It's easy to do. You go to City Hall, fill out the forms and submit them. Many cities, like mine, charge a couple of thousand dollars to run. However, many cities offer fee waivers, if you qualify. We had our friends and family all run for city council, school board, etc, and managed to secure a few positions, last cycle. We did have some people on the ballot backed by Soros and some of those also made it into local positions.