# Redlands City Council, District 5

Paul Barich is running uncontested for Redlands City Council, District 5. Full ballot at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Redlands' five-member City Council. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. An appointed City Manager runs daily operations. The term is four years. Redlands does not directly elect a Mayor. The council picks one of its own members to serve in that role. The role rotates among council members. The current Mayor is Mario Saucedo of District 3, serving since 2024. The city's five districts elect in staggered groups. Districts 2 and 4 last went before voters in November 2024. Districts 1, 3, and 5 are up this November.

- Jurisdiction: City of Redlands
- 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/redlands-council-district-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: August 31, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 90 out of 100 (Very strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Paul Barich** — Councilmember / Business Owner · Incumbent

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

Incumbent Paul Barich, a former Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem, is the only candidate who qualified for the City Council District 5 seat on the November 3, 2026 ballot -- an uncontested race.

This person would hold District 5's seat on Redlands' 5-member, district-elected City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use, under a council-manager government -- an appointed City Manager runs day-to-day operations. The term is four years. Redlands does not directly elect a Mayor; the council selects one of its own members for that role on a rotating basis -- Barich held it himself for the 2021-2022 term.

Barich, first elected in 2014 and twice re-elected, is seeking a fourth term unopposed; the city's own qualified-candidates document lists no other filer for District 5.

## Paul Barich

Paul Barich is Redlands' incumbent District 5 councilmember, first elected in 2014 and twice re-elected (2018, 2022). He served as Mayor from 2021 to 2022 and as Mayor Pro Tempore from 2022 to 2024. A graduate of Redlands High School (1972) and UCLA (1977), he taught for one year before opening a downtown Redlands insurance agency in August 1979, focused on health, life, Medicare, and 401(k) plans. He has been active with the Optimist Club since 1983 and the Redlands Community Music Association since 1992, served as past president of the Boys and Girls Club and the Redlands Chamber of Commerce, and helped bring back the "Shop Redlands First" campaign. His filed ballot designation is "Councilmember / Business Owner."

**Strengths:** Three terms plus a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem stint -- the most senior of the three 2026 incumbents; four decades running a local business alongside civic-club leadership.

**Trade-offs:** No independent news coverage of his council record was found; financial info could not be retrieved. No opponent means no comparative choice this cycle.

**Keep in mind:** Twelve years on the council, including time as Mayor, is a long tenure -- weigh it as continuity, or as a long incumbency, depending on your view.

## Sources

1. [San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- statewide "Report_OfficesUpForElection.pdf" (the same document as sb-offices-up-2026 above, a different section): its "City" category lists "City of Redlands, Member, City Council, District 1" / "...District 3" / "...District 5," each "Number to be elected: 1" and "Term (years): 4" -- no Mayor line anywhere for Redlands, and Districts 2 and 4 do not appear](https://uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov/ROV/Elections/2026/1103/Report_OfficesUpForElection.pdf)
2. [San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- statewide "Report_CandidateList.pdf" (the same document as sb-candidate-list-2026 above, a different section): within its "City of Redlands" section (pp. 169-172 of 249), three contests appear, each "Number to be elected: 1" -- District 1 (3 candidates: Denise Davis - Incumbent, Doug Gonzales, Andrew Hoder), District 3 (1 candidate: Mario Saucedo - Incumbent), and District 5 (1 candidate: Paul Barich - Incumbent), each with ballot designations as filed](https://uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov/ROV/Elections/2026/1103/Report_CandidateList.pdf)
3. [City of Redlands -- live "Elections" page (redlands.gov/elections/): states the three contested council districts (1, 3, 5), the candidate filing period (July 13 - August 7, 2026), and links both the city's own qualified-candidates document and its Notice of Municipal Election, plus the city's NetFile campaign-disclosure portal](https://www.redlands.gov/elections/)
4. [City of Redlands -- "Council Member Candidates Qualified for 11/3/26" (as of 8/7/26): names all five qualified candidates across the city's three November 2026 council districts with phone, email, and their intention-statement, papers-pulled, papers-filed, and qualified-for-ballot dates, in agreement with the county's own candidate-filing report](https://www.redlands.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/8.7.26-Council-Member-Candidates.pdf)
5. [City of Redlands -- "City Council District Maps" page: confirms the city's 5-district structure and the staggered election cycle -- Districts 2 and 4 elected November 2024, Districts 1, 3, and 5 this November -- with maps for each district adopted March 15, 2022](https://www.redlands.gov/city-council-district-maps/)
6. [City of Redlands -- District 5's own official bio page for Council Member Paul Barich: first elected 2014, re-elected 2018 and 2022, previously Mayor 2021-2022 and Mayor Pro Tempore 2022-2024; his downtown Redlands insurance agency (since 1979) and his community involvement](https://www.redlands.gov/council-member-paul-barich/)
7. [A documented financial-info gap, not a claim about any candidate's fundraising: the California Secretary of State's CAL-ACCESS filer search was blocked outright by an Incapsula bot wall on every attempt, including a direct fetch of Denise Davis's own filer-detail URL by the FPPC ID her campaign site discloses; the City of Redlands' own local NetFile portal (agency ID RDL) is a JavaScript single-page app with no static content and no discoverable public API endpoint to this session's automated fetchers](https://www.netfile.com/agency/RDL/index.html)

## The rest of the ballot

Redlands 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, "Redlands City Council, District 5 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/redlands-council-district-5 (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.