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City of Ross · Statewide General Election

Ross Town 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 two seats up this cycle on Ross's 5-member Town Council, elected entirely at-large (no districts) to a 4-year term. Ross, a Marin County town of about 2,338 residents (2020 Census) incorporated in 1908, runs under a council-manager government, with an appointed Town Manager handling day-to-day operations. The Council chooses a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tempore from among its own members rather than electing either directly. Ross recently shifted its election cycle from the statewide primary to the November general-election date (Ordinance No. 730, adopted Aug. 14, 2025), extending some sitting members' terms by several months to make the transition.

Four candidates are running for Ross's two open Town Council seats: incumbent Mayor Julie McMillan is seeking another term, while Mayor Pro Tempore Elizabeth Robbins is not running again, leaving her seat open to Town Treasurer Jeff Kuhn, Robert "Bob" Herbst, and Paul Roesler.

This person would hold one of two seats up this cycle on Ross's 5-member Town Council, elected entirely at-large (no districts) to a 4-year term. Ross, a Marin County town of about 2,338 residents (2020 Census) incorporated in 1908, runs under a council-manager government, with an appointed Town Manager handling day-to-day operations. The Council chooses a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tempore from among its own members rather than electing either directly. Ross recently shifted its election cycle from the statewide primary to the November general-election date (Ordinance No. 730, adopted Aug. 14, 2025), extending some sitting members' terms by several months to make the transition.

Ross's other three Council seats -- held by Teri Dowling, C. William Kircher Jr., and Mathew Salter -- were last up in March 2024 and run through 2028, so this cycle's election is limited to the two seats held by McMillan and Robbins. Robbins's decision not to refile triggered a brief filing-period extension (to Aug. 12) under state law, which is how Kuhn -- absent from the earliest, July 27 filing roundup -- entered the race in time to qualify.

What's driving this race

The town's biggest live local issue this cycle is a fight over whether Ross's planned new civic-center complex will include a fire station. A citizens advisory committee proposed including full fire capacity, the council committed to that plan in spring 2026, and a resident group, Friends of Ross Firehouse, withdrew a fall ballot measure in August after securing that commitment. In late August, town staff presented an alternative design that would drop the fire station -- reopening the fight just before the election. Three of the four Council candidates -- Kuhn, Herbst, and Roesler -- are advisory-committee members who publicly objected to that staff proposal and are campaigning on keeping the fire station in the plan; McMillan, as Mayor, has taken a convening role in the dispute rather than staking out a side.

Julie McMillan

McMillan, the incumbent Mayor seeking another term, moved to Ross with her husband in 1992. She holds degrees from UCLA and Stanford Law School and practiced complex litigation at O'Melveny & Myers until 1999. She served on the Ross School Board from 2003 to 2007, along with several volunteer leadership roles there. As Mayor, she has played a convening role in the town's civic-center/firehouse dispute, telling the Marin IJ in August, "We have turned a corner," after a resident group withdrew its ballot measure, and later, "We all want the best project possible and we all want this to succeed."

Strengths

A full council term as the sitting Mayor, plus a substantive record of civic involvement before that -- seven years on the Ross School Board and several fundraising and leadership roles there.

Trade-offs

As Mayor she has stayed publicly neutral on the town's central live issue, the civic-center firehouse fight, unlike her three opponents; no distinct 2026 policy platform beyond that role was found.

Keep in mind

She is the only one of the four candidates not aligned with the pro-firehouse advisory-committee bloc running for the open seat -- not a conflict, just a different footing in the same live dispute.

Jeff Kuhn

Kuhn has served as Ross's Town Treasurer since 2025. A fifth-generation Californian who grew up in San Francisco, he holds a UC Davis economics degree and began his finance career in 1975 at Kidder, Peabody & Co., moving from stockbroker to investment banking roles in San Francisco and New York, where he ultimately co-headed the firm's private equity desk, before rejoining its San Francisco technology investment-banking group in 1987. He also serves, in an unofficial capacity, on the town's citizens advisory committee for the civic-center project, and is one of three candidates who publicly objected to a late-August staff proposal that would have dropped fire-station capacity from the plan.

Strengths

A five-decade finance and investment-banking career, current service as the town's own elected Treasurer, and direct involvement in the civic-center project through the advisory committee.

Trade-offs

Running for Council would mean leaving or reassigning the Treasurer post; no reporting found addresses that transition. His 2026 public record centers on the single firehouse issue.

Keep in mind

He is campaigning alongside Herbst and Roesler on a shared pro-firehouse platform -- a de facto slate, since three names are effectively competing for what is still just two seats.

Robert Herbst

Herbst, who goes by "Bob," is President of Friends of Ross Firehouse, a resident group that pushed for the civic-center project to retain fire-station capacity. After the council committed to that plan, his group withdrew a fall 2026 ballot measure it had been preparing; he also serves on the town's citizens advisory committee for the project, and is one of three council candidates who publicly objected when town staff proposed dropping fire capacity from the design in late August.

Strengths

Sustained, organized civic leadership on the town's single biggest live issue: he led the group that won the fire-station commitment, then stood down its own ballot measure once that happened.

Trade-offs

No personal or professional biography beyond his advocacy role turned up in a genuine search -- no employer, prior office, or background outside the firehouse campaign found this pass.

Keep in mind

As the advocacy group's president, he has the most direct stake of the three challengers in seeing the civic-center plan finalized as committed -- weigh advocacy leadership becoming a council vote.

Paul Roesler

Roesler serves on Ross's citizens advisory committee for the civic-center project and is a firehouse-closure opponent; he is one of three council candidates who publicly objected when town staff proposed a design dropping fire-station capacity in late August. This dataset found no other personal or professional background for him despite a genuine multi-engine search (Bing, Marin IJ's own site search, and Google News RSS queries).

Strengths

A real, dated, sourced civic role on the same advisory committee as Kuhn and Herbst, plus a consistent public record objecting to the late-August staff proposal.

Trade-offs

No personal or professional biography of any kind was found for him this pass -- unlike McMillan, Kuhn, and Herbst, there is no employer, prior office, or non-firehouse civic history on record.

Keep in mind

This is a real, disclosed depth limit rather than a sign nothing is known about him: he has a genuine, verifiable platform position, just less independently reported personal background than his three opponents.

Source review: Strong (88/100) · 14 cited sources

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

  • marincounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Marin County Elections Department -- official "Status of local candidates for office 11/03/26" page: a table of contents of every county-administered and city/town contest in the county, listing "Town of Ross Member Town Council" as a verified, filed contest line -- no candidate names or seat count appear on this page, only the office title.
  • townofrossca.gov (opens in a new tab)Town of Ross -- official "Election Information" page: states "[t]he Town's next regularly scheduled election for Town Council will be November 3, 2026 for two seats on the Council," confirms Ordinance No. 730 (Aug. 14, 2025) shifting Ross elections from the statewide primary to the November general-election date, and describes the July 13-Aug. 7, 2026 filing period (extendable to Aug. 12 if an incumbent doesn't refile).
  • townofrossca.gov (opens in a new tab)Town of Ross -- own posted "March 5, 2024 Election Results" page: confirms Bill Kircher, Teri Dowling, and Mathew Salter were elected to three Council seats that cycle -- independently corroborating, by elimination against the town's own current roster, that McMillan's and Robbins's seats are the two on the Nov. 2026 ballot.
  • townofrossca.gov (opens in a new tab)Town of Ross -- own live "Mayor & Council" roster page: lists Julie McMillan (Mayor, term 2017-2026), Elizabeth Robbins (Mayor Pro Tempore, term 2014-2026, noting she served as Mayor FY 2017-2018 and 2021-2022), Teri Dowling, C. William Kircher Jr., and Mathew Salter (each 2024-2028), and Jeffrey Kuhn as Town Treasurer (term beginning 2025); carries the town's own biographical text for McMillan (moved to Ross in 1992, UCLA, Stanford Law, litigated at O'Melveny & Myers until 1999, Ross School Board 2003-07) and Kuhn (fifth-generation Californian, UC Davis economics degree, finance career from 1975 at Kidder, Peabody & Co.).
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Richard Halstead, "Slew of Marin offices up for grabs in November election" (July 27, 2026): reports "In Ross, council terms are expiring for Julie McMillan and Elizabeth Robbins. McMillan filed, as did challengers Paul Roesler and Robert Herbst."
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Keri Brenner, "Marin candidate list lengthens for November election" (published Aug. 8, updated Aug. 12, 2026): reports "In Ross, council terms are expiring for Julie McMillan and Elizabeth Robbins. McMillan filed for reelection. Paul Roesler, Jeff Kuhn and Robert Herbst filed to run" -- the first source naming Kuhn as a fourth filer.
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Keri Brenner, "More contenders pile into Marin's fall elections" (published Aug. 13, updated Aug. 15, 2026, published after the Aug. 12 extended filing deadline closed): confirms the identical four-candidate Ross field a third time and states directly that the filing period "was extended to Wednesday afternoon in cases where incumbents with expiring terms did not seek reelection."
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Steven Rosenfeld, "New Ross civic center and firehouse proposal emerges" (April 28, 2026): names Jeffrey Kuhn (Ross Treasurer) as an unofficial citizens advisory committee member on the civic-center project, and Bob Herbst as President of Friends of Ross Firehouse, quoting his letter of support for the plan.
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Steven Rosenfeld, "Ross fire station ballot measure withdrawn" (Aug. 7, 2026): reports Bob Herbst notified the town Friends of Ross Firehouse was withdrawing its fall ballot measure after the council's commitment to the full-inclusion civic-center plan; quotes Mayor Julie McMillan ("We have turned a corner") and Councilmember Matt Salter.
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Steven Rosenfeld, "Ross plans 'stakeholder' briefings on civic center makeover" (Aug. 17, 2026): names both Bob Herbst and Paul Roesler as citizens advisory committee members and firehouse-closure opponents who are running for council, alongside a Mayor McMillan quote.
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Steven Rosenfeld, "Embers of Ross firehouse conflict flare at council meeting" (Aug. 31, 2026): reports "council candidates Jeff Kuhn, Robert Herbst, and Paul Roesler -- running on a pro-firehouse platform -- objected to the staff proposal during public comment," and that "Mayor Julie McMillan is also seeking reelection in the four-seat race for two positions" -- the most decisive confirmation this is a genuine contest, not a Section 10229 cancellation.
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)A negative-result local campaign-finance check: Ross's plausible NetFile agency code ("ROSS") returns only a bare 691-byte client-rendered single-page-application shell with no server-rendered filer or candidate content, the same access gap documented dataset-wide for other NetFile jurisdictions. Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source, not any candidate's actual campaign finances.
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)A negative-result access check: California's statewide Cal-Access campaign-finance filer/candidate search was queried directly this pass and returned no usable candidate or filer content, consistent with the Cal-Access bot-wall pattern documented elsewhere in this dataset. Local candidates for a seat like this typically file with the county/city rather than the state in any case.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia, "Ross, California": used narrowly for the fixed, dated 2020 Census population figure (2,338) and the town's Aug. 21, 1908 incorporation date; its listing of Julie McMillan and Elizabeth Robbins as current Mayor/Mayor Pro Tem corroborates, rather than contradicts, the town's own live roster.

Last updated September 2, 2026.