Former Councilmember Timothy Barrett takes on incumbent Clyde Roberson in Monterey mayoral race

MONTEREY, Calif. (KION) Incumbent Mayor Clyde Roberson faces a new, but familiar, challenger in the race for re-election: former City Councilmember Timothy Barrett. Both candidates are running for Mayor of Monterey.

Roberson, a retired school teacher, has served 26 years on the City Council, including five terms as mayor.

“It’s important to me to listen to the residents. They’re the experts in their neighborhoods," Roberson said.

His opponent, Barrett, served on the City Council from 2014 to 2018.

“I will honor the best of what we are today while engaging the community in moving forward in productive ways,” Barrett said.

Both have a background in education, but different goals for the city if elected.

Roberson hopes to tackle issues like health, social justice, climate warming and the fiscal impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Every government in the country has had a real hard hit so it’s very important to keep our team together so we can continue to balance the budget and have economic relief, take care of our renters through rental assistance and our small business,” Roberson said.

This year has been a challenging one for the City of Monterey. The city laid off 71 employees in June when dealing with financial losses after the pandemic forced the shutdown of the Conference Center, Sports Center and other city services. Since then, a city spokesperson said they’ve re-employed six additional employees.

“One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was to actually approve layoffs that had been recommended, some of whom had been my former students whom I taught in Monterey, so we really want to bring people back to work,” Roberson said. 

But Barrett thinks it’s time for a new approach.

“The city was driven into fiscal crisis before the pandemic and I think that’s a course we can’t repeat,” Barrett said.

Barrett, a longtime Monterey resident, is hoping to improve the economy, budget and housing, if elected.

“For me, it’s about providing people with the things they need: with housing, bringing livable wage paying jobs and maintaining the environment and the infrastructure in which our beautiful city and community has been built and that means social responsible budgeting of public funds,” Barrett said.

He’s advocating for a municipal housing trust fund which he said will "make sure the kinds of development we want to see, the kinds of housing we want to see, are actually implemented.”

Barrett ran for re-election to the City Council in 2018, but was beat out by Tyller Williamson and Ed Smith. Smith won the second council seat in a narrow margin over Barrett.

The candidate elected by voters will serve for two years as mayor before another election.

To learn more about each candidate for mayor, click the links below to read their candidate statements:

Timothy Barrett candidate statement: https://montereycountyelections.us/files/mced/Election_Info/candidates/statements/TIMOTHY%20BARRETT.pdf

Clyde Roberson candidate statement: https://montereycountyelections.us/files/mced/Election_Info/candidates/statements/CLYDE%20ROBERSON.pdf