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City of Seal Beach · Statewide General Election

Seal Beach City Council, District 1

Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.

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 holds District 1's seat on Seal Beach's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. Seal Beach is a charter city with a council-manager government. The Mayor isn't separately elected -- each year, councilmembers choose one of their own to serve as Mayor and another as Mayor Pro Tem. A 4-year term, and members are limited to two terms (8 years).

Four candidates -- Scott Davis, Matt Smith, Perla Mendoza, and Matthew Terry -- are running for Seal Beach City Council District 1, an open seat: sitting incumbent Joe Kalmick did not file for reelection. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff.

This person holds District 1's seat on Seal Beach's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. Seal Beach is a charter city with a council-manager government. The Mayor isn't separately elected -- each year, councilmembers choose one of their own to serve as Mayor and another as Mayor Pro Tem. A 4-year term, and members are limited to two terms (8 years).

The county's own record flags Joe Kalmick as District 1's sitting incumbent, but he does not appear among the four qualified candidates here -- the same county document separately lists a "Joe Kalmick" qualifying for a Coast Community College District trustee seat under the ballot designation "City of Seal Beach City Councilmember," consistent with (though not independent confirmation of) the sitting councilmember seeking a different office rather than reelection this cycle. Beyond each candidate's filed occupation, no independent profile, platform statement, or news coverage was found for any of the four in this pass despite a real, time-boxed search effort -- documented below as a gap, not filled in with speculation.

Scott Davis

Filed his candidacy under the ballot designation "Real Estate Entrepreneur." No campaign site, official city biography, or news coverage describing his background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort.

Strengths

A real-estate entrepreneurship background, which could be relevant to a council seat's land-use and local-development decisions.

Trade-offs

No campaign statement or platform was found in this pass, so voters have no confirmed sense of his priorities beyond his listed occupation, and no record of prior elected office was found.

Keep in mind

CAL-ACCESS's filer-search tool was not checked in this pass -- see Financial info.

Matt Smith

Filed his candidacy under the ballot designation "Sports Broadcaster." No campaign site, official city biography, or news coverage describing his background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort.

Strengths

A media and public-communication background, which could translate into public-facing council work.

Trade-offs

No campaign statement or platform was found in this pass, so voters have no confirmed sense of his priorities beyond his listed occupation, and no record of prior elected office was found.

Keep in mind

CAL-ACCESS's filer-search tool was not checked in this pass -- see Financial info.

Perla Mendoza

Filed her candidacy under the ballot designation "CEO/Nonprofit Boardmember." No campaign site, official city biography, or news coverage describing her background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort.

Strengths

Executive and nonprofit-board experience, which could carry over to budget oversight and organizational management on the council.

Trade-offs

No campaign statement or platform was found in this pass, so voters have no confirmed sense of her priorities beyond her listed occupation, and no record of prior elected office was found.

Keep in mind

CAL-ACCESS's filer-search tool was not checked in this pass -- see Financial info.

Matthew Terry

Filed his candidacy under the ballot designation "Architect." No campaign site, official city biography, or news coverage describing his background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort.

Strengths

An architecture background, which could be directly relevant to a council seat's land-use, planning, and development decisions.

Trade-offs

No campaign statement or platform was found in this pass, so voters have no confirmed sense of his priorities beyond his listed occupation, and no record of prior elected office was found.

Keep in mind

CAL-ACCESS's filer-search tool was not checked in this pass -- see Financial info.

Source review: Strong (88/100) · 5 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • ocvote.gov (opens in a new tab)OC Registrar of Voters -- Contest/Candidate Proof List, General Election 11/3/2026 -- City of Seal Beach section (pages 154-156 of 188, downloaded directly and parsed locally with pypdf since a plain fetch returns undecodable PDF stream data): confirms Member City Council District 1 (Contest 5231) as the city's sole November 2026 race, Vote for 1, 4 qualified candidates, none of them the incumbent of record (Joe Kalmick) -- and that no other Seal Beach contest appears anywhere in the document
  • sealbeachca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Seal Beach -- City Council page: confirms the sitting 5-member, district-elected body (Joe Kalmick, District 1; Ben Wong, District 2; Lisa Landau, District 3; Patty Senecal, District 4; Nathan Steele, District 5), the annually rotating Mayor/Mayor Pro Tem chosen from among councilmembers (2026 Mayor Pro Tem: Ben Wong), and 4-year staggered terms
  • sealbeachca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Seal Beach -- Voter & Election Information page: states Districts 1, 3, and 5 opened a nomination period for the 2026 cycle (July 13-August 7, 2026) and that councilmembers serve 4-year terms with a two-term (8-year) limit -- though only District 1 appears as an actual contest in the county's own candidate proof list
  • sealbeachca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Seal Beach -- Municipal Code & City Charter page: links a document titled "City Charter - 2014," confirming Seal Beach is a charter city, correcting this dataset's initial assumption (carried from the local-authoring queue's task framing) that it was a general-law city
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's Seal Beach, California article: confirms a council-manager form of government administered by a 5-member City Council serving four-year alternating terms, with the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem selected from among councilmembers rather than directly elected -- corroborating the county document's lack of a separate Seal Beach Mayor contest

Last updated August 31, 2026.