Monterey’s mayoral and council hopefuls will share their ideas during a panel discussion.

David Schmalz here. It’s that time of year again when lawn signs start going up, fundraising texts and emails flood in, and a slew of candidates try to articulate their case for why they should be elected to whichever office they are vying for. 

In the City of Monterey, this year’s City Council election is particularly interesting, in part because the majority of Monterey’s current council is the most progressive it’s been since I started covering the city in 2014, and perhaps its most progressive ever. 

Mayor Tyller Williamson, though a homeowner himself, has pushed hard to lift up the voices of renters, who make up about two-thirds of the city’s residents but who have long been on the outside looking in when it comes to the priorities set by the council. 

A shift toward renters has also coincided with a geographic shift in the council’s members—this November will mark the city’s second-ever district-based election, where every two years, residents in two of the four different districts will elect one councilmember in their district (and a mayor elected at-large). 

That’s allowed newcomers to enter the political fray without competition from a longtime incumbent, and this year, every council race is being contested. 

With that in mind, tomorrow night, Aug. 27 from 6-8pm at Bay View Academy (222 Casa Verde Way), the Del Monte Beach Neighborhood Association is hosting a panel where all six candidates have been invited to answer questions from the public. 

For mayor, those candidates are Williamson, the incumbent who was first elected to the position in 2022, and Monique Kaldy, a real estate agent who has done business on the Monterey Peninsula since 2021. 

The two council seats up for grabs this year are in districts 3 and 4, the former of which is more or less the Monterey Vista neighborhood, while the latter is roughly encompassed by the North Fremont neighborhood, which has a high density of renters. 

In District 3, attorney Jean Rasch, who’s long been engaged with the Neighborhood Community Improvement Program and the Monterey Vista Neighborhood Association, is running against Eric Palmer, a former communications employee with the city who now works for ReGen Monterey, and who is running with Williamson on a three-candidate slate. 

In District 4, incumbent Gino Garcia—the other candidate on the slate, and who was appointed by the council in December 2022 (after Dan Albert gave up his seat when he ran for mayor and lost to Williamson)—is facing off against Brian Perez, a sergeant with the Del Rey Oaks Police Department.

Joe Fogel, president of the Del Monte Beach Neighborhood Association, says the format will play like so: First, he will introduce the panel’s moderator, who he won’t name because he hasn’t announced who they are yet, but he says they’re a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge. Fogel wanted someone from out of the area who is impartial, and would take the politics out of it. 

Then, each of the six candidates will get a minute to introduce themselves, after which the Q&A will begin, which won’t include any live questions from the audience or moderator. Instead, questions that were submitted prior by residents—notified by their respective neighborhood associations—have been separated into categories, and the moderator will choose which to ask; each candidate will have up to 90 seconds to answer each. 

The event will close with one minute from each candidate, and that’s that. 

For those wanting to attend, there is no registration required. For those wanting to tune in virtually, here’s the link. 

Happy election season.