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City of Watsonville · Statewide General Election

Watsonville City Council, District 7

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On the ballot

This person would hold one of Watsonville's seven district City Council seats, each elected by the voters of that district alone, for a 4-year term: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Santa Cruz County city of about 52,590 residents (2020 Census). Watsonville's Mayor is not separately elected -- the Council appoints one of its own members to the largely ceremonial Mayor role each December. Watsonville is a council-manager city, with an appointed City Manager handling day-to-day operations.

Watsonville City Council District 7 is an open seat: Ed Acosta and Nancy A. Bilicich are running to succeed termed-out Councilman Ari Parker.

District 7 elects one member to a full 4-year term on Watsonville's seven-member City Council -- one Council Member per district, with no at-large seats. Watsonville's Mayor is not separately elected; the Council appoints one of its own members to the largely ceremonial role each December. Watsonville is a Santa Cruz County city of about 52,590 residents (2020 Census), governed council-manager style with an appointed City Manager handling day-to-day operations.

Independent, bylined local reporting from the Pajaronian (Aug. 27, 2026) identifies sitting Councilman Ari Parker as termed out, leaving no incumbent in this race. Both Acosta and Bilicich qualified per the county's own certified candidate roster and the city's own candidate page.

Ed Acosta

Ed Acosta, 57, is a Watsonville native running for City Council for the first time. His own candidate statement describes him as "Agriculture Manager/Santa Cruz County Board of Education Trustee," raised in the Pajaro Valley by immigrant parents, with a career in the berry industry as a Food Safety Officer and Audit Oversight Analyst. He cites his current service as a Santa Cruz County Board of Education Trustee, as Chairman of the City of Watsonville Planning Commission, and as an elected representative to the Santa Cruz County Democratic Central Committee, and states his priorities as public safety, clean parks, city infrastructure, affordable housing for families and seniors, job creation and economic development (including at the airport), and environmental preservation. The Pajaronian's independent reporting confirms his Planning Commission and County Board of Education service and adds that his campaign focuses on downtown Main Street revitalization and diverse housing for families, seniors, and veterans; he told the paper, "We live in a great city."

Strengths

Current elected service on the county Board of Education, chairmanship of the city's Planning Commission, and independent news coverage corroborating his background.

Trade-offs

No prior city council experience, and no campaign-finance filing was found for him this pass.

Keep in mind

His Planning Commission chairmanship gives him a land-use record voters can weigh, though this dataset did not find independent reporting evaluating that record specifically.

Nancy A. Bilicich

Nancy A. Bilicich is a former Watsonville Council Member and Mayor returning to run for the District 7 seat after nine years away from the Council, per the Pajaronian's independent reporting. Her own candidate statement describes her as "Educator/School Administrator," born and raised in Watsonville, a Watsonville High School graduate with degrees from Cabrillo College, Santa Clara University, and Nova Southeastern University. She currently chairs the Pajaro River Watershed Flood Prevention Authority, and states her priorities as public safety, improved streets, responsible housing development, expanded business opportunities, youth recreation, and preserving the Watsonville Municipal Airport; she also lists volunteer roles with the Pajaro Valley Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture (Chairperson), the Pajaro Valley Public Cemetery District, and several other local organizations. The Pajaronian's independent reporting confirms her prior council and mayoral service and adds that her campaign is focused on expanding emergency services on Watsonville's east side (a new fire station or medical facility) and continuing the Pajaro River levee reconstruction project; she told the paper, "We need some help on the east side, in my opinion."

Strengths

Prior experience as a Council Member and Mayor, current leadership chairing a regional flood-prevention authority tied to the Pajaro River levee project, and corroborating news coverage.

Trade-offs

Nine years removed from elected office; her committee's only disclosed filing so far is a $5,000 contribution from herself (see Financial section).

Keep in mind

A return candidacy by a previous officeholder -- voters can weigh her prior council/mayoral tenure against Acosta's current land-use and school-board experience.

Source review: Strong (89/100) · 13 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.

  • watsonville.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Watsonville -- own "November 3, 2026 Election" page: states, in the city's own words, that "the purpose of this election is to fill the four (4) expiring seats for Districts 3, 4, 5, & 7," each "for a full four-year term," with a nomination period of July 13-Aug. 7, 2026 (extendable to Aug. 12, 2026 for non-incumbent challengers to a seat an incumbent didn't file for). Contains no mention of any district's election being cancelled or its nominee appointed in lieu.
  • watsonville.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Watsonville -- own "Candidates -- November 3, 2026" page: names the certified field for all four Council districts up this cycle -- District 3: Maria Orozco (Incumbent); District 4: Kristal Salcido (Incumbent); District 5: Casey K. Clark (Incumbent), Angel Zuniga; District 7: Nancy A. Bilicich, Ed Acosta -- with each candidate's ballot designation, independently confirming the county's Contact Candidates roster exactly.
  • votescount.santacruzcountyca.gov (opens in a new tab)Santa Cruz County Elections -- own "Contact Candidates" directory for the Nov. 3, 2026 election: lists, for the City of Watsonville, District 3 (Maria Orozco only), District 4 (Kristal Salcido only), District 5 (Casey Clark, Angel Zuniga), and District 7 (Ed Acosta, Nancy Bilicich), each with ballot designation and, where filed, a candidate-statement PDF link and campaign-website link. States candidate statements "are optional ... and will become public on August 13 at 5pm" and that "only those candidates who have given permission to post contact information will be included."
  • votescount.santacruzcountyca.gov (opens in a new tab)Santa Cruz County Elections -- own "Appointed In Lieu" page for the Nov. 3, 2026 election: explains that for county-administered contests, "if there are the same/less number of candidates filed then there are seats open when the filing period ends, the contests will not appear on the ballot" and those candidates are appointed instead. Lists nine school/community-college-district contests resolved this way and zero City of Watsonville rows of any kind -- a negative-result check confirming both single-candidate Watsonville districts (3 and 4) are genuine, printed, on-ballot races, not appointments in lieu of an election.
  • watsonville.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Watsonville -- own "Mayor & City Council" page: confirms seven Council Members, one per district, each elected to a 4-year term, and that the Mayor is not directly elected but is "appointed each December" by the Council from among its own members. Names the current roster and each seat's term-expiration date, showing District 1 (Eduardo Montesino) and District 2 (Vanessa Quiroz-Carter) expiring Dec. 2028 (not up), District 6 (Jimmy Dutra) expiring Dec. 2028 (not up), and Districts 3 (Orozco), 4 (Salcido, sitting Mayor), 5 (Clark, sitting Mayor Pro Tempore), and 7 (Parker) all expiring Dec. 2026 (up this cycle) -- matching the four-district roster exactly.
  • watsonville.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Watsonville -- own "Fair Political Practices Commission Filings" page: names NetFile as the city's campaign-disclosure system, linking a Form 460 (Campaign Statement) portal at ssl.netfile.com/static/agency/wat/index.html and a Form 700 (Statement of Economic Interest) portal, and directs candidates to the FPPC's own site for filing rules.
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)NetFile -- the City of Watsonville's real-time "Filing Log" RSS feed (agency code wat): queried directly and shows exactly one 2026-cycle campaign filing -- "Friends of Nancy Bilicich for Watsonville City Council 2026" filed FPPC Form 497 on 8/24/2026 -- plus one unrelated Form 700 filing by a city official. No filing appears for Orozco, Salcido, Clark, Zuniga, or Acosta in this window -- a negative-result check, not proof no committee exists for them. The portal's own full public search (netfile.com/public/WAT/campaign) is a client-rendered single-page application this session's fetch tools could not search for a longer filing history.
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer searches attempted for all six Watsonville candidates (Orozco, Salcido, Clark, Zuniga, Acosta, Bilicich): every query returned an empty or blocked response consistent with Cal-Access's own Incapsula bot-detection challenge, the same block documented elsewhere in this dataset -- and Cal-Access's documented scope covers state-level filings only, which excludes local candidates in any case. Documents the absence of a reachable state-level source, not any candidate's actual finances.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia, "Watsonville, California": used narrowly for the 2020 Census population figure (52,590) and as an independent cross-check of the city's council-manager government, seven council districts, and rotating (not directly elected) Mayor.
  • votescount.santacruzcountyca.gov (opens in a new tab)Ed Acosta's own filed 2026 Candidate Statement of Qualifications for Watsonville City Council District 7, filed with the Santa Cruz County Elections Department, downloaded and read directly: describes himself, age 57, as "Agriculture Manager/Santa Cruz County Board of Education Trustee," a native of Watsonville raised in the Pajaro Valley, cites his work in the berry industry as a Food Safety Officer and Audit Oversight Analyst, his service as Chairman of the City of Watsonville Planning Commission and on the Santa Cruz County Democratic Central Committee, and states his priorities as public safety, clean parks, infrastructure, affordable housing, and economic development.
  • votescount.santacruzcountyca.gov (opens in a new tab)Nancy A. Bilicich's own filed 2026 Candidate Statement of Qualifications for Watsonville City Council District 7, filed with the Santa Cruz County Elections Department, downloaded and read directly: describes herself as "Educator/School Administrator," born and raised in Watsonville, a graduate of Watsonville High School with degrees from Cabrillo College, Santa Clara University, and Nova Southeastern University, states she previously served as a Watsonville City Council Member and Mayor, chairs the Pajaro River Watershed Flood Prevention Authority, and lists her priorities as public safety, streets, responsible housing, business opportunities, youth recreation, and the Watsonville Municipal Airport.
  • pajaronian.com (opens in a new tab)The Pajaronian -- Todd Guild, "Bilicich, Acosta vying for District 7 City Council seat" (Aug. 27, 2026): independent, bylined local reporting on the Bilicich-Acosta race, naming sitting Councilman Ari Parker as termed out; independently confirms Bilicich as a former councilwoman returning after nine years, who previously served as Mayor, focused on east-side emergency services and the Pajaro River levee project, and confirms Acosta's Planning Commission and County Board of Education service, focused on downtown economic development and diverse housing.
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)Nancy Bilicich's committee's filed FPPC Form 497 (late contribution report), for "Friends of Nancy Bilicich for Watsonville City Council 2026," filed 8/24/2026, downloaded and read directly: discloses a $5,000 contribution received the same day from Nancy Bilicich herself, listed occupation "Teacher," employer "Pajaro Valley School district."

Last updated September 2, 2026.