# Sebastopol City Council Compare records and positions simply between Ian Hoff, James Woodruff, Kyreen Jorgensen, and 4 more for Sebastopol City Council at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. Councilmembers vote on Sebastopol's city budget, ordinances, and land use. Sebastopol is a Sonoma County city of 7,521 people. It is a council-manager city, run day-to-day by a professional city manager. The five-member elected Council sets policy, with staggered four-year terms. The Council picks a Mayor and Vice Mayor from its own members. Unlike some nearby Sonoma County cities, Sebastopol keeps all five seats at large. This November's ballot includes three of those seats. - Jurisdiction: City of Sebastopol - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Seats: 3 - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/sebastopol-council - 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: September 1, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 83 out of 100 (Strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Ian Hoff** — Engineer/Business Owner - **James Woodruff** — Welder/Fabricator - **Kyreen Jorgensen** — SMART Board Clerk - **Brandie L. Solovay** — Attorney - **Jill McLewis** — Incumbent - **Sandra Maurer** — Incumbent - **Erin Mitchell** — Environmental Planning Student A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Seven candidates are running for three at-large seats on Sebastopol's City Council: attorney Brandie L. Solovay, Vice Mayor Sandra Maurer, SMART rail agency Board Clerk Kyreen Jorgensen, Mayor Jill McLewis, welder James Woodruff, environmental planning student Erin Mitchell, and structural engineer Ian Hoff. Vote for up to three -- the three highest vote-getters win, no runoff. Sebastopol is a council-manager city in Sonoma County. It had 7,521 residents in the 2020 Census. The elected five-member City Council sets the budget, ordinances, and land use policy. A professional city manager runs day to day operations. Each seat serves a staggered four-year term. The Council picks the Mayor and Vice Mayor from its own members. Several nearby Sonoma County cities moved to district Council elections this cycle. Healdsburg and the city of Sonoma both did. Sebastopol keeps all five seats at-large. Three of them are on this November's ballot. Two of the three outgoing incumbents are running again. They are Mayor Jill McLewis and Vice Mayor Sandra Maurer. The third, Councilmember Stephen Zollman, chose not to run again. That left an open seat. It is part of why the field grew to seven candidates for three spots. None of the challengers has held elected office in Sebastopol before. ## Brandie L. Solovay Brandie L. Solovay's filed ballot designation is "Attorney." Their own campaign site describes them as a parent who moved to Sebastopol and bought a home there in 2023, with professional experience in immigration law, criminal defense, family law, disability law, and civil litigation across private practice and nonprofit work. They identify as legally blind and a member of the LGBTQIA community. They qualified for the ballot August 3, 2026. **Strengths:** Broad legal background -- immigration, family, disability, and civil law -- with a direct tie to Solovay's stated accessibility priority. **Trade-offs:** A more recent Sebastopol resident (since 2023) than most opponents; no independent news coverage found beyond their own campaign site. **Keep in mind:** No Form 460 was reachable in this pass -- Sebastopol's finance portal is client-side gated (see Financial info) -- so their donor base isn't yet checkable. ## Sandra Maurer Sandra Maurer is Sebastopol's sitting Vice Mayor, a Councilmember since 2022, and her filed ballot designation is "Incumbent." Her own campaign site describes 38 years as a Sebastopol resident, a nonprofit-director background, prior service as a California Public Utilities Commission intervenor, and small-business ownership. She qualified for the ballot August 4, 2026. **Strengths:** A four-year Council record to run on, plus 38 years of local roots and utility-regulation experience relevant to infrastructure votes. **Trade-offs:** As an incumbent she owns the current Council's record; this pass found no independent, critical assessment of her tenure beyond her own site. **Keep in mind:** Her site credits her with preserving public comment periods and restoring the Labyrinth of Life Teen Memorial -- checkable but not independently verified here. ## Kyreen Jorgensen Kyreen Jorgensen's filed ballot designation is "SMART Board Clerk" -- they are Clerk of the Board for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit district and previously served as Deputy Clerk of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, per their own campaign site. They qualified for the ballot August 5, 2026, and describe their platform as fiscal sustainability, transparency and open government, and planning for growth while protecting Sebastopol's character. **Strengths:** Direct government-operations experience at both the county and a regional rail agency, mapping onto Jorgensen's fiscal-transparency platform. **Trade-offs:** Has not previously held elected office; no independent news coverage of their campaign was found beyond their own site. **Keep in mind:** No Form 460 was reachable in this pass, for the same portal-access reasons noted for the other non-incumbent candidates. ## Jill McLewis Jill McLewis is Sebastopol's sitting Mayor, and their filed ballot designation is "Incumbent." Their own campaign site describes them as a downtown business owner and executive director of a Northern California food-and-beverage trade association. They qualified for the ballot August 6, 2026. **Strengths:** Sitting Mayor with a specific record: McLewis's site credits them with a policy directing 40% of Measure U revenue to public safety and infrastructure. **Trade-offs:** As Mayor they are most directly tied to the current Council's budget decisions; no independent assessment of their tenure was found beyond their own site. **Keep in mind:** Their downtown business ownership is a direct stake in the downtown-revitalization priority their campaign highlights. ## James Woodruff James Woodruff's filed ballot designation is "Welder/Fabricator." Their own campaign site describes 32 years as a Sebastopol resident, wastewater-treatment and water-supply certifications from their trade work, and volunteer activism with the Indivisible movement. They qualified for the ballot August 11, 2026 -- under the extended nomination window that opened because an incumbent (Zollman) didn't refile. **Strengths:** 32-year Sebastopol resident with hands-on wastewater and water-supply certifications, directly relevant to infrastructure votes. **Trade-offs:** Has not previously held elected office; no independent news coverage of their campaign was found beyond their own site. **Keep in mind:** Their platform (economic justice, immigration-enforcement resistance, reproductive rights) leans more national in framing than their opponents', a difference in emphasis, not a judgment. ## Erin Mitchell Erin Mitchell's filed ballot designation is "Environmental Planning Student." They qualified for the ballot August 12, 2026, the last day of the extended nomination window. Their own campaign site carries only a slogan ("VOTE a Local Council Woman that Cares") and a contact form as of this pass -- no biography or stated platform beyond their ballot designation was found. **Strengths:** Mitchell's ballot designation suggests subject-matter interest in land use and environment, though their program or coursework isn't independently verified. **Trade-offs:** The least documented candidate in this pass -- no independent coverage or platform beyond their designation and a bare campaign-site landing page. **Keep in mind:** This depth limit reflects what their campaign has published as of this pass, not a judgment about their candidacy -- it may be updated before the election. ## Ian Hoff Ian Hoff's filed ballot designation is "Engineer/Business Owner." Their own campaign site describes them as a Sebastopol business owner, a structural engineer, and a multi-year volunteer firefighter with both the City of Sebastopol and the Gold Ridge Fire Protection District, and names Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins as a supporter. They qualified for the ballot August 12, 2026, the last day of the extended nomination window. **Strengths:** Pairs an engineering background with volunteer firefighting for both the city and Gold Ridge Fire District -- direct exposure to infrastructure and public safety. **Trade-offs:** Has not previously held elected office; no independent news coverage of their campaign was found beyond their own site. **Keep in mind:** Their site cites recent fiscal emergencies and public-safety changes as motivating their run, a critique voters can weigh against incumbents' own account. ## Review notes - Each of the seven Sebastopol City Council candidates' own campaign sites, linked from the city's own Elections and Voting page and read directly this pass: Brandie L. Solovay (votebrandie.com), Sandra Maurer (sandimaurer.com), Kyreen Jorgensen (kyreenforsebastopol.com), Jill McLewis (jill4sebastopol.com), James Woodruff (electjameswoodruff.com), Ian Hoff (ianhoff.com, including its /about page), and Erin Mitchell (erinforsebastopol.com -- a bare slogan-and-contact-form page with no biography or platform as of this pass). may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [Sonoma County Registrar of Voters -- "Local Candidates Who Have Filed," November 3, 2026 General Election: lists a City of Sebastopol section with one heading, "Sebastopol City Council (Elect 3)," naming seven qualified candidates -- Brandie L. Solovay, Sandra Maurer (Incumbent), Kyreen Jorgensen, Jill McLewis (Incumbent), James Woodruff, Erin Mitchell, and Ian Hoff -- with ballot designation, qualification date, and incumbent flag for each. 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 Sebastopol -- own "Elections and Voting" page: states "Three council seats are open. Seven qualified candidates are running," names the identical seven-candidate field, and links each candidate's own campaign site or contact info; states the nomination period ran July 13-August 7, 2026 with an extension through August 12, consistent with Woodruff, Mitchell, and Hoff's later qualification dates. Links the FPPC's own site and Sebastopol's SouthTech Hosting campaign-finance portal.](https://www.cityofsebastopol.gov/elections-and-voting/) 3. [City of Sebastopol -- own "Mayor & Council" page: states "The City Council has five members, each elected to a four-year term. Terms are staggered," and lists the sitting Council -- Jill McLewis (Mayor, term expires Dec. 2026), Sandra Maurer (Vice Mayor, term expires Dec. 2026), Stephen Zollman (term expires Dec. 2026), Phill Carter (term expires Dec. 2028), and Neysa Hinton (term expires Dec. 2028) -- independently confirming the county roster's incumbent flags for McLewis and Maurer and that Zollman, the third sitting incumbent whose seat is up this cycle, did not seek reelection. Does not state whether Mayor/Vice Mayor are separately elected or Council-selected titles.](https://www.cityofsebastopol.gov/your-government/mayor-council/) 4. [The Press Democrat -- "Nomination period opens for dozens of council seats across Sonoma, Napa counties" (July 14, 2026): independently corroborates that "three at-large seats on the Sebastopol City Council are on the November general election ballot," held by "Mayor Jill McLewis, Vice Mayor Sandra Maurer, and Council member Stephen Zollman," and confirms Sebastopol is keeping at-large elections this cycle while Healdsburg and Sonoma (city) move to district-based elections. Names no specific candidates.](https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/07/14/nomination-period-opens-for-dozens-of-council-seats-across-sonoma-napa-counties/) 5. [Wikipedia -- "Sebastopol, California": used narrowly for the 2020 Census population (7,521) and the city's council-manager government structure; does not cover the 2026 election.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastopol,_California) 6. [Each of the seven Sebastopol City Council candidates' own campaign sites, linked from the city's own Elections and Voting page and read directly this pass: Brandie L. Solovay (votebrandie.com), Sandra Maurer (sandimaurer.com), Kyreen Jorgensen (kyreenforsebastopol.com), Jill McLewis (jill4sebastopol.com), James Woodruff (electjameswoodruff.com), Ian Hoff (ianhoff.com, including its /about page), and Erin Mitchell (erinforsebastopol.com -- a bare slogan-and-contact-form page with no biography or platform as of this pass). Self-description, attributed in text; not an independent evaluation of any candidate.](https://www.cityofsebastopol.gov/elections-and-voting/) 7. [A documented financial-disclosure access gap: Sebastopol's own Elections and Voting page links a SouthTech Hosting "CampaignDocs eRetrieval" portal. It loads (HTTP 200), but a direct inspection of the served HTML shows an ASP.NET WebForms application driven entirely by client-side __VIEWSTATE/postback controls, with no static filer or candidate data reachable by this session's fetch tooling -- the same client-side-gated pattern documented elsewhere in this dataset for SouthTech- and NetFile-hosted portals. No FPPC Form 460, 470, or 501 could be confirmed present or absent for any of the seven candidates.](https://www.southtechhosting.com/SebastopolCity/CampaignDocsWebRetrieval/) ## The rest of the ballot Sebastopol City Council 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, "Sebastopol City Council — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/sebastopol-council (sources last retrieved September 1, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.