In June of 2106 after declaring his run for mayor against Mayor Bill Kampe, Fischer pulled out of the race, citing that his views were too similar to Kampe’s to run against him.
Fischer said he wants to continue the council’s current policies and direction, which involves improvements to the city’s infrastructure, something he said he’s long emphasized.
Uh oh.
Better find a decent pick for mayor before P.G. starts to look like Stockton.
He won in a landslide, and the four-year adventure turned into a 10-year journey, after winning the mayor’s seat two more times in 2014 and 2016.
The journey is now officially coming to an end, Kampe announced Tuesday, May 29, in an emailed statement.
He and his wife, Cheryl, are ready to do new things together, which they have postponed during this stint on the council.
Oh, and one steps up in favor turning P.G. into Stockton
Councilmember Rudy Fischer announced later the same day that he is running for mayor.
He said as mayor he would “pretty much continue the council’s current policies and direction.”
Tax the tourists. Oh, and 41 percent come up negative on short term cyber rentals.
The survey also showed that 41 percent of the 375 likely voters surveyed on the phone and online believe that the city has done a “poor” job of managing the city’s vacation rentals, while 28 percent gave the same grade for the way the city manages its pension obligations. Similarly, 22 percent said P.G. is doing poorly managing its finances.
P.G. Pays $25,000 To Oakland Survey Company Only To Find The Obvious
Come-here spend-more politicians say more taxes will solve everything.
Kampe called the argument that STRs are the cause of a lack of affordable housing “nonsense.” He said the real problem is vacant second homes, something the city has no control over.
Kampe and three other council members said they would favor keeping the STR license program, but with limitations like capping the total number of licenses, the number of nights, and other aspects. One council member, Rudy Fischer, was absent.
Only one council member, Robert Huitt, said he believes STRs violate residential zoning ordinances and should be phased out.
Collect More Taxes Or Keep P.G. Neighborhoods For Neighbors?
I still offer up the John Denver Memorial RV Park.
After 77 percent of Pacific Grove voters resoundingly defeated Measure P, officials are determined to find new ways to raise revenue – fast. Measure P would have levied a 5-percent tax on event and venue admissions, bringing an estimated $4.2 million annually to the city.
Yummy. Seaside waste and Salinas farm run off treated and served up in P.G.
Prep work has already begun on the 7-mile pipeline running from Seaside to Pacific Grove, which is designed to deliver water from the Seaside basin to Peninsula customers as a result of the recycled water project
Pacific Grove Mayor Bill Kampe called the pipeline tangible progress toward providing a new water supply, noting the collaborative efforts that helped overcome initial opposition to recycled water from Peninsula hospitality, Cal Am and even the state Public Utilities Commission. Seaside Mayor Ralph Rubio called the ceremony a historic groundbreaking and “first step toward a water supply solution” for the Peninsula.
Dan Miller would be way better than STR loving K(r)ampe
Kampe’s opponent, Dan Miller said there is another challenge more pressing than water.
“Financial stability mainly, and I have tried to do that for years, even before I was on the city council, and trying to convince the councils to keep control of spending,” Miller said.
Miller is a third generation Pacgrovian and has served six years on the city council.
Pacific Grove has long been burdened with problems related to the public employee retirement system and Miller said as mayor he would be against exorbitant pay raises and retirements for city staff. Currently the city has about $4.7 million a year budgeted annually for public employee retirement related expenses.
P.G. Demands Bookface posts removed. Is the city’s Bookface page by the city and they don’t know how to remove/ban/block opinions it does not agree with?
While the Hanes family appeals this decision, Lisa found and posted emails between Pacific Grove city employees on the city’s Facebook page that she says”Let’s the community know what’s really going on.”
Hanes says she will not remove the posts from the city’s Facebook page as she’s not legally obligated to and because of the support she’s gotten from them. Pacific Grove Mayor Bill Kampe told KION that no further action by the city will be taken in regards to the posts. Pending an appeal, the family has till August 20th to relocate Bruiser the Pig out of the city.
Fischer has lived in PG for 6 years and is on the city council. He hopes to be mayor in 2 more years. Proof that Pacific Grove is becoming a town of transients lead by transients.
In an about-face, Pacific Grove City Councilman Rudy Fischer has decided he won’t run for mayor in the upcoming November election after all.
Fischer said his intentions were never to run against Kampe, simply because of their agreement on many of the city’s current issues and noted that he filed his candidacy papers at a time when Kampe wasn’t yet certain he would run again.
Fischer, who has been a Pacific Grove resident for 6 1/2 years, said he definitely plans to run for mayor in 2018 and said he already has the funds to do so.
Kampe refers to Carmel and Monterey as cities with 2 to 3 times revenue per capita than P.G. operates with. Tells me that P.G. is not being managed very good.
“Our recent audit gave very high marks to Pacific Grove,” said Kampe, noting selective fee increases for city services and a strong increase in the transient occupancy tax as major factors.
But he also said city staff is “stretched too thin” and that “very hard to explain benefit plans” are creating challenges for recruitment and retention.
“Taken together, current deferred spending plus looming cost increases tell us we need increased revenue,” said Kampe. “We now need to ask if we, as a community, are prepared to support essential and desired services that make our city such a privileged place to live.”
Kampe referred to Carmel, which has three times the revenue per capita, and Monterey, with double the revenue per capita, as references to just how well the city has managed with its limited finances.
Yet, despite the city’s current and future challenges, Kampe still had plenty of good things to say about his city of choice.