Pacific Grove City Council Regular Meeting - October 15, 2025
Pacific Grove City Council Regular Meeting - October 15, 2025
The Pacific Grove City Council held its regular meeting on Wednesday, October 15, 2025, at 6:00 PM in Council Chambers at City Hall, 300 Forest Avenue. Mayor chaired the meeting; all council members were present except Councilmember Rao. The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 PM. The council modified the agenda by pulling Item 11B and Item 15A, approved a budget amendment for a fire station alert system, and provided direction on water allocation policies including a 60% discount increase.
Council and Staff Announcements
- Councilmembers reported on the League of California Cities conference in Long Beach, covering topics such as general plan updates, AI, immigration, and community calendars.
- City staff announced that Point Pinos Grill will close near the end of November 2025; a new RFP for the restaurant lease will be released soon.
- The Planning Commission will consider the Housing Element on November 13, 2025, with City Council action scheduled for December 3, 2025.
- Street and sidewalk projects are underway; fall recreation programs have started; City Hall will be closed on Monday, October 20, 2025, for staff training.
- The council held a closed session earlier in the afternoon with no reportable action.
Consent Calendar
- The council approved the consent agenda unanimously with no items pulled.
Public Comments & Testimony
- A caller urged the council to protest the Monterey Bay Aquarium's planned high-decibel sonar mapping of the Monterey Canyon (November 11-16, 2025), stating it would harm marine life and ecosystems, and requested the council and community to stop the activity.
- A speaker thanked the city for pulling Item 15 and the skate park report, affirming compliance with the Brown Act.
- A speaker expressed concern about the closure of Point Pinos Grill on November 21, 2025, and requested more information from the council.
Discussion Items
- Item 11A: Emergency Alerting System Upgrade for Fire Station – Budget Amendment – Staff (Mr. Moginson) presented that the fire station needs an upgraded alert system to standardize with other stations in the Monterey system. The original CIP budget of $100,000 was insufficient due to cost increases from tariffs and wage rates; a new quote of approximately $142,000 was received. The overage would be covered by the Fire Structure Fund (Fund 12), not the general fund. One public commenter criticized the lack of prior planning. The council approved the budget amendment unanimously (6-0).
- Item 13A: Allocation of Available Potable Water – CDD Director John Biggs presented staff recommendations for allocating water from Pure Water Monterey (32 acre-feet becoming available soon) and the city's entitlement water (19.2551 acre-feet remaining). Staff recommended allocating Pure Water mostly to affordable housing (23 AF), with smaller amounts to commercial (6 AF) and municipal (3 AF), and zero to market-rate residential. For entitlement water, they recommended 15 AF to residential and 4.2551 AF to unallocated reserve. Staff also proposed increasing the discount on entitlement water from 30% to 60% to incentivize development. Public comments included criticism of the local water project and questions about water for the ATC project. Council discussion covered pent-up demand, the rationale for the 60% discount, and flexibility for future adjustments. A motion to approve staff's recommendations, including the 60% discount, passed unanimously (6-0).
Key Outcomes
- The council approved (6-0) a motion to pull Item 11B (purchasing system ordinance) and Item 15 (closed session item) from the agenda.
- The council unanimously approved the budget amendment for the fire station alert system (Item 11A), increasing the project budget from $100,000 to approximately $142,000, funded by the Fire Structure Fund.
- The council unanimously approved the staff recommendations on water allocation (Item 13A), including:
- Allocation of 32 AF Pure Water Monterey: 23 AF to affordable housing, 6 AF to commercial, 3 AF to municipal, 0 to market-rate residential.
- Allocation of 19.2551 AF entitlement water: 15 AF to residential, 4.2551 AF to unallocated reserve.
- Increase the discount on entitlement water from 30% to 60%.
- Staff will return with a formal resolution to codify the water allocation decisions.
- The council had no reportable action from the earlier closed session.
Meeting Transcript
Recording in progress. Okay. There it goes. All right. Here we are. This is um Wednesday, October 15th, 2025 at six PM. We're here in Council Chambers at City Hall, three hundred fourst Avenue in the city of Pacific Grove, California. This is the regular meeting, and I'm calling the meeting to order at such time. Um I will note that all council members are present except with the exception of Councilmember Rao. Um, and so we will proceed with the Pledge of Allegiance, and I will recognize my colleague Councilmember Garfield to lead us. And now I'll understand a motion on item one approval of the agenda. Uh any discussion on the agenda. Um, and before we do that, do we have a staff presentation for Mr. Mayor? But um, thank you real quick. Uh, we do have two items tonight that staff was requesting to poll. Okay. Um, the first item would be eleven B and purchasing system and procedures ordinance. I will bring that back at a future date. And then the other item is item fifteen under closed session. We've um we no longer need that item. Okay, thank you very much. So Councilmember Time. Amelio, um, would you motion amended to poll item fifteen A? Yes. Yes. All right, and we have a second or yes. Oh, thank you. So we got it motion on the second. Um, any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none passes six zero one. Thank you very much. We'll now proceed with that agenda as modified. Um, we'll move, we'll go through presentations or none tonight. We'll move on to council and staff announcements. Uh well recognized council members for announcements, and I will look first to the mayor per time here. Thank you. Um I just wanted to uh refer to the um city uh California cities we attended in Long Beach and um they had quite a few net we were able to network with a lot of city councilmen from and mayors from uh all over uh the state of California, uh, which was good, and many I saw uh who I knew. And um they also had uh seminars in regards to reducing the lost and uh the uh general plan and um other areas they had covered also at the law at Long Beach. Um but a couple of things I did notice. Um I mean it was a great conference, but um I noticed near our hotel that uh on Long Beach there was a skateboard park. And so um Sandra, could you bring that up? It was pretty impressive. This is a hundred fifty by 150 feet. Well, she's bringing that up. Um I also found out that uh Hollister and Scotts Valley and uh Marina San Cities going to start one. Selenius is has one student second one.
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