The City of Monterey is front and center of the housing crisis, an issue defining campaigns.

Increasingly, the housing crisis has become a major political issue in California, and nowhere is that more true than the city of Monterey, where about two-thirds of the residents are renters and where the economy is driven by the hospitality industry, which is staffed by employees that often travel from afar to get to work.

But it wasn’t until Tyller Williamson was elected to City Council in 2018 that it became an often discussed topic in council meetings, and it’s become even more so since he was elected mayor in 2022.

Gino Garcia, who was appointed to fill an at-large council vacancy in 2022, is running for election in District 4 – the easternmost part of the city – to keep his seat against challenger Brian Perez, a Del Rey Oaks police officer. Garcia is the first-ever council member to reside in the district, which is filled with apartment complexes.

The streets of the district are lined with signs for either of the two, as well as the two mayoral candidates, Williamson and Monique Kaldy, a realtor originally from Southern California who worked in Las Vegas for many years and moved to Monterey three years ago.

In District 3 – the westernmost part of the city – Jean Rasch and Eric Palmer are facing off for an open seat. Rasch is a retired attorney and longtime member of her neighborhood association, and Palmer is a former city employee running on a slate with Williamson and Garcia.

The most defining issue of the campaign is the rental registry that the City Council approved in late 2023 and launched Jan. 1, requiring landlords to register their properties with the city and provide data on rental prices and occupancy, etc. The purpose of the registry is to give the city – and its elected leaders – more data to make informed decisions about housing, but it’s created a political backlash that is ultimately what inspired Kaldy to enter the race – she believes that data should be kept private, believing that it could create unrest among renters comparing their rates against other properties.

A piece of misinformation that’s been circulating is that Garcia and Williamson supported eminent domain to potentially take over disused properties. It was a subject city staff introduced in February among a slate of other “miscellaneous” topics in ways the city might change its charter. It was not a topic the City Council voted on, and the council did not make a recommendation to change its charter to that effect – currently, any eminent domain proceeding for redevelopment purposes would require a ballot measure.

Kaldy says she has no stake in the game on that matter – she owns a home in Monterey, but is not renting properties or sitting on them. She also says she doesn’t like how “divisive” the council has become with identity politics. “I don’t like how our nonpartisan City Council has been affiliated with sponsors from Big Blue,” she says.

Williamson, who works as a federal labor relations employee with the Department of Veterans Affairs, does not publicly support any political party, by law.