# Santa Rosa City Council, District 4

Compare records and positions simply between Melanie Jones-Carter or Terry Sanders for Santa Rosa City Council, District 4 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would represent one of Santa Rosa's seven City Council districts. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. Santa Rosa is Sonoma County's largest city and county seat. It has 178,127 residents. A professional city manager runs day-to-day operations. There is no separately elected Mayor. The seven-member council elects one of its own members as Mayor. The Mayor serves a two-year term and also keeps their own district seat. Council seats are elected by district for staggered 4-year terms. Districts 2, 4, and 6 are up this November. Districts 1, 3, 5, and 7 are not up again until 2028.

- Jurisdiction: City of Santa Rosa
- Election: November 3, 2026 California general election
- Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements.
- Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/santa-rosa-council-4
- 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 7, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 88 out of 100 (Strong), across 12 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Melanie Jones-Carter** — Non-Profit Board Member
- **Terry Sanders** — Planning Commissioner/Businessperson

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

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. Santa Rosa is Sonoma County’s largest city and its county seat. Its population was 178,127 in the 2020 Census. The city runs under a council manager form. Councilmembers set the budget, ordinances, and land use policy. A professional city manager runs daily operations. There is no separately elected Mayor. The seven member Council picks one of its own to serve 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 Victoria Fleming is not seeking a third term. She was first elected in 2018 and again in 2022. The city’s certified Notice of Offices and Nominations confirms it. She was not given nomination papers as a returning incumbent. A companion city notice extended District 4’s filing deadline. It did so because the incumbent did not return papers by the regular Aug. 7 cutoff. Jones-Carter qualified later, on Aug. 12, at the close of that extended window. The Press Democrat reported Fleming’s decision as a deliberate step back. She had led for eight years, through the Tubbs Fire and the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper called this race "the most competitive on the ticket." Two first-time District 4 winners are in the running.

## 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. It also lists past service as Chair of the Luther Burbank Rose Parade and a seat on the Santa Rosa Fire Foundation board, and names housing affordability, climate resiliency, fire preparedness, community safety, and downtown vitality as priorities. In his Vote411 questionnaire he describes a second term on the Planning Commission, a seat on the Waterways Advisory Committee that reviews development near the city's creeks, and the vice chair role on Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital's Community Advisory Board. He also says he leads the California Theatre and serves with the Law Enforcement Chaplaincy.

His three stated priorities are fiscal sustainability, which he ties to keeping roads, parks, services and public-safety hiring from slipping; public safety, meaning police and fire staffing, wildfire resilience, emergency readiness and safer streets for everyone who drives, cycles or walks; and homelessness, where he calls for "compassion AND accountability" through treatment, shelter and measurable results. He adds two more of his own, economic growth and basic infrastructure, and says he would grow city revenue by helping businesses and streamlining permits rather than asking residents to pay more.

**Strengths:** Two terms on the Planning Commission and 23 years as an Oakland firefighter and paramedic, by his own account, give him a land-use and public-safety record voters can check.

**Trade-offs:** He puts finances, police and fire staffing first and says he would raise revenue through growth, not new charges, a cost if you want the city to spend more on new programs.

**Keep in mind:** He lost this seat's 2022 race to Fleming. He describes losing his home in the Tubbs Fire and the loss of his son, which is central to his public story but is biography, not a policy record. His questionnaire priorities do not include housing.

## 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. 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. 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. That is a program-participation choice, not a question about her qualification to be on the ballot. In her Vote411 questionnaire she describes more than 30 years managing organizations at IKEA, Stanford University and nonprofits, with large budgets and operations. She says she is vice chair of the Museum of Sonoma County, Food for Thought, the Art in Public Places Committee and the county Commission on the Status of Women. She also describes chairing the Design Review and Preservation Board to hold down housing costs while preserving neighborhood character, and being a founding member of the Benton Street Improvement Association.

Her stated priorities begin with managing the city's budget deficit, partly by working more closely with the county Board of Supervisors to reduce overlapping spending; affordable housing, which she sees as work for the city to fund, regulate and produce, including wider down payment help for first-time buyers and developer incentives; and roads and sidewalks, with a review of how Measure M funds are directed and a sidewalk repair program for homeowners. A longer list in her background answer adds safety, housing pathways for unhoused residents, fire preparedness and a downtown that works for all.

**Strengths:** She chairs the Design Review and Preservation Board and describes 30 years managing organizations, so voters have a civic record to check.

**Trade-offs:** She names programs to expand, such as down payment help and sidewalk repair, but gives few steps for the deficit beyond working with the county, a cost if you want specifics.

**Keep in mind:** Her case rests on her own account of her management career; no independent reporting on it was found. She did not join the city's public financing program, so the city posted no statement for her. That is separate from her eligibility.

## Sources

1. [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.](https://sonomacounty.gov/administrative-support-and-fiscal-services/registrar-of-voters/elections/november-3-2026-general-election-local-candidates-who-have-filed)
2. [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.](https://www.srcity.org/DocumentCenter/View/50765/Notice_Offices-and-Nominations_102245_2026_FINAL)
3. [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.](https://www.srcity.org/4396/2026-Candidates)
4. [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.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Rosa,_California)
5. [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.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_of_Santa_Rosa,_California)
6. [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.](http://nf4.netfile.com/pub2/Default.aspx?aid=CSR)
7. [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.](https://srcity.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=3280)
8. [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.](https://www.srcity.org/4408/55440/Terry-Sanders---District-4)
9. [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."](https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/06/24/victoria-fleming-wont-seek-third-term-on-santa-rosa-council-leaving-open-seat-in-district-4/)
10. [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.](https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2022/11/28/terry-sanders-formally-concedes-to-victoria-fleming-in-santa-rosa-district-4-race/)
11. [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.](https://srcity.org/173/Public-Financing-for-City-Council-Electi)
12. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of Santa Rosa City Council Member, District 4' race (statewide All Races list): each candidate's self-submitted ballot designation and campaign contacts, plus answers to the League's questions -- If elected, what are your top 3 priorities?; What background, experience and/or education qualify you for this elected office?; Is there anything else that you would like the voters to know about you? Answers on file from Melanie Jones-Carter, Terry Sanders. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/santa-rosa-council-4.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote)

## The rest of the ballot

Santa Rosa City Council, District 4 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, "Santa Rosa City Council, District 4 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/santa-rosa-council-4 (sources last retrieved October 7, 2026).

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