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City of Santa Rosa · Statewide General Election

Santa Rosa City Council, District 4

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On the ballot

This person would represent one of Santa Rosa's seven City Council districts: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for Sonoma County's largest city and county seat, population 178,127 (2020 Census). Santa Rosa operates under a council-manager government, with a professional city manager running day-to-day operations while the elected council sets policy. There is no separately elected Mayor -- the seven-member Council elects one of its own members to preside as Mayor for a two-year term, on top of that member's own district seat. Council seats are elected by district to staggered 4-year terms; Districts 2, 4, and 6 are up this November, with Districts 1, 3, 5, and 7 not up again until 2028.

Two candidates are running for Santa Rosa's open District 4 council seat: Terry Sanders, a retired firefighter and sitting Planning Commissioner, against Melanie Jones-Carter, a community organizer and city board chair. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins the seat outright -- no runoff.

This seat is one of Santa Rosa's seven district-elected City Council seats, representing Sonoma County's largest city and county seat, population 178,127 (2020 Census). Santa Rosa is a council-manager city: councilmembers set the budget, ordinances, and land-use policy, while a professional city manager runs day-to-day operations. There is no separately elected Mayor -- the seven-member Council elects one of its own to preside as Mayor for a two-year term. Council seats are elected by district to staggered 4-year terms; only Districts 2, 4, and 6 are up this November.

The seat is open because sitting District 4 incumbent Victoria Fleming, first elected in 2018 and reelected in 2022, isn't seeking a third term. The city's own certified Notice of Offices and Nominations confirms she wasn't furnished nomination papers as a returning incumbent, and a companion city announcement extended District 4's filing deadline specifically because its incumbent didn't return papers by the regular Aug. 7 cutoff -- consistent with Jones-Carter's later Aug. 12 qualification, at the close of that extended window. The Press Democrat reported Fleming's decision as a deliberate step back after eight years leading through the Tubbs Fire and the COVID-19 pandemic, calling this race, with two first-time District 4 winners in the running, "the most competitive on the ticket."

Terry Sanders

Terry Sanders is a retired firefighter, EMT, and paramedic with 23 years of service, now serving on Santa Rosa's Planning Commission. His filed ballot designation is "Planning Commissioner/Businessperson." This is his second run for the District 4 seat -- he lost to Victoria Fleming in November 2022, a loss the Press Democrat covered at the time. His candidate statement describes losing his home in the 2017 Tubbs Fire and the loss of his youngest son, and lists community roles including past Chair of the Luther Burbank Rose Parade, Vice Chair of Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital's Community Board, Board President for the California Theater, and a Santa Rosa Fire Foundation board seat. He is endorsed by Santa Rosa Fire Fighters Local 1401, the Santa Rosa Police Officers Association, sitting Santa Rosa City Council members, and Sonoma County Board of Supervisors Chair Rebecca Hermosillo. His stated priorities are housing affordability, climate resiliency, fire preparedness, community safety, and downtown vitality.

Strengths

A sitting Planning Commission seat gives him a checkable land-use record, plus a broad slate of public-safety-union and elected-official endorsements and a second run at this seat.

Trade-offs

His 2022 loss to Fleming in this district means voters have weighed him once already; his statement's priorities are broad themes, not proposals this pass could verify against a voting record.

Keep in mind

His account of losing his home in the Tubbs Fire and the loss of his son is central to his public narrative -- worth knowing as biography, distinct from his policy record.

Melanie Jones-Carter

Melanie Jones-Carter is a community organizer and chair of Santa Rosa's Design Review and Preservation Board, per Press Democrat reporting, which also notes she is endorsed by outgoing incumbent Victoria Fleming. Her filed ballot designation on the county's roster is "Non-Profit Board Member." She qualified for the ballot Aug. 12, 2026, at the close of District 4's extended nomination window. Unlike her opponent, no candidate statement was published for her on the city's site: the city's own page states she "did not qualify for public financing," meaning she didn't sign Santa Rosa's voluntary Chapter 10-33 spending-limit agreement that makes a posted statement and mailed voter-guide listing available -- a program-participation choice, not a question about her qualification to be on the ballot. No independent campaign website, additional news profile, or stated platform beyond the Press Democrat's brief description and Fleming's endorsement was found in this pass.

Strengths

A sitting chair role on the city's Design Review and Preservation Board gives her a checkable civic record, and an endorsement from the departing incumbent signals continuity.

Trade-offs

Without a filed candidate statement, voters have less of her own words to weigh than for Sanders -- her platform rests on one outside news description, not her own stated priorities.

Keep in mind

Not filing a statement reflects non-participation in the city's voluntary public-financing program, per the city's own page -- not a gap in her eligibility, but less of her own material was available to this pass than for her opponent.

Source review: Strong (89/100) · 11 cited sources

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

  • sonomacounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Sonoma County Registrar of Voters -- "Local Candidates Who Have Filed," November 3, 2026 General Election: lists exactly three Santa Rosa "CITY CONTESTS" -- City Council Districts 2, 4, and 6 -- with per-contest candidate name, ballot designation, qualification date, and incumbent flag; no Santa Rosa Mayor contest appears anywhere on the page. Page last updated 8/17/26, unchanged on a live re-check 2026-09-01 after both the regular (Aug. 7) and extended (Aug. 12) nomination deadlines had passed.
  • srcity.org (opens in a new tab)City of Santa Rosa -- official "Notice of Offices and Nominations" (per Elections Code 10224.5), dated July 31, 2026: certifies three 4-year-term City Council seats -- Districts 2, 4, and 6 -- and states City Clerk Dina Manis furnished nomination papers to the incumbents for only District 2 and District 6, not District 4 -- confirming District 4 incumbent Victoria Fleming did not seek reelection.
  • srcity.org (opens in a new tab)City of Santa Rosa -- own "2026 Candidates" page: independently names the identical three-district, four-candidate field with matching ballot designations, links each candidate's filed candidate statement (Stapp, Sanders, and Okrepkie each filed one; Jones-Carter did not, per the page, because she "did not qualify for public financing") and each candidate's own campaign website.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Santa Rosa, California": used narrowly for the 2020 Census population (178,127), Sonoma County seat status, the council-manager government structure, and the current Council roster (Mayor Mark Stapp plus six district councilmembers, including Victoria Fleming and Jeff Okrepkie) -- does not cover the 2026 election.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Mayor of Santa Rosa, California": confirms Santa Rosa's Mayor is not a separately elected office -- "the mayor is elected by the council to a single two-year term" -- from among sitting councilmembers.
  • nf4.netfile.com (opens in a new tab)Santa Rosa's NetFile-hosted public campaign-finance portal (linked from the city's own Campaign Finance Information and Campaign Disclosure Filings pages): the landing page loads without a CAPTCHA, but its candidate/filing search runs entirely through client-side ASP.NET postback controls with no URL-parameter or REST-API path reachable by this session's fetch tooling (no browser extension connected this pass); its own real-time filing RSS feed (max. 15-day/1,000-item window) returned zero Santa Rosa items as of this retrieval -- a documented access limitation, not a claim that no filings exist.
  • srcity.org (opens in a new tab)City of Santa Rosa -- civic alert announcing the District 4 City Council nomination-period extension through 5 p.m. Aug. 12, 2026, "per Elections Code" because "an incumbent fails to return Candidate nomination papers by the deadline" (Aug. 7, 2026) -- corroborates Victoria Fleming's seat opening and Melanie Jones-Carter's later Aug. 12 qualification date.
  • srcity.org (opens in a new tab)Terry Sanders -- filed candidate statement for Santa Rosa City Council District 4, 2026, hosted on the city's own site: ballot designation "Planning Commissioner/Businessperson," describes 23 years as a firefighter/EMT/paramedic, sitting Planning Commission service, community-board roles, losing his home in the Tubbs Fire, and endorsements including Santa Rosa Fire Fighters Local 1401 and the Santa Rosa Police Officers Association.
  • pressdemocrat.com (opens in a new tab)The Press Democrat -- "'Public service has seasons': Fleming won't seek third term on Santa Rosa council, leaving open seat in District 4" (June 24, 2026, by Paulina Pineda): confirms Santa Rosa's seven-member, district-elected Council, Fleming's stated reason and term-end date, and profiles both D4 candidates as of that date -- Sanders as "a retired Oakland firefighter and city planning commissioner who previously challenged Fleming in 2022," and Jones-Carter as "a community organizer and Design Review and Preservation Board chair, endorsed by Fleming herself."
  • pressdemocrat.com (opens in a new tab)The Press Democrat -- "Terry Sanders formally concedes to Victoria Fleming in Santa Rosa District 4 race" (Nov. 28, 2022, by Paulina Pineda): independently corroborates Sanders as "retired firefighter Terry Sanders" and that this is his second run for the D4 seat, having lost to Fleming in 2022.
  • srcity.org (opens in a new tab)City of Santa Rosa -- own "Public Financing for City Council Elections" page: describes the city's voluntary Chapter 10-33 Election Campaign Spending Limit Agreement (adopted by voters in 2002) -- a $1,000-or-100-signatures qualifying threshold and an annually adjusted spending cap in exchange for inclusion in the mailed City Voter Update and a posted candidate statement on the city's website -- the basis for noting that Jones-Carter's lack of a posted statement reflects non-participation in this voluntary program, not any question about her ballot qualification.

Last updated September 1, 2026.