sonomacounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Sonoma County Registrar of Voters -- "Local Candidates Who Have Filed," November 3, 2026 General Election (refetched fresh this session; page's own "Last Updated" stamp reads 8/17/26, 6:45 p.m., unchanged on a live re-check 2026-09-01, after both the regular (Aug. 7) and extended (Aug. 12) nomination deadlines had passed): the "City of Petaluma" section lists MAYOR (Elect 1): Kevin McDonnell (Incumbent, "Petaluma City Mayor"), John Hanania ("Small Business Owner"), Shelina Moreda ("Businesswoman/Farmer/Athlete"); CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 1 (Elect 1): Janice Cader Thompson (Incumbent, "Petaluma City Councilmember"), Alan W. LaPierre ("Property Manager"), Nate Martin ("Retail Manager"); DISTRICT 2 (Elect 1): John Shribbs (Incumbent), Brent Newell ("Environmental Attorney"); DISTRICT 3 (Elect 1): Karen Nau (Incumbent), Eric Vazquez ("Affordable Housing Advocate") -- given a jurisdiction-prefixed key distinct from the county-level shard's own "sonoma-rov-candidates-2026" citation of this same page, since both cite it for different contests.
petalumavoice.org (opens in a new tab)Petaluma Voice -- "Mayor facing two election challengers: Moreda and Hanania" (Aug. 5, 2026): independently corroborates the identical nine-candidate field across Mayor and Council Districts 1-3, and states directly "The city council has a total of four positions up for the Nov. 3 election -- mayor, District 1, District 2, and District 3." Describes John Hanania as "a small business owner who last ran for city council in 2022" and Shelina Moreda as "a professional motorcycle racer and dairy farmer who had an unsuccessful bid in the June primary for the Sonoma County Board of Supervisor's seat"; names a fourth District 2 hopeful, Elece Hempel, who withdrew before the filing deadline -- consistent with the county's final two-candidate District 2 field.
en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- Petaluma, California: cited narrowly for the 2020 Census population (59,776), the city's council-manager form of government, and independent confirmation that Kevin McDonnell is the sitting Mayor and Karen Nau the sitting Vice Mayor -- its Government section carries no detail on council district structure or term lengths, so it is not relied on for either.
cityofpetaluma.org (opens in a new tab)A documented site-access gap, not a claim about any candidate's background, the city's council/district structure, or campaign-finance filing location: the City of Petaluma's own site (cityofpetaluma.org and the www. subdomain) returned HTTP 403 to every automated fetch attempt in this pass, across every path tried (site root, /city-clerk/, /elections/, /city-council/, /campaign-finance/, /city-clerk-fppc-forms/, and /government/city-clerk/elections/) -- preventing this dataset from reading the city's own notice of election, council term lengths/total district count, or campaign-finance disclosure location directly.
netfile.com (opens in a new tab)A documented financial-disclosure access gap: a guess against NetFile's public infrastructure under agency id "PET" 301-redirected successfully to netfile.com/public/PET/campaign, suggesting an active NetFile agency registered under that id, though this pass could not independently confirm the id belongs to the City of Petaluma specifically. The portal returned only a client-rendered "Public Portal" app shell with no server-side filer or candidate data reachable by this session's fetch tooling -- the same JS-gated NetFile pattern documented elsewhere in this dataset. No FPPC Form 460, 470, or 501 could be confirmed present or absent for any of the nine candidates.
petalumavoice.org (opens in a new tab)Petaluma Voice -- "Moreda to remain on ballot after residency question" (Aug. 21, 2026): SEIU member Ryan Williams and North Bay Labor Council's Maddy Hirshfield submitted correspondence to the city on Aug. 15 questioning whether mayoral candidate Shelina Moreda -- previously resident at a ranch outside city limits -- met the requirement to establish city residency by July 7, 30 days before her Aug. 6 filing; City Clerk Caitlin Corley determined Moreda "has provided sufficient information to establish that her residency meets the City's code requirements," based on a lease agreement, landlord letter, an Aug. 1 rent check, and a July 1 receipt; confirms she remains on the ballot as one of three mayoral candidates.

Last updated September 1, 2026.

City of Petaluma

Mayor of Petaluma

Petaluma's Mayor presides over City Council meetings. The Mayor represents the city publicly. The Mayor votes alongside district council members on the budget and city laws. Voters elect the Mayor citywide. This dataset could not confirm the Mayor's exact term length. It also could not confirm the council's total size.

Mayor Kevin McDonnell is running for reelection. McDonnell faces two challengers. John Hanania owns a small business. Shelina Moreda races motorcycles and runs a dairy farm. The top vote getter on November 3 wins. There is no runoff.

Petaluma's Mayor leads City Council meetings and speaks for the city. The Mayor also votes with the district councilmembers on the budget, ordinances, and land use. An appointed city manager runs day-to-day work. Unlike the district seats, the Mayor is elected citywide. Petaluma is a council-manager city of about 59,800 people in the 2020 Census. The Mayor's exact term length and the council's total size could not be confirmed. The City of Petaluma's own site blocked every automated visit.

Kevin McDonnell

Kevin McDonnell is Petaluma's sitting Mayor, running again. Their ballot title is "Petaluma City Mayor." No campaign website, news profile, or board record was found for them.

John Hanania

John Hanania is a small business owner. Hanania is challenging Mayor Kevin McDonnell. They last ran for Petaluma City Council in 2022. No news profile, campaign website, or board record was found for them.

Shelina Moreda

Shelina Moreda is a motorcycle racer and dairy farmer. She is challenging Mayor Kevin McDonnell. She ran for the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in June 2026 and lost. A question about her residency came up in mid-August. The City Clerk settled it in her favor.

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