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City of Rio Dell · Statewide General Election

Rio Dell City Council

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

This person would hold one of three seats up this cycle on Rio Dell's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for a small Eel River Valley city (2020 Census population 3,379, incorporated Feb. 23, 1965). All five seats are elected at-large (no districts) to 4-year terms under a council-manager government. The Mayor isn't separately elected -- the Council selects one of its own members to hold that largely ceremonial title -- so this is a vote for a Council seat, not a mayoral race.

Rio Dell fills all three of the City Council seats up this cycle: incumbent Mayor Debra L. Garnes seeks another term, joined by two political newcomers, Brett Barsanti and Jeffrey D. Berry, in a field that exactly matches the number of open seats.

Rio Dell (2020 Census population 3,379, incorporated Feb. 23, 1965) is a small Eel River Valley city that runs under a council-manager government: a five-member City Council, elected entirely at-large with no districts, sets policy and the budget, while a City Manager runs day-to-day operations. The Council doesn't have a separately elected Mayor -- it selects one of its own members to hold that largely ceremonial title, currently Garnes.

With exactly three candidates for three seats, all three qualify without a runoff -- the practical decision left to voters is whether to mark all three names, some of them, or none. Garnes represents continuity as the only sitting Council member among this cycle's three candidates; Barsanti and Berry would each be a clean changeover, though which of the city's other sitting members' seats they'd be filling isn't public record, since Rio Dell's at-large seats carry no individual designations.

Debra L. Garnes

Debra L. Garnes is Rio Dell's sitting Mayor, an internal Council-selected role, seeking another term on the Council. Her official ballot designation is simply "Incumbent," and the city's own staff directory independently confirms her as Mayor -- beyond that, no further biography, occupation, or campaign material was found for her this pass.

Strengths

The only sitting Council member in the race, with the city's own directory confirming her as current Mayor -- the most institutionally established of the three.

Trade-offs

No platform, priorities, or campaign material for a new term were found beyond her continued candidacy.

Keep in mind

Despite a genuine multi-source search (Lost Coast Outpost, the Times-Standard, and general web search), nothing beyond the county's filing and the city's own directory was found for her -- the same documented gap affecting all three candidates in this race.

Brett Barsanti

Brett Barsanti filed as a "School Board Member" per the county's own qualified-candidate list. No Rio Dell school district trustee race appears anywhere in the county's own 2026 candidate documents, so this dataset could not independently confirm which board he sits on or cross-check the claim against a current roster -- the local district's own site was unreachable this pass (a bot-verification challenge page on every attempt).

Strengths

A self-reported school board role suggests some existing local public-service background, though it's unverified.

Trade-offs

No prior city government experience, platform, or campaign material was found.

Keep in mind

The school-board claim rests on his own county filing alone -- a genuine attempt to independently verify it (the likely district's own site, general web search) came up empty this pass, not a contradiction, just unconfirmed.

Jeffrey D. Berry

Jeffrey D. Berry filed as a "Care Giver" per the county's own qualified-candidate list. No further independent coverage, campaign website, or biography was found for him this pass.

Strengths

None independently documented beyond his candidacy itself and his own filed occupation.

Trade-offs

No prior elected or appointed city government experience was found.

Keep in mind

No source beyond the county's own occupation filing was found for him despite a genuine multi-source search -- the same documented gap affecting all three candidates in this race.

Source review: Strong (85/100) · 8 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.

  • humboldtgov.org (opens in a new tab)Humboldt County Office of Elections -- "2026 [General Election] Candidate Openings" (7-page pre-filing PDF): confirms Rio Dell City Council is a 3-seat, 4-year-term office (2027-2031) with no separate Mayor line.
  • humboldtgov.org (opens in a new tab)Humboldt County Office of Elections -- "Qualified Candidate List - City Contests" (3-page PDF, fetched directly and text-extracted locally with pypdf): names Brett Barsanti, Jeffrey D. Berry, and incumbent Debra L. Garnes as the three qualified candidates for Rio Dell's three City Council seats.
  • cityofriodell.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Rio Dell -- its own Elections page: "The Rio Dell City Council consists of five members elected by the voters, each serving four-year terms," no separately elected Mayor described, municipal elections consolidated with the November statewide general.
  • cityofriodell.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Rio Dell -- staff/official directory: lists Debra Garnes as Mayor, Amanda Carter as Mayor Pro Tem, and Robert Orr, Frank Wilson, and Julie Woodall as the other three sitting Council Members.
  • cityofriodell.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Rio Dell -- Agendas & Minutes / public-notice pages: an active Council meeting schedule running into September 2026 (a Sept. 1, 2026 meeting rescheduled to Sept. 15) with no election-cancellation, canvass-of-results, or Elections Code Section 10229 appointment item on any reachable agenda.
  • cityofriodell.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Rio Dell -- its own FPPC Filings page: describes only the City Clerk as the city's filing officer for Form 700 conflict-of-interest disclosures, with no NetFile or other online campaign-finance portal linked.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia, "Rio Dell, California": used narrowly for the 2020 Census population (3,379), the Feb. 23, 1965 incorporation date, and a council-manager government where "the mayor is selected by the City Council."
  • lostcoastoutpost.com (opens in a new tab)A documented negative result: Lost Coast Outpost's own LoCOElections 2026 voter-guide hub, checked directly, covers only Eureka, Arcata, and the Humboldt Community Services District this cycle -- not Rio Dell.

Last updated September 2, 2026.