# Parlier Mayor Compare records and positions simply between Lionel Lopez, Jr., Fernando Banuelos, or Alma Beltran for Parlier Mayor at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would serve as Parlier's Mayor. Voters elect the Mayor directly and at-large, not by district. The Mayor presides over the City Council and city government. Parlier is a Fresno County city of about 14,600 residents. The city uses a City Council-City Manager government. The term is four years. Parlier's four other council seats are elected by district. The city has no elected City Clerk or City Treasurer. - Jurisdiction: City of Parlier - 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/parlier-mayor - 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: September 1, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 86 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 - **Lionel Lopez, Jr.** — Licensed General Contractor - **Fernando Banuelos** — Retired Instructor - **Alma Beltran** — Incumbent A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Three candidates are running for Mayor: incumbent Alma Beltran, retired instructor Fernando Banuelos, and licensed general contractor Lionel Lopez Jr. This person would serve as Parlier's Mayor, elected directly and at-large rather than by district. They preside over the City Council and city government for this Fresno County city of about 14,600 residents, under a City Council-City Manager form of government. The term is four years. Unlike the Mayor, Parlier's four other City Council seats are elected by district, and the city has no elected City Clerk or City Treasurer. Whichever candidate gets the most votes wins -- no runoff or ranked-choice voting is used. Beltran, Mayor for roughly a decade, was also a candidate this year for the Fresno County Board of Supervisors' District 4 seat against former Sheriff Margaret Mims; that race does not appear on Fresno County's November ballot, meaning it was decided without a runoff at the June primary, and she is now seeking another term as Mayor instead. ## Alma Beltran The incumbent Mayor, seeking another term after roughly a decade in office; her filed ballot designation is simply "Incumbent," and she did not file a candidate statement for this race. She was also on this year's ballot for the Fresno County Board of Supervisors' District 4 seat against former Sheriff Margaret Mims, a race that did not proceed to a November runoff. A critic, former Fresno Unified Trustee Brooke Ashjian -- who had clashed with Beltran over the Measure C sales-tax renewal process while she chaired the Fresno Council of Governments' steering committee for it -- registered a website in Beltran's own name calling for her removal as mayor, citing a $1 million lawsuit a former Parlier Police Chief won alleging Beltran fired him in retaliation for investigating a city employee for embezzlement, six police chiefs and six city managers over her tenure, and documentation of missed payments on her own city water bill. Beltran responded on Facebook calling the attack a racially charged "smear campaign." This dataset found no independent verification of the lawsuit or water-bill claims beyond the news outlet's own reporting of the dispute. **Strengths:** Roughly a decade of experience as Parlier's sitting Mayor, including a stint chairing the Fresno Council of Governments' steering committee for the Measure C renewal. **Trade-offs:** A documented public dispute over city turnover under her tenure and her own unpaid water bills -- allegations from an independent outlet, not independently verified by this dataset. **Keep in mind:** See this contest's financial note below. ## Fernando Banuelos A first-time candidate for Mayor; Banuelos's filed occupation is "Retired Instructor," and they did not file a candidate statement for this race. This dataset found no independent biographical detail for them beyond that despite a genuine multi-method search (Bing web and news search, the city's own site, Ballotpedia). **Strengths:** None independently confirmed beyond their filed occupation. **Trade-offs:** No independent reporting, campaign site, or platform statement was found for them. **Keep in mind:** See this contest's financial note below. ## Lionel Lopez, Jr. A first-time candidate for Mayor; Lopez's filed occupation is "Licensed General Contractor," and they were the only one of the three Mayor candidates to file a candidate statement. Their own campaign site names three platform themes -- "Innovating for our future," "Respecting our roots," "Building a stronger community together" -- but gives no further biographical detail, and lists a registered FPPC campaign committee (#1489459). **Strengths:** The only Mayor candidate to file a candidate statement, and the only one with a campaign site and registered FPPC committee. **Trade-offs:** Their campaign site gives no specific policy detail beyond three general themes, and no independent reporting on them was found. **Keep in mind:** See this contest's financial note below. ## Review notes - Lionel Lopez, Jr.'s own campaign site for Parlier Mayor: gives his registered FPPC committee ID (#1489459) and three platform themes -- "Innovating for our future," "Respecting our roots," "Building a stronger community together" -- no further biographical or occupational detail beyond what the county's own candidate list gives. may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters -- CFMR009 "Candidate List" for the Nov. 3, 2026 Consolidated Statewide General Election (printed 8/12/2026 5:37:13PM, post-filing-deadline): lists Parlier's three city-section contests -- Mayor (5140), City Council District 2 (5142), and City Council District 4 (5144) -- with each qualified candidate's filed ballot designation: Fernando Banuelos ("Retired Instructor"), Lionel Lopez, Jr. ("Licensed General Contractor"), and Alma M. Beltran ("Incumbent") for Mayor; Trinidad "Trino" Pimentel ("Father"), Marcie Villalpando ("Student"), and Yesenia "Yesi" Flores ("Administrative Secretary") for District 2; and Andrew Lopez ("Patient Care Technician") and Diego Garza ("Incumbent") for District 4](https://www2.fresnocountyca.gov/2850/post/2026NOV/CandidateList.pdf) 2. [Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters -- CFMR001 "Contest/Candidate Proof List," filtered to Contests on Ballot, for the Nov. 3, 2026 election (printed 8/18/2026 8:39:55AM): independently confirms the same three Parlier contests, each flagged ON BALLOT, and separately names each seat's incumbent-of-record as "Elected" -- Alma M Beltran (Mayor), Juanita Torres Molina (District 2, who did not file for reelection, leaving the seat open), and Diego Guadalupe Garza (District 4, who did file and qualify)](https://www2.fresnocountyca.gov/2850/post/2026NOV/Contests%20on%20Ballot%20with%20Qualified%20Candidates.pdf) 3. [City of Parlier -- "City Council" page: states Parlier is "a general law City governed by a five-member City Council" under a "City Council-City Manager form of government," where "Four council members are elected by their respective districts and the Mayor is elected at large"; names the sitting Council -- Alma M. Beltran (Mayor), Sabrina Rodriguez (Mayor Pro Tem, District 1), Juanita "Janie" Molina (District 2), Cathryn "Kathy" Solorio (District 3), and Diego G. Garza (District 4)](https://www.parlier.ca.us/178/City-Council) 4. [Wikipedia's Parlier, California article: population 14,576 (2020 census), incorporated November 15, 1921](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parlier,_California) 5. [Lionel Lopez, Jr.'s own campaign site for Parlier Mayor: gives his registered FPPC committee ID (#1489459) and three platform themes -- "Innovating for our future," "Respecting our roots," "Building a stronger community together" -- no further biographical or occupational detail beyond what the county's own candidate list gives](https://lopezforparlier2026.com) 6. [The San Joaquin Valley Sun -- "'As Loca as They Come': Parlier Mayor Beltran faces blitz over city turnover, unpaid water bills," byline senior editor Daniel Gligich: reports Beltran was concurrently running for the Fresno County Board of Supervisors' District 4 seat against former Sheriff Margaret Mims; reports a critic (former Fresno Unified Trustee Brooke Ashjian, who had clashed with Beltran over the Measure C renewal process) registered a website in Beltran's own name (AlmaBeltran.com) calling for her removal, citing a $1 million lawsuit a former Police Chief won alleging retaliatory firing, six police chiefs and six city managers over her roughly decade-long tenure, and documented missed water-bill payments; quotes Beltran's own Facebook response calling it a racially charged "smear campaign" and Ashjian's rebuttal -- reported here as claims in a documented public dispute, not as this dataset's own independently verified findings](https://sjvsun.com/2026/05/06/as-loca-as-they-come-parlier-mayor-beltran-faces-blitz-over-city-turnover-unpaid-water-bills/) 7. [A negative-result campaign-finance search: California's Cal-Access filer search returned only an Incapsula bot-detection interstitial for a direct query against Lionel Lopez's FPPC committee ID (#1489459) this session -- the same recurring failure mode already documented elsewhere in this dataset (Coalinga, Orinda, Danville). Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source for this contest, not any candidate's actual finances](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1489459&session=2025) ## The rest of the ballot Parlier Mayor 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, "Parlier Mayor — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/parlier-mayor (sources last retrieved September 1, 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.