Three candidates vying to be Pacific Grove's new mayor.

Two months ago, Pacific Grove Mayor Bill Kampe cleared the way for a big leadership change in the coastal city, announcing he would not seek a fourth term.

That same day, Councilmember Rudy Fischer confirmed he would be running for the job, and for weeks he was uncontested.

In July, things got a little more interesting when fellow Councilmember Bill Peake jumped in to the race.

Both men are well-known in the community and have years of experience serving on the P.G. City Council: Fischer has served eight years, and Peake is nearing the end of his first four-year term.

This week the two were joined by a new face to the local political scene, longtime resident Dionne Ybarra.

"I wanted to bring a new representation and through that encourage the community," she says of her decision to run. After raising a family for 20 years in P.G., Ybarra—a second generation Mexican American—says she represents "a different face of politics in this town and a different demographic."

Ybarra is a leader outside of Pacific Grove, as a founder of the nonprofit Wahine Project—which introduces a diverse group of girls to the ocean through surfing—and serves on two Monterey County commissions. She is the chair of the Commission on the Status on Women as well as serving on the Equal Opportunity Advisory Commission. She works as an operations manager for the Nature Conservancy.

According to the Democratic group Emerge California, which prepares women for public office, Ybarra is a member of the 2018 graduating class.

Peake says he has five issues he's focusing on during the campaign. The first two are supporting public safety agencies and ensuring the city's financial stability. "Those two are the foundation," he says.

After those he lists advocating for strong environmental protection; adding rental housing; and, increased listening to residents by officials, as well as more transparency.

On the environment, protecting the coastline is especially important to Peake, and he wants the city to partner more often with environmental groups. 

He believes the city can increase rental and affordable housing with an inclusionary housing ordinance that encourages mixed use buildings and gives variances to developers. He also suggested a housing trust fund, that would use developer fees and transient occupancy taxes for developing affordable units.

Fischer said in his announcement in May that he would focus on fiscal responsibility, improving the city's infrastructure, planting more trees and developing a scenic pathway between downtown and Lovers Point. Like Peake, he publicly has called for increased affordable housing.

Fischer is the board chairman for Monterey One Water—formerly the Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency. In his announcement he touted Pure Water Monterey, a joint water recycling project with the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District that Fischer says will produce more than 3,500 acre feet per year of water starting next year.

Fischer and Peake diverged somewhat in the past year on the short-term rental issue. Fischer continued to fully support the city's short-term rental ordinance, but Peake shifted his stance toward greater limits on the rentals during the protracted debate that took place over months of meetings.

Peake said during a May 17, 2017 meeting that he supported short-term rentals in commercial districts, but questioned whether the commercial activity was appropriate for residential neighborhoods. He ultimately did vote in favor the the city's new ordinance—which limited short-term rental licenses further and created a lottery system—that passed in February.

With the PG Neighbors United measure on the ballot seeking to further restrict short-term rentals, Ybarra says there's a division between those who view the rentals negatively and short-term rental owners. She wants to build bridges between the sides by finding commonalities and bring the community back together.