Stay Or Go

STAY OR GO… Squid spent Labor Day weekend lounging in the lair, avoiding the tourist traffic that inevitably comes to town on holidays. Maybe all these people came because they heard the clunkily named Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau now has a shorter, punchier name, simply See Monterey. Probably not. The new name and marketing campaign were announced on Aug. 31, after people had already made their Labor Day plans.

Too bad the new tagline – “Find Your Way Here” – doesn’t emphasize all the stuff you can do after you’ve found your way here. And the whole point, per See Monterey, is to keep visitors in town for longer to spend more money. They really mean, “Please stay awhile.”

Squid wonders if the message might be effective for some of Monterey County’s top government officials during this time of churn. Pacific Grove City Council forced out former city manager Ben Harvey (see more, p. 10); Salinas City Manager Steve Carrigan is a finalist for the top job in the City of San Bernardino. In the world of schools, former Carmel Unified School District superintendent Ted Knight resigned on Aug. 11, and former North Monterey County Unified superintendent Kari Yeater resigned on Aug. 24.

Presumably, a bunch of new local government leaders will find their way here. Squid’s bigger question is: Will they stay?

NO CONTEST… Squid hasn’t spent much time updating Squid’s resume – the constantly renewing ink supply speaks for itself. But for an influential seat on the Local Agency Formation Commission of Monterey County (LAFCO) to be occupied by a member of the public, there was a bit of a contest. First, former LAFCO member Steve Snodgrass – also a candidate for county supervisor in 2022, who lost to Glenn Church – resigned and moved out of the state. (So much for that long-term community commitment.) That left a vacant seat for a term that lasts until May 4, 2026.

Seven people applied; one was past the deadline, and two came from applicants (Sanford Coplin and Chris Barrera) who serve on other district boards that they said they’d be unwilling to resign from, making them ineligible to serve on LAFCO.

That left four contenders: Bob Roach, Gary Hoffman, Ronald Roland and Mike Bikle. The latter two have experience in the construction world, something that LAFCO weighs in on with determinations on annexations and the footprints of various jurisdictions. And they turned out to be the only two the board wanted to consider. Church nominated Roach but when it was time for a second, there was just a long, awkward silence. When it came down to Roland vs. Bikle, Bikle prevailed.