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City of Sand City · Statewide General Election

Mayor of Sand City

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On the ballot

This person would be Sand City's directly elected Mayor -- one seat on a five-member City Council (the Mayor plus four Councilmembers, all elected at-large rather than by district) that sets the budget, land use, and municipal ordinances for this Monterey County city of 325 residents (2020 Census), one of California's smallest incorporated cities. The Mayor's term is 2 years, half the length of a Councilmember's.

Only Mary Ann Carbone qualified for Sand City Mayor. She is running unopposed on the November 3, 2026 ballot.

Sand City's Mayor is one seat on a five-member City Council -- the Mayor plus four Councilmembers, all elected citywide at-large rather than by district -- that sets the budget, land use, and municipal ordinances for this Monterey County city of 325 residents (2020 Census), one of California's smallest incorporated cities. The Mayor's term is 2 years, half the length of a Councilmember's 4-year term.

The county's own certified candidate roster confirms Carbone was the only person who filed for Mayor by the close of the qualifying period. Voters still cast a ballot to formally elect her to another term.

Mary Ann Carbone

Mary Ann Carbone is Sand City's incumbent Mayor. Per the city's own official biography of her, she was born in Monterey and grew up in Seaside, earned a pharmacy degree, and then worked in commercial construction trades as a member of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA #297) until retiring in 2009. She was appointed to the Sand City Council in 1991, served as Vice Mayor, and has been Mayor for the past seven years -- the city's own site describes her as the first Indigenous woman Mayor in Sand City. Her listed record includes service on the city's Budget, West End, and Parks and Open Space committees, and on regional bodies including Monterey-Salinas Transit, the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments, Monterey One Water, Central Coast Community Energy, and the Monterey County Airport Land Use Commission. Outside city government, the same biography describes her advocacy work on racism, missing and murdered Indigenous people, and sex trafficking, and outreach programs for Native families and youth.

Strengths

35 years of continuous city service, including 7 as Mayor, plus a deep bench of regional-agency seats -- transit, water, and air quality -- across the Monterey Peninsula.

Trade-offs

Everything above comes from the city's own biography of its own sitting Mayor, not independent reporting -- no outside news coverage of this race was found, expected for a city of 325 people.

Keep in mind

With no opponent, this is a referendum on her long tenure rather than a choice between platforms -- there is no mechanism on this ballot to vote against her, only to formally elect her to another term.

Source review: Strong (85/100) · 5 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • countyofmonterey.gov (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Elections -- official "Candidate List" page for the November 3, 2026 General Election: within the City section, exactly two Sand City rows appear -- "CITY OF SAND CITY MAYOR" and "CITY OF SAND CITY MEMBER, CITY COUNCIL". The live page's own DOM renders office titles only, never per-seat candidate names; a Wayback Machine snapshot captured 2026-08-23 (fetched via a direct curl request, not the WebFetch tool, which cannot reach web.archive.org this session) rendered the full roster: Mayor, "Vote for One" -- Mary Ann Carbone (ballot designation "Mayor"); Member, City Council, "Vote for no more than 2" -- Justin R. Rumps ("Federal Civil Servant") and Luke Kilpatrick ("Artist/Author/Innkeeper"). No later capture of this page exists per the Wayback CDX API as of this pass's own retrieval date.
  • sandcity.org (opens in a new tab)City of Sand City -- official "City Council" page: "The Council is composed of five members elected at large to staggered terms. The Mayoral term lasts for two years and the Councilmember terms last for four years." Names Mayor Mary Ann Carbone and gives her official biography (appointed to the Council in 1991; Mayor "for the past seven years"; first Indigenous woman Mayor in Sand City; extensive committee and regional-agency record). Also names the sitting Councilmembers: Marilee Diaz (Vice-Mayor, term ends Dec. 31, 2028), Michelle Adams (term ends Dec. 31, 2028), and Kim Scudder (term ends Dec. 31, 2026) -- only three named Councilmembers alongside the Mayor, one short of the structure's four.
  • sandcity.org (opens in a new tab)City of Sand City -- official "city elections" page: "Municipal Elections are held in November of even-numbered years in the City of Sand City. The elective officers of the City consist of a City Council made up of four Councilmembers and an elected Mayor. The Mayor is elected every two years, and council members are elected to four-year terms." Names City Clerk Kerry Lindstrom as the city's elections official.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Sand City, California": 2020 Census population (325), one of California's smallest incorporated cities; used narrowly for population, not for anything about the 2026 election.
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer searches for Mary Ann Carbone, Justin Rumps, and Luke Kilpatrick: every query returned only a bot-detection (Incapsula) challenge page, not usable results, the same recurring Cal-Access access block documented elsewhere in this county this session.

Last updated September 1, 2026.