Jozef Maldonado shows up for Fullerton. Appointed to the city's Parks and Recreation Commission in 2024 and elected Chair in 2025, Jozef helped deliver the long-awaited Emery Park Playground to families who had waited twenty years for a safe green space. He championed the opening of Union Pacific Trail and Union Pacific Park — victories born from decades of organizing by South Fullerton mothers who refused to accept their neighborhood deserved less. And when conflict arose over a proposed pickleball court conversion, he brought both sides to the table and turned tension into trust.

Jozef knows what Fullerton's working families face because he has lived it. The son of a Mexican immigrant father and a Puerto Rican mother, he grew up in a household where making ends meet was a daily reality - not a talking point. When the 2008 financial crisis hit, his family went from the grocery store to the dollar store for basics and faced bankruptcy to save their home. That struggle drove him to work two jobs through community college, transfer to UC Davis, and earn his degree in Chemistry with an emphasis in Forensic Science.

After graduating, Jozef chose to build his life right here in Fullerton. He enrolled in public administration courses at Fullerton College, sought out ways to serve, and put down roots — he and his fiancé Ryan will be married this November at Hunt Library.

Jozef is running for City Council in District 5 because he believes every neighbor deserves to be heard and every family deserves a representative who will fight for them.