# Ontario City Council, District 2 Compare records and positions simply between Ruben Valencia or Stephanie Martinez for Ontario City Council, District 2 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold one of Ontario's four district seats on the City Council. Ontario also has a separately elected Mayor. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. An appointed City Manager handles day to day operations. The term is four years. Terms are staggered, so only two districts are up in any November. Districts 2 and 3 are up this cycle. Districts 1 and 4 are up in 2028. - Jurisdiction: City of Ontario - 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/ontario-council-district-2 - 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: 88 out of 100 (Strong), across 9 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Ruben Valencia** — Retired Deputy Sheriff - **Stephanie Martinez** — Businesswoman A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Two candidates, Ruben Valencia and Stephanie Martinez, are running for Ontario's open City Council District 2 seat on the November 3, 2026 ballot. It's open because sitting District 2 councilmember Jim Bowman -- on the council since 1986, with time off in between -- is not seeking re-election. Whoever gets the most votes wins outright; there is no primary or runoff. This person would hold District 2's seat on Ontario's 4-member City Council. Council members are elected by district. The Mayor is elected separately and citywide. Council members vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. An appointed City Manager runs day-to-day operations. The term is four years. Terms are staggered, so only two of the four districts are up in any November. Districts 2 and 3 are up this cycle. Districts 1 and 4 come up in 2028. No source states outright that the seat is open. The city's own bio pages place Debra Porada in District 1 and Daisy Macias in District 4. Neither of those seats is up this cycle. That leaves Alan Wapner and Jim Bowman in Districts 2 and 3. Both of their city bio pages show a term running from December 2022 to December 2026. The county's own candidate list places Wapner under District 3. See that contest for more. Bowman does not appear anywhere in Ontario's 2026 candidate roster. So District 2 is treated as his seat, and as open because he did not file. Neither Valencia nor Martinez has held elected office before. No record of either was found beyond their filed ballot titles. ## Ruben Valencia Ruben Valencia is a candidate for Ontario's open District 2 council seat, filing under the ballot designation "Retired Deputy Sheriff." No independent information about their background or platform was found beyond their filed ballot designation; a domain-name guess (rubenvalencia.com) resolved only to a generic parked-domain page with no connection to this race. **Strengths:** Valencia's filed ballot designation, "Retired Deputy Sheriff," points toward a public-safety career background, though it is self-described and not independently verified. **Trade-offs:** No campaign site, news coverage, or independent profile was found beyond the filed ballot designation. **Keep in mind:** A first-time candidate with no public record yet is not necessarily weaker -- only less documented; weigh the ballot designation on its own. ## Stephanie Martinez Stephanie Martinez is a candidate for Ontario's open District 2 council seat, filing under the ballot designation "Businesswoman." No independent information about their background or platform was found beyond their filed ballot designation; a domain-name guess (stephaniemartinez.com) resolved only to a generic parked-domain page with no connection to this race. **Strengths:** None could be documented in this research pass. **Trade-offs:** No campaign site, news coverage, or independent profile was found beyond the filed ballot designation. **Keep in mind:** A first-time candidate with no public record yet is not necessarily weaker -- only less documented; weigh the ballot designation on its own. ## Sources 1. [San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- "Offices Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election": lists County Board of Education Areas A, B, and D (under the School category) as the county's only expiring-term seats this cycle -- no Board of Supervisors, row office, or Superior Court seat appears anywhere in the 11-page document](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): within its "City of Ontario" section (pp. 158-163 of 249), three contests appear, each "Number to be elected: 1" -- Mayor (4 candidates: Kevin Kizzee, Nicolo Lalama, Paul Leon \[flagged Incumbent\], Daisy Macias), Member of the City Council District 2 (2 candidates: Ruben Valencia, Stephanie Martinez, neither flagged Incumbent), and District 3 (4 candidates: D'Andre Lampkin, Michael Rios, Larry Trinidad, Alan Wapner, none flagged Incumbent).](https://uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov/ROV/Elections/2026/1103/Report_CandidateList.pdf) 3. [City of Ontario -- City Clerk's municipal-elections page: states directly, "City Council Districts 2 and 3 will be up for election in November 2026, along with the office of Mayor... November 2028: Districts 1 and 4," and that "Residents vote for the City Council candidate representing the district in which they live. The Mayor is elected citywide."](https://www.ontarioca.gov/government/management-services/city-clerk-records-management/municipal-elections) 4. [City of Ontario -- "City Council" roster page: names the current 5 members -- Paul S. Leon (Mayor), Debra Porada (Mayor Pro Tem), Alan D. Wapner, Jim W. Bowman, and Daisy Macias -- with no Milhiser or Valencia remaining on the current roster; the page's own general intro paragraph still reads "All Council Members serve at large," stale boilerplate contradicted by this page's own district-specific bio pages for Porada and Macias and by the city's separate municipal-elections and districts-archive pages.](https://www.ontarioca.gov/government/city-council) 5. [City of Ontario -- Council Member Debra Porada's own official bio page: representing the City's 1st District, first elected to the council in December 2008, most recently elected to her current term in December 2024, named Mayor Pro Tem in August 2026 -- corroborates District 1 as not up this cycle.](https://www.ontarioca.gov/government/city-council/debra-porada) 6. [City of Ontario -- Council Member Alan D. Wapner's own official bio page: "Current Term December 2022 - December 2026"; over 30 years on the council, a retired Ontario police sergeant, former Vice President of the Ontario-Montclair School Board, President of the Ontario International Airport Authority and Chair of the Omnitrans Board.](https://www.ontarioca.gov/government/city-council/alan-d-wapner) 7. [City of Ontario -- Council Member Jim W. Bowman's own official bio page: "Current Term December 2022 - December 2026"; first elected to the council in 1986, did not seek re-election in 1998 to focus on his Ontario Fire Department career (retiring as Fire Chief), returned to elected office in 2006; does not appear anywhere in the county's 2026 Ontario candidate roster.](https://www.ontarioca.gov/government/city-council/jim-w-bowman) 8. [San Bernardino County's public NetFile campaign-finance portal (public.netfile.com/pub2/?aid=SBD), queried directly by name via its own QuickNameSearch API for all ten 2026 Ontario candidates: nine names returned no filer (Kizzee, Lalama, Macias, Wapner, Valencia, Martinez, Lampkin, Rios, Trinidad); a "Leon, Paul" filer exists but its filing history (2013 Assembly and Senate runs, a 2016 OMSD school-board run) never includes an Ontario City Council or Mayor filing, treated as very likely a different, same-named person rather than Mayor Paul S. Leon; a decade-old "Valencia 4 City Council 2016" committee surfaced but names no candidate or city and isn't assumed connected to 2026 District 2 candidate Ruben Valencia.](https://public.netfile.com/pub2/?aid=SBD) 9. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of Ontario City Council Member, District 2' 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? No answers were on file at capture. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/ontario-council-district-2.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote) ## The rest of the ballot Ontario City Council, District 2 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, "Ontario City Council, District 2 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/ontario-council-district-2 (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.