Category Archives: Pacific Grove

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

Having Ben Harvey On Staff Is Expensive!

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So who/what could be the root cause of all the litigation?

Harvey honk

The city attorney’s office currently operates with an annual budget of $688,800 — of which it has expended $403,000 through Jan. 13 of this year. In fiscal year 2023-24, the city attorney’s budget was $398,180. In 2024-25, it was raised to $625,000 and again increased in April of that year by an additional $520,000.

Ojai City Manager Benjamin Harvey clarified at a Jan. 29 meeting of the city’s Finance & Budget Committee that rising legal costs were largely related to a number of pending litigation proceedings and that the city was presently working with as many as six law firms on a litany of unspecified issues.

Having Ben Harvey On Staff Is Expensive!

  • Ojai Valley News

Country Club Gate Tobacco Shop Heist

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Country Club Gate is always a hot spot for crime. Merchants that have a lot of valuables need to install cages over the windows and doors just like Seaside. Too bad P.G. can’t keep enough police on the beats. Applicants? What prospective P.G. cop wants to be judged by the bumper stickers on their truck and not their merit?

Due to staffing constraints, police explained they cannot maintain constant contact with victims of property crimes.

They canvassed the area for surveillance footage, including from nearby Lucky’s and local flock cameras, but were unable to identify any suspect vehicles.

The store owner is reconsidering future business investments in Pacific Grove, stating, “But after this, that’s kind of demotivated me. You know why I’m going to bring my investment here and add more to the city where my assets are not safe. A lot of my business is not safe at all.”

Other nearby businesses are also concerned about the safety of Pacific Grove, with one local business owner, George Daoud, saying, “Mean, this is P.G., couldn’t be any safer than that. That’s I mean, we pay prime price for safety here. We do pay for that. So we’re not seeing it, and we’re not feeling safe around here.”

Country Club Gate Tobacco Shop Heist

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

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

P.G. Looking (finally) Into Laws Regarding Electric Bicycles

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I remember getting hollered at by the tam o’shanter wearing cyclist when my children and I were an inch from the pavement as he sped by.

Easiest way to enforce safety would be to ticket any bike rider riding on the sidewalk. And as long as we are at it, make helmets mandatory for all riders regardless of age, on any two wheeled vehicle motorized or not.

Bike path speed

During the council meeting Wednesday, the council discussed existing city code and how it applies to e-bikes, bicycles and other devices on the coastal recreational trail, in parks and in other public spaces. The discussion focused on enforcement challenges, safety concerns and whether current regulations reflect current usage.

Currently, e-bikes are now allowed in Perkins’ Park, Lovers Point Park, Pacific Grove Golf Links, El Carmelo Cemetery, and the property ocean-side of Ocean View Boulevard to 17th Street. The exception is on the paved portion of the recreational trail.

P.G. Looking (finally) Into Laws Regarding Electric Bicycles

P.G. Bike Safety To Be Enforced

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First, we need some cops to fill the vacancies.

PG911 Bike Patrol

“E-bike concerns and safety have been a priority of our Police Department for some time now, especially concerning our youth,” said Mogensen in a separate email.

A Public Records Act request with the city found that in the three-year span from Jan. 1, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2025, police issued zero citations for the municipal codes related to e-bike regulations. KSBW reached out to the police department for comment, but a representative from the department said they would not comment ahead of the city council meeting.

A review of the 2024 Annual Report produced by the police department, the most recent one available at the time of publication, showed that the police department had four vacancies, or 17%, for sworn staff. The report said one goal for the following years was to increase bicycle patrols.

P.G. Bike Safety To Be Enforced

Another P.G. School Worker Arrested For Sexual Assault On Student

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Has there been some kind of trend with perverted P.G. teachers and non teacher workers? Whoever is doing the hiring at P.G.U.S.D. aint doing a very good job.

Marquis Pickrom

Marquis Pickrom

Marquis Pickrom, a former girls’ basketball coach at Pacific Grove High School and campus supervisor, was arrested by Pacific Grove police over the weekend and booked into the Monterey County Jail on Sunday for sexual assault of a minor under 18 and annoying or molesting a child.

The victim is a student at Pacific Grove High School.

Between August 2023 and October 2025, the victim, who was 16 to 18 years old at the time, reported being groomed by Pickrom, saying he “gave her special attention” and “made personal and romantic comments.”

In July 2025, the police say he kissed the victim and sexually touched her.

Another P.G. School Worker Arrested For Sexual Assault On Student