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Leadership turnover is part of Milpitas mayoral candidate Hon Lien’s 2026 campaign message, but available reporting does not establish it as a top issue across the race or verify her count of departing city executives. Voters will choose a mayor and two councilmembers on November 3, 2026. Here is what is known about the claim, the city’s structure and the ballot.

What is known about the leadership-turnover claim?

In a July 30, 2026 report, The Milpitas Beat’s Alice Nguyen described Lien connecting city-manager instability and department-head departures to challenges for the city. Lien said: “For the past five or six years, we had 10 executive directors leaving our city to go to other cities, or simply saying that they are not happy working here with us.”

That is Lien’s campaign claim, not a verified city statistic. The reporting available here does not identify the 10 people, their positions or departure dates, or cite personnel records confirming the total. It also does not establish that turnover ranks among the leading concerns of all candidates or voters.

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How the issue could affect services

Lien linked management instability to operational problems, including slow business permits. The article recounts a business owner’s report of waiting six months for a permit; it is an anecdote, not a measured citywide processing time. The available information does not demonstrate that executive departures caused permit delays or quantify effects on other services.

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Who is running, and what offices are on the ballot?

The City of Milpitas says its General Municipal Election is November 3, 2026, and includes the mayor’s office and two council seats. Its election page identifies Mayor Carmen Montano and Councilmembers Garry Barbadillo and Hon Lien as incumbents eligible for reelection. The nomination period closed August 7, with an extension through August 12; the city lists a qualified-candidate roster dated August 13.

Nguyen’s July 30 report said three people were candidates for mayor at that time: incumbent Montano, Lien and Voltaire Montemayor. That is a snapshot from July, not a definitive account of the final ballot. Consult the city’s qualified-candidate list and ballot information for the filed candidates. Santa Clara County’s Registrar of Voters separately lists Montano, Barbadillo and Lien as up in 2026, with Evelyn Chua and William Lam next up in 2028.

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How Milpitas city leadership works

Milpitas describes itself as a general-law city with a council-city-manager form of government. Five officials—the mayor and four councilmembers—are elected at large on a nonpartisan basis. Councilmembers serve four-year terms; the mayor serves a two-year term.

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In this structure, the elected council sets policy and provides political oversight, while the city manager leads municipal administration. Department heads operate within that administrative system. Thus, claims about managers or department leaders leaving concern staff and management continuity, not the elected offices themselves.

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What Lien says she would focus on

Lien told The Milpitas Beat she would prioritize economic development, attracting businesses, streamlining permits, making law enforcement more efficient, and improving the working relationship among the council, city manager and departments. These are her stated goals; the reporting does not assess their likely results or provide comparable proposals from other candidates.

She also cited public safety, recreational spaces, housing and the economy as resident priorities based on a city survey. The article does not publish the survey, its date, methodology or results, so those priorities should be understood as Lien’s account rather than independently confirmed survey findings.

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What the 2024 council transition does—and does not—show

A December 11, 2024 city announcement documented an elected transition: Montano was reelected mayor, Evelyn Chua was reelected to council, William Lam joined the council, and Lien retained her seat. The city also said Anthony Phan left after two terms and that Montano appointed Barbadillo vice mayor.

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Those are changes in elected office and vice-mayoral assignment. They do not establish a history or rate of city-manager and department-head turnover. The available sources do not provide a comprehensive chronology of administrative departures.

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Another ballot issue: Measure K

The city says Measure K, which it placed on the November ballot, would update Milpitas’s business-tax structure. In the city’s explanation, some smaller businesses currently pay more than 70 times as much per employee as larger businesses. The proposal would set an annual flat rate for businesses and add a gross-receipts charge for larger businesses with more than $700,000 in annual receipts. The city estimates the measure would generate $3.0 million per year if enacted; that is the city’s projection, not an independent budget finding.

For the measure’s full case and counterarguments, voters should review the city attorney’s analysis, arguments for and against, and the county voter guide alongside the city’s description.

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