# South El Monte City Council Compare records and positions simply between Manuel "Manny" Acosta, Rudy Bojorquez, or Kimberly Valencia for South El Monte City Council at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds one of two seats on South El Monte's City Council. Members are elected at-large to four-year terms. They vote on the city budget, zoning rules, and other ordinances. Each year, the council picks one member as Mayor. It also picks another as Mayor Pro Tem. - Jurisdiction: City of South El Monte - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Seats: 2 - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/south-el-monte-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: August 31, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 92 out of 100 (Very strong), across 5 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Manuel "Manny" Acosta** — Professor/Incumbent Councilmember · Incumbent - **Rudy Bojorquez** — Councilmember · Incumbent - **Kimberly Valencia** — Continuing Education Manager A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. South El Monte elects two City Council seats on November 3, 2026, and for once it's a contested race: three candidates for two seats. Incumbents Rudy Bojorquez and Manuel "Manny" Acosta are both seeking reelection, while first-time candidate Kimberly Valencia -- endorsed by Mayor Gloria Olmos -- is challenging for one of the two seats. Each winner serves a 4-year term on South El Monte's City Council. The council sets the budget, zoning and development rules, and city ordinances. South El Monte is one of the San Gabriel Valley's smallest cities, home to about 20,000 residents. Each year the council picks one member as Mayor and one as Mayor Pro Tem. Gloria Olmos and Rudy Bojorquez hold those roles now. Day-to-day work runs through an appointed city manager. The city has no police department of its own. It pays the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Temple City station for public safety. Both incumbents already sit on the council. Valencia does not. In a published interview, Mayor Olmos called the sitting council split by a "three-vote majority." She said that majority leans toward development and business. She is backing Valencia and Acosta together to shift that balance. In the same interview, Valencia called Bojorquez the best funded of the three. Framed that way, the choice is not the two incumbents against each other. It is how much a voter wants to shift the council's direction. The issues are development pace and cannabis ordinance buffer zones. Valencia also says the council majority ended a public safety division. ## Rudy Bojorquez Rudy Bojorquez is a sitting South El Monte councilmember, currently serving as Mayor Pro Tem, seeking another term on the council he has held a campaign committee for since 2020. His ballot designation reads simply "Councilmember." No campaign platform statement for this cycle was reachable, and his 2026 committee has not filed a state campaign-finance disclosure as of this dataset's retrieval. **Strengths:** Sitting councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem. He has had a campaign committee on file every cycle since 2020. That is the deepest institutional continuity of the three. **Trade-offs:** No campaign platform was found for this cycle. His 2026 committee has not filed a report. There is little beyond his record to weigh. **Keep in mind:** Valencia is his declared opponent. In a published interview she said he has drawn "significant funding from cannabis investors." She also said he is mailing booklet-sized pieces. His filings show none this cycle, so the claim could not be checked. ## Manuel "Manny" Acosta Manuel "Manny" Acosta is a sitting South El Monte councilmember seeking reelection, with a campaign committee on file for the seat since 2017. Their ballot designation reads "Professor/Incumbent Councilmember." Mayor Gloria Olmos, a fellow councilmember, has publicly endorsed their reelection alongside challenger Kimberly Valencia's campaign. **Strengths:** Sitting councilmember with a committee on file since 2017, longer than Bojorquez's. Acosta is the only incumbent Mayor Olmos has backed for reelection. **Trade-offs:** No campaign platform was found for this cycle. Their 2026 committee has not filed a report. Both other candidates show the same pattern. **Keep in mind:** Their ballot title calls them a professor and an incumbent councilmember. That is their own chosen wording. No source named a school or subject for the professor title. ## Kimberly Valencia Kimberly Valencia is a first-time candidate and lifelong South El Monte resident whose ballot designation, "Continuing Education Manager," reflects her work at UCLA's Integrated Substance Abuse Programs. She is running on restoring the city's disbanded public safety division, more cautious review of new development, and tighter buffer zones around the city's cannabis ordinance. She has been endorsed by Mayor Gloria Olmos, the East San Gabriel Valley Democratic Club, and the National Latino Peace Officers Association. **Strengths:** The only newcomer in the race. She is endorsed by Mayor Olmos, the East San Gabriel Valley Democratic Club, and the National Latino Peace Officers Association. **Trade-offs:** She has no council record to weigh. No campaign finance filing was found for her 2026 committee. Both incumbents show the same pattern. **Keep in mind:** In a published interview she said the council majority disbanded the city's public safety division. She said it also loosened the 2020 cannabis ordinance's buffer zones. That is her own account, not checked here against the votes. ## Sources 1. [City of South El Monte — Notice of Election, November 3, 2026 (City Clerk Adrian Garcia, MMC; dated June 29, 2026): for two (2) Members of the City Council, full term of four years; nomination period July 13 – Aug. 7, 2026, extendable to Aug. 12 for non-incumbent challenger candidates against an unfiled incumbent (not applicable here — both incumbents filed)](https://www.cityofsouthelmonte.org/DocumentCenter/View/7552/Notice-of-Election---English-2026) 2. [City of South El Monte — List of Candidates, November 3, 2026 General Election: names the three qualified City Council candidates — Rudy Bojorquez ("Councilmember"), Manuel "Manny" Acosta ("Professor/Incumbent Councilmember"), Kimberly Valencia ("Continuing Education Manager") — with ballot designation and papers-pulled/qualified dates for each (all pulled papers July 13, 2026; Bojorquez qualified July 16, Acosta and Valencia Aug. 6)](https://www.cityofsouthelmonte.org/DocumentCenter/View/7639/2026-List-of-Qualified-Candidates) 3. [City of South El Monte — Resolution No. 26-038 (requesting the LA County Board of Supervisors consolidate the Nov. 3, 2026 general municipal election): its roll call, surfaced via a search engine's indexed excerpt of the city's own document, reads "Acosta, Rodriguez, Mayor Pro Tem Bojorquez and Mayor Olmos" — confirming Bojorquez's Mayor Pro Tem title and Bojorquez's and Acosta's current council seats. The PDF itself returned no extractable text layer on direct retrieval this pass — a reachability gap in the city's own file, not a selective omission here — so this rests on the search engine's cached excerpt, not a full read of the document](https://www.cityofsouthelmonte.org/DocumentCenter/View/7558) 4. [Local News Pasadena — "A First-Time Candidate Takes Aim at South El Monte Council Seat" (Sheryl Turner, April 27, 2026): a joint interview with candidate Kimberly Valencia and Mayor Gloria Olmos covering the council's elimination of the city's public safety division, a proposed arts district, the 2020 cannabis ordinance's (Measure CM) buffer-zone reduction, Valencia's biography and endorsements, and her characterization of opponent Rudy Bojorquez as backed by "significant funding from cannabis investors"](https://localnewspasadena.com/2026/a-first-time-candidate-takes-aim-at-south-el-monte-council-seat/) 5. [California Secretary of State — CAL-ACCESS campaign-finance filer search, checked by candidate name 2026-08-31: Rudy Bojorquez's committee (Filer 1448856, dating to a 2020 committee, renamed for 2022 and 2026) is ACTIVE with no Form 460/461/450 e-filed for the 2025-2026 cycle and no late/$5,000+ contributions on record; Manuel Acosta's committee (Filer 1480867, "Acosta for South El Monte Council 2026; Manny," dating to a 2017 committee) is ACTIVE with the same absence; Kimberly Valencia's committee (Filer 1484572, "Valencia for South El Monte Council 2026; Kimberly 'Kim'") is ACTIVE, newly registered this cycle, with the same absence](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx) ## The rest of the ballot South El Monte 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, "South El Monte City Council — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/south-el-monte-council (sources last retrieved August 31, 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.