# Palm Desert City Council, District 4 Compare records and positions simply between Jonathon Polly or Evan Trubee for Palm Desert City Council, District 4 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold your district's seat on Palm Desert's five-member City Council. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. Palm Desert is a Coachella Valley city. The term is four years. Palm Desert has no separately elected Mayor. The council picks one of its own members as Mayor each year. This cycle, District 4 candidate Evan Trubee is the sitting Mayor. An appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. This is the final round of the city's move to single-member districts. Districts 1, 2, and 3 elected their members in November 2024. This November's Districts 4 and 5 races complete the change. - Jurisdiction: City of Palm Desert - 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/palm-desert-council-4 - 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: 89 out of 100 (Strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Jonathon Polly** - **Evan Trubee** — Incumbent A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Incumbent Evan Trubee, the city's current Mayor, is seeking a second full term against challenger Jonathon Polly for Palm Desert's District 4 City Council seat on the November 3, 2026 ballot. Whoever gets the most votes wins outright -- there is no primary or runoff. This person would hold your district's seat on Palm Desert's 5-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Coachella Valley city. The term is four years. Palm Desert has no separately elected Mayor -- the council selects one of its own members Mayor each year (this cycle, Trubee is the sitting Mayor); day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager. This is the final round of the city's phase-in from an all at-large council to five single-member districts: Districts 1, 2, and 3 elected their representatives in November 2024, and this November's Districts 4 and 5 races complete the transition. Trubee first won this seat in 2022, before the district system existed (their current term is listed by the city as "At-Large"); they live in District 4 and are running there to complete the transition. Their challenger, Jonathon Polly, has not previously held office. Trubee's campaign is conventionally well-funded for a Palm Desert council race; Polly's is not -- their own state filing reported no money raised through the midyear filing deadline. ## Jonathon Polly Jonathon Polly is a challenger for Palm Desert's District 4 seat. They are a geoscientist who currently works as a technical manager and a sustainability auditor, per The Desert Sun's own reporting. Their own state campaign filing reported $0 in monetary contributions and $0 cash on hand through June 30, 2026; a later filing in August adds two small in-kind photography contributions. **Strengths:** A professional background in geoscience and sustainability auditing -- directly relevant technical expertise for a city that runs its own environmental and desert-landscaping programs. **Trade-offs:** A minimal campaign -- their own Form 460 reported no money raised and no cash on hand through June 30, plus two small in-kind photography contributions in August; no independent biography was found. **Keep in mind:** Running against a sitting Mayor with a much larger campaign war chest is a real structural disadvantage this dataset can document but not resolve for you. ## Evan Trubee Evan Trubee is the incumbent and the council's current Mayor (selected annually by their council colleagues), seeking a second full term after first winning this seat in 2022. They own Big Wheel Tours, a 12-employee bike, hiking, and travel-tour business, and previously served on the city's Resource Preservation and Enhancement Committee and Public Safety Commission. **Strengths:** A full term already served, plus the current Mayor title chosen by their colleagues; a well-funded campaign -- over $27,000 raised and over $10,000 in loans -- with broad local support. **Trade-offs:** No independent (non-city, non-campaign) reporting on their time in office beyond their own campaign materials and the city's own published biography was found in this research pass. **Keep in mind:** Trubee's campaign has also drawn contributions from real-estate and development-linked donors (Pulte Group, Johnson Commercial Real Estate) active in the Coachella Valley, alongside many small local donors -- noted here as context, not as a claim of impropriety. ## Sources 1. [Riverside County Registrar of Voters — 2026 Annual Election Calendar (lists every November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election office by city, including "City of Cathedral City: City Council District 3 / District 4 / District 5 / City Treasurer")](https://voteinfo.net/sites/g/files/aldnop371/files/2026-02/Annual%20Election%20Calendar%202026.pdf) 2. [City of Palm Desert -- City Clerk's Office "November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election" page (captured via the Wayback Machine, 2026-08-13, after the palmdesert.gov live site returned HTTP 403 on every direct fetch attempt): states directly "Offices on the Ballot: City Council Districts 4 and 5" and "This election completes the City's transition to five single-member council districts"; its own live Candidate Roster table names all four qualified, "Nomination Verified" candidates by district -- District 4: Jonathon Polly, Evan Trubee; District 5: John Greenwood, Ralph Perry.](https://web.archive.org/web/20260813090745/https://www.palmdesert.gov/government/elections) 3. [City of Palm Desert -- "City Council" page (captured via the Wayback Machine, 2026-08-13): states the Council "consist\[s\] of five members elected to four-year terms. Each year, the Mayor is selected from among the Council to serve a one-year term" and names Evan Trubee as the sitting Mayor; confirms Ordinance No. 1406 (adopted 2024-01-25) established five single-member districts, phased in over two cycles, and lists each current councilmember's term and district -- Karina Moreno (District 1, term 2024-2028), Joe Pradetto (District 2, term 2024-2028), Gina Nestande (District 3, term 2024-2028), Evan Trubee (At-Large, term 2022-2026), and Jan Harnik (At Large, term 2022-2026) -- the last two being the seats this cycle's District 4 and 5 races complete the transition for.](https://web.archive.org/web/20260813090633/https://www.palmdesert.gov/government/city-council) 4. [The Desert Sun — "See who's running for mayor and city council in Coachella Valley" (Tom Coulter and Sam Morgen, Aug. 13, 2026; names every qualified candidate in each Cathedral City council/treasurer race with a one-line occupation/background note)](https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/08/13/election-2026-whos-running-for-mayor-city-council-palm-springs-area/91221615007/) 5. [Evan Trubee's own filed FPPC Form 460 (Recipient Committee Campaign Statement, semi-annual, covering 01/01/2026-06/30/2026, e-filed 07/31/2026, Filing ID 217121531) via the City of Palm Desert's own NetFile public campaign-finance portal: reports $17,598 in itemized monetary contributions plus $10,000 in loans ($5,000 each from Trubee himself and his business, Big Wheel Tours, Inc.), $27,598 total contributions, $6,535.21 in expenditures, and a $54,215.43 ending cash balance; itemized donors include the Riverside Sheriffs' Association Public Education Fund, Edison International's Civic Action Committee, and a $150 contribution from D5 candidate John Greenwood.](https://ssl.netfile.com/pub2/RequestPDF.aspx?id=U3RoRm4xZ3VpRDB4Q2RBUkt3Q29Zdz09&aid=PALM) 6. [Jonathon Polly's own filed FPPC Form 460 (Recipient Committee Campaign Statement, semi-annual, covering 01/01/2026-06/30/2026, e-filed 08/05/2026, Filing ID 217164420) via the City of Palm Desert's own NetFile public campaign-finance portal: reports $0 in monetary contributions, $0 cash on hand, and only $85.80 in an accrued unpaid bill for the period -- a minimal campaign footprint through the June 30, 2026 filing deadline.](https://ssl.netfile.com/pub2/RequestPDF.aspx?id=S2RZU0o2Tk5zRlY2QXNRbFBQeFJBQT09&aid=PALM) 7. [Jonathon Polly's own filed FPPC Form 497 (24-Hour/Late Contribution Report, e-filed 08/24/2026, Filing ID 217277938) via the City of Palm Desert's own NetFile public campaign-finance portal: reports two $500 in-kind photography contributions from Michael Smith Photography (Hemet), dated 08/12/2026 and 08/20/2026.](https://ssl.netfile.com/pub2/RequestPDF.aspx?id=QmZBcXY2czYzb2N3MER4YUpGbHdLQT09&aid=PALM) ## The rest of the ballot Palm Desert City Council, District 4 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, "Palm Desert City Council, District 4 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/palm-desert-council-4 (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.