# Pleasanton City Council, District 1

Compare records and positions simply between Vin Kruttiventi or Kathy Narum for Pleasanton City Council, District 1 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold one of Pleasanton's four district City Council seats. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. Pleasanton is an Alameda County city of about 80,000 people. The term is four years, with an eight-year term limit. Pleasanton's Mayor is elected separately, citywide. The other two Council seats are not up this cycle.

- Jurisdiction: City of Pleasanton
- 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/pleasanton-council-1
- 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: 88 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

- **Vin Kruttiventi** — Business Owner
- **Kathy Narum** — Businesswoman

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

An open seat: sitting Councilmember Jeff Nibert did not file for re-election. Two candidates are running: Vin Kruttiventi and Kathy Narum. Whichever gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff.

This District 1 seat is one of Pleasanton's four district City Council seats. The job covers city ordinances, the budget, and land use. Pleasanton is an Alameda County city of about 80,000. The term is 4 years, with an 8-year term limit. Pleasanton's Mayor is elected separately, citywide. The city's other two Council seats, Districts 2 and 4, aren't up this cycle.

Both candidates are business owners. Both run on making city finances sustainable, but from different starting points. Kruttiventi is new to politics and stresses their private-sector management experience. Narum served on the Council for about a decade. They are now returning after time on the regional water board.

## Vin Kruttiventi

A business owner whose filed ballot designation reads "Business Owner." Kruttiventi's own candidate statement describes over 20 years of experience "building successful companies," managing large budgets, creating jobs, and leading a nonprofit that mentors emerging companies. Their platform centers on fixing what they call "years of poor financial planning" at City Hall by increasing city revenue -- supporting existing local businesses, revitalizing Stoneridge Mall, and attracting new businesses to downtown and the business parks -- alongside support for police and fire, better roads, aging infrastructure, safe drinking water, and parks.

**Strengths:** Two decades of private-sector leadership. Their platform focuses on business revenue, including reviving Stoneridge Mall and drawing businesses downtown.

**Trade-offs:** No prior elected or appointed public service was found for Kruttiventi. No independent news coverage of their candidacy was found either.

**Keep in mind:** No campaign finance figures were found for Kruttiventi. They have filed only a candidate intention statement with the state. See Financial info.

## Kathy Narum

Narum's filed ballot designation reads "Businesswoman"; their own candidate statement lists a fuller occupation of "Businesswoman / Nonprofit Director." They describe themselves as "a former Councilmember for nearly a decade, and now as a Zone 7 Water Agency Board Director" (an elected special-district board covering water supply for the Livermore-Amador, or Tri-Valley, area) -- a history independently consistent with their state campaign-committee filings, which date back to 2013-2014 and 2018 council runs and a 2020 run for Mayor. Outside government, their statement says they serve on the boards of Sunflower Hill, the Pleasanton Downtown Association, and the Pleasanton Partnerships in Education Foundation, and that they manage a family business. Their platform centers on water affordability and reliability, fiscal sustainability, and public-safety readiness.

**Strengths:** Roughly a decade of prior Council experience. They also serve on the regional water board that supplies Pleasanton. That is the city's most cited priority.

**Trade-offs:** Narum is running to return to a seat they left. No independent news coverage of their earlier council years or this campaign was found.

**Keep in mind:** Narum gave $500 to Mayor Balch's campaign on June 30, 2026, per Balch's own Form 460. That is a money tie between the two officeholders. It is a filing detail, not an endorsement claim by either campaign.

## Sources

1. [Alameda County Registrar of Voters -- official Candidate List system (electionId 260, "General Election - 11/03/2026 (Official)"), queried directly via its own JSON/HTML API (POST /rov_app/candidatelist/) for all three Pleasanton races (categoryId 600, raceIds 104, 129, 130): For Mayor (Jack Balch, Julie Testa); For Members Of City Council #1 (Vin Kruttiventi, Kathy Narum); For Members Of City Council #3 (Reena Gupta, Jamie Yee). Names ballot designations verbatim as filed: "Mayor/CPA" (Balch), "Councilmember, City of Pleasanton" (Testa), "Business Owner" (Kruttiventi), "Businesswoman" (Narum), "Local Business Owner" (Gupta), "Communications Manager" (Yee). The system's own "Incumbent" field reads "N" for all six candidates, including sitting Mayor Jack Balch -- this dataset does not treat that field as reliable given the City of Pleasanton's own confirmation (see pleasanton-council-roster-2026) that Balch currently holds the office he is running to keep.](https://www.alamedacountyca.gov/rov_app/candidatelist)
2. [City of Pleasanton -- City Clerk's official "Qualified Candidate List" for the November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election, updated 8/12/2026 at 5:00 PM (after the nomination period): names the identical six-candidate, three-race roster as the county's own Candidate List, with each candidate's own campaign phone, email, and website.](https://www.cityofpleasantonca.gov/assets/our-government/city-clerk/2026-candidates-list-081226.pdf)
3. [City of Pleasanton -- City Clerk's official "Candidate Statements" booklet for the November 3, 2026 election: each of the six qualified candidates' own, self-authored statement and stated occupation, filed with and published by the city -- Kruttiventi ("Business Owner"), Narum ("Businesswoman / Nonprofit Director"), Gupta ("Entrepreneur/Workforce Consultant", age 56), Yee ("Public Health Communications Manager"), Balch ("Mayor / CPA"), and Testa ("Pleasanton City Councilmember") -- the backbone of each candidate's editorial profile here. Two candidates' statement occupations read slightly differently from their county-filed ballot designation (pleasanton-acgov-candidatelist-2026): Narum and Gupta, both noted in text rather than silently resolved.](https://www.cityofpleasantonca.gov/assets/our-government/city-clerk/candidate-statements-081226.pdf)
4. [City of Pleasanton -- official "Mayor & City Council" page: names the sitting Mayor (Jack Balch, at-large) and all four district Councilmembers -- Jeff Nibert (District 1), Craig Eicher (District 2), Julie Testa (District 3), and Matt Gaidos (District 4, Vice Mayor) -- confirming who currently holds each seat up this cycle (Mayor and District 1 and 3) and who does not appear among this cycle's qualified candidates (Nibert).](https://www.cityofpleasantonca.gov/our-government/mayor-city-council/)
5. [City of Pleasanton -- official "Elections & Measures" page: states the three November 3, 2026 seats up for election as "Councilmember from District 1," "Councilmember from District 3," and "Mayor at-large," and describes the city's council structure as "one mayor elected at-large and four council members elected by-district."](https://www.cityofpleasantonca.gov/our-government/elections-measures/)
6. [Wikipedia's Pleasanton, California article -- 2020 census population (79,871) and the city's council-manager government structure (a five-member council: four district representatives plus an at-large Mayor serving a 2-year term, an 8-year term limit for all seats, a Vice Mayor appointed annually by the Mayor), cited only for general context and as independent corroboration of the current roster.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasanton,_California)
7. [The City of Pleasanton's own NetFile-hosted public campaign-finance portal (netfile.com, agency code COP), queried directly for all six 2026 candidates with each available FPPC filing downloaded and read for its actual reported figures -- real dollar amounts, not estimated. Balch's Form 460 (period Jan. 1-June 30, 2026) reports $13,955 raised and $33,158 cash on hand; Gupta's reports $4,928 raised (entirely in June 2026, when her committee organized) and $4,828 cash on hand; Yee's reports $2,949 raised and $731 cash on hand. Testa's only committee on file for this period, her 2022 City Council committee, reported zero contributions and zero expenditures for the first half of 2026; a separate "Julie A. Testa" committee organized in August 2026 (Form 501) with no Form 460 yet on file. Narum's committee reorganized for this cycle in July 2026 and likewise has no semi-annual statement yet, but reported a $5,000 personal loan to her own campaign via Form 497 on Aug. 19, 2026. Kruttiventi has filed only a Form 501 candidate intention statement -- no committee, no reportable contributions as of this dataset's retrieval.](https://netfile.com/public/sites/api/agencies)

## The rest of the ballot

Pleasanton City Council, District 1 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, "Pleasanton City Council, District 1 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/pleasanton-council-1 (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.