City of Pacific Grove · Statewide General Election

Pacific Grove City Council, District 1

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

Kevin Hanley — Retired Economics Instructor
Cynthia Garfield — Appointed Councilmember · Incumbent

This person would hold one of Pacific Grove's six district-elected City Council seats: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Monterey County city of about 15,090 residents (2020 census). Pacific Grove adopted single-member council districts for the first time this cycle; Districts 1, 3, and 5 are up in 2026, with Districts 2, 4, and 6 following in 2028. A 4-year term.

Cynthia Garfield, appointed to this seat unanimously by her Council colleagues in January 2025 and a previous councilmember from 2016 to 2020, faces Kevin Hanley, a retired economics instructor and former Auburn, California councilmember and mayor, for a full 4-year term representing Pacific Grove's new District 1.

Garfield's case rests on continuity -- two separate stints on the Council, most recently by unanimous colleague appointment -- while Hanley's rests on outside municipal-government experience from another city, paired with a pointed critique of Pacific Grove's current finances and infrastructure maintenance.

Cynthia Garfield

Garfield is the incumbent, appointed unanimously by her Council colleagues in January 2025 and previously elected to a Council term from 2016 to 2020. Her own filed statement centers on protecting the city's coastline, open spaces, and small-town character through financial discipline and effective city services -- safe streets, environmental stewardship, clean public spaces, walkability, and support for local businesses. She holds master's degrees in Business/Entrepreneurship and in Social Work Administration, and describes herself as a facilitator and business planner by trade. She says she has served on the boards of the Ventana Wildlife Society and the Point Lobos Foundation, led the Pacific Grove Library Foundation through a major renovation as its president, and currently volunteers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and with Friends of Perkins Park.

Strengths

Two separate Council terms, including a unanimous colleague appointment back to the seat, plus a decade-plus record of local nonprofit board service.

Trade-offs

This dataset's only source for her record is her own filed statement; no independent reporting on her recent appointed term was found in this pass.

Keep in mind

As an appointed incumbent completing a term rather than a first-time appointee, she is effectively asking voters to ratify a decision her Council colleagues already made in January 2025.

Kevin Hanley

Hanley, 67, describes his occupation as "Retired Economics Instructor." By his own account, before moving to Pacific Grove roughly six years ago he served 12 years on the Auburn, California City Council, including as a nonpartisan mayor, where he says he helped revitalize the business district, lowered fire risk, and balanced the budget every year. He also describes past roles as a naval officer, a Chief Health Policy Consultant for the California Legislature, a Chamber of Commerce CEO, and an economics instructor. His statement is sharply critical of Pacific Grove's sitting Council, saying it has no plan to shore up the eroding beach path along Ocean View Boulevard, has done nothing to prevent fire risk at George Washington Park, gives road and sidewalk repair "short shrift," has no Downtown Revitalization Plan, and has not addressed frequent winter power outages or speeding. He says the city has a $2 million budget deficit and dwindling emergency reserves despite property, hotel-tax, and sales-tax revenue (a 9.25% rate, by his account), and notes that Pacific Grove voters rejected the Council's own attempted 135% pay raise.

Strengths

Twelve years of elected municipal experience in another city, including as mayor, plus a professionally varied background spanning military, legislative, and business-association leadership roles.

Trade-offs

His Auburn tenure and Pacific Grove budget-deficit and sales-tax figures come from his own statement; no independent record corroborating them was found this session.

Keep in mind

As a relatively recent Pacific Grove resident (about six years, by his own account) challenging a twice-serving incumbent, voters are weighing outside municipal-government experience against continuity from someone who has already held this Council seat under two separate terms.

Source review: Very strong (91/100) · 7 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.

countyofmonterey.gov (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Elections -- official "Candidate List" page for the November 3, 2026 General Election: within the City section, exactly five Pacific Grove rows appear -- Mayor, Member/City Council 2-Year, and Member/City Council Districts 1, 3, and 5 -- confirming the office structure and count, though (as with this page's county-office rows built earlier in this file) no per-seat candidate names render in the fetched page text
cityofpacificgrove.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Pacific Grove -- official "November 3, 2026 General Election and Ballot Measures" page: lists every qualified candidate by office (Mayor: Coletti, Smith; District 1: Garfield, Hanley; District 3: Goldbeck, Kubica, Leweling; District 5: Thomas; At-Large: McDonnell, Ogle) and links each candidate's filed Candidate Statement of Qualifications, noting Ogle filed none
montereycountynow.com (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Weekly (montereycountynow.com) -- "Eight candidates are vying for four seats in P.G.'s first-ever district election" (Pam Marino): independently names the same ten candidates across all five races, reports that the at-large seat is a two-year term on the ballot because no one currently represents District 2, and that challenger James Ogle could not be reached for comment
en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Pacific Grove, California": used narrowly for population (15,090, 2020 census), incorporation year (1889), and council-manager government type; not for the article's stale 'elected at-large' description of the council, which the city's own 2026 election materials supersede
cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- a negative-result campaign-finance search: a direct filer-search query for each of Pacific Grove's ten 2026 candidates returned an empty, contentless response with no filer or committee data renderable at all, in every attempt this session
files.cityofpacificgrove.org (opens in a new tab)Cynthia Garfield's own filed Candidate Statement of Qualifications for Pacific Grove City Council District 1, Nov. 3, 2026 election (occupation "Councilmember"): her account of her first Council term (2016-2020) and her unanimous January 2025 appointment back to the seat, her master's degrees in Business/Entrepreneurship and Social Work Administration, and her nonprofit board service (Ventana Wildlife Society, Point Lobos Foundation, PG Library Foundation)
files.cityofpacificgrove.org (opens in a new tab)Kevin Hanley's own filed Candidate Statement of Qualifications for Pacific Grove City Council District 1, Nov. 3, 2026 election (age 67, occupation "Retired Economics Instructor"): his account of 12 years on the Auburn, California City Council including as mayor before moving to Pacific Grove roughly 6 years ago, and his critique of the sitting Council's record on the Ocean View Boulevard beach path, George Washington Park fire risk, road repair, and the city's budget deficit

Last updated September 1, 2026.