Seven candidates are running to fill two seats up for grabs on the East Palo Alto City Council this November.
Vice Mayor Ruben Abrica is running for reelection, but Councilmember Martha Barragan announced in August that she decided to not seek reelection due to health reasons.
There are three candidates running for the East Palo Alto City Council for the first time — Planning Commission chair Michael Mashack and business leaders Sam Jimenez and Holifa Windom.
Three other candidates have previously ran for the City Council unsuccessfully: nonprofit leader Ofelia Bello, the Rev. Deborah Lewis-Virges, and legal investigator Gail Wilkerson Dixon, who also goes by Gail Wilk Dixon.
The contenders are focusing on issues like collaboration, professionalism, transparency, traffic, land development, fiscal stability, and affordable housing in East Palo Alto.
Ruben Abrica
Abrica said he is running again to push back against decisions or efforts he thinks won’t benefit residents. In an interview, he gave an example of an attempt by councilmembers to weaken the city’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance in the last year.
The law requires developers to include a certain amount of low-income units in new rental developments. He voted against an effort to allow certain projects to be exempt of the ordinance.
“I want to also advocate and resist any attempts to weaken certain ordinances that we have in place for affordable housing,” Abrica said in an interview.
The change originally passed with a majority. But in a 3-2 vote in July, the council subsequently decided against the change following a public hearing and the Planning Commission’s vote to reject its passage. Commissioners argued that the proposal did not align with the city’s housing goals and could lead to displacement.
Abrica also wants to ensure that proposed developments in the city, like the Four Corners project, offer benefits for local residents like new jobs and affordable housing. Four Corners is a large mixed-use development with retail and housing space at the corner of University Avenue and Bay Road, approved by the City Council in March.
“One way or another, the developers will make their money and make profits, but we cannot just allow them to not provide strong community benefits,” Abrica said.
Michael Mashack
A 274-unit proposal for the Four Corners project was originally denied by the Planning Commission over the lack of dedicated retail space, but the City Council decided to approve it anyway under pressure from state law.
Mashack was one of the planning commissioners who opposed the Four Corners proposal. The project is one of the main reasons that he’s running, he said in an interview.
“We rejected it because it did not provide public benefit, and in fact, it reduced affordable housing numbers significantly,” he said.
Mashack, who was raised in East Palo Alto, has been on the Planning Commission for eight years. He’s also a U.S. Air Force veteran and runs a nonprofit aimed at workforce development in the aviation and aerospace industries.
In addition to ensuring developments provide community benefit, his priorities are transparency and accountability between government and the public, fiscal responsibility, protecting affordable housing, and expanding economic mobility for residents.
“I’ve never run for elected office, but I feel compelled because I love the city enough and I see a lot of what’s going on and I need to help make a change,” he said. “I am running because of the lack of transparency and lack accountability.”
Ofelia Bello
Also throwing her hat in the race is Bello, an East Palo Alto native who has served on the Planning Commission and was elected in 2022 to serve on the East Palo Alto Sanitary District Board of Directors. She is the executive director of Pahali Community Land Trust, a nonprofit that aims to grow affordable housing availability.
A staunch advocate for affordable housing, Bello also wants to focus on workforce development, supporting green space and parks, expanding retail, investing in emergency preparedness and boosting government transparency.
“I am running for City Council to bring to you truly caring, compassionate, responsible, and accountable governance that is responsive to you all,” she said at a candidate forum Saturday.
Holifa Windom
Windom is an East Palo Alto native and wartime veteran. She currently works in client engagement at a fuel company and serves as a youth leader at a chapel. She has degrees in political science and business management.
Her campaign emphasizes preventing displacement of residents, emergency planning, fixing aging water infrastructure, expanding access to education and recreation programs for youth, slowing down neighborhood traffic, and supporting small businesses.
“The first thing I would do, if voted on to City Council, is listen more to our residents,” she said at the forum. “I chose to run for City Council because it was put on my heart to do so … I grew up here and I understand the history. I understand the people in this community, and I love this community so much.”
Sam Jimenez
Jimenez is also an East Palo Alto native. He’s a Green Beret veteran who owns a small plumbing business. He thinks that the skills he has acquired in his career and military service, like leadership and goal setting, make him a suitable candidate for the City Council.
His priorities are expanding apprenticeships and career pathways for youth, building more housing, public safety, supporting local businesses, and integrating advanced technology into government to boost efficiency.
“I’m running because I love this city, but I also believe we can do better,” he said at the forum. “I want to lead by example and inspire young people to get involved in their community.”
Wilkerson Dixon
Wilkerson Dixon is a legal investigator and businesswoman and has served on several boards and committees in the city.
Her priorities are establishing a supermarket to the city as an economic engine and bringing back Whiskey Gulch, which was a strip of businesses and affordable housing just off U.S. Highway 101 along University Avenue. The buildings in the area were demolished in the late 1990s and new buildings like a hotel and offices were constructed there.
She also wants to reduce traffic and carbon emissions in the city and prevent displacement of longtime residents.
“I’m not a cookie cutter candidate,” she said at the forum. “My priority is the resident who built East Palo Alto, including legacy families, families who want the opportunity to return. I want fair treatment, responsible development, and a city that works for its people.”
Lewis-Virges
Lewis-Virges is running again for City Council this year after falling short in 2024. She is a pastor at East Palo Alto’s Saint Mark AME Zion Church and has served as chair of the city’s Public Works & Transportation Commission.
She supports investing in development without displacement, affordable housing, addressing parking and traffic concerns, helping local businesses, advancing environmental justice, and fiscal stability.
She said at the forum that she’ll be a “a leader who supports safe streets, right-fit development, strong community programs, affordable housing, tenant protection.”
Candidates’ perspectives
Many candidates have pointed to dispute and tensions between current City Council members as a reason they are running.
In the last few years, since Mayor Webster Lincoln and Councilmember Mark Dinan joined the council in 2025, arguments and slights between council members have become commonplace both on the dais and on social media.
At Saturday’s candidate forum, candidates laid out their perspectives on working collaboratively with colleagues amid disagreements.
“My work and any work that I would do on this council would be done in good faith collaboration, regardless of political ideologies,” Bello said.
Abrica, who has experienced a good deal of conflict with certain council members, said he is always willing to work collaboratively and compromise when necessary, but he will continue to push back on council members who try to make decisions with limited public input.
He also said he will defend himself and his values if it’s demanded. Last year, Dinan referred to Abrica as a “snarling dog” in a social media post, a comment Abrica viewed as racist.
“I personally have been attacked many times on social media, still being attacked,” Abrica said at the forum. “I don’t attack people, but if in the council or somebody disrespects me, I will defend myself.”
Other candidates said they also will try to work to get the job done, putting differences aside.
“Disagreement is inevitable, but dysfunction is a choice,” Mashack said. “I can disagree strongly with a colleague today and work constructively with that same colleague tomorrow without holding a grudge, because my obligation is not to win every argument.”
“I do not believe in going along to get along,” Wilkerson Dixon said. “I can disagree firmly and still do the job.”
“I think it would help our city staff, especially our city manager, that our council members can get along,” Windom said.
“I’m not going to turn a four-to-one vote into a four-month feud,” Jimenez said. “The person who votes against me today may be the same person that I need to work with tomorrow.”
“I think that’s very important leadership that we learn to disagree without being disagreeable,” Lewis-Virges said. “Residents don’t elect us to agree with each other all the time. They elect us to represent them, to listen, to debate respectfully.”
East Palo Alto voters can select two of the seven candidates they prefer on their ballot. The top two candidates with the most votes will win.
Registered voters can submit their ballots until Election Day on Nov. 3. A map showing various voting centers and ballot drop-off locations in East Palo Alto and throughout the county is available online.
