# Rancho Cordova City Council, District 5

Compare records and positions simply between Lilia Darbinyan, Linda Budge, or Tegan Mauldin for Rancho Cordova City Council, District 5 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Rancho Cordova's five-member City Council. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. An appointed city manager runs daily operations. The Mayor and Vice Mayor are not elected separately. Those two positions rotate every December among the five council members. Colleagues choose who fills them. Only District 2 and District 5 are up this cycle. Districts 1, 3, and 4 were last elected in 2024. They are not up again until 2028. The term is four years.

- Jurisdiction: City of Rancho Cordova
- 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/rancho-cordova-council-5
- 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: 84 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

- **Lilia Darbinyan** — School Principal/Businesswoman
- **Linda Budge** — Councilmember, City of Rancho Cordova · Incumbent
- **Tegan Mauldin** — Planning Commissioner, City of Rancho Cordova

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

Three candidates are running for Rancho Cordova's District 5 council seat. Incumbent Vice Mayor Linda Budge is seeking their seventh term. Budge is challenged by fellow Planning Commissioner Tegan Mauldin. The third candidate is Lilia Darbinyan, a school principal.

Rancho Cordova's City Council has five members, one per district, each serving a 4-year term. The Council sets city ordinances, the budget, and land-use policy; an appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. The Mayor and Vice Mayor are not elected directly -- the two roles rotate annually each December among the five sitting councilmembers, chosen by their colleagues. Only District 2 and District 5 are up this cycle; Districts 1, 3, and 4 were last elected in 2024 and return in 2028.

This is a direct plurality election with no primary and no runoff -- whichever of the three candidates receives the most votes on November 3 wins the seat outright. Budge has represented this seat since Rancho Cordova incorporated as a city in 2003, longer than any other sitting councilmember; both challengers currently serve alongside each other on the city's Planning Commission, one in a district seat and one at-large.

## Linda Budge

Budge is the incumbent, seeking a seventh term. Their filed ballot designation is "Councilmember, City of Rancho Cordova." They were elected to Rancho Cordova's first City Council at the city's 2003 incorporation. They have been reelected every cycle since, in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022. They have served as Mayor five times, in 2004, 2008, 2013, 2018 and 2023. They have served as Vice Mayor four times, in 2007, 2012, 2017 and 2022. They are the city's current Vice Mayor. Professionally they are an American Institute Certified Planner. They own Geometra Planning & Permitting. That planning and permit-processing firm serves clients nationwide. They have lived in the area for more than 40 years. They chaired the Sacramento County Subdivision Review Committee for over 18 years. That committee hears every parcel and subdivision map filed in the county. They previously led the Cordova Community Council. They also helped preserve the historic Mills Station building as a community center.

**Strengths:** Unmatched institutional experience. Budge has served 23 years on the Council since the city's 2003 incorporation. They also bring a planning career relevant to its land-use work.

**Trade-offs:** No independent reporting evaluating their most recent term was found. Their long tenure means accountability runs mostly through name recognition. It runs less through fresh scrutiny.

**Keep in mind:** Budge owns a planning and permitting firm. Their clients' interests could occasionally intersect with Council land-use votes. No reporting alleging a specific conflict was found. It is a structural detail worth knowing.

## Tegan Mauldin

Mauldin is a first-time council candidate. Their filed ballot designation is "Planning Commissioner, City of Rancho Cordova." They currently hold one of the city's two at-large Planning Commission seats. They were appointed under the name Tegan Knifton. The city's own site now lists this same commissioner as Tegan Mauldin, at the same contact address format. Beyond their current Planning Commission service, a real multi-method search found no further biographical detail. It found no campaign website and no news coverage for them. That search covered the city's own site, Wikipedia, Ballotpedia, and general web and news search. Ballotpedia was blocked to automated access.

**Strengths:** Sitting experience on the city's Planning Commission. Mauldin reviews the same land-use and development matters the Council ultimately votes on.

**Trade-offs:** Mauldin has no prior elected office. Beyond their Planning Commission role, no independent reporting or campaign material describing their platform or priorities was found.

**Keep in mind:** This is a sourcing gap, not evidence against them. A real search effort turned up nothing further to report.

## Lilia Darbinyan

Darbinyan is a first-time candidate. Their filed ballot designation is "School Principal/Businesswoman." A real multi-method search found no campaign website and no news coverage. It found no further biographical detail beyond their self-declared occupation as filed with the county. That search covered the city's own site, Wikipedia, Ballotpedia, CAL-ACCESS, LinkedIn, and general web and news search. Ballotpedia and LinkedIn were blocked to automated access.

**Strengths:** not established in the sourcing found for this race.

**Trade-offs:** Darbinyan is a first-time candidate with no public record beyond their filed ballot designation. Voters have little more than Darbinyan's name and stated occupation to go on.

**Keep in mind:** this is a sourcing gap, not evidence against them. Several search tools returned blocked or empty results. It is possible more exists than could be confirmed.

## Sources

1. [Sacramento County Registrar of Voters -- official Nov. 3, 2026 General Election Roster of Candidates, read directly at its server-rendered address (elections.saccounty.gov redirects there from its content/vre/... front-end path): names both Rancho Cordova City Council contests as "On Ballot: Yes," each Vote for 1 -- District 2 (contest 5533: Elliott Stevenson, Qualified) and District 5 (contest 5536: Tegan Mauldin, Linda Budge, and Lilia Darbinyan, all Qualified; Sheikh Zulkader, Did Not Qualify) -- with each candidate's filed ballot designation verbatim.](https://elections.saccounty.gov/us/en/campaign-services/candidate-report.html)
2. [City of Rancho Cordova -- official City Council page (read via dated Internet Archive snapshots after cityofranchocordova.org itself returned HTTP 403 to direct fetches in this pass; content is the city's own official page, not an archive-only source). A Jan. 2026 snapshot names the sitting Council: Mayor Garrett Gatewood, Vice Mayor Linda Budge, and Council Members David M. Sander, Joe Little, and Siri Pulipati, and states in its own words that "Two Council seats for District 2 and District 5 will be up for election in November 2026" while Districts 1, 3, and 4 (elected Nov. 2024) are next up in 2028. Its elected-members table gives explicit district numbers for Sander (1), Little (3), and Pulipati (4) but not, in that table, for Gatewood or Budge (both elected Nov. 2022, term Dec. 2022-Dec. 2026) -- district assignment for those two is established independently (see the rancho_cordova_contests() code comment). Also confirms the Mayor/Vice Mayor rotation is annual, in December, chosen by the council's own members rather than elected separately.](https://www.cityofranchocordova.org/departments/city-council)
3. [City of Rancho Cordova -- official Elections page (read via a dated Internet Archive snapshot after cityofranchocordova.org itself returned HTTP 403 to direct fetches in this pass; content is the city's own official page, not an archive-only source), Feb. 2026 snapshot: states "Two (2) City Council District seats are up for election: District 2 and District 5" for the Nov. 3, 2026 General Election, independently matching the county's own roster; also gives the candidate nomination period (July 13-Aug. 7, 2026) and the FPPC Form 501/Form 410 filing requirements, with Form 501 filed with the City Clerk's office and Form 410 (once $2,000 is raised or spent) with the Secretary of State -- no NetFile or other searchable online campaign-finance portal is referenced on this page.](https://www.cityofranchocordova.org/departments/city-clerk/elections)
4. [Wikipedia's Rancho Cordova, California article -- confirms the council-manager form of government, a 5-member City Council with an annually rotating Mayor chosen by council peers, and names Garrett Gatewood as Mayor and Linda Budge as Vice Mayor alongside Council Members David Sander, Joe Little, and Siri Pulipati; does not itself mention the 2026 election or any 2026 candidate.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Cordova,_California)
5. [City of Rancho Cordova -- official Planning Commission biography page for Tegan Mauldin, read via a dated Internet Archive snapshot (March 2026) after cityofranchocordova.org itself returned HTTP 403 to direct fetches in this pass: a one-line official bio ("currently serves as Planning Commissioner for the City of Rancho Cordova") with contact address tmauldin@cityofranchocordova.org -- no further biographical detail is published on this page. Still hosted at the city's older "tegan-knifton" URL slug; see the rancho_cordova_contests() code comment on this name change.](https://www.cityofranchocordova.org/departments/community-development/planning/planning-commission/tegan-knifton)
6. [City of Rancho Cordova -- official City Council biography page for Linda Budge, read via a dated Internet Archive snapshot after cityofranchocordova.org itself returned HTTP 403 to direct fetches in this pass: elected to Rancho Cordova's first City Council at incorporation in 2003, reelected 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022; served as Mayor in 2004, 2008, 2013, 2018, and 2023 and as Vice Mayor in 2007, 2012, 2017, and 2022 (current term: Dec. 2022-Dec. 2026); an American Institute Certified Planner and owner of Geometra Planning & Permitting, a planning and permit-processing firm; a 40+-year area resident who chaired the Sacramento County Subdivision Review Committee for more than 18 years.](https://www.cityofranchocordova.org/departments/city-council/linda-budge)
7. [City of Rancho Cordova -- official Planning Commission roster page, read via dated Internet Archive snapshots (Jan. and Feb. 2025) after cityofranchocordova.org itself returned HTTP 403 to direct fetches in this pass: names the seven Planning Commissioners and which councilmember nominated each of the five district seats (Devarapalli nom. by Pulipati, Frechette nom. by Sander, McGarvey nom. by Terry, Stauss-Vlassopoulos nom. by Budge, Tripette nom. by Gatewood) plus two at-large seats -- "Tegan Knifton" and Dave Huhn, P.E. -- confirming Tegan Knifton/Mauldin's seat is at-large, not district-nominated, and that each councilmember nominates the commissioner from their own district, the basis for placing Gatewood in District 2 by elimination.](https://www.cityofranchocordova.org/departments/community-development/planning/planning-commission)

## The rest of the ballot

Rancho Cordova City Council, District 5 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, "Rancho Cordova City Council, District 5 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/rancho-cordova-council-5 (sources last retrieved September 1, 2026).

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