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City of Santa Paula · Statewide General Election

Santa Paula City Council, District 3

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 five district seats on Santa Paula's City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Ventura County city of about 30,657 residents. The Council appoints a City Manager (Dan Singer as of this cycle) to run day-to-day operations. A 4-year term. Santa Paula has no separately, directly elected Mayor -- the Council selects one of its own members each December to hold the largely ceremonial title for a one-year term and preside over meetings; Carlos Juarez currently holds it, selected by his colleagues in December 2025, with Jenny Crosswhite as Vice-Mayor. Santa Paula is transitioning from at-large to district elections: Districts 1 (Gabby Ornelas) and 5 (Leslie Cornejo) were first elected by district in November 2024 and aren't up again until 2028. Districts 2, 3, and 4 are up this cycle.

Only one candidate, incumbent Pedro A. Chavez, qualified for this seat -- so this contest is settled and your vote here does not change the outcome.

This person would hold one of five district seats on Santa Paula's City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Ventura County city of about 30,657 residents. The Council appoints a City Manager (Dan Singer as of this cycle) to run day-to-day operations. A 4-year term. Santa Paula has no separately, directly elected Mayor -- the Council selects one of its own members each December to hold the largely ceremonial title for a one-year term. Chavez himself held that title from December 2024 until Carlos Juarez succeeded him in December 2025.

Santa Paula is transitioning from at-large to district elections: Districts 1 and 5 were first elected by district in November 2024 and aren't up again until 2028. District 3 is one of three districts up this cycle, alongside Districts 2 and 4 -- the only one of the three with no challenger.

Pedro A. Chavez

The incumbent, unopposed for another term. First elected in 2022, he made history as Santa Paula's first openly gay council member and a first-generation immigrant from Mexico. He is Executive Director of One Step A La Vez, a youth-serving nonprofit, and brings over 13 years in financial services and real estate and 13-plus years of nonprofit civil-rights and social-justice work.

Strengths

A term already served, past service as the Council's rotating Mayor, and a nonprofit and financial-services background relevant to city budget and youth-services policy.

Trade-offs

With no opponent, no comparison is available -- his record is the only thing to weigh, and no independent, non-official evaluation of his specific Council votes was found this session.

Keep in mind

He has not filed an FPPC Form 410 (campaign-committee formation), consistent with an uncontested race that hasn't required real fundraising -- not itself informative about his priorities, just about the absence of a contest.

Source review: Very strong (91/100) · 9 cited sources

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

  • clerkrecorder.venturacounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Ventura County Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters -- "Contest/Candidate Proof List" (report CFMR001, dated Aug. 18, 2026, on-ballot contests only): confirms Santa Paula's three November 2026 city contests -- City Council District 2 (incumbent Jenny Crosswhite, "Councilmember"; challenger Jenny Yarbrough, "Business Owner/Mother"; a third filer shown but not qualified), District 3 (incumbent Pedro A. Chavez, "Councilmember/Executive Director," unopposed), and District 4 (Merisa M. Garcia, "Human Resources Director"; Angel Garza, "Analyst"; Nancy L. Grass, "Business Owner/Educator"; John Marquez, "Community Volunteer") -- and no District 1 or District 5 contest
  • clerkrecorder.venturacounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Ventura County Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters -- Contest/Candidate Proof List, off-ballot companion document (single-filer and Elections Code Section 10229 contests): carries no District 2, 3, or 4 entry for the City of Santa Paula -- corroborating by absence that none of the three, including District 3's single-candidate race, was cancelled or moved off-ballot; its one Santa Paula-adjacent entry is a non-districted, zero-filer legacy contest code listing Pedro Chavez, Carlos Juarez, and Jenny Crosswhite as the city's current incumbents, consistent with the city's own roster but not itself a live 2026 contest
  • spcity.org (opens in a new tab)City of Santa Paula -- "Election Information" page: independently republishes the same three-district, same-candidate Nov. 2026 roster as the county's own document, states the general municipal election is Nov. 3, 2026, and describes the district-based voting structure
  • spcity.org (opens in a new tab)City of Santa Paula -- "City Council" department page: a 5-member council, historically elected at-large, transitioning to by-district elections beginning with the Nov. 2024 election; the Council selects a Mayor (Carlos Juarez, current) and Vice-Mayor (Jenny Crosswhite, current) from among its own members each December for a one-year term; names the full 5-member roster (Juarez, Crosswhite, Leslie Cornejo/District 5, Pedro Chavez, Gabby Ornelas/District 1) and links each member's bio page; states the Council appoints the City Manager and City Attorney
  • spcity.org (opens in a new tab)City of Santa Paula City Clerk -- "Fair Political Practices Reporting" page: indexes each 2026 candidate's actual filed FPPC forms as scanned PDFs by district -- Forms 501/700 for all seven candidates, Form 410 (campaign-committee formation) for Crosswhite, Yarbrough, Garza, Marquez, Garcia, and Grass but not Chavez, and a Form 497 24-hour contribution report for Yarbrough
  • vcstar.com (opens in a new tab)Ventura County Star -- "Who's running for city council, mayor this November? Here's the lineup" (Cheri Carlson, Aug. 17, 2026): independently lists the identical Santa Paula roster -- District 2 (Crosswhite, Yarbrough), District 3 (Chavez), District 4 (Garcia, Garza, Grass, Marquez) -- corroborating both the county document and the city's own site
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Santa Paula, California": used in this shard only for its 2020 Census population figure (30,657); its infobox Mayor claim (Pedro Chavez) is stale relative to the city's own current roster page (which names Carlos Juarez, selected Dec. 2025) and is not used
  • santapaulatimes.com (opens in a new tab)Santa Paula Times -- homepage headline referencing "City Manager Dan Singer's contract" discussions (as of Sept. 1, 2026): independent local-press confirmation of the current City Manager's name
  • spcity.org (opens in a new tab)City of Santa Paula -- Councilmember Pedro A. Chavez's official bio page: Executive Director of One Step A La Vez, a youth-serving nonprofit; over 13 years in financial services and real estate and 13-plus years in nonprofit civil-rights and social-justice work; a first-generation immigrant from Mexico; first elected in 2022; the city's first openly gay council member; served as the Council's rotating Mayor (selected Dec. 2024)

Last updated September 1, 2026.