Pacific Grove City Council set to discuss how to proceed on referendum against pay increases.

Now that the petition for a referendum by a former member of the Pacific Grove City Council was successful in gathering enough signatures challenging a council vote to raise council compensation, councilmembers are set to decide next steps on Wednesday, Aug. 20. Their options include calling for a special election to let voters decide, or overturning their previous decision.

The referendum was certified by Monterey County Elections on Wednesday, Aug. 6. Former councilmember Luke Coletti, through his group Transparent Pacific Grove, submitted 1,839 signatures on July 2. 

Elections officials checked 1,299 signatures, according to a certificate of signature verification issued to Transparent P.G. They found 1,178 to be valid, a 91-percent validity rate.

Transparent P.G. needed 10 percent of P.G.'s 10,601 registered voters, 1,060, to sign the referendum petition to qualify. Finding that the effort reached the 10-percent requirement, Elections officials stopped checking signatures and certified the petition.

"We far surpassed the 10 percent threshold of 1,060 signatures in just three weeks," Coletti said in a statement.

The council now has two options: to repeal the ordinance or submit the ordinance to the voters. (The ordinance, to raise salaries for the first time in 26 years to $420 a month for councilmembers and $700 a month for the mayor, has not gone into effect.)

A recommendation to the council by City Clerk Sandra Kandell gives three options.

Option 1 is to bring a motion to repeal the ordinance at the next council meeting on Sept. 3, with no election suggested.

Option 2 includes coming back Sept. 3 and calling for an election next year, either as a special election consolidated with the statewide primary on June 2 or the general election on Nov. 3, or as a standalone special election on April 14. 

The second option also includes a discussion of whether one or more councilmembers will be authorized to author an argument against the measure, as well as whether rebuttal arguments will be permitted.

The third option presented to councilmembers would be to repeal the ordinance on Sept. 3 then save a discussion about calling an election for a future council meeting.

"Special elections are very expensive," Coletti said. "The City's last special election (Measure A, 2022) cost $125,000. Placing the question on a regular municipal election ballot will only cost $5-$10k," in addition to what the election would cost the city.

The staff report by Kandell estimates adding a measure to the November ballot could cost between $74,200 to $106,000, based on the number of registered voters and permanent vote-by-mail voters. She said it is subject to change with a change in the number of voters and other jurisdictions sharing election costs.

The estimated cost of a measure held in conjunction with the primary in June could cost about the same as the November election. The cost of a special election could run between $169,600 and $254,425, she reported.

"We don't want a special election and we also don't favor [repealing the ordinance]," Coletti said. "We brought the referendum forward to 'Let the Voters Decide,' and that's clearly what they want. To deprive the voters of this would be a betrayal."

The council meets at 6pm on Wednesday inside P.G. City Hall, 300 Forest Ave. For information on how to participate via Zoom, see the agenda, available here. The meeting can also be viewed on the city's YouTube page.