Jacky Elizalde

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Jacky Elizalde Wants District 2’s Seat. What Would She Change?

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Updated 10/21/2026 9:55 am PST

District 2 Candidate Jacky Elizalde is campaigning on emergency response, everyday services and budget scrutiny. Her proposals deserve the same close reading as the incumbent’s record.

Jacky Elizalde has already come close to taking Victor Preciado’s seat. In November 2022, she received 1,109 votes to his 1,216. The margin was 107 votes. She returns to the District 2 contest with experience around government and a platform built around services residents use every day. [1]

Her campaign describes her as a longtime Pomona resident, mother, labor advocate and former congressional district representative. She is challenging an incumbent, but she has worked inside government herself. The April 2024 Congressional Directory lists Jacqueline Elizalde as a field representative in U.S. Representative Norma Torres’s Ontario district office. [2][8]

Her earlier work included county services. An October 2020 Campus Times profile, published during her run for Pomona mayor, reported that she worked for San Bernardino County’s Human Services Department, helping families living in poverty with housing and grants. The same profile described human trafficking as one of her campaign concerns; the issue remains part of her 2026 safety platform. [4][9]

Mt. San Antonio College independently lists Jacqueline Elizalde as a Pomona at-large representative on its Citizens’ Oversight Committee. The committee monitors the proper use of campus construction bond money and informs the public about those expenditures. Its members are appointed by the college’s trustees. [3]

Ms. Elizalde’s labor support deserves consideration beyond the addresses on campaign checks. The Census Bureau estimates for 2020–2024 show that 79.7% of Pomona residents age 25 and older do not possess a bachelor’s degree, while 26.5% lack a high school diploma or equivalent. Access to training and jobs with decent wages and benefits deserves attention in that context. Her campaign lists endorsements from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and numerous construction unions, including plumbers, ironworkers, electricians and carpenters. A union’s office address does not establish where its members live. The city of Pomona’s proposed project labor agreement concerns wages, benefits, dispute resolution and opportunities for local workers. As for the incumbent Victor Preciado, the question is what he has done to move that proposal toward adoption. Expressing his support for a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) and delivering an enforceable agreement are different measures of his record.

Her public-safety platform gives voters a specific proposal to examine: making the reopening of Fire Station 181 a priority. She also calls for improved emergency response, neighborhood partnerships and pedestrian safety. Her published safety page does not supply a reopening cost, staffing plan or timetable. Those details would help residents judge what she could deliver. [4]

Her public-services proposals concern ordinary problems: maintained park restrooms, repaired streets, working lights and an accessible library. These commitments are easy to understand. They still require budgets, staff and decisions about which work happens first. [5]

In an Inland Valley Daily Bulletin candidate questionnaire, Elizalde grouped homelessness, housing affordability and public safety among the city’s connected problems. She supported a mix of housing options, including paths to ownership; said warehouses have a purpose but should not be overconcentrated in any community; and said local government should uphold the law while protecting residents and staying in contact with county, state and federal officials on immigration. The answers establish a direction, but not measurable targets or an implementation plan. [12]

Regarding finances, Elizalde proposes an annual, in-depth forensic review of the City’s budget. She also calls for eliminating spending that no longer serves a clear purpose and pursuing outside funding. Her fiscal platform does not identify particular cuts or explain the proposed review’s scope and cost. A promise to reduce waste becomes more useful when a candidate identifies the waste. [6]

However, her own public-service record also requires scrutiny. The City’s August staff report described three unexcused Parks and Recreation Commission absences in 2026. A July 16 motion recommending her removal failed on a 3–3 vote. Councilmember Elizabeth Ontiveros-Cole, who had appointed her, then requested council consideration. On August 3, the Council removed Elizalde in a 5–0 vote. Preciado recused himself; Mayor Tim Sandoval was absent. [7][10]

Elizalde addressed the absences in an August 26 campaign statement. She said some involved childcare responsibilities and caring for a sick child, and accused the Council of treating her differently from other commissioners. Her statement acknowledged the Council’s independent removal authority under the Charter. Those are her explanations and allegations, rather than a City finding about its motives. [11]

The attendance record and her explanation belong together. Voters can assess both while asking how she would manage the demands of a council seat. The Council’s handling of her removal does not answer that question for her.

Elizalde’s campaign offers proposals voters can question directly: how to improve emergency response, maintain public spaces and examine City spending. Winning an argument against the incumbent would only get her into the seat. Carrying out those proposals would be the job.


Editor’s note: The Pomonan invited both District 2 candidates to submit an op ed or participate in a written interview. Neither responded by the stated deadline. Their positions are drawn from public records, campaign materials and published questionnaires.

The Pomonan is an independent publication of essays, criticism, photography, and cultural commentary.

Pomona Had Plenty of Absent Commissioners. City Hall Removed the One Running for Council

The 2026 candidate for Pomona’s District 2. Jacky Elizalde missed meetings. So did other Pomona commissioners. Their cases concluded with their commissions. Hers went upstairs,  and landed before the City Council and followed her onto the November ballot. 

Updated 10/14/2026 5:15 pm PST

Pomona has always had a way of conducting itself when times get hairy by “playing politics”. Nothing cryptic about that. In this particular case Pomona has gone full brow, full beard, or full bush whichever you prefer. The city has had commissioners who miss meetings,  it's not breaking news, because shit happens. People get sick. Their kids get sick. Work runs late. Family emergencies happen. Sometimes people simply do not show up because they’re tired of being tired. 

The City also has a process for when this happens. The rules are after three absences in a calendar year, excused or unexcused, the commission secretary puts a removal recommendation on the agenda. The commissioners hear the circumstances and decide whether to send the matter to the City Council. Three absences trigger a review. 

Ms. Elizalde missed three Parks and Recreation Commission meetings in 2025. Her commission reviewed the absences and voted 7–0 against recommending her removal.

In 2026 she missed three more: March 19, April 17 and June 17. The City classified all three as unexcused. On July 16, the commission tried again. The vote was 3–3. The motion to recommend her removal failed.

Pomona’s bylaws already said what came next. If a commission declines to recommend removal after the third absence, the matter returns after the commissioner misses another meeting. Ms. Elizalde did not miss another meeting first.

Councilmember Elizabeth Ontiveros-Cole stepped in four days later and asked staff to place Elizalde’s removal before the City Council. It is also imperative to understand Ms. Ontiveros-Cole had appointed Elizalde to the commission. 

The staff report acknowledged that the motion failed. Then it reached for Section 801(b) of the City Charter, which allows the Council to remove a commissioner by majority vote.
The report said the Council could remove Elizalde “outside of the process established by the standard by-laws.” The attendance process reached one result, so City Hall used another process to reach a different one.

Mayor Sandoval was absent. Councilmember Victor Preciado recused himself. The remaining five council members voted to remove Elizalde on  August 3. 

Pomona did not bring this kind of heat every time another commissioner hit the same or worse attendance threshold. 

Vehicle Parking District Commissioner Alejandra M. Tessier reached three absences in 2026. One involved illness. Another involved a family emergency. Her commission heard her explanation and voted 5–0 to retain her. Nobody escorted Ms Tessier before the full City Council for a second round. She remained on the commission and was still listed as a member in October.

Ethics Commissioner Bernice Stillions reached three excused and unexcused absences in 2025. The Ethics Commission voted 7–0 against recommending her removal. She was still serving in September 2026.

Planning Commissioners John Ontiveros and Edgar Rodriguez each had four absences in 2025. Not three, but four absences. 

The Planning Commission discussed their attendance and took no action. The chair said their absences had not delayed the commission’s work. Rodriguez said he had asked to attend one meeting remotely. Both men were still on the commission a year later.

According to Pomona’s Only Local Newspaper, La Nueva Voz their September 24 Issue reported Cultural Arts Commissioner Jovani Esparza was counted for having 15 documented absences since 2019, including four while he chaired the commission. It reported that the City Clerk confirmed Esparza had served as Preciado’s appointee since 2023. That total spans several years; the report did not give a year-by-year breakdown.

Their situations were not identical. Nothing in the bylaws required them to be. The commission review exists so actual human circumstances can be heard before City Hall starts canning people from an unpaid civic position.

Pomona has sent another attendance case toward removal. In February 2025, the City Council had an item recommending the removal of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Audrey Olmos-Govea after three or more absences. The item was pulled after she resigned that day.

Elizalde was not the first commissioner whose attendance became a serious issue. She was the commissioner whose removal motion failed, then got revived by the councilmember who had appointed her. She was also running for City Council against an incumbent.

Emails obtained show Ontiveros-Cole raising concerns with City staff before the commission reviewed Elizalde’s absences. On July 13, she asked Community Services Manager Mike Osoff for an update and wrote, “Where are we on this? I am very disappointed.” Two days later, she told Osoff and three other City employees that Elizalde had been “pardoned in 2025” and had failed to report later absences. She wrote that another commissioner was surprised by Elizalde’s “aloofness” and repeated his claim that Elizalde said she was “not getting paid.” The Pomonan could not independently verify that exchange. After the commission deadlocked 3–3, Ontiveros-Cole asked staff to place the matter before the City Council. The records reviewed by The Pomonan did not include the 2025 letter that Ontiveros-Cole said she had sent concerning Elizalde’s earlier absences. 

Ontiveros-Cole did not respond to our request for comments about why she revived the matter or whether Elizalde received the same treatment as other commissioners.

Councilmember Nora Garcia responded after the deadline. She said she supported “the decision and wishes of the appointing Councilmember” because commissioners serve at the Council’s discretion. She also said nothing in the bylaws prevents a councilmember from requesting an appointee’s removal at any time. That explains the power. It does not explain the double treatment.

Councilmember Lorraine Canales said she was not fully educated about what constituted removal and would investigate. No further explanation arrived before publication. The other council members contacted by The Pomonan did not respond.

The Council did not just take away the commissioner seat. On August 4, the City Clerk Karla Shipman told Elizalde she could no longer use “Parks Recreation Commissioner,” the ballot designation she had used during the primary. She no longer held the position. The City gave her until August 7 to choose another label.

Ms. Elizalde replied that City staff had not told her the removal would appear on the August 3 agenda. She said she believed the matter had ended at the commission level with the 3–3 vote.The records reviewed by The Pomonan do not establish whether the City had a separate legal duty to notify her personally beyond posting the public agenda.

The city clerk described the path City Hall used. The Parks and Recreation Commission did not recommend removal because its vote failed. Ontiveros-Cole made a separate request. The Council then used its Charter power to remove Elizalde outside the attendance procedure in the standard bylaws.

On August 7, Elizalde filed a replacement ballot designation: “Nonprofit Director/Mother.” Her alternate choices were “In-Home Caregiver/Mother” and “Oversight Member/Mother.”

A commission refused to recommend removal. A councilmember brought the same commissioner before the Council anyway. Five council members removed a candidate, and the City made her rewrite the words that would appear beside her name on the November ballot.

Missing three meetings did not automatically warrant a removal by a city council. Tessier, Stillions, Ontiveros, and Rodriguez were all able to stay. 

Maybe the officials had a cute collection of explanations for treating this case differently. However they did not provide one even when given the opportunity to. 

Ontiveros-Cole did not answer. Garcia said she followed the wishes of the appointing councilmember. Canales said she would look into it. The rest offered the familiar municipal sound of an empty room.

Pomona had its rules. The commission voted to not remove her. City Hall removed her anyway. Does Pomona follow its own rules out of conveniency to produce the results City Hall wants?

References

● Pomona City Charter, Article VIII, Section 801(b)

● Ordinance No. 4328

● Elizalde removal file 26-1585

● August 3 City Council meeting

● July 16 Parks and Recreation Commission meeting

● Tessier attendance file

● Planning Commission attendance file

● August 28, 2025 Ethics Commission minutes

● City email correspondence

● Elizalde ballot designation works

Who Is Funding Pomona’s District 2 Council Race?

UPDATED
09/10/2026 12:56 pm PST
09/07/2026 7:36 pm PST

Pomona District 2 campaign funding

Reported itemized monetary and nonmonetary contributions through June 30, plus late-contribution reports through August 28, 2026.

The candidates, Jacky Elizalde and the incumbent Victor Preciado campaign filings reveal two very different fundraising operations, and one contribution that is deserving of a disclosure.

We understand that money does not cast a ballot, but its always been the storyteller within politics. In Pomona’s District 2 City Council race, incumbent Victor Preciado and challenger Jacky Elizalde are financing their campaigns through noticeably different networks of supporters.

After a review of itemized contributions reported through June 30, along with late-contribution reports filed through August 28, shows approximately $41,066 in monetary and nonmonetary contributions reported by Preciado’s committee and approximately $64,518 reported by Elizalde’s committee.

While these figures do not necessarily represent each campaign’s complete fundraising total, they provide us with a story of who is investing in each candidate. Also understand they are calculated from itemized transactions in Pomona’s campaign finance database and do not include every small, unitemized contribution, loan or independent expenditure.

Victor Preciado, Incumbent

The incumbent, Preciado, has a contributor list that is a mixture of Pomona residents, local business interests, organized labor, political and figures.

Preciado’s filings also include individuals connected to local nonprofits. Emily Dolce is the executive director of The Common Good LA. Christian Verdugo is president of the 909 Market Foundation and Holly Reynolds is an educator at Bright Prospect. Bright Prospects was founded by Mayor Tim Sandoval.

The contributions came from the individuals, not their organizations. That distinction matters because a 501(c)(3) cannot legally contribute to a political candidate, but the people operating the non-profit can. 

Several of Preciado’s individual contributors are connected to nonprofits that have received public funds through the city of Pomona. The filings show who contributed money. So what does this connection mean? 

His largest reported contributor is the Laborers Local 300 Small Contributor Committee, which gave $2,750. United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1428 contributed $2,000.

Other substantial contributors include Metro Event Center at $1,800, All Sports Hospitality LLC at $1,500, Ana Preciado at $1,500, Marisol Ramirez at $1,250 and 24 Hour Laundry Inc. at $1,250.

Several contributors gave approximately $1,000, including Miguel Sanchez, Sergio Gomez, Laura Mundy, Rick Albertini, Michael Preciado, Stein Team Realty and Thomas “Tom” Hsieh.

Another contributor we all are aware of from our previous reporting was Athens Services, which gave Preciado’s campaign $499 on January 30, 2026. Athens holds Pomona’s exclusive franchise for residential and commercial trash collection under an agreement awarded by the City Council. Of course the contribution does not establish that Preciado gave Athens favorable treatment. But when a company doing business with the City contributes to a sitting councilmember, that relationship belongs in front of voters, not hiding behind the garbage can with its wheels and ass sticking out.

Athens is not the only corporate private business appearing in Preciado’s filings. Additionally, Preciado’s cute collection of contributors include businesses and people connected to real estate, hospitality, development and other commercial interests, although much of his money also comes from individual donors and organized labor. But these contributions do not tell or prove that anyone purchased influence. But corporations do not need Pomona City Hall to rewrite the federal tax code. But what they do need is the approvals of contracts, developments, franchises, fees and policies that can affect their bottom lines.

Approximately $24,134 of Preciado’s reported itemized contributions came from contributors with Pomona addresses. Roughly $16,932 came from “out-of-town”. And to think Measure Y was given such a hard time for receiving “out-of-town” money. Hypocritical? However, that does not make every local contribution more virtuous. It is just the insular suburban mindset. “Out-of-town” money is suspicious when it fits the narrative and perfectly acceptable when it does not. Preciado’s financial base is mostly local, but it is hardly confined to Pomona.

Preciado also benefited from a whopping $2,250 independent expenditure reported by none other than the “po-po”—or “One-Time”—or “5-0”—or “the fuzz,” depending on which generation you belong to, but also known as the Pomona Police Officers Association Political Action Committee. Independent expenditures are not contributions to a candidate’s committee and are legally supposed to be made without coordinating with the campaign, but voters should still know when an outside organization spends money supporting a candidate.

Jacky Elizalde, Challenger

Elizalde has reported more itemized contribution money, but her fundraising base is much more heavily concentrated among labor organizations and contributors outside Pomona.

The largest amounts reported under her committee include $7,000 from Plumbers and Steamfitters U.A. Local Union 398, $5,900 from the Los Angeles County Firefighters Local 1014 Legislative Fund Committee and $5,900 from the UA Journeymen and Apprentices Local 250 PAC.

The IBEW PAC Educational Fund contributed a reported $4,000. Western States PAC contributed $3,000. Other substantial contributors include the Service Employees International Union Local 121RN Health Care Fund at $2,950, Superior Duct Fabrication at $2,950 and the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112 PAC at $2,500.

After June 30, Elizalde reported another $2,950 from the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles PAC, $1,000 from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 40 PAC and $1,000 from the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers Local Union 105 Political Education Fund.

Approximately $9,021 of Elizalde’s itemized contributions reported through June 30 came from contributors with Pomona addresses. Approximately $50,547 came from contributors reporting addresses outside Pomona, although union members may live or work within the city.

Again, geography does not settle whether a contribution is good, bad or delivered by a hood pigeon. Labor organizations routinely support candidates in local elections because city governments make decisions affecting public works, development, employment and contracting. But the concentration is still relevant. Elizalde’s campaign is receiving significant financial support from organized labor beyond Pomona’s borders.

However, to be clear, union support is not something dirty. Unions are supposed to fight for workers, including at the ballot box. The point is not that Elizalde accepted union money. The point is that voters should know who is funding her campaign.

Her filings also complicate any attempt to place the candidates into tidy political boxes. Alongside union support, Elizalde received money connected to real estate and apartment interests, including Mark Warren Realty and Investments, Indian Hills Ltd., doing business as Villa Del Sol, and the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles PAC. Pomona politics, as usual, declines to organize itself into a convenient screenplay.

Among Preciado’s contributors is Stein Team Realty, which gave his campaign $500 on November 14, 2025, and another $500 on April 8, 2026, for a total of $1,000.

The company is associated with Mitchell Stein, creator of The Pomona Bulletin, a shiny, ambitious real estate pamphlet with an accompanying Facebook group created in 2023. Somewhere along the journey, that Facebook group also became an editorial board. Interestingly enough, another Facebook group called Pomona Bulletin had already existed. It was created by challenger Jacky Elizalde in 2019. In the Hip Hop world, creating a new Facebook group with the same name in 2023 is called biting, or being a biter. Translation: copycat.

Additionally, Stein’s relationship with Preciado goes beyond the $1,000 campaign contribution. Stein publicly identifies himself as a co-founder of Collective Acción, a Pomona-based 501(c)(3). A post in Stein’s Pomona Bulletin group also credited Preciado’s “shared effort to create” the nonprofit. So the person calling on Elizalde to withdraw was not simply commenting from outside the friend group. He was Preciado’s donor and had publicly credited Preciado with helping create the same nonprofit.

Furthermore, the group later published an editorial calling on Elizalde to withdraw from the District 2 race because of her attendance record on the Parks and Recreation Commission. The editorial did not disclose Stein Team Realty’s $1,000 contribution to Preciado, the candidate who would benefit from Elizalde’s withdrawal.

That contribution does not automatically invalidate the attendance criticism. Elizalde’s missed meetings remain fair grounds for scrutiny. However, she had addressed her record in an August 26 campaign statement. Elizalde said some absences involved childcare responsibilities and caring for a sick child. She also noted that the Parks and Recreation Commission deadlocked 3–3 on whether to recommend her removal before the City Council voted 5–0 to remove her. Elizalde alleged that commissioners with comparable or worse attendance records had been allowed to remain. The Pomonan has not independently verified those comparisons.

But the financial connection should have been disclosed. Readers deserved to know that a business associated with the person making the argument had contributed to the opposing candidate.

Apparently, the attendance record deserved a full editorial. The campaign contribution could not find its way into a footnote.

The filings do not prove that contributors control either candidate. A campaign donation is evidence of financial support, not evidence of a secret agreement, promised vote or political conspiracy.

What the records show is not a tidy contest between corporations and working people. Preciado’s financial consortium combines local residents, private businesses, property interests and organized labor. Elizalde’s campaign relies much more heavily on unions and other organizations outside Pomona, although apartment and real estate interests appear in her filings as well. One campaign is more locally dispersed. The other is more institutionally concentrated.

District 2 voters can decide which fundraising model concerns them more, or whether either one concerns them at all. They can ask Preciado what his contributors expect from his continued service. They can ask Elizalde how she will remain independent of the organizations investing heavily in her campaign.

They can also expect political commentators to disclose their own financial relationships before ordering a candidate to leave the race.

Campaign-finance filings rarely deliver a dramatic confession. Mostly, they deliver names, dates and dollar amounts. The interesting part begins when those details are placed beside what Pomona’s political voices choose to say—and what they quietly leave out.

Julian Lucas is a darkroom photographer, writer, and bookseller, though photography remains his primary language. He is the founder of Mirrored Society Book Shop, publisher of The Pomonan, and creator of Book-Store and Print Pomona Art Book Fair. And he will charge you $ 2.5 million for event photography.

Who Speaks for District 2?

Victor Preciado and Jacky Elizalde are campaigning to represent Pomona City Council District 2. Here is what they are emphasizing, and how residents can participate in The Pomonan’s reader poll.

Pomona voters will return to the polls on November 3 to decide who represents District 2 on the City Council.

Incumbent Victor Preciado and challenger Jacky Elizalde advanced from the June primary. Preciado received 1,154 votes, or 45.38 percent. Elizalde received 840 votes, or 33.03 percent. Samantha Zavala-Angulo finished third with 549 votes, or 21.59 percent.

Neither remaining candidate is presenting the race as a dramatic ideological break. Both are campaigning on familiar municipal concerns: public safety, housing, infrastructure, city services and opportunities for young people. The differences may be found less in the subjects they discuss than in their experience, priorities and proposed approach to governing.

Preciado is the incumbent and has served on the Pomona City Council since 2018.

His campaign points to work involving parks, neighborhood infrastructure, food distribution, small-business assistance and youth mentorship. For another term, Preciado says he wants to continue focusing on transportation and infrastructure, expand housing opportunities—including affordable and inclusionary housing—and support programs for young people.

Elizalde is challenging Preciado with a campaign centered on public safety, reliable city services and greater fiscal accountability.

Her stated priorities include addressing homelessness and human trafficking, improving housing affordability, supporting seniors and young people, encouraging economic development and expanding after-school programs. Elizalde has also emphasized transparent, measurable city spending and identifying additional revenue before considering higher taxes. Which candidate currently has the support of The Pomonan’s readers?

This is an informal, voluntary reader poll. It is not a scientific survey or an election forecast. Respondents are not independently verified as registered voters or District 2 residents, and the results should not be interpreted as representative of the District 2 electorate.


The Pomonan will continue following the candidates and the issues shaping the race before Election Day.

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The Pomonan editorial board consists of opinion journalists whose perspectives are shaped by their expertise, research, discussions, and established principles. This board operates independently from the newsroom.