Category Archives: Carmel Pine Cone

P.G.H.S. Coach Marquis Brion Pickrom Charged With Felony

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P.G.U.S.D. Not hiring the best.

Marquis Pickrom

Marquis Pickrom

“A felony was committed by Marquis Brion Pickrom, in that he committed an act of sexual penetration against Jane Doe, who was under the age of 18 years,” says the complaint filed by deputy district attorney Danielle VanDamme.
Pacific Grove Police say that between August 2023 and October 2025 — after Pickrom became the girls basketball coach — he groomed the girl. The student told investigators that Pickrom gave her special attention, made personal and romantic comments about her, and sent her messages through Instagram, She was 16 to 18 years old at the time. She also told police that Pickrom kissed her and touched her in a sexual manner. School officials learned of the alleged impropriety after she told friends about her relationship with the coach.

P.G.H.S. Coach Marquis Brion Pickrom Charged With Felony

P.G. Loves More Recycled Water For Growth

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Enoy that refreshing toilet to the tap water, come heres and tourists

toilet to tap

Council members on Wednesday night directed city manager Matt Mogensen to ask the State Water Resources Control Board to modify a long-standing order that has prevented the installation of new water meters on undeveloped lots and increases in water use at existing addresses where California American Water provides service.

The Monterey Peninsula Water Management District contends — and Pacific Grove agrees — that the prohibition should end because the wastewater recycling project Pure Water Monterey, which went online in 2021 and was recently expanded, will provide plenty of water for the Peninsula for the next several decades.

P.G. Loves More Recycled Water For Growth

The Vote For City Council Pay Is Happening

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And of course the city council puts the ballot on the June elections, when voter turnout is especially low.

Politics

voters will have a chance in June to decide whether to give members of the city council a pay raise, the council decided Wednesday. The council voted unanimously to hold a special election June 2 to allow residents to decide whether to increase the monthly stipend from $420 to $987 for council members and from $700 to $1,645 for the mayor. If it passes, the change will cost taxpayers more than $59,312 annually. At the meeting, resident Inge Lorentzen Daumer questioned how the council could be “fiscally responsible” when a special election is “going to cost way more” than putting the raise before voters on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. “I think it’s about time you actually show this for what it is — immediate greed,” she said. “Our city is struggling.”

 

The Vote For City Council Pay Is Happening

The Deer Are Fawning

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Signs in yards are OK, but please don’t nail or attach them to PG&E owned utility poles. Hazardous to workers that need to climb them.

Deer Xing

“I ‘ve had a report from a supporter who said they have several does in their yard that are very pregnant,” Garcia said. “A photo they sent me shows three does that look like they will have twins soon.”

Garcia, a former mayor of Pacific Grove, said numerous fawns have been killed in the city, mostly by vehicles, Last year, members of the group placed signs in residents’ yards warning drivers to slow down during the baby season.

The Deer Are Fawning

Landwatch Claims P.G. Wasted Money On Climate Change Study

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Hired the lid flippers from Blue Strike Environmental. Landwatch wants to ban your outdoor BBQ grill, too.

(Landwatch) slammed a proposed climate action plan that cost Pacific Grove taxpayers nearly $100,000, saying it’s riddled with factual errors and unsupported claims, lacks critical analyses and doesn’t fulfill the terms of the author’s agreement with the city.
In January 2025, the Pacific Grove City Council approved paying $99,515 to Monterey-based Blue Strike Environmental to develop a so-called climate action and adaptation plan, which sought to “equip the city of Pacific Grove with actionable strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience to climate challenges.”

Landwatch Claims P.G. Wasted Money On Climate Change Study

Upside Down Car Found Floundering In Harbor

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Not the car found in the cove:

speedycop

According to MPD Lt. Ethan Andrews, shortly after 2 am. Feb. 1, offcers were dispatched to a submerged vehicle at the boat launch ramp near the U-S- Coast Guard pier. They arrived to find the four-door sedan overtumed and in the water “The vehicle was unoccupied and resting on its roof,” he said.
Surveillance video captured by a nearby camera showed the car “driving through the parking lot at a high rate of speed and down the boat launch ramp into the water,” according to Andrews. “The vehicle floated for a brief period before sinking.” They have the where, when and how, but not the who or the why.

Upside Down Car Found Floundering In Harbor

Luke Colletti’s Initiative To Allow Voters Decision To Increase Council Pay

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Vote Machine

Coletti’s move comes after the P.G. City Council in May 2025 gave itself the raise — after rejecting requests to allow voters to decide — and considered giving itself medical coverage, both of which drew significant opposition from residents.

Council members sought to increase their monthly stipends from $420 to $966 and from $700 to $610 for the mayor, which would have cost taxpayers about $50,000 annually, and more with benefits. Members Lori McDonnell and Paul Walkingstick voted against the pay hike, which was facing overwhelming opposition from the public. Mayor Nick Smith declined to comment on Coletti’s initiative.

Luke Colletti’s Initiative To Allow Voters Decision To Increase Council Pay

CSUMB Prof Assaults Student At P.G. Middle School

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Social Sciences, eh?

PGMS J Woods Flowers

A man was arrested on suspicion of battery after witnesses saw him knock a hat off a student’s head in front of Pacific Grove Middle School as children were being let out for the day.

On Jan. 15 at about 2:05 p.m., Frederik Vermote, 44, of Marina, confronted a P.G. Middle School student “for throwing books on the ground that came from a free library box located in the front lawn of the school,” police Cmdr Brian Anderson told The Pine Cone last week. “During the confrontation, Vermote struck the child,” who was not injured.

Vermote is listed as an associate professor of social sciences and global studies at Cal State Monterey Bay. Police did not specify Vermote’s relationship to the student. On Jan. 23, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office charged Vermote with  misdemeanor battery, claiming he used “force and violence upon John Doe while on school property.’

CSUMB Prof Assaults Student At P.G. Middle School

Tina Rau Gets Fines For Not Filing

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The Pacific Grove myth of a good ol’ boys council is alive and well.

Tina Big Jacket

City Councilwoman Tina Rau — who is under investigation by a state agency for an alleged conflict of interest — was fined last year by the same regulator for failing to disclose her financial investments, as elected officials are required to do, according to documents obtained by The Pine Cone.
The Fair Political Practices Commission concluded in May 2025 that Rau failed to report her ownership of a commercial building on Forest Avenue that houses music venue Pop & Hiss and more than $ 100,000 in annual rental income from the business, her $1 million-plus home on 19th Street, a $100,000 loan, and other financial interests.

Tina Rau Gets Fines For Not Filing

Correction
Last week’s story, “P.G. official fined for late filing,”
mischaracterized a March 19, 2025, Pacific Grove City
Council vote. On that day councilwoman Tina Rau and
three of her council colleagues — who were in favor of
increasing the entertainment noise threshold downtown —
directed the city attorney to return to the council with an
ordinance to modify the Pacific Grove Municipal Code as
it pertains to sound amplification.

More Parks Go To The Dogs

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Kind of goes with the change of come-heres that have dogs instead of children. Arnett Park is the baseball field behind Arkwright Court.

No Barking

On Jan. 22, four members of the city’s recreation board voted to endorse the concept of a dog park. The panel listened to numerous proponents who envision Arnett Park, just off David near the Lucky supermarket, as its location. “I think all of us agree a dog park would be wonderful, and we would all benefit from it,” P.G. recreation board chair Jay Tulley said before the vote.

More Parks Go To The Dogs