GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK

GOOD: Two weeks after Monterey City Council balked at spending nearly $700,000 of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant money to fix streets and parks, city staff came back May 19 with a plan that instead helps the homeless. The staff’s new recommendation includes $450,000 to rehabilitate two run-down duplexes owned byVeteran’s Transition Center in Marina. Each duplex can house up to four homeless families, with a preference given to Monterey veterans. Another new recommendation was using $62,500 for refurbish a space at Safe Place, a Monterey resource for runaway and homeless youth, that will allow the facility to add six emergency shelter beds. The staff recommendation passed 4-1, with only $155,000 going to fix streets.

BAD: Pacific Grove has been a bit of a shit show since the Weekly revealed the city accidentally overcharged residents more than $600,000 in sewer fees. Awkwardly, officials discovered the overcharge while trying to legally raise P.G.’s sewer fee. Even though there’s already some $10 million in P.G.’s sewer fund, an analysis found the system is so old and leaky the city needs more revenue to make repairs over the next decade. As if to illustrate the point, on May 18, a bust pump station valve sent 100,000 gallons of raw sewage into Monterey Bay, closing P.G.’s iconic beaches for days. The next day, Monterey Peninsula Taxpayers Association politely hinted at a lawsuit if officials don’t quickly refund the sewer-fee overcharge. Talk about the sewage hitting the fan.