Historic Adobes and Buildings

Our historic properties in the downtown have been shuttered during most of the 2018 due to lack of State Park funding. 

Waterfront Master Plan

Historically, Monterey has been a waterfront town.  In 1939, the City adopted a General Plan that preserved that character, and specifically provided that there be no parking along the waterfront.  Through the efforts of some self-serving commercial interests, the City abandoned that well-reasoned plan, which resulted in the massive surface parking lot that today covers some of the most valuable real estate in California. 

Downtown Specific Plan

As a member of the Planning Commission, I helped to draft the Goals and Objectives of the Downtown Specific Plan in 2012  and worked diligently to move it to completion. 

Property Management

The City administration of our real estate assets has been ineffectual.  

Campaign Finance Reform

In recent years, campaign financing in Monterey has grown way out of proportion to the needs of citizen politicians in this relatively small city of 28,000.  

Workforce Affordable Housing

The crisis of affordable workforce housing shortage in Monterey has been growing for more than a decade.  A city where the people who work here and who grow up here cannot afford to live here cannot long sustain itself. 

ISSUES FOR MONTEREY IN 2018

ISSUES FACING MONTEREY IN 2018:

I am hard-pressed to think of any significant initiatives or accomplishments achieved by the current Mayor and City Council during the past four years.  The Conference Center renovations have been completed, but at nearly double the original budget and way behind schedule.  Measure P was approved by the voters and implemented, but now the Council wants more to fix the roads that should have been covered by prudent planning and use of the general fund money.  At the same time, this Council has adopted a policy of taking budget and business actions in closed sessions, has failed to address the growing problem of campaign money influence on elections, and has ignored the workforce housing crisis.  I believe that, with my experience and understanding of those issues, I can provide the leadership to move the Council and the City forward with active solutions now and for the future.

Transparency

Transparency Lost in Monterey

The Brown Act of California’s Government Code sets forth the gold standard by which Transparency is imposed upon all government bodies:

54950. In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly. The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.  (emphasis supplied)

Transparency at Monterey City Hall has suffered a serious setback in the last two years as a result of a policy instituted by Clyde Roberson to make decisions in closed session which are never announced to the public.  Those actions may be within the letter of the law (Govt. Code sect. 54957.1), but clearly violate the spirit and intent of the Brown Act.

On July 18, 2017, the City Council – in closed session – granted an unnecessary 20-year lease extension to the Old Fisherman’s Grotto at a rental rate less than half of Fair Market Rent.  In doing so, the Council ignored well established fair market value for this Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant and gave a subsidy of an estimated 5 to 14 million dollars or more of taxpayer revenue to the Shake family.  This action violated the California Constitution, the City Charter, and common sense.  Mayor Clyde Roberson signed the extension on November 4, 2017 but the City has yet to disclose this action.  It has only come to light as a result of a Public Records Request.