www.montereycountynow.com JUNE 26-JULY 2, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 17 There is consensus that the existing Carmel Police Station is woefully out of date. Built in 1967, it’s too small, ventilation is nonexistent, security issues abound and the roof “leaks like a sieve,” an architect from the firm Indigo told Carmel City Council on Thursday, March 27. “The building is obsolete, it is unsafe, it does not meet code and it’s just a terrible place to expect city employees to be working.” The focus that day was on a narrow decision: Should the City pursue renovating the existing building, or build a whole new one? “One of the options we do not have is doing nothing,” City Administrator Chip Rerig said. Councilmembers had little appetite to continue on the costly path of constructing a new building, with a price tag as high as $40 million. (Councilmember Bob Delves called it “fiscal fantasy.”) As council talked about the architectural options, they turned to a more existential question: Should the City of Carmel, population 3,220, even have a police department at all? Councilmember Alissandra Dramov, the most vociferous opponent to Indigo, envisioned a future of downsizing: “We may find ourselves sharing police services with Pacific Grove or Monterey, and we may just need a substation.” Delves agreed. “We have to look at policing as a shared service,” he said. Councilmember Hans Buder spoke next. While he expressed support for keeping a Carmel PD, he said it was time to put the issue front and center: “Two councilmembers brought up, do we even want to have a police department?” he said. “Why are we having this conversation about an architect when we haven’t even had that conversation? It seems to me that’s the conversation we should be having.” That is the conversation Carmel and other local cities should be having. Government agencies have been racing to approve their budgets for the 2025-26 fiscal year, which begins on July 1. And they are all staring down a version of expenses rising faster than revenues. One way to reduce those expenses is by having fewer high-level administrators—less top-heavy bureaucracy. This is not a DOGE-style approach to slash-and-burn government—it’s about finding efficiencies. Carmel already does this to great success with its fire services. Monterey Fire Department serves not just Monterey, but also has contracts to serve the neighboring cities of Carmel, Pacific Grove and Sand City, as well as the Monterey Regional Airport and the military installation where Naval Postgraduate School is located. The airport also shares a police department with Del Rey Oaks; Seaside Fire serves DRO. “Our relationship with Monterey Fire is phenomenal,” Rerig says of the past 13 years. It’s so phenomenal that in May, the Carmel council approved a $2.4 million, five-year contract to hand over its ambulance services to Monterey Fire as well. In this case, the cost to the city is estimated to be roughly $200,000 higher than maintaining its own service, but the service is better—for one thing, it means a paramedic will be guaranteed on every call. Carmel will keep its own vehicle, but will no longer be responsible for administration. As Assistant City Administrator Brandon Swanson wrote in a report to council: “In essence, the ambulance service would look the same as it does today…The only noticeable difference would be the patch on the arm of the staff which would say ‘Monterey Fire.’” Of course, that patch can be a dealbreaker. More than a decade ago, Seaside and Pacific Grove led the way in sharing one police chief. A push to expand that to include records and patrol was a bridge too far, and the model imploded. “There’s a lot of pride in communities for who represents them and has the patch on their sleeve,” says P.G. City Manager Matt Mogensen. But looking ahead, he says it’s possible the city would revisit the concept: “All government is going to have to shift and find ways to maintain services and be more efficient.” As Mogensen announced on June 18, Monterey is interested in forming a joint powers authority for fire service, instead of the current contract model. In Carmel, an ad hoc committee is scheduled to report back to council regarding the police station on July 1. After that, the bigger issue remains. The bold step forward would be toward consolidation. They could help lead the way. Sara Rubin is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com. Team Works Carmel leads the way in sharing services. It makes sense for local cities. By Sara Rubin FLAG ON THE PLAY…Squid’s all in on Pride Month, flying a Pride flag outside of Squid’s lair as well as checking out the various Pride-related events around the county, which culminate Saturday, June 28 with a parade through downtown Monterey and a celebration at Custom House Plaza (see Hot Picks, page 24). Among the first Pride events of the month are Pride flag raisings, something now routinely observed in many cities, including the small town of Pacific Grove, where this year’s event June 2 saw the biggest crowd yet, according to P.G. Councilmember Tina Rau, who herself is gay. “It was a really great community event,” featuring residents of all ages, she says to Squid’s colleague. But not everyone in the community thinks it’s great, apparently—the city’s Pride flags have been stolen for a few years in a row. This year two flags— one at City Hall and the other in front of the P.G. Fire Station—went missing the morning of June 13. Public Works replaced them within two hours, Rau says. Employees keep backups on hand knowing it’s going to happen. “They [anti-Pride protesters] want to get rid of this so bad but by doing this it shows you exactly why this is needed,” Rau says. “The irony is not lost on me.” Squid has a message for the thief (or thieves): Stealing is never OK. Have some pride. RETURN TO SENDER…Being a creature of many appendages, Squid understands the benefits of having many hands on deck, which is why Squid is often impressed with reports from the City of Monterey, a city with hundreds of skilled employees, many with decades of institutional knowledge. So Squid was curious to see how the city would respond to an April report from the Monterey County Civil Grand Jury, which found the city “has neglected to restore the integrity of its wharves for at least seven years.” Squid is well aware of the state of the city’s wharves— Squid swims under them all the time—and Squid knows the city is aware too, and working on it. The grand jury’s report concludes, however, by noting that most of its recommendations are already being implemented by the city. The recommendations that have not yet been implemented all call for the city to “prepare and publish a report analyzing the discrepancies between leaseholder inspection reports” and reports from engineers hired by the city. Squid’s curiosity was satisfied June 17, when Monterey City Council approved its statutory response to the civil grand jury’s report, which essentially said: Engineers have differing opinions. We’re not hiring another engineer to analyze why that is and create another report, costing more money and fixing nothing. Thank you for your understanding. THE LOCAL SPIN SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. “Do we even want to have a police department?” SEND SQUID A TIP: squid@montereycountynow.com
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