Pacifica City Council
April 27, 2026

CITY OF PACIFICA

CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
Council Chambers
2212 Beach Blvd
Pacifica, CA 94044
Mayor Christine Boles
Vice Mayor Greg Wright
Councilmember Sue Beckmeyer
Councilmember Mary Bier
Councilmember Mayra Espinosa
City Council Regular Meeting 1 April 27, 2026

SPECIAL AND REGULAR MEETING
April 27, 2026 (MONDAY)
www.cityofpacifica.org
Mayor Christine Boles called the meeting to order on April 27, 2026 at 4:00 PM 4:00 PM - CLOSED SESSION
Mayor Boles called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m.
00a. CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL—ANTICIPATED LITIGATION. Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (d) of Section 54956.9 and paragraph (1) of subdivision (e) of Section 54956.9: Two Cases. 6:00 PM OPEN SESSION
Call to Order
Mayor Boles reconvened the meeting at 6:05 p.m.

Attendee Name Title Status Arrived
Christine Boles Mayor Present
Greg Wright Vice Mayor Present
Sue Beckmeyer Councilmember Present
Mary Bier Councilmember Present
Mayra Espinosa Councilmember Present
City Clerk Coffey took a verbal roll call.

Staff Present: Yulia Carter, Interim City Manager; Denise Bazzano, Asst. City Attorney; Maria Sarasua, Police Chief; Melissa Tigbao, PW Director; Scott Leslie, PB&R Director; Samantha Updegrave, Community Development Director; Marisol Gómez, Finance & Administrative Services Director; Gretchen Heckman, Economic & Housing Development Manager; Zach Harris, Human Resources Manager; Roland Yip, PW Dep. Director-Engineering (Zoom); James Lin, Senior Planner; Sarah Coffey, City Clerk; Emily La, Dep. City Clerk.

Reading of Land Acknowledgment
Mayor Boles read the Land Acknowledgment.

City Council Regular Meeting 2 April 27, 2026
Salute to the Flag led by Councilmember Bier
Closed Session Report

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
A. Pacifica Open Space & Parkland Advisory Committee Preservation Award 2026 to Russ Hartman
Mayor Boles invited Open Space & Parkland Advisory Committee (OSPAC) Chair Arlene Patton to present the award.

OSPAC Chair Patton stated she and several OSPAC members were present to celebrate a local hero, Russ Hartman, with the annual Preservation Award. This is the first time they had one individual nominated by three separate local service groups: Pacifica Land Trust, Pacific Beach Coalition and Pacifica Garden Club. She then read the proclamation.

Mayor Boles open public comments.

John Keener, Pacifica, stated he was representing the Linda Mar Water Coalition and San Pedro Creek Watershed Coalition, one of the groups that nominated Russ Hartman for his award. He shared some details on his activities and felt he was most the deserving honoree.

Lynn Adams, Pacifica, stated she was honored to be here and shared details of Mr. Hartman’s contributions with Pacific Beach Coalition.

Steve Diers, Pacifica, stated he was with the Pacifica Land Trust. He is a retired ranger and works with volunteers and had the opportunity to meet Russ Hartman who has volunteered at Pedro Point for 17 years.

Mayor Boles closed public comments.

Councilmember Bier thanked Russ Hartman for all the work he has done. She thanked OSPAC for making sure volunteers like him are awarded and celebrated in our community. She thanked all the organizations that put in his name. She congratulated him.

Vice Mayor Wright stated Pacifica is very fortunate in the number of people volunteering for our community as they help build a fabric of a community and Russ Hartman is one of the beginners in doing that. He thinks it is contagious and is a large part of what makes Pacifica a special place.

Councilmember Espinosa thanked Mr. Hartman for making Pacifica beautiful by doing all the work he does to keep it clean. She is happy that we have people like him serving our community and making it more beautiful and she thanks him for that.

Councilmember Beckmeyer thanked Russ Hartman for doing work that many citizens do not know needs to be done and he continues doing it, like moving the native plant nursery from Pedro Point to Pacifica Garden. She took Vice Mayor Wright there recently for the first time and she thought it was inspiring what has been done there because of volunteers like him.

City Council Regular Meeting 3 April 27, 2026
Mayor Boles stated when she saw Mr. Hartman this weekend, they were talking about what our connections are to the planet and what we leave about the earth and how it motivates our work.

She stated that his comment was that he just loves to weed and not that it is just a chore. She stated that there is something wonderful about freeing up a native plant being overcome with weeds. She stated that he needs help and all who want to know him better can join him on the trail. They unveiled the sign for the Lynn Adams Trail on Friday morning and Russ Hartman was there as part of that. He brought his shovel with him and, after they were done, he was on the hill digging out more weeds. She thanked him for his dedication and inspiration to others.

Russ Hartman, Pacifica, thanked everyone, especially those who nominated him and the Open Space and Parkland Advisory Committee. He agreed with John Keener that he has never met a weed he liked. He enjoyed volunteering which was therapy for him. He worked a lot by himself but what he does is not all his efforts as there are lots of volunteers in Pacifica who do the same thing. He thanked all of them.

B. Proclamation: Mental Health Month - May 2026
Mayor Boles read the proclamation in recognition of Mental Health Month.

Frankie Anguiano, Community Engagement Counselor at Peninsula Suicide Prevention, shared details of their goals i.e., wellness and recovery, enhancing public awareness, acknowledging mental health and substance use conditions, and eliminating stigma. She thanked Pacifica for this proclamation for Mental Health Month and shared national goals as well and invited everyone to share knowledge about mental health.

Councilmember Bier thanked her for coming out to their youth event. She stated 25% of our young people are chronically sad and 25% or more have considered suicide. This is important to talk about and not be afraid to talk about it. She is blessed to be around young people who are always talking about mental health and they are looking to what strategies they can use; she loved that it is so normalized as it helps the young people get through the day and sometimes that is all they can do is get through the day, and doing it together, they can make it through and see love and support along the way. She reminded elected officials that they are having a mental health training specifically for local elected officials on Saturday, May 9. She is passionate about this because of what she has experienced serving in this role and it is an honor to bring folks together and have an opportunity to talk about things affecting us while trying to serve our community.

Vice Mayor Wright thanked Councilmember Bier for all her work in this area. He stated it is such an important topic especially in light of COVID-19 and how isolating that was particularly for our youth community to be putting it out on the bigger stage to continue reinforce the message that it is okay to need a little help. He thanked them for taking up that.

Councilmember Espinosa stated, as a Latina in our community, people do not ask for mental health and were taught to stay strong. She knows this is true for many immigrants, and she wanted to tell them that mental health is help and it is healthy to ask.

Councilmember Beckmeyer thanked her for the work they do, adding that she had the benefit to learn more about 988 and get an update on how well it is doing. It is the Suicide Prevention line which is available 24/7, 365 days, in multiple languages. She thanks them for the ongoing work as it is important that they had this mental health focus for several years.

City Council Regular Meeting 4 April 27, 2026
Mayor Boles thanked Ms. Anguiano for being here and she thanked Councilmember Bier for all her leadership on these issues. She agreed that mental health is as important as physical health. She encourages people to get the help as there are always difficult times in our lives.

She asked if there are some emergency numbers to share.

Ms. Anguiano stated that 988 is definitely the go-to. It is 24/7, free and available to everyone, in all languages and, if you need someone to talk to, there is chat, text and over the phone. All their counselors are trained to support for anything. They also have follow up, and if they need ongoing support, they can give them a call and follow up with them to see how they are doing.

Councilmember Bier followed up that there are amazing agencies in North San Mateo County and all over the coastside to help. They have Youth Point Health, for young people ages 5 to 25 and their families; Asian American Recovery Services; Daly City Partnership; El Centro; and many different agencies.

CONSENT CALENDAR
Mayor Boles asked if any Councilmember wanted to pull an item off of Consent Calendar.

There were none.

RESULT: ADOPTED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Sue Beckmeyer, Councilmember
SECONDER: Mary Bier, Councilmember
AYES: Boles, Wright, Beckmeyer, Bier, Espinosa

1. Approval of Minutes
PROPOSED ACTION: Move to approve the minutes for the February 9, 2026 City Council Special and Regular Meeting.

PUBLIC COMMENTS ON ITEMS NOT ON THE POSTED AGENDA
Cindy Abbott, Pacifica, as Exec. Director of Sanchez Art Center, informed the community on details of exciting events, the 2026 Left Coast Annual Juried Exhibition and the 2025 LCA Award Shows, as well as extended hours and open studios.

Anita Rees, Pacifica Resource Center, shared updates on some of their programs, such as grocery pantry visits, grocery distribution, their annual Volunteer Appreciation Lunch, and Unhoused on the Coast.

Martin Anaya, Pacifica, shared details on some of the programs covered by PCT, such as the debate at the golf course, Pacific Beach Coalition, PCT forum, Coastside Live, etc. He also shared contact information in case the City wished for PCT to cover any specific events and introduced their interns.

Joaquin Jiminez, Half Moon Bay, stated he is running for San Mateo County Supervisor in District 3 and shared his goals to help his constituents.

Lynn Adams, Pacifica, thanked Pacifica and Public Works for everything they do, thanked the Pacific Beach Coalition leaders and volunteers for making that trail so special, and thanked everyone for the success of Earth Day.

City Council Regular Meeting 5 April 27, 2026
Suzanne Moore, Pacifica, as a PRC board member, shared details on how to celebrate parents and those we love in May through a personalized gift through the PRC.

Jessica Sheppard, Pacifica, encouraged Council to think about the safest way for housing accessibility and affordability.

PUBLIC HEARINGS

2. Consideration of rezoning, development plan, and a specific plan to allow for single family residential use for currently existing residential use and uses consistent with single family residential use, in order to obtain a grading permit for the unpermitted grading that was subject to the Notice of Violation and a 400 square foot detached carport at 650 Cape Breton Drive (APN 018-170-060, 022-320-200) (File No. 2022-037).

PROPOSED ACTION: Staff recommends that Council conduct the public hearing and consider this report and select either option 1 or option 2 below:

1. Adopt a Resolution determining that the grading in an already developed area that was subject to the Notice of Violation is not “development” subject to the requirements of Articles 22 and 22.5 of Title 9, Chapter 4 of the Pacifica Municipal Code, and that applicant is thus not required to rezone to Planned Development with a development plan and specific plan in order to obtain a grading permit pursuant to Title 8 of the Municipal Code. This action would be statutorily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines sections 15268, 15270, 15378(c); or

2. Introduce an Ordinance entitled “An Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Pacifica approving Rezoning RZ211-22 and Development Plan DP-87-22 to establish a Planned Development (P-D) zoning district with development plan;” adopt a Resolution to approve Specific Plan SP-180-22 at 650 Cape Breton Drive (APN 018-170-060, 022- 320-200); and find the approval of the project exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines sections 15301(Class 1-“Existing Facilities”), 1504 (Class 4-“Minor Alteration to Land”) and 15061(b)(3) (Common Sense Exemption)
Community Development Director Updegrave stated that Sr. Planner James Lin will be making staff’s presentation.

Sr. Planner Lin presented the staff report.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that, before we open up for public comment, Mayor Boles should check with the applicant if he wants to make a presentation.

Sr. Planner Lin believes on the applicant side Raymond Frank and their legal representative, Margaret Cruz, should be available virtually.

Mayor Boles asked the applicants if they want to make a presentation.

Mr. Frank stated that they do not have anything to present tonight.

Vice Mayor Wright asked Asst. City Attorney if the applicant will have three minutes to rebut anything heard in public comment.

City Council Regular Meeting 6 April 27, 2026
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated, with an abundance of caution, we should offer that to them.

Mayor Boles stated that it is after public comment.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano agreed, if they want to respond.

Mayor Boles opened the public hearing.

Lori Yap, Pacifica, shared her concerns on rezoning this property as one of Council’s options at this meeting and requested that there be no loopholes that adversely affect the community’s concerns and Council consider all comments on this issue before voting.

Lisa Funkhauser, Pacifica, shared her concerns on lack of notice to residents on the options proposed at this meeting and lack of clarity on what is being proposed. She added that she categorically opposed Option 2 and commented on other concerns she has in the document.

Clif Lawrence, Pacifica, shared his concerns, such as not giving residents enough notice, and asked that Council pass the first option, not the rezoning option.

Mayor Boles asked if Mr. Frank would like to rebut anything he heard.

Applicant representative Mr. Frank stated that they have no comments.

Mayor Boles closed the public hearing. She asked if Asst. City Attorney Bazzano would speak to unintended consequences. She confirmed that the grading work done was still illegal and nothing we are voting on today counteracts that.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano agreed, adding that if Council chooses Option 1, the applicant will still need to get a grading permit pursuant to the City’s Building Code and will need to have that grading conducted pursuant to the grading permit requirements.

Mayor Boles asked if Asst. City Attorney Bazzano sees any loopholes in what they are approving today that would allow them to do grading elsewhere or other work without permit.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that the decision by Council today would be specific to correcting the illegal grading that occurred on the property and staff tried to include language in the proposed resolution that would be specific to the issue at hand and also included language that was on the slide that the determination that Council could make would be specific to this project and Council reserved this right to analyze future projects located within the HPD, based on the specific facts and determinations relative to each project. To answer Mayor Boles’ question, she thinks this language helps preserve Council’s and City’s authority to enforce Articles 22 and 22.5 in the future going forward.

Mayor Boles referred to the question about the notice to the public and asked if there was any requirement to explain further in the mailed notice what the options were coming before Council.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that, for Option 1, there is no legal requirement that it be included in the notice. The notice requirements are specific to Option 2.

City Council Regular Meeting 7 April 27, 2026
Community Development Director Updegrave stated that we are still considering the application so the actual project was the content of the notice. Staff were legally required to still include the project description for the application that is under review.

Mayor Boles stated that, if Option 1 was the only one presented to Council, it would not have required notice because it was not a Planning-related decision.

Community Development Director Updegrave thinks the only reason that option is here is because we have a planning application; otherwise, that might not be coming.

Mayor Boles asked when the agenda was posted.

Community Development Director Updegrave stated Council agenda was posted on Wednesday, April 22, which is the City’s standard practice.

Mayor Boles asked if we also send emails to interested parties who have been involved.

City Clerk Coffey stated that the agenda, when posted, was sent to regular City Council agenda distribution list and there is not a specific list sent regarding this issue at Cape Breton.

Vice Mayor Wright stated that, at the last hearing, there was a representation by the church and he was wondering if they would consider and reach out to the neighboring property that was damaged. He asked if it was okay to ask if they followed up on that.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that the public hearing is closed, but if the Mayor wants to reopen the public hearing and ask the applicant, that would be at her discretion. The applicant can also choose not to respond.

Vice Mayor Wright would like to request to reopen the public hearing.

Mayor Boles reopened the public hearing,
Vice Mayor Wright stated that, during their last hearing, there was a representation made that they would consider reaching out to a neighbor who had been damaged through some action of theirs and he was wondering if they had a chance to follow through on that.

Mr. Frank believed the person representing the church has spoken to the neighbor but he does not have any further information at this time.

Mayor Boles closed the public hearing.

Vice Mayor Wright asked if Council is allowed to condition this to also ask them to put it back.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated, if Option 1 is selected, this would be a resolution providing specific language about the determination of Council and is being done primarily so this is an identifiable document easily and readily available to Council, public, staff, etc., going forward. It is not an approval or discretionary action by Council in terms of approving a permit so there is no ability to condition the resolution.

Vice Mayor Wright asked if she could clarify more to understand why we cannot ask them to undo what they did. He personally sees that they took the soil out of the arena for a reason City Council Regular Meeting 8 April 27, 2026
without a permit. To him, the soil not being in the arena is a benefit and he is concerned about setting that same precedence that you can derive a benefit from doing something wrong.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated it is up to Council to select an option but the resolution is not a permit or entitlement that can have conditions of approval attached to them. There is nothing that is binding to it on the applicant. It would be a determination of Council simply stating that they believe that their interpretation is that, for this particular scenario, the grading that occurred is not considered development. If not considered development, then the requirement would be that the applicant should go to the Building Department and get a grading permit.

Vice Mayor Wright asked, upon issuance of that permit, if Council would be allowed to condition that permit that they put the soil back.

Community Development Director Updegrave stated that building permits are not discretionary and we have no conditioning authority over a building permit absent a discretionary approval.

Vice Mayor Wright asked, if they were appealed, would there be an opportunity.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated no, adding that their building permits are ministerial and a grading permit would be under that umbrella of ministerial approval. It is not a permit that is appealable, like a use permit, but an appeal could be made to the Building Board of Appeals.

Those appeals are specific to if there is a disagreement with the interpretation of the Building Official, rather than an issue of the issuance of the permit itself.

Mayor Boles emphasized that the use of the arena is still limited, as she believes they originally wanted to grade it to hold services but that is not a legal use that is permitted. She asked to clarify what the uses are that are permitted.

Community Development Director Updegrave stated the agreement that was reached after the Notice of Violation sets forth that the area can only be used for specific occupancies.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated the occupancy classification is Class U and that is utility and miscellaneous. A Group U category includes buildings and structures of an accessory character and miscellaneous structures not classified in any specific occupancy, including but not limited to agricultural buildings. The occupancy classification does not allow any gatherings of persons for civic, social or religious functions.

Mayor Boles understood that, if you were to have a gathering and you have over 49 people, that is a different occupancy classification; even for those uses, you could only limit it to 49 people.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated they could have certain events related to agricultural use.

Mayor Boles agreed but thought it was still limited to less than 49 or else it triggers an A occupancy in the Building Code.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano does not know the limitation on the number of occupants but she wants to make it clear that they could have events related to agricultural under the U classification and that any determination Council makes does not change that classification.

Mayor Boles stated, to Vice Mayor Wright’s point, if he wanted them to put the soil back, that would be a new permit which is grading and disturbance.

City Council Regular Meeting 9 April 27, 2026
Vice Mayor Wright stated his ultimate goal was not to change the zoning and to put the soil back. He would love to hear from Planning Commission representative to gain some insight.

Commissioner Davis stated Planning Commission felt very strongly about not rezoning, not rewarding bad behavior. She understands Mayor Boles’ line of thinking that we are trying to put this to bed with this retroactive approval of this grading or permitting of the grading, and trying to ask them to take another action to potentially start it all over again is concerning.

Councilmember Beckmeyer added to what Vice Mayor Wright was saying about the language and effort that staff went to at the behest of Planning Commission and Council. She also acknowledged and thanked the community for making it very clear what their needs are. That is why it has been four times that the community has received seemingly same notices with slight wording changes. She stated that this has been a long and arduous process. It is her understanding that, if we choose Option 1, that will mean there is no rezoning and the interpretation of the grading that was done and referred to in the notice of violation is not development. The applicant would need to apply to the Building Department for a retroactive permit to correct the record. It is not a permit to do anything, according to what Vice Mayor Wright was suggesting. She asked if it is correct that the permit they would receive would be the permit they should have gotten in the first place, effectively.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano agreed, adding that they would finish the grading work that had started. There is a grading plan that was submitted as part of the applicant’s proposal and they would proceed with that grading plan.

Councilmember Beckmeyer assumed that the plan includes waddles to keep the drainage from getting plugged up with mud. She asked if that is accurate.

Community Development Director Updegrave stated that is correct.

Councilmember Bier thought that was a huge part and she thanked her for bringing that up.

She wanted to thank the community, specifically Lori Yap, for her continuous years of respectful, thoughtful communication.

Vice Mayor Wright would like a little more clarification on this is specific to just this one event that happened in the past and in no way applicable to any other parcel.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that the resolution is certainly specific to this project but the resolution includes language that specifies that Council has discretion in the determination of the term development and for this particular case Council is reserving its right to analyze future projects based on those specific facts relating to that project. If Council wants to add any language or further clarify, that is within their discretion. As she mentioned, staff did try to make this very specific to this project as it is unique and has circumstances that are not duplicated in other projects.

Mayor Boles asked staff to pull up the language that was proposed and not in the agenda. She stated this is something she asked for to specify even further. It is not that they are saying that grading may not be development in other cases, but saying that this grading under this roof that was already disturbed. She stated that the second to the last “be it further resolved” in the resolution states the development does not involve any residential or structural development and will not have any detrimental affect on the land within HPD. She wonders if they need City Council Regular Meeting 10 April 27, 2026
something a little stronger there too as she wants to make sure grading does count as development and we are not weakening that.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated it can be added. She thinks these are unique circumstances that are identified in the resolved language that targets this particular project and she thinks it would be difficult to apply this determination to something else. She thinks the language she read is accurate and there is not a structure that is involved in this particular scenario.

Vice Mayor Wright suggested that, instead of underneath “a,” we said underneath “this,” so it is specific to this one location.

Mayor Boles suggested adding “as it does not involve any residential or structural development or grading that is considered development”. She wants to make sure that there is not a weakness because that last “be it further resolved” talks about residential or structural development. She stated that HPD is very clear that grading and land disturbance is also generally considered and we are making the exception here because it is under this roof.

Councilmember Espinosa thought it was important to clarify what is grading considered.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated grading, as defined in the building permit, is very broad.

She can pull up the definition but she does not think it will be much help determining or narrowing the scope of the application of this resolution. In the second to last resolved paragraph, if we say “as the movement of soil from a previously disturbed location does not involve any residential or structural development”.

Mayor Boles wondered if we should take the language on packet page 59, second to the last “further resolved” and take out “as it does not involve any residential or structural development”.

We could just say “as it would not have any detrimental effect on land within HPD or create any potential hazardous conditions particular to hillsides”.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that is fine if she wants to take that language out. She stated that we are talking about, in the second to last resolved paragraph, simply removing the second to last portion of the sentence that says “as it does not involve any residential or structural development and”. That resolved paragraph would be, “that the City Council hereby determines that the application for the project does not require the application of rezoning development plan and specific plan because of relocation of soil sand from the covered arena does not constitute development that would be subject to the requirements of the Hillside Preservation District in Articles 22 and 22.5 of Chapter 4, Title 9 of the Municipal Code and would not have any detrimental effect on the land within the HPD or create any potentially hazardous conditions particular to hillsides”.

Vice Mayor Wright asked to add one more word: “because the resolution of ‘this’ soil sand”.

Mayor Boles stated that is fine with her and asked for Council’s thoughts.

Councilmember Beckmeyer agreed and asked if that is a paragraph we are inserting here so there are 3 “be it further resolved”.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano agreed, adding that is what staff recommended.

City Council Regular Meeting 11 April 27, 2026
Vice Mayor Wright stated, for further clarification, it seems to him that some erosion control methods are required if the soil is not to be put back underneath the covered arena and, once we issue this permit, what lets us know that the erosion control measures will be maintained.

Community Development Director Updegrave stated that part of the grading permit will look at what is proposed for the soil that has been relocated which will include looking at if there are any kind of erosion control measures that need to be put in place. Once that is inspected and finalized, it is just like any other grading permit where it would be a code enforcement issue if there were problems.

Vice Mayor Wright concluded, in that scenario, staff would feel comfortable that we are in no way creating a problem further down the line.

Community Development Director Updegrave would defer to the Building Official in their review and approval of the grading permit and the inspection to final the permit.

Mayor Boles asked how long the erosion control measures stay in place.

Community Development Director Updegrave does not know the specifics, but it would be required based on their proposal. Staff did go out to the site prior to Planning Commission hearing last year and confirmed that the measures required under the agreement from the NOV were in place and were still functional to the satisfaction of the City Engineer.

Mayor Boles stated that was in November or so, before most of our rains. She thought it might be nice if the Building Official goes back and has a look.

Community Development Director Updegrave stated that will be part of their review and finalizing the grading permit.

Mayor Boles thinks she sees consensus and asked for a motion.

Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that the motion would need to just say “as amended and discussed by Council”. She stated on this proposed language, Vice Mayor Wright wanted to add “this soil”. She stated that we are essentially adding three changes: We are adding this language, changing “’the” to “this,” and revising the second to last resolved paragraph to remove that provision Council discussed.

Councilmember Beckmeyer so moved; seconded by Councilmember Bier.

RESULT: ADOPTED AS AMENDED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Sue Beckmeyer, Councilmember
SECONDER: Mary Bier, Councilmember
AYES: Boles, Wright, Beckmeyer, Bier, Espinosa

3. AB 2561 Compliance – Vacancy Rate and Workforce Planning Public Hearing PROPOSED ACTION: Conduct a Public Hearing in accordance with Government Code Section 3502.3 (AB 2561) to present the status of vacancies and recruitment and retentions efforts in advance of the adoption of an annual budget.

HR Manager Harris presented the staff report.

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Vice Mayor Wright referred to the number of employees when referring to retention and he asked if those numbers are based on the average number of employees per thousand people or based on our current staffing levels.

HR Manager Harris stated it was based on our current budgeted FTE positions.

Vice Mayor Wright asked if it was safe to say that, if we were 15% understaffed, you would not see that in these numbers; we would be 15% understaffed as a baseline and then 13% below that.

HR Manager Harris stated, without checking the numbers in that specific situation, it is safe to say that this does not recognize any staffing deficiencies that may be in place.

Vice Mayor Wright asked if it was also to say that we do not pay the average wage across the county as well.

HR Manager Harris stated that, as of our last compensation study, we were not at the average.

Vice Mayor Wright asked if that makes his job harder to attract qualified candidates.

HR Manager Harris stated that it keeps him busy.

Vice Mayor Wright concluded that both those factors do make it more challenging. He stated that we do more with less in Pacifica than anywhere he has ever been.

Councilmember Espinosa asked which department has the most critical vacancies and what is the impact of unfulfilled positions on the budget.

HR Manager Harris stated that Public Works has more bodies and, if you look at their vacancy rates, they are at 12%. He pointed out that Public Works has the highest FTE count of vacancies and we also have made movement on those vacancies since this snapshot in time.

During this snapshot, we had vacancies they were working through active recruitments on and, since this time, there has been three filled positions, bringing them down to 4.5 in Public Works.

He agrees that there is impact to services. In this particular instance, all of those vacancies were concentrated in one portion of Public Works, and it is very tough on scheduling staff and potentially leaning on each other to make ends meet. When you have a concentrated batch of vacancies in one area, it can hit a small city hard. We made good movement, specifically in Public Works, since this recruitment but we do get waves of this. It is not abnormal or something unique to Pacifica. He stated that she asked where the biggest impact was and he thinks it is in Police staffing, as staffing is difficult in PD just by the nature of shift work. Having five FTs vacant at one time with a smaller Police Department does impact shift work overtime and a few other factors, such as morale in general.

Councilmember Espinosa stated, regarding job posting, she would like to see more Pacificans get to know where those jobs are, maybe posting at the Civic Center. She would like to see more Pacificans hired as she knows they are going to stay here. She would like to post all over Pacifica so they can see the jobs.

City Council Regular Meeting 13 April 27, 2026
Mayor Boles stated that we have not had public comments and should not be deliberating now as it is question time. She asked, when people leave, do we always do exit interviews to find out what might be drawing them somewhere else.

HR Manager Harris stated that, the majority of time, we will do an exit interview but depends on the circumstance or reason someone is leaving. There is a lot of valuable data that we glean from exit interviews, specifically around culture and why someone would choose to leave. He does keep track of trends, especially there are waves, and when he has something like that, he wants to check if there is something underneath that needs to be addressed.

Mayor Boles stated that when he did his snapshot the vacancy rate was 13% and she asked if we know what the average is in the county or other cities around us.

HR Manager Harris does not have the county average available but he can look into that and bring it back at another date. He stated that 13% is a decent spot at the end and anything below 10% would be considered great. Just being below 15% is good. He stated that we are well within the average and he would say we are doing better than most.

Interim City Manager Carter added that we have reduced the vacancy over the last several years. During the last two rounds of labor negotiation, it was much higher percentage, around 17%. She felt bringing it down to 13% was great.

There were no public comments.

Vice Mayor Wright stated to reiterate one more time, that is 13% on top of the already understaffed rate so a more accurate representation is compared to the average city, we are well into the 20%.

HR Manager Harris stated, without an organizational assessment on hand, he would not quote that, but if you look at how many positions should be aligned to a population of our size, he is sure it would be higher than 13%.

Vice Mayor Wright took the police as the example as he cited, and he believes that we are 18% under from where we once were as an example.

Mayor Boles stated that she knows the police is hard because of having to do a lot of overtime shifts and that gets to be too much for someone.

HR Manager Harris stated that it feeds into itself as it is a bit of a loop to where you are being overworked and you start feeling under-appreciated and you start looking elsewhere.

Councilmember Bier asked how many interns he has in HR.

HR Manager Harris stated there are two HR interns and six other interns across the City in various departments.

Councilmember Bier stated she will take his strategy of allowing outgoing interns to onboard the new ones.

Mayor Boles stated, regarding interns, right now we are only doing them over the summer and sometimes having an intern is more work for staff. She asked if the City would consider looking City Council Regular Meeting 14 April 27, 2026
at interns during the school year or more long-term year-round. She had some conversations with San Francisco State, particularly the climate-related people, and they are always trying to place people and she thinks they even have some money available as part of that.

HR Manager Harris stated we would be happy to review it. There are CalPERS items to consider and limiting work hours but, as long as there is a structure put in place, it seems that would be worthwhile to look into. We use engineering interns now year-round and that has been a good pipeline for our engineering roles. We have had success in having an engineering intern transition into an assistant engineer and still with the City.

Mayor Boles thanked him for all his work and programs he is doing to make this an even better place to live and work.

RESULT: NO VOTE REQUIRED

CONSIDERATION

4. Economic Development Committee and Parks, Beaches, and Recreation Commission Annual Accomplishments and FY 2026–2027 Work Plans
PROPOSED ACTION: Receive presentations on the Economic Development Committee (EDC) and Parks, Beaches, and Recreation (PB&R) Commission accomplishments and provide feedback on their respective FY 2026-2027 Work Plans.

Mayor Boles stated this item is the work plans of the Economic Development Committee and the Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission.

Interim City Manager Carter stated that on this item, staff suggests that Council take EDC first and then have two sets of public comments.

Mayor Boles then invited Economic & Housing Development Manager Heckman and EDC Chair Berman up.

EDC Chair Berman presented the staff report.

Mayor Boles stated, in the staff report, there was the work plan discussion and discussion of City resources and capacity for things on the work plan. She asked if someone wants to speak to that and she thinks other issues brought up by EDC Chair Berman were not discussed and analyzed as part of the staff report.

E&HD Manager Heckman stated that the way that EDC came up with its work plan items is based on staff work plan for the coming year; we tried to strategically look at what might be able to be accomplished in the next 12 months, what could be a good fit for the EDC in terms of the type of work they would be completing and what would support City staff in completing its own work plan. When we went through the staff resources section of the staff report on this item, we wanted to be as conservative and transparent as possible about the amount of time that City staff can spend with the EDC in moving these items forward. Staff support the EDC’s work plan as it was created in close coordination with our work plan and has a lot of faith in this committee’s ability to move its work plan items forward without a tremendous amount of staff oversight or involvement. There are certain items that cost money and will require such as Public Work staff’s ability to possibly install additional way finding signs; there are limitations to City Council Regular Meeting 15 April 27, 2026
what they will be able ask on the City side to be able to contribute to getting some of the work plan items moved forward.

Mayor Boles thought that would be more detail as the year progresses. She stated that installing the signs is one thing, but there was a recommendation that Public Works come up with a standard design.

E&HD Manager Heckman stated that EDC members wanted to weave in the observations and discussions that they had been having over this past year and probably prior years, in addition to the formal work plan accomplishments from last year and what they are planning on working on this coming year. The style guide is a topic of discussion that has come up repeatedly in their meetings and is not on the work plan specifically for this coming year. There are topics that will continue to be discussed and potentially make it to a future work plan in coming years.

Mayor Boles asked what is the current budget of the EDC on the yearly basis.

Interim City Manager Carter stated it was about $7,000 for the current year.

Vice Mayor Wright asked what percentage of this work plan represents staff time and what percentage represents committee work.

EDC Chair Berman stated that they designed it such that every item represents work that the EDC members themselves can actively focus on. As E&HD Manager Heckman mentioned, there are multiple items that would benefit from support from City staff. He stated, in identifying and applying for grants, the EDC members can look for and start progress on grants but they would not want to submit or lose a lot of work in coordination necessary with city staff to complete any of those applications. The food truck program is an item where they have been doing investigation analysis but they are not experts on how to put a food truck program ordinance in place and need to work with City staff to help guide and focus the study.

E&HD Manager Heckman thought it was 80% EDC working on their own and 20% staff support.

Vice Mayor Wright asked if the EDC’s thought is that they are there to support staff or staff is there to support them.

EDC Chair Berman agreed with the first point but stated that staff do support them a lot. He thinks that EDC are excited and got feedback on this work plan and future years and what initiatives they can focus on that would advance the City’s initiatives.

Vice Mayor Wright asked if it would be helpful to have a certain amount of staff time budgeted to them as we face budget challenges in the future and may need to allocate staff time in other places, or what is the best way to collaboratively figure that out so staff can address the needs of Council and the City and still prioritize some of their challenges as well.

EDC Chair Berman does not know that he could put forth a solution. There are a lot of dynamic needs from the city that staff has to focus on, and he would be hesitant to ask for a set amount of resources.

Vice Mayor Wright asked if the current system is working.

City Council Regular Meeting 16 April 27, 2026
E&HD Manager Heckman thinks this coming year is going to be important in figuring out how to answer his question. She thinks it is the first time where we are coordinated in work plan items and thinks that can be a goal for next year’s report by reporting out on how it went and what improvements or changes could be made.

Interim City Manager Carter complimented the committee in working this out. She stated that what was unique this year was that we brought the ED work plan to come first and was a good base document that was shared with the committee and having this conversation to say here is their work plan and where the committee can help them. She stated that, in the staff report, they identified areas of complete alignment, like place making and others. There were areas where they were misaligned because it is not on staff’s work plan like additional signage; those projects tend to take a lot of staff resources from multiple departments. Overall, she wanted to say this year was different and more aligned than in previous years.

Vice Mayor Wright asked, in the event they do not have time to get to something, if they keep a record of that so the following year they may get to it.

EDC Chair Berman stated that they will take that advice to make sure they keep track of areas where they do not have time, and they are happy to be working well and have gaps identified.

He thinks most of the committee’s frustrations have been where there are many departments that need to collaborate to achieve a goal, i.e., wayfinding signage. It can be challenging when there is not a clear responsible party to achieve a set goal. In EDC’s work plan, they want to achieve a pilot program and they have to coordinate across multiple departments and committees; when there is not assigned staff resources, that is where it leads to frustrations. It is hard when there are independent groups that need to coordinate and there is no plan for that.

Councilmember Bier asked if EDC had their final vote on the work plan already.

EDC Chair Berman stated that the EDC is going to approve the work plan that he shared.

E&HD Manager Heckman added that the point of coming to Council was to present it to them and see if there was any feedback.

There were no public comments.

Councilmember Espinosa thanked them, stating that they nailed everything we need. She asked what are the most important three items that they can address and do something about.

EDC Chair Berman thinks placemaking initiatives, general infrastructure in business districts and downtown areas, supporting business operations, helping local businesses continue to operate and be successful, and focusing on the digital and marketing strategies to level up Pacifica and marketing campaigns to invite more out-of-town visitors. A lot of this work is things that can be accomplished through volunteer time, but digital marketing is one that requires a budget.

Mayor Boles added that he stated $2500 over the holidays and that would quickly eat up the budget if they were doing that 2-3 times a year. She asked if there is an opportunity, since the businesses have value in it, that they can contribute to some of this as well.

EDC Chair Berman agreed, adding that the businesses run their own campaigns in parallel and believe there is value and are investing an amount they thought was appropriate, but the City Council Regular Meeting 17 April 27, 2026
challenges of operating a business here as budgets are tight for all local businesses. It would be great to invest in advertising, but you need to pick and choose where you spend your dollars as a local business. If the City can step in and try to help every business, that would be viewed favorably and provides measurable ROI.

Mayor Boles stated, if there was a request to be made for more money, she assumed that would come in coordination with Manager Heckman working with Interim City Manager Carter to bring up a proposal as part of our upcoming budget discussions.

E&HD Manager Heckman agreed.

Vice Mayor Wright asked how the chain of communication works.

EDC Chair Berman didn’t think there was a single chain of communication that they always follow. At some point in the past, it has been a referral to talk to a specific person with an introductory email and in other situations others will communicate on their behalf about something with other departments.

E&HD Manager Heckman stated that the goal would be to have everything come through ED staff who would be the liaison if there needed to be coordination with other departments.

Vice Mayor Wright thought that would be the most effective way to do it and asked if that was working for EDC.

EDC Chair Berman responded affirmatively.

Councilmember Bier was interested in understanding what the members of committees and commissions think are important information for Council to know. She wanted to understand more information about the vacancy. She also thinks the branding of the signs is important.

She thought the year-round campaigns is important and we should be some money put behind that. She stated, regarding digital strategies like the short form videos and social media, it has to happen or the information will not reach our younger crowds. There could be opportunities to engage our local youth who are doing media now and would love to come in and do some media for the City. She felt that last part of the presentation was the most important and what made her excited as there is a lot of information that Councilmembers can learn from which will help move strategies forward as they move forward themselves. She stated that we can always ask for information about food truck policies and get examples from other communities.

Councilmember Beckmeyer asked that he share the presentation with Council. She asked about wayfinding, and she thought she heard him say their goal originally was for two areas in town but only got to one. She asked what the second area was.

EDC Chair Berman stated that there is a draft plan for Manor, as well as Sharp Park.

Councilmember Beckmeyer asked if that was something the committee was talking about doing or is it running into the challenge of coordination and funding.

Interim City Manager Carter stated that this is one area where she would say that the ratio is not 80:20 but probably the other way around. EDC provided recommendations for the pilot program and, realistically, Public Works was heavily involved in this process, as well as Economic Development staff and City Manager’s Office. She stated, for wayfinding signs, this would be a City Council Regular Meeting 18 April 27, 2026
City project and it is great that the committee kicked it off and brought awareness in alignment with the city’s businesses, but typically it would be a Capital Improvement Project for the City to roll out at the City’s pace and the budget when the budget becomes available. There are reasons why the Sharp Park before Manor specifically.

Councilmember Beckmeyer heard from merchants in Rockaway as well with concerns about wayfinding and signage. She thinks the pilot was successful, especially their image at the beginning of that one sign at the bottom of Sharp Park Road. She would favor finding a way to get, in any way you can, a prioritized list in moving through the different parts of town to get a consistent look and feel. She also wonders about the opportunity for overlap or cross-pollination with OSPAC. She asked if there has been an opportunity for joint meetings.

EDC Chair Berman stated that we have not had a joint meeting but had some cross pollination where members attended each other’s meetings and some discussions on the Ahni trail sign.

He would love to deepen that collaboration and there are a lot of places throughout the City where they could benefit from introducing trail head signage.

Vice Mayor Wright wondered how they foresee working with staff on vacancies.

EDC Chair Berman thinks they decided to not put anything into their work plan for next year other than maintaining a list of vacancies because they felt it would be very challenging to figure out the right ownership model. For food truck program, that requires a lot of deep knowledge about how to think about code and ordinances. Vacancies and blight would be even more challenging and difficult. Next year, they will begin to learn more about that and, in the 2027-28 fiscal year, they might have an item on their work plan to discuss that.

Vice Mayor Wright stated one of the things he heard that concerned him is the effect of a vacant store front next to an active store front.

EDC Member Paige Miller stated that he has been actively tracking the vacancies list. He had discussion with Manager Heckman on how to best utilize this. When he started doing the tracking for the real estate, it was something he was doing prior to in response to understanding the business environment around his own business. Over time, they started seeing that this is a form of data that they should be collecting and the City should be aware of, not only in regard to vacancies but how some of the landlords are advertising their properties. What they discussed is that they want, for the next year, to at least drill down on collecting the data and seeing what other trends they can pull out of that before making any formal recommendation regarding anything the City may regard doing fines or implementing programs to help property owners alleviate some of their distressed properties.

Vice Mayor Wright added seeking some redevelopment developers to redevelop the property and do something more conforming with the Sharp Park Specific Plan.

EDC Member Miller agreed, and he thought that was something that was already under Manager Heckman’s staff purview, i.e., trying to recruit and work with business owners. He thinks one of the things that has come to light is that a lot of the vacancies in town have been for a long period of time without any economic revenue being generated by those and property owners do not seem motivated to do anything with those properties. He would love to do something immediately but he thinks the prudent thing would be to continue to collect data.

City Council Regular Meeting 19 April 27, 2026
Councilmember Beckmeyer thinks this might be something they want to pursue offline in more detail. She wants to check with ED staff about their goals and priorities in this arena as well.

Mayor Boles appreciated the spreadsheets Mr. Miller put together and she looked at it in terms of the commercial office tenant with the City trying to find an appropriate space. It was helpful to know more details than you would find out in a quick ad, etc., about what the space holds, even like electrical service, capacity, exact square footage, etc. She knows we have too much retail fees and retailers are struggling everywhere but, what came out of those conversations with that potential start up that was looking to move here was that we did not have adequate office space. All they were looking for was 6,000 square feet. She thought it would be interesting to keep that on their radar, such as what are the demands for higher quality business and professional offices. She knows Half Moon Bay has blight ordinances, and if there is an empty storefront, some of the adjacent businesses might put up some signs or some other product so it looks nicer. She thinks the signage they did looks great and do we need to study what it should look like, or does it look fine and they can just use that. She stated it looks like an official sign that Caltrans would put in. She thinks we need a bigger look at our whole signage ordinance as she knows there are issues with that in other places. She is not sure that EDC is where that set. She asked if there is anything else they want specifically want feedback on.

EDC Chair Berman thanked them for all their feedback thus far.

Mayor Boles moved on to the PB&R Commission.

PB&R Director Leslie, as the liaison to the PB&R Commission, introduced Chair Gail Benton Shoemaker.

PB&R Chair Benton Shoemaker presented the Commission’s work plan.

PB&R Director Leslie stated that Chair Benton Shoemaker did a good job representing the whole Commission. Many of these items would require leg work from the Commission but some would involve the PB&R and other departments. We want to set expectations for the Commission and staff moving forward on expectations and some may generate work plan staff items we would need to come to as well and the want to make sure this is the right direction, making sure it aligns with Council’s wishes.

Mayor Boles thinks this is described in more detail with staff input, starting on packet page 97.

Vice Mayor Wright understands that this is a once-a-year opportunity and some of the demands on staff time changes through the year, and not in a necessarily predictable way. He wants to make sure we allow for the event that there is more staff time to address these things or potentially less and being open to tell each other that. He is hoping we can encourage staff to have that open dialogue in a collegial collaborative way.

PB&R Director Leslie explained part of the reason he was trying to be as explicit as possible in describing staff resources. The Commission has always been very thoughtful and smart about putting things together, but also ambitious and wanting to do a lot of great things for the community. A lot of discussion is based on current staffing levels. He also wanted to call out that there is a lot of requirements for some of these projects from Public Works and E-Bikes, as well as other departments. He can speak very well for his department and their capacity but there are a lot of areas outside of his purview.

City Council Regular Meeting 20 April 27, 2026
Mayor Boles thought, if we are considering adding things that are not currently fully analyzed for staff, maybe that is something comes back to Council.

Interim City Manager Carter stated there are no actions with this agenda item, so they are not approving or adding anything to the work plan. Staff will take directions if Council feels strongly that one of those areas that PB&R Director Leslie identified that require multi-department involvement should remain on the work plan for the coming year, then staff will have to estimate what it will take when we bring our work plan to Council on June 8 meeting. That item will potentially bump out some other items in the work plan. She stated that we will take directions now to receive feedback and the Commission wants to receive feedback as well.

Mayor Boles assumed we will have a harder discussion later about total capacity.

Interim City Manager Carter stated that the staff report now is showing what the limitations are and if Council feels strongly about taking it on, then we need to know that as we plan our work plan, we will have to prioritize this over others if that is Council’s direction.

Mayor Boles stated that the ongoing assignments were nine different things, starting on packet pages 95 and 96, and those seem to include standard current staffing levels.

Interim City Manager Carter stated all these assumptions are current level of staff.

Mayor Boles understood and acknowledged we might need to lay staff off.

Interim City Manager Carter stated that it does not take into account the budget deficit we are facing and what services will be reduced.

Vice Mayor Wright asked if it would be helpful if Council were to give staff a prioritized list.

Interim City Manager Carter wanted to clarify that none of these items are currently on the City’s work plan. All of this will be added to the work plan as it is now.

PB&R Commission Chair Benton Shoemaker stated that the Commission voted to have these on the PB&R work plan.

Mayor Boles thought some of them like the Priority Parks Project are on the work plan.

Interim City Manager Carter agreed but not the E-Bikes or ordinance revision for the staff workplan (not the Commission’s workplan).

PB&R Director Leslie clarified that the ongoing assignments are essentially things staff continue to do and are within current purview and are comfortable with and some of the new items that were brought forth by the Commission are are additions with different focuses than staff currently are looking at.

Mayor Boles suggested going through each one. She referred to Task 1, the Priority Parks Project, and that is something they are already doing; what is new here is engaging in community outreach and grand openings.

PB&E Director Leslie thought we would be doing that under all conditions but we want to point out that it is a slight addition.

City Council Regular Meeting 21 April 27, 2026
Councilmember Beckmeyer stated that we are not cutting ribbons on parks every single year.

Mayor Boles stated we would want to celebrate all the good work that PB&R and Public Works have done and let the community know those are there for them. She stated all PB&R Commission is asking now is to be able to present that to Council. The discussion of recommendations from that is a harder discussion and she asked if that is the same for the EBikes to be able to have them present the information they’ve gathered.

PB&R Director Leslie stated that there are two parts, one is the presentation or working with Council and whatever is decided may involve more bandwidth. The Parks review was a lot of effort by the Commission and they did an excellent job. He thinks that effort should be looked at.

PB&R Commission Chair Benton Shoemaker stated they already created a presentation on the Parks review with those eight recommendations.

Vice Mayor Wright asked how much time should they budget for the presentation.

Councilmember Bier stated that is something she would like to talk about. Council is going to look at a charter review and she thinks one thing we do not have a lot of opportunity to do is have time with the full Commission where we can talk through these things. Maybe as part of the charter review, it can be in a study session and combine that. It also gives our Commissioners the opportunity to let Council know what is going on, how they are feeling about things and what they would like to do.

PB&R Commission Chair Benton Shoemaker asked if Council is talking about combining the parks and beaches review with the charter discussion.

Councilmember Bier stated not necessarily the review but the general study session and opportunity to sit with the commissioners and talk through these things.

Mayor Boles asked if the Parks review needs the full Commission.

PB&R Commission Chair Benton Shoemaker stated that the whole Commission went through the whole parks review and went through each recommendation and discussed and voted on it, and the Commission is represented in the Parks review. She does not think there needs to be the whole Commission attending in order to discuss that.

Councilmember Beckmeyer referred to Task 3, Beach Accessibility. She wondered if it could play into their coastal access requirement of the LCLUP. She stated that it is tangentially related but it is improving access and she sees that as an action that can conceivably be aligned with that.

Mayor Boles stated it would require Planning input in terms the best locations and Public Works.

Councilmember Beckmeyer stated that plan is going to be evolving over the next year and she is very intrigued by this and it is really aligned with the age-friendly initiative.

PB&R Commissioner Abbott stated that they have begun research on this in partnership with the Age-Friendly Community Coalition and they have already looked and measured out some City Council Regular Meeting 22 April 27, 2026
sites. What they are doing now is documenting where the tide comes for two locations in Linda Mar that have a way that people with walkers, strollers, wheelchairs, etc. can get onto the beach. She felt it was in an exploratory phase now and they are also looking at grant opportunities. Ultimately, if this became approved, it would be something that Public Works would be involved with. It is a flexible surface and not permanent. It is approved by the Coastal Commission in Southern California and other areas. They are exploring what might be possible to do this and, yes, it greatly increases accessibility for people of all ages. It allows them to get onto the beach and they are being very cognizant and looking at 100-foot paths so they are staying away from the tide. She stated that, after years of being on the Commission, they are talking to Council tonight about a 2026-2027 work plan and all of their projects have taken longer. She thinks it is important to consider that these projects take time to do the research and flesh out. When they are talking about the immediate year’s budget, she wants to be sure they are talking about this year exploring the possibilities and locations and then figure out when it is possible to do them.

Mayor Boles reiterated that PB&R Commission would be presenting their initial findings and this was on the work plan. At this point, it is not something that they see needing a lot of staff input.

PB&R Commissioner Abbott stated that they were doing this with the Age-Friendly Community Coalition and the PB&R Commission to bring information forward for a decision on what the possibilities are and how to plan it out. She stated that in the past Councilmembers have talked about ways to utilize their volunteer Commission and Committee members that they have appointed to help do some of this leg work.

Mayor Boles stated that the next item is the PB&R Commission charter review and asked if that was on the work plan for this year.

Interim City Manager Carter responded affirmatively.

Mayor Boles stated that the next one is the Tree Subcommittee helping to meet the Annual Tree City Pacifica reporting requirement and collaborate on Arbor Day celebration.

PB&R Commission Chair Benton Shoemaker stated Pacifica is a Tree City USA and annually sends in a reapplication to continue being a Tree City USA, including proclamation and celebration of Arbor Day. There needs to be photographs, numbers of volunteers and information correlated to send in that report and they can help as the subcommittee to gather that information for the annual report and help with the celebration of Arbor Day.

Mayor Boles stated it sounds like things the PB&R are already doing along with PW.

Councilmember Bier thinks there is tree work happening in some other committees and commissions. She thought there might be an opportunity to have others participate. She stated that this is where study sessions come in handy.

PB&R Commissioner Chair Benton Shoemaker agreed, adding that PB&R is good at doing events and PW is good at the infrastructure of purchasing the right trees, digging holes, etc. and it is already a collaborative event.

Councilmember Beckmeyer referred to E-Bikes.

City Council Regular Meeting 23 April 27, 2026
Vice Mayor Wright stated that they just spent four days in Sacramento and 15-20% of the bills they were advocating for were E-Bike bills.

Councilmember Beckmeyer stated that C/CAG allocated funds to do this same work, but it is not starting until June.

Vice Mayor Wright stated that the county is advocating for us to pass specific things across the County so there is so much effort. There is a recognition statewide that this is a huge problem and how to address it is the question. He is thankful that they have a committee in Pacifica to address it from a municipal level.

Councilmember Beckmeyer thinks it similarly is a report for the subcommittee to present to the Council. She asked what the status of this is now.

PB&R Commission Chair Benton Shoemaker stated the subcommittee brought a lot of information to the Commission and, as a Commission, they voted on ten recommendations and the report is coming back to the entire Commission at their next meeting to then go to Council.

PB&R Commissioner Abbott stated that they voted on ten recommendations which they broke into categories, such as signage, education, etc. That is not necessarily solved by legislation and what the Commission has been looking at in partnership with the subcommittee as a member of the Commission is what is actionable for Pacifica. One of the recommendations is tracking legislation. At their next meeting, they are going over the final report. They pulled out information and what they found out in the process was some of the things in the initial report had to do with bicycles overall and not bicycles but safety for bikes and pedestrians; they are trying to align and follow up on what is the City’s approved Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. They look at it as two separate things which is why they have the separate task of making sure that they are meeting regularly as a Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. They are trying to daylight that plan, check in on where their status is, and collaborate with other committees.

They want to be sure they are doing this in partnership and following the legal requirements and if grant opportunities come up that they are reviewed by BPAC within a process. They are being mindful of staff time, putting recommendations of who will be involved, i.e., what committees, what staff, and they recognized that it could be worked by multiple people.

Councilmember Bier stated that those are two very big opportunities for the Commission to come to Council and asked how to set time aside to hear from the Commission.

Councilmember Beckmeyer thinks they turn to the Mayor and Vice Mayor with agenda planning and find that time. She recommends not during budget preparation.

City Clerk Coffey reminded the Mayor that it is 10:08 p.m.

There was Council consensus that Council would be complete the meeting by 11:00 p.m.

Mayor Boles stated staff did not have capacity to research the E-Bikes so it was pushed back last year. She appreciates the research that has been done. She thought it would be helpful to hear a presentation and thought it gives an opportunity to advocate for legislators.

PB&R Commission Chair Benton Shoemaker stated that PB&R review is ready anytime and it is recommendations for Council consideration. She stated that the E-Bike presentation is not City Council Regular Meeting 24 April 27, 2026
quite ready but they should have the report approved by their next Commission meeting next month.

Councilmember Beckmeyer agreed with Mayor Boles’ point to think about educating ourselves with specific thoughts about Pacifica. We know our town and hearing about legislation, what is happening on the BPAC at the County level, is different than what potentially needs to happen.

Mayor Boles asked how the schools are involved in this.

PB&R Commissioner Chair Benton Shoemaker stated that is a discussion and one of the recommendations they will be talking about, as it is not just the schools but the Office of Education. They can create a resolution for the loophole language, if Council likes, and they hope it will happen soon that the PB&R review would come to Council in the near future and then E-Bikes after that.

Mayor Boles knows the loophole language discussion is also on the climate action draft work plan. That was something from goal setting. She stated that it is helpful to have the PB&R Commission and others deeply involved the tree ordinance to start with to put a draft together.

She stated it sounds like Council wants the Commission to do everything on their list and she is worried about staff. From what she is hearing, in this initial phase, it is mostly additional work that the Commission is doing and not additional work for staff.

PB&R Commission Chair Benton Shoemaker stated it depends on how Council goes on these specific recommendations.

Vice Mayor Wright stated we can always add the caveat when it comes up “as staff time allows”.

There were no public comments.

Mayor Boles asked if there were last words from staff, specific concerns about any of those things on the list that will take more time than being talked about.

PB&R Director Leslie thought it would be appreciated if they could spread them out a little bit as it is based on current staffing levels.

Mayor Boles stated that Council would ask the Commission members to work that as well on their own agendas so it is not too much at any one time.

PB&R Commission Chair Benton Shoemaker appreciated their attention.

RESULT: NO VOTE REQUIRED

5. Approval of Consultant Services Agreement between the City of Pacifica and GHD, Inc. for Design and Engineering Services related to the Pacifica Pier Rehabilitation Project.

PROPOSED ACTION: Adopt a Resolution Authorizing a Consultant Services Agreement with GHD, Inc. for design and engineering services in the amount of $656,533.00 in connection to the Pacifica Pier Rehabilitation Project; approve budget authority in the amount of $788,000.00 which includes 20% contingency and authorize the City Manager to execute all documents related with the project.

City Council Regular Meeting 25 April 27, 2026
PW Dep. Director Yip presented the staff report.

Councilmember Beckmeyer asked Dep. Director Yip to explain a little bit about the phasing.

PW Dep. Director Yip stated we would like to have the first phase to be able to work on the most critically damaged sections of the pier which would allow to reopen the pier back to 100%. That is the goal but we do not have any of those technical analyses and he would defer to GHD to determine what is their design and seeing how much the exact dollar amount would be for phase one. They will continue to move on to the median and least critical damage areas.

Vice Mayor Wright asked if he can explain how that is going to work in concert with the current BBIRP plans for rebuilding the sea wall.

PW Dep. Director Yip stated that there is a portion of the pier which ties together with the BBIRP project a little bit. In terms of how they tie together exactly in terms of timing, as each project can work in isolation of each other. We can work on other projects individually and move forward independently.

Vice Mayor Wright assumed there will not be any loss of benefit or any weaknesses created by not doing them together.

PW Dep. Director Yip stated that there should not be.

Mayor Boles referred to packet page 108 where it says the study done at the end of 2023 said some of the work should be done within two years which was last year and some of the work should be done within four years which is 2027. She asked if he sees some risks in not meeting these dates that were part of the recommendation.

PW Dep. Director Yip stated that this was discussed very thoroughly with GHD and the reason why half the pier is closed to mitigate for this risk. Most of the severely damaged areas are at that section which is parallel to the shoreline. Most of the risk is mitigated now with a 50% closure and most of the damaged areas need to get repaired within 2-4 years are within those areas. That is why the annual inspections are needed; if they have another major storm, they do annual inspections and may need to close off more of the pier.

Mayor Boles asked if it was possible that further damage could separate the pier. She asked what happens if there is substantial damage in the interim.

PW Dep. Director Yip stated that, as far as risk to the public, it is minimal: where we are aware when these high tide events occur, we will shut down the pier and close it off to the public but there is a possibility we have something damaging it so severely that the pier could get closed.

Mayor Boles stated that he mentioned that $11 million was before the more recent storms. She vaguely remembers, from City Manager Woodhouse, a number of $19 million was what we needed and she asked if that is roughly what he is thinking now. She does not know if that was design and construction.

PW Dep. Director Yip stated that the $19 million included the design, as well as construction management and all the project management time that is needed to carry it through construction. It is going to cost more to phase it out in three phases and to do $11 million work at once due to the remobilization.

City Council Regular Meeting 26 April 27, 2026
Mayor Boles opened public comments.

Paige Miller, Pacifica, stated that he owns a business in Sharp Park and lived on Palmetto so was very familiar with Sharp Park and the pier. He shared his concerns and thoughts about the project becoming so big and taking so long as he loves the pier.

Mayor Boles closed public comments.

Vice Mayor Wright agreed but also understood that, if we do not take care of what we have, it is going to end up costing us more to not take care of it. He agrees that the sea wall is a big deal and the natural mitigation measures, and so is the artificial reef.

Mayor Boles understands from Dep. Director Yip that all this money is coming from a federal grant that we have obtained and she asked if he can clarify if that grant is specific for the pier or could it be used for a different project.

PW Dep. Director Yip stated that this grant is specific to the pier from the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA).

Mayor Boles stated it is free money to us and the harder conversation is about the money that we will spend will come later.

Councilmember Espinosa asked if we have to match a certain amount.

PW Dep. Director Yip stated that there is no match with this grant.

Vice Mayor Wright asked if there was a $38,000 General Fund expenditure.

PW Dep. Director Yip stated it is correct and it may have been allocated for some of the structural inspections and is left in the project at this point. There was some other funding sources, California State grant, as well as a Coastal Conservancy grant which would have possibly funded the railing replacement before. We no longer have the Coastal Conservancy grant because the grant’s timeframes have expired.

Councilmember Beckmeyer moved to adopt a Resolution Authorizing a Consultant Services Agreement with GHD, Inc., for design and engineering services in the amount of $656,533.00 in connection to the Pacifica Pier Rehabilitation Project; approve budget authority in the amount of $788,000.00 which includes 20% contingency and authorize the City Manager to execute all documents related with the project; seconded by Councilmember Bier.

RESULT: ADOPTED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Sue Beckmeyer, Councilmember
SECONDER: Mary Bier, Councilmember
AYES: Boles, Wright, Beckmeyer, Bier, Espinosa

COUNCIL COMMUNICATIONS
Councilmember Bier stated she would like to adjourn the meeting in honor of Nancy McGee who passed away today.

City Council Regular Meeting 27 April 27, 2026
Councilmember Espinosa stated that Imperial Park and Skyridge Park are closed because we are doing reconstruction of the parks. She stated that construction hours are 8:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday, and other parks are Fairmont and Edgemar that are available.

Vice Mayor Wright expressed appreciation to Councilmember Beckmeyer for all the time she spent this weekend with him going to Sacramento. It was a pleasure to see her in action there advocating and representing Pacifica and she taught him so much about what work he hopes he can carry forward into the future.

Councilmember Beckmeyer stated that they are all a team. She was sorry they were not able to be here for the EcoFest. She thought the Progress Seminar was time well-spent. Sacramento was a week of advocacy. She had the opportunity to testify for Assembly Bill 2373 which, if it passes through the Senate, would put into statute the neighborhood approach that we used with our Local Coastal Land Use Plan. It was great to have opportunities to support legislation and work with our colleagues.

Mayor Boles stated she had the best two weeks because it was all around Earth Day and EcoFest was fantastic. She, Councilmember Espinosa, and incoming City Manager Sean Charpentier took a VIP tour of the creek. She got to present the Clean California award that the Beach Coalition was awarded from Caltrans. She attended the funeral for Rob Caughlin. She attended a couple of climate week events, which is something San Francisco started doing a few years ago, one through Peninsula Clean Energy on right sizing; the idea is that there is more technology and products out there that reduce the load demand. There was another one put on by ICF on sea level rise adaptation and a regional approach to resilience. She wants to let people know about the Pacifica Land Trust presentation which is on May 2; they received a grant from the Coastal Conservancy to look at opportunities for nature-based solutions to provide more resilience on our coastline and they had some ideas for 20 different sites in town.

She added that, at EcoFest, the poet laureate wrote a poem just for that and had another event at Chit Chat. There is a big VLF meeting in Sacramento tomorrow that Diane Pappan is bringing to the floor for discussion and she will be going to that and representing Pacifica, as will Vice Mayor Wright.

STAFF COMMUNICATIONS – NONE.

ADJOURN
Mayor Boles asked if Councilmember Bier wanted to say something about Nancy McGee.

Councilmember Bier stated that unfortunately Nancy McGee passed away. She was the County Superintendent of Schools and a fierce advocate for all things in education. Over the years, Ms.

McGee was also a housing advocate and she sat on the HEART Board. It is a big loss but she knows she has been sick for quite a while and she was such a strong, witty, funny person. She is going to miss her and is sad that she went through what she had to go through but she left everything on the table for education in San Mateo County. She did a fantastic job for us.

Councilmember Beckmeyer agreed, mentioning all the Big Five safety protocols in light of so many increased school shootings across the country. Her first job with the County office was as the library coordinator as she was also a librarian. She is sad that Nancy McGee is gone but grateful that she is at peace.

City Council Regular Meeting 28 April 27, 2026
Mayor Boles added happy birthday to Councilmember Beckmeyer today.

Mayor Boles then adjourned the meeting at 10:49 p.m. in honor of Nancy McGee.

Transcribed by Barbara Medina, Public Meeting Stenographer.

Respectfully Submitted,
Sarah Coffey, City Clerk
APPROVED: 5 - 0; 7/13/2026
__________________________
Christine Boles, Mayor