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 May 26, 2026
May 26, 2026 (TUESDAY)
www.cityofpacifica.org
Mayor Christine Boles called the meeting to order on May 26, 2026 at 6:03 PM 6:00 PM OPEN SESSION
Call to Order
Mayor Boles called the meeting to order at 6:03 p.m.
Attendee Name Title Status Arrived
Christine Boles Mayor Present
Greg Wright Vice Mayor Present
Sue Beckmeyer Councilmember Present 6:08 pm
Mary Bier Councilmember Present
Mayra Espinosa Councilmember Present
City Clerk Coffey took a verbal roll call.
Staff Present: Sean Charpentier, City Manager; Marc Tran, Asst. City Attorney; Yulia Carter, Asst. City Manager; Maria Sarasua, Police Chief; Melissa Tigbao, PW Director; Samantha Updegrave, Community Development Director; Marisol Gómez, Finance & Administrative Services Director; Scott Leslie, PB&R Director; Daniel Patten, Wastewater Engineering Manager; Matt Kelly, Project Manager; Bill Glasgo, Police Captain; Sarah Coffey, City Clerk; Emily La, Dep. City Clerk.
Reading of Land Acknowledgment
Mayor Boles read the Land Acknowledgment.
Salute to the Flag led by Mayor Boles
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
A. Proclamation: Pride Month (June 2026)
Mayor Boles read the proclamation in honor of Pride Month.
Lauren Smith, Board President of Coast Pride, thanked Councilmembers and wished them a happy Pride Month. She stated that Pacifica Pride is coming up on June 6. The Pride Parade City Council Regular Meeting 2 May 26, 2026
is a family friendly celebration where neighbors can come together, kids are welcome, and the whole community can show up exactly as they are. Pacifica Pride is a public declaration where the City sees its LGBTQ residents and the community belongs here and Pacifica stands for inclusion, especially at a moment when that message has never been more needed. They live in a time when LGBTQ people, particularly queer youth, who are being targeted and unwelcome in our communities. The center of Coast Pride’s work is “Allcove,” a new drop in center in Half Moon Bay offering mental health, primary care and peer support for any young person who lives on the coast, ages 12-25, regardless of who they are or came from. Pacifica Pride is a key pillar in that mission and the collaboration with city government is essential. As federal funding continues to shrink, they are asking Council to fund Pacifica Pride and send an unambiguous message about the kind of city Pacifica chooses to be.
Councilmember Bier stated it was so good to see Lauren Smith and was glad she was president of Coast Pride. She felt Coast Pride is an important agency on the coastside and she encourages everyone to look at their website and support them. She stated young people from Pescadero to Pacifica are benefitting from all the services they provide on the coastside. She stated, in her job, she does prevention and intervention work in San Mateo and she is excited that there is going to be an Allcove on the coastside.
Vice Mayor Wright thanked Ms. Smith for showing up tonight. During his lifetime, people never would have sat here and talked about this and how things have changed and they are able to do a proclamation and talk about it in public on TV. He thanked them for that.
Councilmember Espinosa stated that it is important to celebrate diversity every day. There is still education to be done in the community, and she wants to let them know that we see them, value them and are proud to be their neighbors.
Councilmember Beckmeyer stated it was rewarding for her to see Pride continuing to happen.
She cannot wait for June as it is so meaningful and special Mayor Boles thanked Lauren Smith and Dana Johnson for being here and for all the work Coast Pride does in Pacifica and the coast. It is a celebration for our diverse community.
Dana Johnson (they/he) accepted the proclamation on behalf of the LGBTQIA+ Commission, as well as a board member for Coast Pride. Dana Johnson thanked Council in all their support with progressive Pride proclamation. They appreciate the affirmation of inclusion for the LGBTQIA+ community in San Mateo County but more so on the coast. The LGBTQIA+ Commission will continue to advocate for the importance of equitable and inclusive community for our diverse LGBTQIA+ community. They are constantly trying to make sure they are seen, visible and belong in the spaces, and the proclamation and raising of the Progress Pride flag lets them know as a community that they belong here and have safety in this space.
There were no public comments.
CONSENT CALENDAR
Councilmember Bier moved to amend the order of the agenda and vote to rearrange Item 4 to the end of the meeting; seconded by Councilmember Beckmeyer.
City Council Regular Meeting 3 May 26, 2026
REORDER ITEMS ON THE AGENDA (MOVE AGENDA ITEM #4 AFTER AGENDA ITEM #6) RESULT: ADOPTED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Mary Bier, Councilmember
SECONDER: Sue Beckmeyer, Councilmember
AYES: Boles, Wright, Beckmeyer, Bier, Espinosa
Mayor Boles asked if any Councilmembers want to pull any Consent items. There were none.
There were no public comments.
RESULT: ADOPTED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Mary Bier, Councilmember
SECONDER: Sue Beckmeyer, Councilmember
AYES: Boles, Wright, Beckmeyer, Bier, Espinosa
1. Approval of Minutes
PROPOSED ACTION: Move to approve the minutes for the March 7, 2026 City Council Study Session and the March 9, 2026 City Council Special and Regular Meeting.
2. Terminating Proclamation of Local Emergency, Approving an Agreement for Construction, and Notice of Completion for the Vallemar Phase II Emergency Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation and Repair Project
PROPOSED ACTION: Move to Adopt the Resolution of the City Council of the City of Pacifica Terminating the Proclamation of Local Emergency, Approval of an Agreement for Construction, accepting completion, and directing the City Manager to file Notice of Completion for the Vallemar Phase II Emergency Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation and Repair Project; and authorize the City Manager to release the retention funds to the contractor.
3. Quarterly Financial Report for General Fund for the quarter ending March 31, 2026 PROPOSED ACTION: Review and accept the Quarterly Financial Report for General Fund for the quarter ending March 31, 2026.
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON ITEMS NOT ON THE POSTED AGENDA
Ed Ochi, Pacifica, stated he is speaking as an individual. Project 1334 did their official launch at the last Council meeting and is giving an update with 48 businesses that signed up and thanked everyone for their help.
Delia McGrath, Pacifica, spoke on the ongoing war in Gaza and requested Pacifica reach out to Congressman Liccardo to sponsor HR 3565, Block the Bombs Act, and/or pass a resolution to similar effect. She also emphasized continuing the Temporary Safe Parking Program in light of its community benefits and success.
Charles Goetchius, Pacifica, stated the Manor area has received increased air traffic noise due to runway repair at SFO and requested the City Council to send a letter to the airport for data and updates.
Elisa Fassler, Pacifica, agreed with Mr. Goetchius. She also shared the frequency of the flights, which has become intolerable.
City Council Regular Meeting 4 May 26, 2026
Samantha Hauser, Pacifica, stated she is speaking as an individual briefly about pollinators and shared information on how to address bee swarms.
Gloria Stofan, Pacifica, emphasized continuing the Temporary Safe Parking Program in light of its community benefits and success.
Ellen Hage, Pacifica, stated she is a leader with Faith in Action Bay Area and Coastside Faith in Action and is speaking about the Temporary Safe Parking Program. She emphasized continuing the Temporary Safe Parking Program in light of its community benefits and success.
Suzanne Moore, Pacifica, stated she supported Ms. McGrath in her bid for peace. She then shared updated County information on homelessness and shared thoughts on improvements brought on by Temporary Safe Parking Program for our community.
Linda Peebles, Pacifica, emphasized continuing the Temporary Safe Parking Program in light of its community benefits and success.
Valeria Lapin, Pacifica, supported Mr. Goetchius and Ms. Fassler on the airport issues. She also shared her concerns about fireworks and suggested a neighborhood watch to assist the police with capturing illegal fireworks.
PUBLIC HEARINGS - NONE.
CONSIDERATION
4. Appointments to the Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission and Open Space and Parkland Advisory Committee
PROPOSED ACTION: Move to appoint:
A) two (2) applicants to the Open Space and Parkland Advisory Committee for full 4-year terms to expire May 2030; and
B) two (2) applicants to the Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission for full 4-year terms to expire May 2030.
Note: Agenda Item #4 was considered following Item #6 as a result of the Council’s vote to reorder the Agenda items.
City Clerk Coffey presented the staff report.
Councilmember Bier moved to appoint Cindy Abbott and Kyle Boswell to the Parks, Beaches & Recreation Commission.
Mayor Boles recalled the interviews with Kyle Boswell across recruitments and in the latest interview he stated he had a preference for OSPAC as that tied into his graduate research.
Councilmember Bier revised her motion to appoint Cindy Abbott and Marisa George to the Parks, Beaches & Recreation Commission, each to a full four-year term to expire May 2030; seconded by Councilmember Espinosa.
City Council Regular Meeting 5 May 26, 2026
APPOINTMENTS TO THE PARKS, BEACHES AND RECREATION COMMISSION:
Cindy Abbott (4-year term to expire May 2030)
Marisa George (4-year term to expire May 2030)
RESULT: ADOPTED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Mary Bier, Councilmember
SECONDER: Mayra Espinosa, Councilmember
AYES: Boles, Wright, Beckmeyer, Bier, Espinosa
Councilmember Bier moved to appoint Michael Kahn and Kyle Boswell to the Open Space and Parkland Advisory Committee, each to a full four-year term to expire May 2030; seconded by Councilmember Beckmeyer.
APPOINTMENTS TO THE OPEN SPACE AND PARKLAND ADVISORY COMMITTEE:
Michael Kahn (4-year term to expire May 2030)
Kyle Boswell (4-year term to expire May 2030)
RESULT: ADOPTED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Mary Bier, Councilmember
SECONDER: Sue Beckmeyer, Councilmember
AYES: Boles, Wright, Beckmeyer, Bier, Espinosa
5. Annual Reports to City Council from the Planning Commission; Emergency Preparedness & Safety Commission; Beautification Advisory Committee; Library Advisory Committee; and Open Space and Parkland Advisory Committee PROPOSED ACTION: Receive informational annual report presentations from each commission and committee, provide feedback, and receive and file the annual report of each commission and committee.
Representatives from the Planning Commission; Emergency Preparedness & Safety Commission; Beautification Advisory Committee; Library Advisory Committee; and Open Space and Parkland Advisory Committee presented their annual reports to Council. Council thanked all Commissions/Committees for their hard work.
Mayor Boles opened public comments.
Ken Miles, Pacifica, expressed concerns about e-bikes on trails used by community members.
Suzanne Moore, Pacifica, stated she was amazed how much volunteer work is done and thanked the committees for their hard work.
Mayor Boles closed public comments.
RESULT: NO VOTE REQUIRED
6. Climate Action and Resiliency Committee FY 2026–2027 Work Plan PROPOSED ACTION: Receive a presentation and provide feedback on the Climate Action and Resilience Committee FY 2026-2027 Workplan.
City Council Regular Meeting 6 May 26, 2026
City Manager Charpentier stated the Climate Action & Resilience Committee came out of the approval of the Climate Action & Resiliency Plan (CARP) plan last year and a sign of success of Pacifica trying to address climate resiliency in collaboration with residents. After the adoption of the Climate Action and Resiliency Plan, one of the recommendations was the formation of this committee. Since then, they have had five meetings during this calendar year and, in those meetings, they have been able to accomplish quite a bit, including being involved in discussions about the tree canopy as well as the creation of their first work plan.
Chair Deirdre Martin, Vice Chair Margo Meiman, and Committee Member Celeste Langille presented the report.
Mayor Boles stated that we are so grateful for their work. She knows there will be direction on the work plan requiring input from staff concerns about staff capacity, some of which will need to wait until the budget discussion on June 8.
City Manager Charpentier thanked them for their work and noted that the CARP is three things at once: necessary, aspirational and multi-year. The staff report tried to make a good faith estimate of how some of these activities would fit within the current staffing resources we have available. The June 8 meeting will have a broader organizational discussion about what the budget looks like and how we are facing a $2.8 million deficit (approximately before the VLF funding was not included in the Governor’s May revised budget) and the target reductions for each department. He added this is necessary and aspirational for us to accomplish our goals and also multi-year, and through that budget process, we will have an outline of what some of the resources will be within the context of the entire City organization.
Chair Martin confirmed the recommended action is to provide feedback on the workplan.
City Manager Charpentier responded affirmatively.
Mayor Boles opened public comments.
Jessica Sheppard, Pacifica, shared an app called “Too Good to Go” that could be a great resource for food accessibility and food waste reduction.
Remi Tan, Pacifica, was speaking as a resident. He shared his concerns about SamTrans bus reduction, encouraged Council to continue working with PCE regarding hot water heater emergency replacements, asked Council to look into companies for installing EV charging ports, and suggested a new carpooling resource called Crewz.
Ken Miles, Pacifica, shared his concerns on this committee working with urban forest goals as it may conflict with some wildfire issues, namely urban forestry vs. fire safety, especially regarding the types of trees in the City. He supported the idea of solar power in Pacifica.
Carl Schwab, Pacifica, hopes CARC will get cooperation from the City and other funding sources to make the CARC workplan and CARP happen.
Mayor Boles closed public comments.
Councilmember Beckmeyer referred to packet page 156, Item 1-B: Liaisons to city committees/commissions. It references “contributing relevant information to the City’s regular CARP-related newsletter (prepared by staff)”. She asked who is handling the newsletter now.
City Council Regular Meeting 7 May 26, 2026
Vice Chair Meiman stated that it is being done completely by the CivicSpark Fellow Bella Carreon. She stated the position is until September 2026, and we would have to apply for grant funding again. If that position is not reinstated and continued, then the newsletter may not be able to continue.
Mayor Boles added that her understanding from previous years is that it is a $40,000 payment from the City and is grant-funded otherwise to pay a proper salary for that work for an 11-month period. That would be something that would come before us for discussion on June 8.
City Manager Charpentier agreed.
Councilmember Bier appreciates being able to look through all this tonight and it will help with conversations then.
Chair Martin stressed that the kind of representation allowed by Ms. Carreon’s presence at RICAPS meetings brings in knowledge and opportunities about grants and vice versa.
Councilmember Bier voiced concerns about if a committee member cannot go to a meeting and limited staffing may not allow for us to attend. She understands the importance and that was something that stood out to her. She is excited about transportation when we get there.
Mayor Boles was grateful that Vice Chair Meiman was able to attend but we cannot necessarily commit to having a committee member, a volunteer, to attend regularly during workdays.
Councilmember Bier asked if it was possible for one of the Councilmembers to do that.
Vice Chair Meiman stated RICAPS is made up of sustainability managers or other City staff.
City Councilmembers do not generally take part in these meetings, nor do City committee members. RICAPS was being kind to allow a volunteer member of the community to participate but she has been glad to do it for the past couple of years. She stated it is a wealth of information and resources about what is happening.
Councilmember Beckmeyer asked if the RICAPS agendas are public.
Vice Mayor Wright asked if it has to be recorded.
City Manager Charpentier stated no, it is a C/CAG program consisting of sustainability staff meeting. The presence of Councilmembers may change the atmosphere of the meeting. It would be atypical to have non-agency staff on a regular basis.
Councilmember Beckmeyer asked about ways to monitor the subject matter.
Vice Chair Meiman stated the meetings are held on Zoom and in person quarterly. The Zoom meetings are not recorded.
Vice Mayor Wright asked if there are minutes of those meetings.
City Manager Charpentier does not think so as it mainly involves staff brainstorming, sometimes doing multi-jurisdictional applications and how to deliver these projects. If it is a matter of funding applications, he can reach out to their staff and have them send them to us, including City Council Regular Meeting 8 May 26, 2026
funding applications available for public agencies and rebates that are available on the consumer level. They can use Connect With Pacifica or other channels to distribute the consumer-based rebates or applications.
Mayor Boles stated the other item was the website which is being updated by staff. She asked if website updates have to be done by staff.
City Manager Charpentier stated City staff would do that, adding that committee members could write or text a narrative that could be inserted.
Vice Chair Meiman stated a CARC member could create the content and pass it along to staff members and then they would need to be approved for upload.
Mayor Boles thinks this is something Council directed but, in the future, committees and commissions will be presenting work plan concepts to Council earlier in February before Council’s Strategic Goal Setting and it can factor into the budget discussions every year.
Vice Chair Meiman referred to packet page 157, Item II-B: Home Electrification Permitting Process.
Councilmember Beckmeyer referred to “support recommendations to streamline permitting processes and ease zoning restrictions related to heat pump placement”. She stated it sounds like there is a sense that the zoning regulations make heat pump water heater installation difficult, and she asked if she is reading it correctly.
Vice Chair Meiman agreed, adding in other jurisdictions that has apparently been a barrier.
Vice Mayor Wright asked if that has to do with setback requirements, from a side perspective or rear perspective.
Vice Chair Meiman agreed, adding all of the above.
Vice Mayor Wright thinks it merits a look to make sure where there are potential setback conflicts and consider fire codes, particularly on the side setbacks to protect neighbors.
Vice Chair Meiman agreed that it is complicated.
Mayor Boles stated this is something CARC wants to work on and understand what the restrictions might be to limit the locations.
Vice Mayor Wright asked if it is likely we will receive a number of recommendations from them about bike charging plug locations and, on new construction projects, charging-ready circuits being involved and other kind of code changes, such as making setback requirements exclude solar carports.
Vice Chair Meiman stated potentially.
Vice Mayor Wright stated he would love to have garages with circuits ready for car chargers across Pacifica.
Vice Chair Meiman understood that the CalGreen Building Standards are mandated.
City Council Regular Meeting 9 May 26, 2026
Mayor Boles stated that the way this is written focuses on making it easier for a homeowner who wants to do these improvements, getting a permit more quickly and reducing the burden.
Vice Chair Meiman agreed, with the understanding that safety, inspection, etc. are all very important.
Mayor Boles asked if in their review and language for the first year to try to take some of the burden away from staff, i.e. looking at best practices in other cities.
Vice Chair Meiman agreed.
Councilmember Bier feels the timeframe needs to be extended, possibly to 2028.
Vice Mayor Wright asked for possible flexibility in the timeline.
Mayor Boles asked what specific kind of direction should Council be giving.
City Manager Charpentier thought, on the one hand, the flexibility would be appreciated and, on the other hand, we want to be able to manage expectations and how do we prioritize core services, legally mandated services, and discretionary.
Mayor Boles referred to the subtasks in the workplan and asked about direction to staff.
Chair Martin asked if the intention is to revise the tasks and subtasks with verbiage and making them more achievable for staff and for CARC members.
Mayor Boles agreed.
Chair Martin stated that they understand there would be cuts and asked procedurally about redlining portions of the workplan or amending expectations.
Mayor Boles thinks the only sentence that gives her pause is “support recommendations to streamline permitting processes and ease zoning restrictions” because that is not defined yet. If that can be “research recommendations,” then when they come back again, they can talk about the specific a little bit more as part of next year’s work plan.
Councilmember Bier would be comfortable if we extend the timeframe.
Chair Martin thinks the tasks and subtasks for the workplan are for the year 2026-27.
Mayor Boles added that this is a timeline that they want to start these things, not necessarily wrap up.
Vice Chair Meiman thought it would be fine to revise to “research recommendations”.
Councilmember Beckmeyer asked how does this potential change in zoning relate to other zoning reviews that we are already planning to do and where does that fit in. She knows we have some zoning that needs updating and where is that going to fit in staff’s work plan already and how would this piece align or not align with that.
City Council Regular Meeting 10 May 26, 2026
Mayor Boles added zoning code modernization in general is on the planning staff work plan.
Committee Member Langille thought the main issue is a small number of houses and, if it comes down to the air district requiring more heat pump systems, HVAC systems, to be implemented, then things might change. It is an iterative process and they do not have that information now and she thinks it is a lower number of heat pump systems.
Mayor Boles thinks a change in the zoning code, regardless of the number of properties, is a certain amount of work. She stated, if they are willing to change that language, she is happy with all of these.
Councilmember Beckmeyer asked if the task to “conduct outreach and education for residents and contractors” can be done in conjunction with Pacifica’s Environmental Family.
Vice Chair Meiman agreed.
Councilmember Espinosa thinks PCE recommends the contractor if someone wants to change the heat pump, and it is easier for them to do their own research and contact the contractor.
Vice Mayor Wright supported all of these goals but cannot be too specific about how many staff resources we can offer at this time.
Mayor Boles agreed, adding that we are all very committed to the work they are doing.
Mayor Boles stated she did not see a reference to REACH codes and trying to move to buildings to more electric which is something Council directed at Goal Setting. It also is going to take some planning staff time to work out, but she hopes that is something they all can be involved in as well, as she knows it is important for electrification sites.
Vice Chair Meiman agreed they could add that in the building electrification section.
Mayor Boles added we will learn more again on June 8 whether there is capacity for staff to be working on that.
Vice Chair Meiman agreed, adding in the RICAPS meeting today, they did offer support to cities with REACH code analysis.
Vice Mayor Wright stated it would be nice to slowly implement EV infrastructure and load capacity, figuring out the best way forward for that, and he sought some clarity and advice from the CARC members regarding developing an EV Readiness Plan.
Vice Chair Meiman and Member Langille stated they would leverage whatever resources that the State or County has and local groups as PCE, etc.
Mayor Boles thought language such as “research,” “support,” and “partner” were okay but had concerns about possibly “developing an EV Readiness Plan” as she has no idea what is involved in that.
Vice Chair Meiman stated that they are just starting to understand what an EV readiness plan is and it is a big lift. If we want to achieve our goals, we want to have approximately 540 EV chargers across the City, both public and private, so they need a plan for that.
City Council Regular Meeting 11 May 26, 2026
Councilmember Beckmeyer asked if there is a way to find what our citizens have been doing through a FlashVote survey on EV readiness at their homes. She does not know if there is a data source somewhere.
Vice Chair Meiman stated not yet, but she was in a meeting a week or two ago and there is an organization in Marin all about EV infrastructure and they are trying to make their way to work with organizations down the peninsula and she will be reaching out to them.
Vice Mayor Wright asked if they are planning on doing any analysis of where the grid will no longer support any more electric cars.
Vice Chair Meiman stated, at some point, yes, and they are just getting started in this effort.
Councilmember Beckmeyer stated we connect with our PG&E and other agencies. She referred to CalGreen Tier 2 EV charging requirements and asked what they are.
Vice Chair Meiman understands that CalGreen Tier 2 EV charging says that new construction has to be EV ready, with the power ready for level 2 charging which is 240 volts and 30 amps, and this is a mandatory requirement.
Mayor Boles stated the CalGreen tier was discussed at length as part of our Building Code cycle updates and we are not allowed to go beyond what the Building Code requires now. She thinks “supporting the implementation of EV charging requirements” may be taking out what the specifics are until we know what is allowed. She stated Tier 2 might not be required. There are different tiers of CalGreen and there is the basic requirement and, if you want to go above, cities in the past adopt REACH Codes and call for something stricter. She is not sure we can do that.
Vice Chair Meiman stated she is not reading this as extending beyond the requirements, but reading it as “support implementation,” meaning outreach to the community to let them know about it, getting with stakeholders who are in this arena to help figure out ways to support it, etc.
Vice Mayor Wright thought having some information available about load management and different control systems on our website would be helpful.
Mayor Boles stated that there were some vendors at PCE’s recent event during Climate Week that she attended that do exactly that. Whatever we can do to help people learn that they do not need to upgrade their panels, that saves money and allows more of this to happen.
Councilmember Beckmeyer sees that as part of EV education and outreach.
Mayor Boles stated, in speaking with PCE reps, we as a city are also supposed to work on a fleet electrification plan for City vehicles. She thinks that needs to come into effect fairly soon.
City Manager Charpentier stated that there are State mandates to buy more clean vehicles with every vehicle purchase you do and the mandates increase every year. He was not aware that they had to do a specific plan but we can look into that and see if that is mandated as well.
Mayor Boles stated PCE has been working with all the other cities in the county but not Pacifica yet. They can help us create that plan and find funding for City vehicles.
City Council Regular Meeting 12 May 26, 2026
Chair Martin stated there is a map that Ms. Carreon put together that shows where our work plan is and where the overlapping work items are. She does not think it is something they need to do, and it may already be in their work plan as part of the partnering.
Mayor Boles thinks it could be great as part of their communication as what the City is also doing among all departments.
Vice Mayor Wright appreciated the work they put into this work plan.
Mayor Boles referred to coastal resilience and wildfire resilience.
Vice Mayor Wright referred to “resilience through nature-based solutions” and asked how does that comport with BBIRP relating to beach nourishment and the sea wall.
Committee Member Langille stated nature-based is typically something that coexists with natural processes and tries to work with natural processes instead of hardening.
Vice Mayor Wright asked if the reef was included in the work.
Committee Member Langille thinks it could be. Part of it is the State has their guidelines for nature-based solutions. Technically, sea walls contribute to loss of beaches so that does not fit under the rubric of nature-based solutions.
Vice Mayor Wright asked if they would be actively working at cross purposes with the stated position of the City.
Committee Member Langille stated that this is all researched as part of the CARP and it is solutions that the State recommends.
Vice Mayor Wright stated our LCLUP has both a combination of armoring and nature-based solutions and that is the official position of the city and what he is seeing here in conflict with that and that is the basis of his question.
Mayor Boles stated that some of the points identify and collaborate with stakeholders related to shoreline resilience and nature-based solutions and that could be both.
Vice Mayor Wright stated that we have a plan and it is not exclusively nature-based solutions and we do have an obligation to support our community.
Committee Member Langille stated this is all flowing from the approved CARP, and their recommendation was nature-based solutions. She stated that this one is a great example of leveraging local resources because of the organizations. For example, the Pacifica Land Trust applied for a grant with the Coastal Conservancy which one of the qualifiers is that it is a naturebased solution. She thinks there is funding for a sea wall and nature-based solutions and they do not conflict.
Vice Mayor Wright concluded it is not an exclusion of one or the other.
Committee Member Langille thinks they are fortunate to have the Land Trust who applied for the funding for the planning stage and they are continuing to present those ideas to the public and get feedback; at the end of the year, they are going to submit their proposal to the Coastal City Council Regular Meeting 13 May 26, 2026
Conservancy and hopefully qualify for money for one of those solutions, but it has to be a viable solution and something that the City would approve and work with the Land Trust. This was one of those great solutions where they can leverage someone who has already applied for a grant and the City is in sync with that potential outcome. Obviously, it has to be consistent with the LCLUP and the City.
Vice Mayor Wright asked if they have considered also looking into any studies on what the potential negative effects of taking sand away from our coastline and beaches and how we can resume that natural flow of sand on our beach.
Mayor Boles thinks, in the first item, Pacifica Land Trust is missing, which would be the agency looking at the nature-based solutions.
Councilmember Bier stated Pacifica Land Trust could be included in “support grant writing efforts” and “citywide collaboration with stakeholders”.
Committee Member Langille agreed and stated it can include other stakeholders.
Mayor Boles added the Beach Coalition does the planting of the dunes.
Committee Member Langille stated, to be practical, that is their goal now.
Councilmember Bier tied it back who is doing the tasks to our staffing discussions.
Mayor Boles thinks there is overlap with the staff work plan. Our Local Coastal Plan and the Coastal Commission are prioritizing nature-based solutions wherever they can happen. They are not appropriate for every location. She thinks a lot of the engagement and collaborating with stakeholders could help the City because all of our adaptation planning work is to come.
Our LCLUP took out all the adaptation strategies for the different parts of town and that is the work we need to start doing and visioning with the community about what we want and what are the pathways over time.
Councilmembers Beckmeyer and Bier agreed and thought it has to be done in concert with staff, not separate from it.
Committee Member Langille agreed that they are here to support what the staff direction is and they want to do that the best way they can and whatever feedback.
Councilmember Beckmeyer referenced “citywide collaboration with stakeholders to identify and consider nature-based solutions throughout adaptation and shoreline planning processes” and stated it sounds like work outside the scope of staff. It is staff’s domain and her concern is that this sounds like competing or at cross purposes vs. collaborating on it together. She is not sure we are ready to collaborate at this point while we are doing research. She thinks we need to give staff a minute to develop the work that Council directed them to do.
Committee Member Langille stated the last part, “shoreline planning process,” was supposed to be removed. She stated that their goal is to work with the City staff and staff direction. The first part was coastal resilience and the second part was wildfire resilience, but they are happy to make whatever edits they are comfortable with.
Councilmember Beckmeyer suggested striking that whole sentence.
City Council Regular Meeting 14 May 26, 2026
Vice Mayor Wright thinks it is important to keep a large part of the emphasis on fire.
Councilmember Beckmeyer stated it is work that people do on their own property. We need to educate the public about what they need to do in taking care of their property.
Vice Mayor Wright added with list of best practices.
Committee Member Langille stated, because they are starting out this process, she does not know what the City has or has not mandated.
Councilmember Beckmeyer believes it is the education component that we are focusing on at this time, not policy.
Committee Member Langille agreed but asked what is the defensible space.
Councilmember Beckmeyer stated our Fire recommends five feet. It is not a policy that Council adopted.
Vice Mayor Wright thinks it is also part of some insurance recommendations with the five feet and he would not be surprised to see that distance change.
Mayor Boles stated we updated the fire maps and her understanding is, starting this year, we have some properties in the high fire hazard severity zones and her recollection is that property owners will need to start doing these things in those areas. She thinks the Fire Department is communicating globally to everyone in the City but there might be more outreach to the people who are in those areas.
Councilmember Beckmeyer added those who are adjacent to those areas.
Councilmember Bier asked if we should come back to the subtasks at hand here.
Chair Martin suggested to strike bullet point 8 and keep bullet point 7 covering fire awareness.
Councilmember Beckmeyer referred to food recovery programs. She stated that the City had to adopt policies related to the removal or prevention of edible food going into the waste stream.
The City contracted with some group in the county for that purpose and asked who did we sign on with, what was the keynote, what was the scope of the work, and how much does it cost us.
City Manager Charpentier stated we will look into it and see if there was a recent annual report.
Chair Martin stated that the goal this year is to map it out and see what is going on today, i.e. do an evaluation to see what is our food waste, is anything going to donation, how are we recovering it, how are we distributing it, etc. That is what their subcommittee wanted to work on this year, as well as collaborating with those folks in the City to see what is next. There may also be some community outreach in terms of reducing, reusing, repairing, and recovering.
She stated there are State reporting requirements for climate action areas and we have not talked about that in any of our meetings yet. They probably should identify what those necessities are and at a minimum those should make it in here too.
City Council Regular Meeting 15 May 26, 2026
Mayor Boles stated we are not committing to any staff work here, just CARC researching what options are out there to do a better job and not have as much food waste.
Chair Martin added they could report back with their understanding.
Councilmember Bier added potentially to draft the food recovery program.
City Manager Charpentier wanted to be clear that we are completely compliant with all mandatory State reporting requirements.
Councilmember Beckmeyer feels the compliance and reporting is done by the subcontractor but she does not remember exactly who they are and how much they cost.
Chair Martin wanted to identify if that is a State reporting requirement which would relate to a climate action goal and thus mark it somewhere.
Councilmember Beckmeyer referred to “draft a pilot recovery program, outlined and identified participating businesses and organizations”.
Chair Martin stated that they know that will not happen this year.
Chair Martin suggested “consider best practice for recovery programs”.
Councilmember Beckmeyer liked that.
Mayor Boles suggested amending the last bullet point to “support City long-term food recovery programming”.
Councilmember Beckmeyer referred to transportation and mobility, Item 2F.
Chair Martin stated most of the tasks are in process so they would not be a heavy lift. She referred to “Develop communications strategies to promote transit options,” which may leverage County strategies.
Councilmember Bier suggested referring to Commute.org.
Chair Martin referred to “coordinate with PPD” which would allow an option to be consulted on.
Councilmember Beckmeyer stated the work that is happening on this now is through Safe Routes to Schools.
Mayor Boles stated that PB&R is doing some research too. She stated it looked like it would be helpful for CARC to connect with PB&R and avoid duplicative work.
Chair Martin stated it relates to the CARP to try to reduce vehicle miles traveled and encouraging bikes. She is okay with removing it.
Councilmember Beckmeyer thinks the concern is non-duplicating efforts, so how do we make it more collaborative.
City Council Regular Meeting 16 May 26, 2026
Mayor Boles suggested taking police off but clarified whether CARC would be involved with ebike safety or just promoting biking in general.
Chair Martin stated it is fine to remove that. She stated that they still have to advocate for infrastructure projects such as bike locking stations. She stated they will be looking out for grants and advocating.
Mayor Boles stated staff was pointing out and she has been advocating for a TDM plan for a while and she knows that there are some grant funding that was brought to their attention specifically for Pacifica. Sometimes, even if the grants are there, we do not have staff capacity to apply and do the work. We have to leave some flexibility.
Chair Martin asked City Manager if committee members are allowed to write grants and help with the grant writing and then submit them to staff for review and potential submission.
City Manager Charpentier stated it depends on the grant, but typically we would like them to be staff or Council initiated and we are very careful about the commitment of local match as well as staffing resources. A lot of the challenge with many of the things in this plan and in all work plans is the staffing capacity. He stated that is part of the prioritization that occurs. Part of it is a timing issue and it is a herculean effort to get to this point on paper and in this conversation. It came at a time right before a difficult budget discussion and this is part of the process.
Mayor Boles stated that we need to do a time check. She thought they would be done by 11:00.
Councilmembers Beckmeyer and Bier agreed.
Councilmember Bier stated the City does have some projects in, like for the TDA grant.
Mayor Boles asked how that gets communicated with all of Council and the committee.
Councilmember Bier stated BPAC is working on scoring all of them. She stated that she should have announced the City applied at the last meeting.
Mayor Boles thought this is something that staff would know and they could tell the committee that the City has applied for this grant.
Chair Martin detailed the tasks and subtasks for the urban forestry goals.
Mayor Boles thinks all of these are Council priorities and the arborist would be nice but she does not know if we can commit to that now. She stated, in talking with City Manager, the loophole language seems very easy but it will need some staff analysis to see if there are implications beyond those two words in the document. She does not think we are committing to two month timeline now.
City Manager Charpentier agreed, adding that ordinance amendments just by their process take longer than two months. It is part of the strategic priorities. The other thing worth noting is Urban Forestry Plan which we plan to kick off in the fall and it would engage this committee.
Once adopted, that event would become the foundational policy document approved by Council related to urban forestry.
City Council Regular Meeting 17 May 26, 2026
Mayor Boles stated it will be great to have all of them working on that as they hire a consultant and bring that forward.
City Manager Charpentier stated we currently view the Urban Forestry Plan and tree ordinance as separate processes, but once we have a consultant, they may have some ideas for the ordinance as well that may filter into it.
Chair Martin asked if we are waiting until the consultant is on board.
City Manager Charpentier stated no, we will probably get started before then, as it is a larger and more involved process.
Chair Martin thanked them for their time and appreciated the dialogue.
Mayor Boles and Councilmember Bier thanked all of them.
RESULT: NO VOTE REQUIRED
COUNCIL COMMUNICATIONS
Vice Mayor Wright encouraged Councilmembers participating on regional committees to carpool together.
Councilmember Bier stated she and Vice Mayor Wright are in the middle of scoring applications as part of BPAC. In the upcoming meeting, they will present all the projects.
Councilmember Beckmeyer stated she has been very busy with school.
Councilmember Bier added that she will be presenting on a panel with retired City Manager Kevin Woodhouse in October at the ICMA Conference. It is called “Armchair Therapist” and will recognize mental health issues for City Managers. It is important for us to understand the limitations of our city managers and also for them to recognize the signs and symptoms of anxiety or depression so they can all get the resources they need.
Councilmember Beckmeyer enjoyed the mental health for elected officials event that was in Redwood City.
Mayor Boles agreed. She gave a few updates on past housing events. One was the HEART member agency and annual meeting. One program they are eliminating is the home buyers program. They are going to focus on education for first time home buyers instead. There is a new Doorway Housing Portal that people can access to find out about affordable units and placement. They have staff working with cities as well. One of the things they are asking cities to look at is possibly developers donating land as another way to meet their requirement. Those are things they will talk about it as it comes back to us. HEART started a new mobile home purchase program and they will be presenting on that sometime this fall. Their annual event is October 15 at the Devil’s Canyon Brewery. She also went with Deputy Director Christiansen to the Housing Leadership Council yearly housing event that was also in Redwood City. She stated that Congressman Liccardo is hopeful that the federal government is looking at housing and looking at a bill that will have greater tax credits. The State is still working on a housing bond and we will know in June if it qualifies for the ballot. She stated that the Marine Science City Council Regular Meeting 18 May 26, 2026
Institute had Kids Ocean Day last week and they brought 259 kids here from five different schools and they invited Pacifica schools. They have been doing this in San Francisco for a long time and PB&R staff did a great job coordinating with them to be able to bring them here to Linda Mar Beach for the first time and the Beach Coalition came out too and helped with organizing the beach cleanup. It was a successful day and it was amazing talking with some of the kids. They were from San Jose, East Palo Alto, Palo Alto and San Francisco schools. She is hoping that continues. She said Councilmember Beckmeyer and she were at the Memorial Day Event at the American Legion yesterday and it was beautiful.
Councilmember Beckmeyer also visited Public Works Open House with Councilmember Espinosa.
Councilmember Bier thanked City Manager Charpentier for all the work he is doing to get to know our community and showing up for committees and commissions. It is appreciated.
Councilmember Beckmeyer stated we will be seeing information coming out from North County Water District about a rate increase. Her biggest takeaway from it is that people who have low usage and high access fees. NCCWD has rebalanced that. The study was about 200 pages long and is available on their website.
Councilmember Espinosa was excited to see that as well. She also thanked City Manager Charpentier for coming to the Homeowners Association for Fairmont. They were very happy with him coming to say hello. When he told her that he wanted to meet with the community, she was sold. She appreciated it.
City Manager Charpentier stated it was his pleasure to get to know so many engaged residents and he will continue that this week with the PRC luncheon tomorrow and PB&R Commission.
Mayor Boles thanked him so much.
STAFF COMMUNICATIONS
City Manager Charpentier thanked the committee and commission members who presented tonight and he appreciated all that they do.
ADJOURN
Mayor Boles adjourned the meeting at 10:39 p.m.
Transcribed by Barbara Medina, Public Meeting Stenographer.
Respectfully Submitted,
Sarah Coffey, City Clerk
APPROVED: 5 - 0; 8/24/2026
__________________________
Christine Boles, Mayor