# San Luis Obispo City Council Compare records and positions simply between Brett Cross, Michelle Shoresman, or Emily Francis for San Luis Obispo City Council at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. Two of San Luis Obispo's four at-large City Council seats are up here. The term is four years. The city uses a new method called Citywide Single Vote. Each voter picks one candidate, and the two top vote-getters win. The Council sets city policy, the budget, and city laws. It also sets land-use rules. An appointed City Manager runs daily operations. - Jurisdiction: City of San Luis Obispo - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Seats: 2 - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/san-luis-obispo-council - 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: October 6, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 90 out of 100 (Very strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Brett Cross** — Neighborhood Advocate - **Michelle Shoresman** — Incumbent - **Emily Francis** — Incumbent A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Three candidates seek two at-large City Council seats. This is a Citywide Single Vote contest: choose one candidate, and the two highest vote-getters win. All three answered the League of Women Voters' Vote411 questionnaire, so each candidate's stated priorities are on record. Councilmembers serve four-year terms on the five-member Council, alongside the directly elected Mayor. The Council sets ordinances, the budget, land-use policy and city priorities while an appointed City Manager runs daily operations. The one-vote rule matters: supporting one candidate does not prevent a second candidate from winning the other seat. All three answered the League of Women Voters' Vote411 questionnaire. The two incumbents run on the current Council's housing, climate and homelessness work. Cross runs on neighborhood livability and slowing the pace of development. The choice is which of those you want more of. ## Brett Cross Cross is vice chair of Residents for Quality Neighborhoods and a lifelong San Luis Obispo resident. In his Vote411 questionnaire he describes four years on the city Planning Commission during the Land Use and Circulation Element updates, decades of Council testimony, and studying economics at Cal Poly. New Times reported he collected the city's parking-meter coins for 33 years before that arrangement ended in 2025; his employment-status dispute with the city remains a claim, not an adjudicated finding. His three stated priorities are a resident-first approach to decisions; neighborhood livability, where he names party noise near Cal Poly, cut-through traffic, downtown parking spillover and airport noise and wants existing zoning and noise rules enforced and a neighborhood-services manager restored; and keeping new development at the city's scale, with the greenbelt preserved and, as he puts it, "sometimes the discipline to say no." **Strengths:** Four years on the city Planning Commission during the Land Use and Circulation Element updates, plus decades of Council testimony through Residents for Quality Neighborhoods, by his own account. **Trade-offs:** His platform weights design review, the pace of development and 'the discipline to say no,' a cost if you want the Council pushing housing production faster. **Keep in mind:** New Times reported he collected the city's parking-meter coins for 33 years until 2025, and his dispute with the city over his employment status is unresolved. He is asking to join the Council that is the other party to that dispute. ## Michelle Shoresman Shoresman was appointed to the Council in 2021 and elected in 2022. In her Vote411 questionnaire she describes 24 years at the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department, a Cal Poly political-science degree and a University of Washington master's in public administration, and eight years as an elected trustee of the county Pension Trust Board. Local reporting also notes service on county homeless-services oversight bodies. Her three stated priorities are neighborhoods that feel safe and welcoming to renters and owners alike and to people who "drive, walk or roll"; meeting the city's climate action goals; and continuing to work on homelessness with state and county partners to create more stable housing for the residents hardest to serve. **Strengths:** Five years on the Council, 24 years in county public-health management and eight as an elected county pension trustee, by her own account, plus regional homeless-services oversight reported locally. **Trade-offs:** As an incumbent she shares responsibility for the Council's housing, homelessness and neighborhood-safety record, the same issues she leads with. **Keep in mind:** Her priorities answer is the shortest of the three, three sentences on safe neighborhoods, climate goals and homelessness, so her Council votes since 2021 are the fuller record to weigh. ## Emily Francis Francis was elected in 2022 and serves as Vice Mayor. In her Vote411 questionnaire she describes a career as a public-school social studies teacher, a master's in American history, and service on the city Planning Commission; a struggle to find childcare, she says, is what led her to run. Her three stated priorities are housing safety and affordability, where she credits the Council with making the city one of California's first Pro-Housing Cities, funding supportive housing through the Calle Joaquin Homekey project and preserving 68 affordable units at the Anderson Hotel, and wants more income-restricted and workforce housing and stronger renter protections; safer streets and public spaces, with transit and protected bike lanes; and climate resilience, with carbon neutrality by 2035 as the target. **Strengths:** Four years on the Council, now Vice Mayor, and the most specific priorities answer of the three, naming the Pro-Housing City designation, the Calle Joaquin Homekey project and Anderson Hotel units. **Trade-offs:** Her case rests on the current Council's housing and downtown record, a cost if you think more building and more downtown spending is the problem rather than the fix. **Keep in mind:** The results she cites, the state housing grants and the 68 Anderson Hotel units, are her own account in a candidate questionnaire, not figures verified independently for this page. ## Sources 1. [City of San Luis Obispo -- formal Notice of Nominees for Public Office (Sept. 2, 2026): City Council, Vote for one; names Brett Cross, Michelle Shoresman and Emily Francis in ballot order with designations.](https://www.slocity.org/Home/Components/News/News/12112/2322) 2. [City of San Luis Obispo -- own "Municipal Elections" page (live fetch via a connected browser session; direct curl/WebFetch return HTTP 403, Akamai-blocked): carries the final, post-filing-deadline "Candidate Filings for the November 3, 2026 Election" table for both Mayor and Council -- Mayor: Erica A. Stewart Qualified for Ballot 7/29/2026, Donald Hedrick "DID NOT QUALIFY"; Council: Michelle Shoresman and Emily Francis qualified 7/24/2026, Brett Cross qualified 8/5/2026, Felicia Lewis "DID NOT ISSUE - DID NOT QUALIFY" -- plus term lengths and term limits for both offices.](https://www.slocity.org/government/municipal-elections) 3. [San Luis Obispo Tribune -- 2026 City Council race profile: confirms one vote elects two winners and profiles all three candidates.](https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/politics-government/election/article315630071.html) 4. [Mustang News -- Michelle Shoresman announces reelection bid: council history, public-health career and stated priorities.](https://mustangnews.net/michelle-shoresman-announces-reelction-bid/) 5. [Mustang News -- Emily Francis reelection announcement: council history and stated housing, homelessness and park priorities.](https://mustangnews.net/francis-re-election-announcement/) 6. [New Times SLO -- reporting and signed commentary documenting Brett Cross's neighborhood advocacy and former parking-meter work.](https://www.newtimesslo.com/slos-former-coin-collector-wants-city-acknowledgment-as-employee/) 7. [City of San Luis Obispo NetFile public portal -- council-candidate committee-name searches as of Sept. 3, 2026.](https://netfile.com/public/SLO/campaign) 8. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of San Luis Obispo City Council Member' race (viewed for 990 Palm St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401, City Hall; race id 73093113): each candidate's self-submitted ballot designation and campaign contacts, plus every candidate's answers to the League's two questions -- 'If elected, what are your top 3 priorities?' and 'What background, experience and/or education qualify you for this elected office?' All three candidates (Cross, Francis, Shoresman) responded. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/san-luis-obispo-council.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote?lwv-ballot-widget-raceid=73093113) ## The rest of the ballot San Luis Obispo City Council 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, "San Luis Obispo City Council — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/san-luis-obispo-council (sources last retrieved October 6, 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.