General Election · Tuesday, November 3, 2026
San Juan Bautista is at a precipice, and the decisions ahead of us are not easy ones. They call for experience with budgets, with business, and with building things meant to last. That is what I would bring to this council.
What makes this precipice worth caring about is what we have to lose. The adobes, the Mission founded in 1797 that still holds services, the State Park, the Plaza Hotel, El Teatro Campesino, the historic buildings up and down Third Street, and a community that cares for one another. There are cities and towns much larger than ours that would trade everything for the assets we have right here. Our history is not just something we cherish. It is the reason people come here.
Too many storefronts, restaurants, and buildings along Third Street sit dark. It is not that San Juan Bautista lacks charm. It is that the cost of doing business here has become a real obstacle, and every business that cannot open is one more reason for visitors not to stay. Fewer places to eat means fewer people lingering, and fewer people lingering means the next business has an even harder time surviving. That is a cycle, and cycles can be turned around.
I have spent my career creating and managing budgets that have to balance, building a business in a small town, and putting fiber in the ground across this region. I currently chair the city’s Historic Review Board and serve as a Planning Commissioner, and both have taught me a great deal about how this town works. None of that makes me the answer to what ails San Juan Bautista. But it does mean I know how to read a budget and ask the right questions. And I get things done.
San Juan Bautista is my home, and it is worth fighting for. No one person on a council fixes a city, but the right people working together absolutely can. I would be honored to have your vote.
Sunday, August 30, 2026
Fun was had by all.
The campaign launch party filled a room at Inaka Fusion on Third Street. Neighbors and business owners came out, and guests drove down from Morgan Hill and Gilroy to be there. Thank you to everyone who came, to everyone who brought someone along, and to everyone who has put up a sign since.
The photos are on the community page, next to the signs and windows that have gone up around town.
Where I stand
One town, one table.
Residents, business owners, and City Hall should be in the same conversation before decisions are made, not after. That means agendas and notices written in plain language, real notice before anything comes to a vote, and staff time spent answering neighbors rather than managing them.
City Hall, the Mission, the State Park, our businesses, and our residents all want this city to thrive. We should be working as one, not as separate camps.
Open doors, greater revenue.
Our historic downtown is the economy. Filling vacant storefronts takes more than good intentions. It takes ordinances that are easy to find and easy to understand, a permitting process a small business can actually navigate, and buildings that are ready for a tenant to move into rather than needing a fortune in work first.
Preservation and growth are not opposites. Sensible reuse of our historic buildings keeps them standing, and it keeps the character that brings people here in the first place.
A budget that holds.
Fiscal stability is the foundation for everything else. The city needs to live within real revenue, keep reserves intact, and plan honestly for the things this city cannot go without, from fire and emergency response to water, roads, and sewer.
I have spent my career building infrastructure and winning grant funding to pay for it. I will bring that same discipline, and that same search for outside dollars, to the city’s books.
About
My story starts a few miles up the road. I was born in Renton, Washington, and my family moved to California shortly after my first birthday. By the summer between kindergarten and first grade, we had landed in Morgan Hill. At the time, it felt like the middle of nowhere. The paved road ended a few houses down, there were no streetlights, and the open land around us came with tarantulas, snakes, frogs, fish, and Llagas Creek just across the street.
For a kid who was always curious, it was a pretty great place to grow up.
I went through the Morgan Hill Unified School District: San Martin Elementary, Britton Middle School, and Live Oak High School. Those years gave me a strong connection to this part of California and to the small towns that make up this region.
Sports shaped me, too, and swimming most of all. I started when I was ten and eventually competed at the NCAA Division I level. I also played collegiate women’s water polo during the years when the sport was making the transition from club competition to an NCAA-sanctioned sport.
Sports taught me how to manage my time, work with other people, and get the job done within tight time frames.
I graduated from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management.
My father started an internet service provider while I was still in college. When I was homesick in Pennsylvania, I could log on and find out what avocados and artichokes were selling for back home. Then came IRC chat rooms, where I could type something and have someone on the other side of the world answer in real time.
That was it. I was hooked.
After graduation, I returned to California and began working as a technical recruiter. While on the agency side, I consistently ranked among the top recruiters at my firm and was number one every year for bringing in new client business. I eventually joined Sun Microsystems as a senior technical recruiter and went back to school through UC Santa Cruz Extension to deepen my technology background and earn my Unix system administration certification.
My father then asked me to help with a few things at South Valley Internet.
That was the end of 2002.
I never left.
Today, I am President & COO of South Valley Internet, a local, independent company that has been serving the community for 32 years. In 2011, we formed LCB Communications, focused on telecommunications infrastructure. I also co-founded Balanced Access, a nonprofit working to close the digital divide.
Technology has remained a constant in my life, and so has the belief that you don’t stop learning just because you’ve finished school.
Over the years, I’ve served on the boards of the California ISP Association, CalTel, and the Federal ISP Association, where I ran its annual conference. Most recently, I was elected to the board of Incompas.
But my community work has increasingly brought me closer to home.
I currently serve as Chair of the San Juan Bautista Historic Review Board and as a Commissioner on the San Juan Bautista Planning Commission. Those roles have given me a much closer look at how decisions get made in our town: how development, historic preservation, infrastructure, businesses, neighborhoods, and the needs of residents intersect.
My connection to San Juan Bautista goes back much further.
I first visited as a fourth grader on a field trip. I remember the town and its history making an impression on me then, and when the opportunity eventually came to live here, I took it.
Now this is home.
I believe a community works best when people are willing to listen to one another, take care of what makes the place special, and keep looking ahead. We can bring people together around the things we share, take a thoughtful look at what needs to be renewed, and build an environment where our community and its businesses can thrive.
That’s the work I want to continue doing: Unite. Revitalize. Prosper.
Let’s talk
If you have a question about the budget, an idea for downtown, or something about this town that has been bothering you for years, I would rather hear it from you directly than guess at it.
Pick a time that works. No agenda, no pitch. Bring the thing you actually want to talk about.
Coffee runs half an hour, a call runs twenty minutes. If none of the open times work for you, email elise@elisebrentnall.com and we will find something.
Get involved
Yard signs go out across town in the fall. Tell me where to drop one off.
Request a signWalk a few blocks, make calls, or host a coffee for your street. An hour helps.
Sign me upSigns, postage, and mailers are what a local campaign actually spends money on.
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