SANTA CRUZ >> Former Santa Cruz Mayor Katherine Beiers and political newcomer Renee Golder will replace councilmembers Chris Krohn and Drew Glover, according to final election results Wednesday.
Beiers, an 87-year-old retired UC Santa Cruz librarian, and Golder, a 42-year-old Bayview Elementary School educator, are expected to be sworn in at the council’s meeting Tuesday, the city clerk said. The ceremony will be broadcast online with the council chambers again closed to the public because of the coronavirus lockdown.
Beiers served on the city council from 1989 to 2000 and again from 2009 to 2012. Beiers’ new term will finish Krohn’s term, which will end in December.
“It’s such a short term, and given what’s going on, I think it’ll just be a lot of trying to deal with what the emergencies are,” Beiers said this week. “I’m of course very interested in how we’re working with the homeless and how we can get them in shelter, with a lot of us being sheltered in place.
“I’m on the board of Housing Matters and we just had a big meeting on it. So that will probably be my emphasis and whatever I can do (to) come up with the plan for that,” said Beiers.
Beiers defeated former mayor Don Lane 55.17% to 42.77%. Others voted for write-in candidates.
Beiers is more open to market-rate housing than outgoing councilmember Chris Krohn. Krohn, 62, unsuccessfully tried to block market-rate housing projects such as 190 W. Cliff Drive. Krohn has said he felt the city council’s job is to push developers to build 100 percent affordable housing projects rather than market-rate projects.
Some of Beiers’ key stances during the campaign included:
- On the downtown library project, Beiers said she “would only support keeping the location where it is and rebuilding.”
- Asked, “What specific types of housing developments would you support and where could they be in the city?” Beiers said there are appropriate places for three-story buildings on corners and areas with similar buildings. She also said she would weigh “neighborhood impact.”
- On the Circle Church, Beiers said in January, “I’ve got to get up to date on that. It’s such a treasure in the community and it will be, just change that neighborhood. I would hope that it’s a resolution that would protect the church. And maybe there’s a way of having some housing as well.”
Renee Golder will replace Drew Glover on the council. Glover’s term ends in December 2022. Golder defeated former mayor Tim Fitzmaurice 58.56% to 39.61%.
Glover, 34, had been an advocate for the homeless, renters, and Santa Cruz residents that he said had been underrepresented. Recall organizers disagreed with Glover’s ideas of legalizing overnight parking on Delaware Avenue and renovating the Ross homeless camp rather than closing it.
Glover has said that the city has failed to deal with its homeless situation because “instead of trying to find creative and data-driven solutions, they’ve been focusing on trying to criminalize the issue and/or spend exorbitant amounts of money on ineffective strategies.”
Golder said during the campaign that people living in vehicles pose a “difficult question” for the city. “Right now, I don’t think we have any appropriate parking lots or places for people to live while they’re in their vehicles,” Golder said in January. She added that the city should try to prevent illegal dumping from RVs by providing more safe waste disposal.
Golder said this week that she recently spoke with council members and Santa Cruz County supervisors to get up to speed on the coronavirus emergency.
“I’m obviously humbled and still kind of in shock that it passed, and that I’ll be taking office,” Golder said this week. “But I’m totally ready to take up the challenge and I’m excited to be serving Santa Cruz during this difficult time.”
Golder’s key positions during the campaign:
- She said she would be open to approving market-rate housing. “I think an obvious place for development is downtown,” Golder said. “We still want to encourage developers to develop and if we make it where it’s not affordable, or we create too many barriers, I think people would be reluctant to want to build in our city.”
- On the Circle Church, Golder said, “I’d want to have neighborhood meetings and study it further.”
- On the downtown library project, Golder said, she did not have “any firm decisions about the library at this point.”
Outgoing Councilmember Chris Krohn wrote in an email this week that the coronavirus emergency “makes SC politics look rather insignificant right now.”
Krohn wrote, “The COVID-19 virus threatens the health and welfare of our community as well as our local and national economy. It is heartening to see so many locals working together to overcome this pandemic. Maybe after it begins to abate we can all take a step back and work together to rebuild Santa Cruz in a way that serves our entire community.”
Drew Glover has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Other election news
About 63.5% of registered voters turned out for the March 3 election, County Registrar of Voters Gail Pellerin reported. There are 163,526 registered voters in the county.
More than twice as many people voted by mail than at the polls, according to county figures.
The Santa Cruz County Democratic Party Central Committee has new members. The central committee is the local chapter of the national political party. Its 22 elected members decide on local endorsements.
Its new members are Nora Hochman, Keith Gudger, Cyndi Dawson, Stacey Falls and Gwen Chiaramonte. Hochman, Dawson, Falls and Chiramonte were part of the “Brand New County Dems” slate endorsed by Santa Cruz for Bernie, the local arm of Bernie Sanders’ campaign.
The slate formed in recent months with a goal of endorsing more progressive political candidates, leaders said in interviews with Santa Cruz Local.
Santa Cruz City Council official results, March 3 election
Should Santa Cruz City Councilmember Drew Glover be removed from office? – needs majority vote to pass
| Yes | 13,416 | 53.21% |
| No | 11,796 | 46.79% |
Which candidate should replace Glover, should he be removed from office?
| Renee Golder | 13,369 | 58.56% |
| Tim Fitzmaurice | 9042 | 39.61% |
Should Santa Cruz City Councilmember Chris Krohn be removed from office? – needs majority vote to pass
| Yes | 12,713 | 51.02% |
| No | 12,206 | 48.98% |
Who should replace Krohn, if he’s removed from office?
| Katherine Beiers | 12,345 | 55.17% |
| Don Lane | 9,572 | 42.77% |
Measure R – Cabrillo College bond – needs 55% to pass
| Yes | 51,412 | 53.23% |
| No | 45,165 | 46.77% |
Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge
| Nancy de la Peña | 38,222 | 44.67% |
| Annrae Angel | 25,952 | 30.33% |
| Jack D. Gordon | 20,855 | 24.37% |
Santa Cruz County Supervisor, District 1 (Live Oak, Soquel, Pleasure Point, part of Capitola)
| John Leopold (incumbent) | 9,879 | 45.4% |
| Manu Koenig | 6,636 | 30.5% |
| Mark Esquibel | 2,492 | 11.45% |
| Betsy Riker | 1,122 | 5.16% |
| Benjamin Cogan | 890 | 4.09% |
| Donald “Kase” Kreutz | 690 | 3.17% |
Santa Cruz County Supervisor, District 2 (Aptos, La Selva Beach, Corralitos, Pajaro Dunes, part of Capitola)
| Zach Friend (incumbent) | 14,178 | 69.5% |
| Becky Steinbruner | 6,116 | 29.98% |
State assemblymember, 29th district
| Incumbent Mark Stone (D) | 68,571 | 80.72% |
| Shomir Banerjee (R) | 16,121 | 18.98% |
State assemblymember, 30th district
| Incumbent Robert Rivas (D) | 9,086 | 80.24% |
| Gregory Swett (R) | 2,203 | 19.46% |
State senator, 17th district
| John Laird (D) | 55,774 | 57.71% |
| Maria Cadenas (D) | 20,554 | 21.27% |
| Vicki Nohrden (R) | 17,333 | 17.93% |
| John M. Nevill (D) | 2,777 | 2.87% |
U.S. Representative of Congress, 18th Congressional District
| Anna Eshoo (D) | 13,794 | 60.72% |
| Rishi Kumar (D) | 3,511 | 15.46% |
| Phil Reynolds (R) | 2,424 | 10.67% |
| Richard B. Fox | 2,324 | 10.23% |
| Bob Goodwyn (Libertarian) | 613 | 2.7% |
U.S. Representative of Congress, 20th Congressional District
| Jimmy Panetta (D) | 50,567 | 65.52% |
| Adam Bolaños Scow (D) | 15,521 | 20.11% |
| Jeff Gorman (R) | 10,981 | 14.23% |
Measure S: San Lorenzo Valley School District bond – needs 55% to pass
| No | 6,055 | 55.12% |
| Yes | 4,931 | 44.88% |
Measure T: Santa Cruz High School District parcel tax (needs 66.66% to pass)
| Yes | 36,985 | 74% |
| No | 12,994 | 26% |
Measure U: Santa Cruz Elementary School District parcel tax (needs 66.66% to pass)
| Yes | 21,303 | 79.85% |
| No | 5,377 | 20.15% |
Measure V: Soquel School District parcel tax (needs 66.66% to pass)
| Yes | 7,407 | 63.51% |
| No | 4,256 | 36.49% |
Measure W: Santa Cruz City Contracts for Public Works (Majority vote needed to pass)
| Yes | 18,826 | 81.08% |
| No | 4,394 | 18.92% |
Measure X: Santa Cruz City Schools district elections (needs majority vote to pass)
| Yes | 17,179 | 78.71% |
| No | 4,646 | 21.29% |
Measure Y: Watsonville sales tax for public safety
| Yes | 6,343 | 78.6% |
| No | 1,727 | 21.4% |
Measure Z: Scotts Valley sales tax (needs majority vote to pass)
| Yes | 3,353 | 64.28% |
| No | 1,863 | 35.72% |
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the political party of congressional candidate Rishi Kumar.
Stephen Baxter is a co-founder and editor of Santa Cruz Local. He covers Santa Cruz County government.
Kara Meyberg Guzman is the CEO and co-founder of Santa Cruz Local. Prior to Santa Cruz Local, she served as the Santa Cruz Sentinel’s managing editor. She has a biology degree from Stanford University and lives in Santa Cruz.
