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City of Pacifica · Statewide General Election

Pacifica City Council, District 2

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 Pacifica's five district-elected City Council seats: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this San Mateo County coastal city of about 38,600 residents. A 4-year term. The Council selects a Mayor from among its own members, who rotate through a one-year term in that role -- there is no separately elected Mayor.

Mayor Christine Boles, seeking a second term representing District 2, faces Dan Urban, a first-time candidate, for this Pacifica City Council seat.

Pacifica's City Council has five district seats, each elected only by the voters of that district; councilmembers serve 4-year terms. The Council does not separately elect a Mayor -- instead, the five members rotate through a one-year term in that role, chosen from among themselves. Boles currently holds that rotating Mayor's seat while representing District 2 on the Council; the county's certified candidate roster lists her running-for-reelection designation as 'Architect / Businesswoman / Councilmember,' not 'Mayor,' reflecting that the mayorship is a role within the council, not a separate office on this ballot.

The county's own certified candidate roster confirms these are the only two District 2 filers by the filing deadline; whoever gets more votes on November 3 wins the seat outright, with no runoff.

Christine Boles

The incumbent, seeking a second term representing District 2 and currently serving her rotation as Mayor of Pacifica. A licensed architect and small-business owner for 40 years, she holds degrees from MIT and UC Berkeley and describes herself as a mother, wife, beekeeper, gardener, and community volunteer. On the Council she has served as liaison to the city's Climate Action and Resilience Committee and its Emergency Preparedness and Safety Committee, as the city's representative to the Pacific Beach Coalition, and regionally on the San Mateo County Emergency Services Council, the SFO Airport Roundtable, and the Westlight Energy community-choice-power board, plus the League of California Cities' statewide Environmental Quality and Policy Committee. Her stated priorities for a second term are addressing the city's roughly $2.4 million structural budget deficit, protecting Pacifica's coastline and hills against climate-driven erosion and flooding, supporting local business development and new city revenue, improving public services, and increasing transparency and resident participation in city government.

Strengths

A full council term, professional budget and technical-review expertise from her architecture career, and a wide slate of committee and regional-agency assignments.

Trade-offs

No independent (non-campaign) reporting evaluates her first term's record on the deficit or her other stated priorities; what's here comes from her own site.

Keep in mind

The only candidate who has already held the seat, so this is partly a referendum on her first term, including the deficit that grew or persisted on her watch.

Dan Urban

A first-time candidate for elected office who, by his own account, moved to Pacifica two years ago with his wife because 'they saw something special here.' Professionally, he describes himself as a recently retired Regional Director in food service management, where he managed more than $30 million in annual volume, supervised dozens of salaried managers, and oversaw teams of up to 200 employees -- experience he frames as financial stewardship, strategic planning, and building high-performing teams. His campaign rests on three stated pillars: 'Building Community' (supporting local businesses, making Pacifica a place families and public servants can afford to live, and pursuing thoughtful economic development); 'Protecting Pacifica' (thoughtful growth that respects the coastline, neighborhoods, trails, and quality of life); and 'Fiscal Stewardship' (efficient use of tax dollars and developing new city revenue streams). He describes his approach as valuing input from both newcomers and longtime residents, arguing 'the strongest future will come from building on' Pacifica's existing character rather than discarding it.

Strengths

Two decades of large-scale operational and budget-management leadership in the private sector, plus an outsider's perspective as a newer Pacifica resident.

Trade-offs

No prior elected or appointed local office, and only two years living in Pacifica -- shorter tenure than most incumbents this dataset covers in this county.

Keep in mind

His own framing -- that answers 'don't come from newcomers alone' -- is a response to being a new resident challenging a sitting Mayor on a thin public record.

Source review: Mixed (73/100) · 5 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: Christine Boles for Pacifica City Council -- her own re-election campaign site's home and 'About' pages: her background as a licensed architect and small-business owner, her current role as Mayor of Pacifica, prior council committee assignments, and her stated platform. and Dan Urban for Pacifica City Council District 2 -- his own campaign site's home and 'About' (/home-1) pages: his career background in food-service regional management, his two years living in Pacifica, and his stated platform. may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • smcacre.gov (opens in a new tab)San Mateo County ACRE (Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder-Elections) -- Roster of Candidates, Qualified Candidates Only, November 3, 2026 General Election (CFMR009), dated 2026-08-25: confirms Pacifica City Council Districts 2, 3, and 5 are each 'On Ballot: Yes,' Vote for 1, with District 2 drawing two qualified candidates (Christine Boles, Dan Urban), District 3 drawing one (Cindy Abbott), and District 5 drawing two (Margo Meiman, Sam Casillas); no Pacifica Mayor contest appears anywhere in the document
  • smcacre.gov (opens in a new tab)San Mateo County ACRE -- 'Regularly Scheduled Elections' reference page: lists Pacifica among the county's 'Municipal Offices' jurisdictions that elect in November of even years, an independent structural corroboration of the roster's own contest listing
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Pacifica, California": used narrowly for the city's 2020 Census population (38,640) and its council-manager government with a Mayor chosen from among the five councilmembers for a one-year rotating term, not for anything volatile or candidate-specific
  • christineforpacifica.com (opens in a new tab)Christine Boles for Pacifica City Council -- her own re-election campaign site's home and 'About' pages: a licensed architect and small-business owner of 40 years (MIT and UC Berkeley), her current role as Mayor of Pacifica (the office rotates annually among the five councilmembers) and prior council committee assignments, and her stated platform on the city's structural deficit, coastal and hillside climate resilience, local business development, and government transparency
  • danforpacifica.com (opens in a new tab)Dan Urban for Pacifica City Council District 2 -- his own campaign site's home and 'About' (/home-1) pages: a recently retired regional director in food-service management (over $30M in managed volume, teams up to 200 employees), a Pacifica resident of two years with his wife, and his three-pillar platform of building community/local business, protecting the coastline and neighborhoods from thoughtless growth, and fiscal stewardship

Last updated September 1, 2026.