# Placentia City Council, District 4 Compare records and positions simply between Chad Wanke or James Burandt for Placentia City Council, District 4 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Placentia's five-member City Council. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. An appointed city manager runs daily operations. Placentia has no separately elected Mayor. The council picks a Mayor from among its own members. Not all five council districts are elected the same year. The term is four years. - Jurisdiction: City of Placentia - 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/placentia-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 3 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Chad Wanke** — Mayor/Businessman · Incumbent - **James Burandt** — Public Service Professional A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Incumbent Chad Wanke -- Placentia's sitting Mayor, elected to that title by fellow councilmembers -- is running for a third council term against one challenger, James Burandt. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff. This person holds District 4's seat on Placentia's 5-member City Council. They vote on 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, and District 4's incumbent, Chad Wanke, currently holds that title. Not all five council districts are elected the same year; only Districts 2 and 4 are up in 2026. The term is four years. Beyond Wanke's substantive city-published biography and each candidate's own filed occupation, no campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source could be found for Burandt despite a real search effort. Documented below as a gap, not filled in with speculation. ## Chad Wanke Wanke was born in Anaheim and has lived his entire life in North Orange County; he holds a B.A. in Geography with a minor in Anthropology from Cal State Fullerton. He is Chairman and President of Orbis Capital and a Partner at Third Encore Studios, a rehearsal-studio company. He was first elected Placentia City Treasurer in 2008, elected to City Council in 2010, re-elected in 2014, and was elected Mayor by fellow councilmembers in both 2014 and 2017. His regional roles include the Orange County Sanitation District board (chairs its Administration Committee), the Orange County Waste Management Commission (past Chairman), and past Chairman of the Orange County City Selection Committee. **Strengths:** Extensive tenure -- City Treasurer since 2008, on Council since 2010, and repeatedly chosen Mayor by his colleagues -- plus regional infrastructure and waste-management board experience. **Trade-offs:** The city's bio lists no specific 2026 priorities; his long incumbency also means any budget or growth concerns are partly a record he's already made. **Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for his campaign in this pass -- see Financial info. ## James Burandt Filed their candidacy under the ballot designation "Public Service Professional." No campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source describing their specific background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort. **Strengths:** A public-service-professional background suggests direct familiarity with government operations, though the specific agency or role isn't confirmed in this pass. **Trade-offs:** No campaign statement or platform was found, so voters have no confirmed sense of their priorities beyond their listed designation. **Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for their campaign in this pass -- see Financial info. ## Sources 1. [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](https://ocvote.gov/fileadmin/user_upload/data/candlog/GEN2026/candlog.pdf) 2. [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](https://www.placentia.org/1170/November-3-2026-General-Municipal-Electi) 3. [City of Placentia -- Mayor Chad P. Wanke, District 4 biography page: covers his education, his business roles (Chairman/President of Orbis Capital; Partner, Third Encore Studios), his path from City Treasurer (2008) to City Council (2010, re-elected 2014) to Mayor (elected by fellow council members in 2014 and 2017), and his regional committee seats](https://www.placentia.org/448/Mayor-Chad-P-Wanke-District-4) ## The rest of the ballot Placentia 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, "Placentia City Council, District 4 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/placentia-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.