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City of Orinda · Statewide General Election

Orinda City Council

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 would hold one of Orinda's five at-large City Council seats on a council-manager government with an appointed City Manager: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Contra Costa County city. A 4-year, staggered term, decided by whichever three candidates get the most votes -- no ranked-choice voting or June primary is documented for Orinda. The Council selects the Mayor from among its own members each year rather than voters electing a Mayor directly; the City Clerk is an appointed staff position, not a separately elected office, and Orinda has no elected City Treasurer.

Three incumbents and one first-time challenger are running for Orinda's three open at-large City Council seats: Mayor Brandyn Iverson, and Councilmembers Latika Malkani and Janet Riley are all seeking reelection, against physicist and substitute teacher Juana Rudati.

This person would hold one of Orinda's five at-large City Council seats on a council-manager government with an appointed City Manager: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Contra Costa County city. A 4-year, staggered term. The Council selects the Mayor from among its own members each year -- Brandyn Iverson currently holds that title, succeeding Latika Malkani, who served as Mayor the year before -- rather than voters electing a Mayor directly; the City Clerk is an appointed staff position (Joelle Fockler took over in 2026 after longtime Clerk Sheri Smith's retirement), not a separately elected office, and Orinda has no elected City Treasurer.

Three seats are open this cycle, decided by whichever three candidates get the most votes -- no ranked-choice voting or June primary is documented for Orinda. All three incumbents whose terms expire this cycle are seeking reelection; the two Councilmembers not up this cycle, Vice Mayor Darlene K. Gee and Cara Hoxie, hold seats that run through 2028.

Brandyn Iverson

The sitting Mayor -- selected by his council colleagues rather than elected directly to that title -- finishing his first term on the council after 7 years on Orinda's Planning Commission (Chair, 2018-2020). His filed occupation is "Real Estate Executive / Attorney": a JD/MBA (Northwestern Law and the Kellogg School of Management; Stanford undergrad) and 25-plus years in commercial real estate and investments. His statement says he's raising three sons in Orinda, one now at Miramonte. He frames his priorities around balancing the state's housing mandates with preserving community character, while still allowing growth -- more housing variety, thriving small businesses, and fresh civic spaces.

Strengths

A 25-year commercial real estate career plus 7 years on Orinda's Planning Commission (2 as Chair) -- credentials directly relevant to the council's land-use role.

Trade-offs

His record and priorities come entirely from his own statement; no independent reporting on his term was found, and his campaign site (voteiverson.com) was a placeholder page.

Keep in mind

See this contest's financial note below.

Latika Malkani

An incumbent Councilmember, on the council since 2022 and serving as Mayor in 2025, now seeking another term. An attorney and business owner who has lived in Orinda 22 years and raised three children in the city's public schools. Her statement credits her tenure with leading Orinda's wildfire evacuation and safety planning -- she describes it as making the city a "model" on that front -- supporting downtown businesses, maintaining roads and drains while protecting fiscal reserves, adding sidewalks for safer school routes, and a list of new public amenities: a dog park, dedicated pickleball hours, an upcoming playground remodel, and beautification projects.

Strengths

Direct incumbency, including a year as Mayor, with checkable claims -- a new dog park and dedicated pickleball hours are amenities a voter could confirm.

Trade-offs

Her accomplishments are self-reported; no independent reporting was found. Her site (latika4orinda.com) reads as stale, giving 18 years' residency versus her statement's 22, so unused here.

Keep in mind

See this contest's financial note below.

Janet Riley

An incumbent Councilmember seeking another term, and a more-than-40-year Orinda resident. Her statement lists her committee work during this term: the board of Recycle Smart, and liaison roles to Orinda Parks & Recreation, Art in Public Places, School 2x2, the Historical Society, and the Orinda Library. She credits her term with the city's wildfire-safety work -- launching OrindaReady.com and its evacuation-time simulation tool, and building two new median openings on Camino Pablo for emergency egress -- plus downtown economic-development efforts (DowntownOrinda.com, a façade improvement program) and civic beautification projects including Orinda's first Welcome monument. She describes decades of volunteer leadership in Orinda's schools, the Orinda Garden Club, Girl Scouts, and Santa Maria Church.

Strengths

A specific, checkable claim -- two new median openings on Camino Pablo for emergency evacuation -- plus named committee and liaison roles showing direct involvement.

Trade-offs

Her record is entirely self-reported; no independent reporting was found, and this dataset found no campaign website for her either.

Keep in mind

See this contest's financial note below.

Juana Rudati

A first-time candidate; her filed ballot designation is "Physicist/Mother." A more-than-15-year Orinda resident who works as a substitute teacher in the city's public schools, with a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Physics; her statement says she has led scientific and engineering teams throughout her career. She centers her campaign on evidence-based decision-making, and lists specific priorities: safer walking and biking routes to school, a road network that supports both daily travel and emergency evacuation, protecting Orinda's creeks and natural spaces, and making city government more transparent -- she specifically proposes live remote access and recordings for public meetings beyond the City Council itself, plus regular opportunities for residents to speak with her directly.

Strengths

A distinct background -- a physicist and self-described science-team leader -- plus concrete transparency proposals the other three candidates don't offer.

Trade-offs

A first-time candidate with no council record; her career and teaching role come from her own statement, which names no employer, so neither is independently confirmed.

Keep in mind

See this contest's financial note below.

Source review: Very strong (90/100) · 11 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • cityoforinda.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Orinda -- official "Election Information" page: names the four-candidate field for the Nov. 3, 2026 election of three City Council seats, each a 4-year term, with each candidate's contact info/campaign website and a link to their filed Candidate Statement
  • cityoforinda.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Orinda -- "City Council" page: describes a council-manager government with five City Council members elected at large to staggered 4-year terms and a Mayor selected annually by the Council from among its own members; names the current five -- Mayor Brandyn Iverson, Vice Mayor Darlene K. Gee, and Councilmembers Cara Hoxie, Latika Malkani, and Janet Riley
  • cityoforinda.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Orinda -- City Clerk transition press release: City Clerk Sheri Smith's retirement and Joelle Fockler's appointment as her successor, confirming the City Clerk is an appointed staff position, not a separately elected office
  • contracostavote.gov (opens in a new tab)Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Positions Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election": lists Orinda's only office this cycle as "3 Councilmembers" under Cities Offices -- no City Clerk, City Treasurer, or other city-section line item for Orinda appears anywhere in the document
  • contracostavote.gov (opens in a new tab)Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Contest/Candidate Proof List" (8-27-26_candidatelist_detail_final.pdf), the county's post-certification ON-BALLOT export: shows Orinda's "OrindaCouncil" contest as Vote For 3, with 4 filed and 4 qualified candidates, ON BALLOT status, and all three current incumbents whose terms expire this cycle (Brandyn Marette Iverson, Janet Mc Cormick Riley, Latika Malkani) named as this seat's incumbents; each of the four qualified candidates' filed ballot designation and qualification date is listed individually
  • contracostavote.gov (opens in a new tab)Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Candidate List" (8-14-26_candidatelist_summary_final.pdf), the county's complete qualified-candidate roster: independently confirms the same four-candidate field for Orinda's 3-seat Council contest (Janet Riley, Brandyn Iverson, Juana Rudati, Latika Malkani) with matching qualification timestamps
  • cityoforinda.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Orinda -- Brandyn Iverson's Candidate Statement (a scanned PDF hosted by the City Clerk), filed for the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot pamphlet: his own account of his occupation ("Real Estate Executive / Attorney"), his JD/MBA and 25-plus years in commercial real estate, his prior Planning Commission service, and his priorities, read directly via a rendered-image pass after the PDF's text layer came back empty
  • cityoforinda.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Orinda -- Janet Riley's Candidate Statement (a scanned PDF hosted by the City Clerk), filed for the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot pamphlet: her own account of her committee and liaison roles, her record on wildfire safety and downtown economic development, and her decades of local volunteer work, read directly via a rendered-image pass after the PDF's text layer came back empty
  • cityoforinda.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Orinda -- Latika Malkani's Candidate Statement (a scanned PDF hosted by the City Clerk), filed for the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot pamphlet: her own account of her occupation (attorney and business owner), her 22 years of Orinda residency, her record as a Councilmember and 2025 Mayor, and her priorities, read directly via a rendered-image pass after the PDF's text layer came back empty
  • cityoforinda.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Orinda -- Juana Rudati's Candidate Statement (a scanned PDF hosted by the City Clerk), filed for the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot pamphlet: her own account of her occupation ("Physicist/Mother"), her physics education (B.S. from UC Berkeley, Ph.D.), her substitute-teaching role in Orinda's public schools, and her priorities, read directly via a rendered-image pass after the PDF's text layer came back empty
  • southtechhosting.com (opens in a new tab)This dataset's own documented record of an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve Orinda City Council campaign-finance filings: the city's own CampaignDocs eRetrieval portal (a Granicus-hosted search tool, linked from the city's Campaign Filings Web Portal page) requires ASP.NET form postback searches (by filer or candidate last name) that returned no queryable results through available tooling -- WebFetch and a direct curl fetch each retrieved only the portal's static landing page, and no live browser session was available in this worktree to work around it. This dataset's cached state Cal-Access snapshot (calaccess-cf-2026.json, calaccess-cf-2026-november.json) also carries no record for any of the four candidates. Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source for this contest, not any candidate's actual finances

Last updated September 1, 2026.