal D5), which independently matches every Marin IJ source in this pass.

Last updated September 2, 2026.