City of Placentia · Statewide General Election
Placentia City Council, District 2
Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.
This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.
On the ballot
- Matt Waugh — Business Executive/Parent
- Santosh Sabnis — Business Owner/Father
- Julie Suchard — Community Volunteer
This person holds your district's seat on Placentia's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. Placentia has no separately, citywide-elected Mayor -- the council elects a Mayor from among its own members. Not all five council districts are elected the same year. A 4-year term.
Three candidates are running for Placentia City Council District 2's open seat: Matt Waugh, Santosh Sabnis, and Julie Suchard. Incumbent Kevin Kirwin did not file for re-election. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff.
This person holds District 2's seat on Placentia's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. Placentia has no separately, citywide-elected Mayor -- the council elects a Mayor from among its own members. Not all five council districts are elected the same year; only Districts 2 and 4 are up in 2026. A 4-year term.
This is Placentia's only open council seat in 2026 -- the other race, District 4, has the incumbent on the ballot. Beyond each candidate's own filed occupation, no campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source could be found for any of the three despite a real, per-candidate search effort. Documented below as a gap, not filled in with speculation.
Matt Waugh
Filed his candidacy under the ballot designation "Business Executive/Parent." No campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source describing his background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort, including a direct guess at a campaign-site domain that failed to resolve.
Strengths
A business-executive background suggests budget and organizational-management experience relevant to council work.
Trade-offs
No campaign statement or platform was found in this pass, so voters have no confirmed sense of his priorities beyond his listed designation.
Keep in mind
No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for his campaign in this pass -- see Financial info.
Santosh Sabnis
Filed his candidacy under the ballot designation "Business Owner/Father." No campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source describing his background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort.
Strengths
A local business-ownership background suggests direct familiarity with Placentia's commercial and permitting environment.
Trade-offs
No campaign statement or platform was found in this pass, so voters have no confirmed sense of his priorities beyond his listed designation.
Keep in mind
No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for his campaign in this pass -- see Financial info.
Julie Suchard
Filed her candidacy under the ballot designation "Community Volunteer." No campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source describing her background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort.
Strengths
A community-volunteer background suggests existing civic engagement and neighborhood familiarity.
Trade-offs
No campaign statement or platform was found in this pass, so voters have no confirmed sense of her priorities beyond her listed designation.
Keep in mind
No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for her campaign in this pass -- see Financial info.
District 2's outgoing officeholder, Kevin Kirwin, did not file for re-election. Per the city's own biography page, Kirwin has lived in Placentia since age 3, runs an online-safety-training business, and was long active coaching youth soccer and serving as president of Placentia JUSA before entering city government; his stated council priorities have been "balanced budgets, public safety, good roads, clean parks, and an economic environment that attracts business." No source found in this pass states why he chose not to seek re-election.
Source review: Strong (89/100) · 3 cited sources
Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.
- ocvote.gov (opens in a new tab)OC Registrar of Voters -- Contest/Candidate Proof List, General Election 11/3/2026 -- City of Placentia section (pages 141-144 of 188, downloaded directly and parsed locally with pypdf since a plain fetch returns undecodable PDF stream data): confirms Member City Council District 2 (3 qualified candidates) and District 4 (2) as the city's two November 2026 council races, each Vote for 1, plus a separate, unopposed City Clerk contest not authored here, with incumbent flags and every candidate's filed ballot designation
- placentia.org (opens in a new tab)City of Placentia -- November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election page: confirms Districts 2 and 4 as the council seats up this cycle, lists all five qualified council candidates by district, and confirms City Clerk Robert S. "Bob" McKinnell is unopposed
- placentia.org (opens in a new tab)City of Placentia -- Councilmember Kevin Kirwin, District 2 biography page: covers his multi-decade Placentia residency, his online-safety-training business, his history coaching and presiding over Placentia JUSA youth soccer, and his stated council priorities as the outgoing District 2 officeholder, who did not file for re-election in 2026
Last updated August 31, 2026.