During the 2014 congressional campaign season, Esteves and a city council member from Cupertino filed a complaint against Mike Honda with the Office of Congressional Ethics. The complaint alleged that Honda's re-election campaign mixed governance and campaigning, a violation of House rules;</ref> the resulting investigation continued into 2016. In 2016, he could not run for mayor, having served the maximum number of consecutive terms that Milpitas city law allows. In that same year, he opposed a tax increase proposed by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, as he believed that "it doesn’t do anything for Milpitas.", instead supporting widening of California State Route 237;</ref> the tax was then placed on the 2016 ballot and passed. Additionally, Esteves endorsed Ro Khanna for the 17th congressional district; Khanna went on to defeat Mike Honda. He will be succeeded by Milpitas' first Vietnamese American mayor Richard Tran. In mid-December 2016, Esteves ended his term.