# Upland City Council, District 3

Carlos A. Garcia is running uncontested for Upland City Council, District 3. Full ballot at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold your district's seat on Upland's four-member City Council. All four seats are elected by district. Members vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. Terms are four years, staggered so District 1 is not up again until 2028. Districts 2, 3, and 4 are up this year. Upland's Mayor and City Treasurer are separate citywide offices, not council seats. Neither is up for election in 2026.

- Jurisdiction: City of Upland
- 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/upland-council-district-3
- 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: 91 out of 100 (Very strong), across 6 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Carlos A. Garcia** — Incumbent

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

Incumbent Carlos A. Garcia is unopposed for reelection to Upland's District 3 council seat on the November 3, 2026 ballot -- so this contest is settled and your vote here does not change the outcome.

This person holds District 3's seat on Upland's City Council. The council has 4 members, all elected by district. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. Upland has a council-manager government. An appointed City Manager runs day-to-day operations. The term is four years, ending in November 2030. Upland's Mayor is Bill Velto. The City Treasurer is Greg Bradley. Both are separately elected citywide offices, not council seats. Neither is up for election this November. Upland moved from at-large to by-district council elections in 2016. That followed a California Voting Rights Act challenge. District 3's lines were last redrawn in a 2022 post-Census redistricting.

Garcia's filed ballot designation is simply "Incumbent." He has no opponent. The useful question is what he has done in office and what to watch. It is not who to choose. Over the next four years, accountability for this seat runs through the council and the public. It does not run through the ballot.

## Carlos A. Garcia

Carlos A. Garcia is Upland's incumbent District 3 councilmember, first elected in 2018 and seeking reelection unopposed. His own official bio describes him as an entrepreneur who owns an information-technology and social-media-marketing company, and a former high-school and adult Career Technical Education instructor; he holds a Bachelor's in Information Technology and a Master's in Educational Technology, both from Pepperdine, plus a CTE teaching credential from the University of San Diego. Before his election he served two years on the city's Community Development Block Grant Committee representing District 3. His own FPPC campaign filing (see financial info below) also discloses, in its own "related committees" section, a second controlled committee formed for a 2024 California State Senate run -- confirming from his own state paperwork that he sought a state office in addition to his council seat; no further detail about that race was found in this pass and none is speculated here.

**Strengths:** A professional background in an IT and marketing business, plus prior CTE teaching. He also served on the CDBG Committee before his election. That is civic history beyond the seat.

**Trade-offs:** No independent news coverage of him was found. That covers his 2018 to 2026 council tenure. It also covers his disclosed 2024 state Senate run.

**Keep in mind:** An uncontested seat means this term's record is what is on the ballot. There is no head-to-head choice. His 2024 state run is disclosed but unexplained. Ask him about it directly if it matters to you.

## Sources

1. [San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- "Offices Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election": the City of Upland section lists exactly three offices -- Member, City Council, Districts 2, 3, and 4 -- each a single seat with a 4-year term, and no Mayor or Treasurer contest.](https://uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov/ROV/Elections/2026/1103/Report_OfficesUpForElection.pdf)
2. [San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- statewide "Report_CandidateList.pdf" candidate-filing report: the City of Upland section (pages 183-186 of 249) names all three qualified 2026 candidates -- James Breitling (District 2), Carlos A. Garcia (District 3), Rudy Zuniga (District 4) -- each the sole candidate for their seat, each flagged Incumbent, and each with zero candidate statements filed.](https://uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov/ROV/Elections/2026/1103/Report_CandidateList.pdf)
3. [City of Upland -- City Clerk's "November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election" page: states that Districts 2, 3, and 4 are up this cycle, that the nomination period closed August 7, 2026, and names all three qualified candidates with qualification dates (Garcia 7/27/26, Breitling 8/4/26, Zuniga 8/6/26), stating directly that "each district has one candidate running unopposed." Also covers Measure M (a business-license reform measure, out of scope under this dataset's ballot-measures rule).](https://www.uplandca.gov/city_clerk/elections_voter_services/november_3_2026_general_election.php)
4. [City of Upland -- "City Council & Treasurer" page: lists all four council districts plus the separately elected citywide Mayor (Bill Velto) and City Treasurer (Greg Bradley) -- confirming James Breitling (District 2), Carlos A. Garcia (District 3), and Rudy Zuniga (District 4, Mayor Pro Tem) as sitting incumbents, and that neither the Mayor nor Treasurer office is a council seat.](https://www.uplandca.gov/city_council_treasurer/index.php)
5. [City of Upland -- Councilmember Carlos A. Garcia's own official bio page: owns an IT and social-media-marketing company, previously worked as a high-school and adult CTE technology instructor, holds a Bachelor's in Information Technology and a Master's in Educational Technology from Pepperdine plus a CTE teaching credential from the University of San Diego, and served two years on the city's CDBG Committee representing District 3 before his election.](https://www.uplandca.gov/business_detail_T6_R134.php)
6. [City of Upland's own NetFile-hosted public campaign-finance portal (aid=upl), queried by name for Carlos Garcia: his committee ("Garcia for City Council 2022," still the active filer name) filed an itemized FPPC Form 460 for Jan. 1-June 30, 2026 -- downloaded directly and read locally with pypdf -- showing $2,750 in itemized monetary contributions (Ryan Hutchison, a Rancho Cucamonga realtor, $250; San Bernardino Police Officers Association PAC, $1,000; E. Burr, CEO of Burrtec Inc., $500; Protect Our County PAC, $1,000), a $540 nonmonetary contribution (discounted fundraiser venue use), $5,101 in total expenditures (including travel to a California Republican Party event and several Upland restaurant tabs), an ending cash balance of $3,805.72, and -- in the form's own "Related Committees Not Included" section -- discloses a second controlled committee, "Garcia For State Senate 2024" (FPPC ID# 1463901).](https://netfile.com/public/upl/campaign)

## The rest of the ballot

Upland City Council, District 3 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, "Upland City Council, District 3 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/upland-council-district-3 (sources last retrieved August 31, 2026).

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