By Elise Cox on Oct 16, 2026

How 77 Elections Got Reduced to Just Four Real Contests in Mendocino County

The Fort Bragg City Council election is one of the few contested races in the county. Here are the candidates at a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters on October 1. The candidates, from left to right: Richard Ulveling, Mary Ann Schmidt, City Councilperson Tess Albin-Smith, City Councilperson Marcia Rafanan, Mary Rose Kaczorowski, Mayor Jason Godeke, and Scott Mayberry. (Photo by Eric Fingal)

UKIAH, Calif. —Mendocino County Registrar of Voters Katrina Bartolomie finalized the list of candidates for elected office in Mendocino County on Aug. 21. There were 77 local races with 148 total candidates.

The average voter will be lucky to vote in a single local race, and most will not vote in any. The county's certified list flags six races as headed to the ballot, but in two of them — the Willits and Point Arena city councils — exactly as many people filed as there are seats, so no one faces opposition. That leaves just four races where voters actually have a choice: the District 3 seat on the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, the Fort Bragg and Ukiah city councils, and the Willits Unified school board. Three other boards will hold an election for a single trustee seat while appointing the rest.

Nearly everything else on the list — the fire districts, water districts, community services districts, and school boards that tax property, set rates, and decide where the money goes — drew too few candidates to hold an election at all.

The average voter will be lucky to vote in a single local race, and most will not vote in any.

Communities with expiring elected offices and no competitive contests include: Albion/Little River, Anderson Valley, Brooktrails, Calpella, Comptche, Covelo/Round Valley, Elk, Gualala, Hopland, Laytonville, Leggett, Manchester, Mendocino, Piercy, Redwood Valley, and Westport. If you live in one of these areas, see the list at the end of the article for the races you could have voted on if your friends and neighbors had thrown their hats into the ring.

"Sometimes we have more candidates than we know what to do with and sometimes we don't," Bartolomie said.

Appointment in place of an election is written into state law. Under Section 10515 of the California Elections Code, when no more people file for a district office than there are seats to fill — including when no one files at all — and no voter petition demands an election, the board of supervisors must appoint the candidates who did file, or, where none did, any qualified person, to serve as if elected. City elections fall under a separate Section, 10229, which lets a council either appoint the unopposed nominees or hold the election anyway; Willits and Point Arena will hold theirs.

Jon Kennedy, a former Plumas County supervisor who founded CivAssist, a company that builds software for local governments, said the appointment process isn't the real issue.

"In many cases, it's simply the mechanism available when there aren't enough people willing to put their names on the ballot," he said.

Kennedy said serving on a district board is "often a thankless, unpaid position that comes with a surprising amount of responsibility." Members must understand budgets, public meeting laws, financial disclosures, personnel issues, and sometimes complex regulations. When something goes wrong, he said, they are often the first people the public blames.

"A thankless, unpaid position that comes with a surprising amount of responsibility."

He has also seen incumbents skip the paperwork and expense of running for reelection. Instead, they let their terms expire and seek appointment afterward.

Kennedy said part of the problem is that most residents know little about what these boards do. "They'll certainly show up when their water rates increase," he said, "but getting people interested in what happens at a regular board meeting is another matter entirely."

He believes agendas, minutes, and budgets should be easy for the public to find and understand. "Making that information more accessible won't magically get people to run for office, but it's a start toward getting them engaged," he said.

Peter McNamee, who retired after 32 years in California state and local government and was twice elected county clerk-recorder in Yolo County, sees the pattern as the residue of an older economy. The timber, fishing, and ranching towns that once dotted the county built governing boards to match, he said, and many of those boards outlived the communities that created them. What remains, he wrote, is "a hodgepodge of legacy government bodies that were once deemed vital but today are ill suited to meet the needs of the public."

McNamee says it's time to rethink the structure of local government. "The solution is probably to do a complete overhaul of local government institutions and to eliminate institutions that have no value or where the cost of their operation is greater than whatever public value they provide," he wrote, suggesting many districts could be consolidated or folded into city and county government.

Tekla Broz, chair of the Mendocino County Democratic Party, said she regrets how empty the ballot is. "I agree that it is a shame that more people do not step up to run for these important Boards, which affect all of our daily lives," she wrote in an email, crediting those "who serve, year after year, often unremarked, usually just reappointed every year, who keep our tiny towns, remote ranches and rural areas and cities covered by critical services."

Broz does not have a solution so much as a request. "I do not know what can be done about it," she said, "but I think an article listing the duties and process of running for a board will be helpful."

The seats being filled by appointment, by community

By community, the local offices up this year that drew too few candidates to hold an election — the seats that will be filled by appointment instead of by voters.

Albion / Little River

Albion/Little River Fire Protection District — 4 seats

Anderson Valley

Anderson Valley CSD — 2 seats
Anderson Valley USD — 3 seats

Brooktrails

Brooktrails Township CSD — 3 seats

Calpella

Calpella County Water District — 3 seats

Comptche

Comptche CSD — 2 seats

Covelo / Round Valley

Covelo CSD — 3 seats
Covelo Fire Protection District — 2 seats
Round Valley County Water District — 2 seats
Round Valley USD — 3 seats

Elk

Elk CSD — 3 seats
Elk County Water District — 3 seats

Fort Bragg

Fort Bragg Rural Fire Protection District — 2 seats
Fort Bragg USD — 3 seats
Mendocino Coast Health Care District — 4 seats
Mendocino Coast Recreation & Park District — 4 seats

Gualala / Sea Ranch

Gualala CSD — 3 seats
South Coast Fire Protection District — 2 seats
Coast Life Support District — 5 seats

Hopland

Hopland Fire Protection District — 2 seats
Hopland Public Utilities — 3 seats

Laytonville

Long Valley Fire Protection District — 3 seats
Laytonville USD — 4 seats

Leggett

Leggett Valley Fire Protection District — 5 seats
Leggett Valley USD — 3 seats

Manchester

Manchester Elementary — 3 seats
Redwood Coast Fire Protection District — 3 seats

Mendocino

Mendocino City CSD — 3 seats
Mendocino Fire Protection District — 3 seats
Mendocino USD — 4 seats

Piercy

Piercy Fire — 3 seats

Point Arena

Arena Union Elementary / Pt. Arena Joint Union High School District — 5 seats

Potter Valley

Potter Valley CSD — 2 seats
Potter Valley Community USD — 3 seats
Potter Valley Irrigation District — 3 of 4 seats (Division 4 is on the ballot)

Redwood Valley

Redwood Valley County Water District — 3 seats
Redwood Valley / Calpella Fire — 4 seats

Ukiah

Ukiah Valley Fire Protection District — 3 seats
Ukiah Valley Sanitation District — 4 seats
Millview County Water District — 3 seats
Willow County Water District — 4 seats
Mendocino Co. Russian River Flood Control — 3 seats
Ukiah USD — 3 of 4 seats (Trustee Area 1 is on the ballot)

Westport

Westport County Water District — 2 seats

Willits

Little Lake Fire Protection District — 2 seats

Countywide

Mendo-Lake Community College District — 5 seats
Mendocino County Board of Education — 3 of 4 seats (Trustee Area 1 is on the ballot)

Communities with a single competitive race (the rest appointed)

Fort Bragg — competitive: City Council, 8 candidates for 3 seats. The city's other local seats (listed above) are being filled by appointment.
Potter Valley — competitive: Potter Valley Irrigation District, Division 4 (Giuntini vs. Hildebrand). The district's other seats and Potter Valley's other boards are being appointed.
Willits — competitive: Willits USD, 4 candidates for 3 seats. The City Council is on the ballot but unopposed (2 candidates, 2 seats); Little Lake Fire and Brooktrails CSD are being appointed.

Communities with two competitive races

Ukiah — competitive: City Council (8 candidates for 3 seats) and Ukiah USD, Trustee Area 1 (Arkin vs. Baca Meza). The city's other districts (listed above) are being appointed.
Countywide — competitive: Board of Supervisors, District 3 (Bourassa vs. Hart) and the Mendocino County Board of Education, Trustee Area 1 (Puget vs. Perry). The Mendo-Lake Community College District is being appointed.

On the ballot but unopposed

Point Arena — the City Council race is on the ballot, but just two candidates filed for two seats, so no one is opposed. The Arena Union / Pt. Arena Joint Union High School District seats are being appointed.