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Marisol Rubio, current vice president of the Dublin San Ramon Services District Board of Directors, is seeking to represent her hometown city’s District 4 in a recently launched campaign for San Ramon City Council.
“I’d been interested in this seat for some time, but I always thought that Sabina (Zafar) has done such a great job that there was no need to run up against her,” Rubio told DanvilleSanRamon. “So I kind of waited and she made the decision to move forward, and I said it’s now or never.”
Rubio said she’d been uncertain whether she’d be able to launch a campaign this year, amid travel plans that she said were partially unexpected. However, she was registered as a candidate with the city clerk’s office just before the 5 p.m. deadline on Aug. 18, and holds the endorsement of sitting council member Zafar. She is on the ballot against Parks and Community Services Commissioner Heidi Kenniston-Lee.
Rubio said that her desire to sit on the council, as well as her work at DSRSD and in a primary election campaign for State Senate 2020, were informed and driven in large part by her role as a mother to a 27-year-old daughter, who is a brain cancer survivor with lifelong disabilities.
“As a single parent of a child with lifelong disabilities and chronic illness, I understand very intimately where the gaps in services lie, whether that’s the health care side, the education side, or even the social services side,” Rubio said.
Rubio is also seeking to emphasize public safety as part of her platform, noting that living somewhere where her daughter could safely go outside by herself was part of what had drawn her to San Ramon in 2014.
In addition to addressing needs that often go overlooked and fall through gaps in services, Rubio said that she would seek to make San Ramon more welcoming to a diverse range of residents by working to bring jobs to the city.
“Obviously with Chevron leaving we lost a lot of revenue there, and jobs, and I’d really like to think about how we can bring more jobs into our area and create a better work-life balance,” Rubio said, referring to the energy corporation’s plans to sell its Chevron Park property in San Ramon.
Rubio said that fostering personal connections and building community would be just as important as economic growth, but also complimentary to it, as would embracing the diversity of the city’s residents.
As a California resident and scientist with a background in cell and molecular biology, Rubio said she would continue to be passionate about maintaining and improving water quality should she be elected to the council.
If elected to the city council in November, Rubio would most likely forfeit her DSRSD seat, given that the two governing bodies overlap in service areas.
Rubio’s campaign website is not yet active online.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify Marisol Rubio’s position on Chevron’s corporate transition.
Appeal over redevelopment project at old Chevron HQ coming to San Ramon councilApril 6, 2026 10:32 pm
