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City of Pismo Beach · Statewide General Election

Pismo Beach City Council

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 two open at-large seats on Pismo Beach's 5-member City Council -- the Mayor is the fifth, elected separately -- serving a 4-year term: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this San Luis Obispo County coastal city of about 8,072 residents (2020 Census). Pismo Beach elects its Council entirely at large, with no council districts.

Four candidates -- incumbent Stacy Inman and three challengers, Manuel Olivas, Gianni Scangarello, and Clare A. Malone Prichard -- are competing for Pismo Beach's two open at-large City Council seats.

This person would hold one of two open at-large seats on Pismo Beach's 5-member City Council, alongside a directly elected, citywide Mayor: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this San Luis Obispo County coastal city of about 8,072 residents (2020 Census). A 4-year term. Pismo Beach is a general law city operating under a council-manager government, with an appointed City Manager handling day-to-day operations, and elects its Council entirely at large, with no council districts.

Stacy Inman, whose council term expires in December 2026, is seeking reelection and is the only incumbent among the four qualified candidates; the city's own candidate page marks her "Incumbent? Yes" and the other three "Incumbent? No." The city's own City Council roster page confirms two of the sitting council's other four members -- Mayor Ed Waage and Councilman Scott Newton -- are running for Mayor rather than reelection to Council this cycle, while Mayor Pro Tem Mary Ann Reiss and Councilmember Marcia Guthrie are not up this cycle at all (Guthrie's term runs through Dec. 2028).

Stacy Inman

Inman is the sitting Council Member seeking reelection to a second term; her controlled committee, "Stacy Inman for City Council 2026" (FPPC ID 1493368), is on file with the city, and she filed her FPPC Form 501 candidate intention statement in May 2026, the earliest of any 2026 Pismo Beach candidate. No campaign website, candidate statement, or independent news coverage of her specific council record was found this session.

Strengths

A full term of sitting council experience and the earliest campaign committee registration of any 2026 candidate.

Trade-offs

No independent news coverage of specific council votes or a stated platform for this cycle was reachable this session.

Keep in mind

As the only incumbent in a four-candidate field for two seats, her reelection bid gives voters a direct comparison point against three non-incumbents -- but this dataset found no source detailing what, specifically, she'd continue or change.

Manuel Olivas

Olivas filed his FPPC Form 501 candidate intention statement in July 2026 and qualified for the ballot on August 7, 2026, per the city's own candidate page -- the latest qualification date of the four Council candidates. No controlled campaign committee is on file for him as of the city's Aug. 12, 2026 update, and no campaign website, candidate statement, or independent news coverage was found for him this session.

Strengths

A confirmed, ballot-qualified candidacy in a genuinely contested at-large race.

Trade-offs

No news coverage, campaign website, or candidate statement was reachable this session, so his platform and background are undescribed here.

Keep in mind

Filing and qualifying in the race's final week (per the city's own dates) doesn't by itself indicate anything about his platform, but it does mean less time for independent coverage to have developed before this dataset's research pass.

Gianni Scangarello

Scangarello filed his FPPC Form 501 candidate intention statement in July 2026 and qualified for the ballot on August 3, 2026, per the city's own candidate page. No controlled campaign committee is on file for him as of the city's Aug. 12, 2026 update, and no campaign website, candidate statement, or independent news coverage was found for him this session.

Strengths

A confirmed, ballot-qualified candidacy in a genuinely contested at-large race.

Trade-offs

No news coverage, campaign website, or candidate statement was reachable this session, so his platform and background are undescribed here.

Keep in mind

The absence of a controlled campaign committee suggests a modest, self-funded campaign, but that is an inference from the official record, not a stated fact from Scangarello himself.

Clare A. Malone Prichard

Malone Prichard filed her FPPC Form 501 candidate intention statement in June 2026 and qualified for the ballot on August 7, 2026, per the city's own candidate page; her controlled committee, "Clare Malone Prichard for City Council 2026" (FPPC ID 1493047), is on file with the city. No campaign website, candidate statement, or independent news coverage was found for her this session.

Strengths

A confirmed, ballot-qualified candidacy with a registered campaign committee in a genuinely contested at-large race.

Trade-offs

No news coverage, campaign website, or candidate statement was reachable this session, so her platform and background are undescribed here.

Keep in mind

Having an active, named committee (unlike Olivas or Scangarello) suggests active fundraising, though the underlying dollar filings were not reachable this session -- see the financial note below.

Source review: Strong (83/100) · 6 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • pismobeach.org (opens in a new tab)City of Pismo Beach -- own "November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election" page: states the two offices up this cycle (one Mayor, 2-year term ending Nov. 2028; two City Council Members, 4-year terms ending Nov. 2030), the nomination-period timeline (opens July 13, 2026; standard deadline Aug. 7; extended to Aug. 12 since incumbent Mayor Ed Waage did not file), and links the city's Mayor & Council Candidates page, Measure E-26, and Recipient Committees pages.
  • pismobeach.org (opens in a new tab)City of Pismo Beach -- own "Mayor & Council Candidates" page (page itself dated "DATE OF LAST UPDATE: August 12, 2026," the close of the nomination period): lists, in ballot order, three qualified Mayor candidates (Scott A. Newton, Shelby Bowen, Cynthia A. Replogle, all "Incumbent? No") and four qualified City Council candidates for two seats (Manuel Olivas, Gianni Scangarello, Stacy Inman -- "Incumbent? Yes" -- and Clare A. Malone Prichard), each with their Form 501 filing date, nomination-paper filing/qualification dates, and controlled-committee name/FPPC ID where one exists. Separately lists Lance M. Okuno under its own "Candidates Not Qualified" heading -- "Date Obtained Nomination Papers: Did not obtain papers ... Date Qualified for the Ballot: N/A" -- confirming he is not on the ballot.
  • pismobeach.org (opens in a new tab)City of Pismo Beach -- own "City Clerk" page: names City Clerk Erica Kirkwood, the elections contact (elections@pismobeach.org), and the AccessPismo public-records portal (accesspismo.pismobeach.org) as the city's home for election notices and campaign filings; confirms the city partners with the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder's Office for voter registration and ballot materials while running its own candidate-filing and disclosure process.
  • pismobeach.org (opens in a new tab)City of Pismo Beach -- own "City Council" page: names the sitting five-member council -- Ed Waage (Mayor, term through Dec. 2026), Mary Ann Reiss (Mayor Pro Tem, through Dec. 2026), Marcia Guthrie and Scott Newton (Council Members, both through Dec. 2028), and Stacy Inman (Council Member, through Dec. 2026) -- and states, in the city's own words, that Pismo Beach is "a general law city, governed by a City Council / City Manager form of government," with all five members elected at large, the Mayor to a 2-year term and Council Members to 4-year terms.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia, "Pismo Beach, California": used narrowly for its 2020 Census population figure (8,072) and to independently cross-check the general-law, council-manager, at-large-election government structure already confirmed by the city's own City Council page.
  • accesspismo.pismobeach.org (opens in a new tab)Every campaign-finance and candidate-statement portal the City of Pismo Beach itself links to was unreachable this session: the city's own "View Filings" and "Candidate Statements" links on its candidate page both point to a Laserfiche cloud portal (portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/Browse.aspx, repo r-f36a9aa0) that returns only a client-rendered single-page-app shell with no static content to a direct fetch; the city's separate AccessPismo public-records WebLink portal (accesspismo.pismobeach.org) timed out on every direct connection attempt, from both this session's fetch tooling and a raw curl request; and the city's Form 700 e-filing system (PismoBeachCity.southtechhosting.com/eDisclosure) likewise timed out on every attempt. A negative-result access check affecting every 2026 candidate equally, not a claim about anyone's actual campaign finances.

Last updated September 2, 2026.