▸ Government body: Half Moon Bay City Council
▸ Time and date: 7 p.m., Dec. 20
▸ Members present: Debbie Ruddock, Deborah Penrose, Robert Brownstone, Joaquin Jimenez, Harvey Rarback.
▸ Staff present: City Manager Matthew Chidester, City Clerk Jessica Blair, City Attorney Catherine Engberg, Administrative Services Director Lisa Lopez Rossi, Communications Project Manager Colleen Lettire.
▸ Oaths of office: Councilmembers Ruddock, Brownstone and Penrose were all sworn into office by U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier. Speier attended the remote meeting to show her support for the $2 million allocated to the Highway 1 Frenchmans Creek bike and pedestrian improvements her office helped secure.
▸ Mayor Penrose: Shortly after, Ruddock made her outgoing remarks and thanked the city staff profusely for putting in long hours while reorganizing the city’s workplace. The council then selected Vice Mayor Penrose to be mayor and Councilmember Jimenez to be vice mayor in 2023.
▸ State of the city: Ruddock highlighted a few of the city government’s accomplishments in 2022. Among them were the redistricting process based on 2020 Census data, the launch of the CARES program in March, hiring a new housing coordinator and progressing on the proposed farmworker housing site on Kelly Avenue. She said the city’s ADU ordinance, adopted in May, is intended to increase multigenerational housing. The city also got new funding to renovate Carter Park and developed its Smith Field Master Plan.
On the environmental front, the city produced the Miramontes Point Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Fiscal Impact Study to analyze continuing erosion near the Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay. It also implemented its Building Electrification Ordinance that requires all new construction to be electric and phases out gas appliances by capping fuel lines by 2045.
▸ Quote of the day: “We don’t work for a company or private firm. We work for citizens who live in our community. We’re public servants. I don’t think we should forget for a minute who we work for,” outgoing Mayor Debbie Ruddock remarked to council members, noting the value of their work on behalf of local residents.
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