The 2022 race for Mayor of Monterey, Tyller Williamson vs Dan Albert

MONTEREY, Calif. (KION-TV)- As November eighth draws closer, Tyller Williamson and Dan Albert will be making their final pushes to become the next Mayor of Monterey.

Each candidate has certain motivations that push them to take over for longtime mayor Clyde Roberson. 

Dan Albert stated, “Public service has been in my family for many years, and so for me, serving the community in a leadership role is something that I’ve always wanted to do.

Tyller Williamson sees it as an extension of what he’s already accomplished.

“It very much reflects my platform that I ran on in 2018 when I first ran for council,” Williamson said. “I think a big piece of it is just having the leadership to present policies and work with our regional partners on advancing the issues that are most important to residents.”

Now even though both candidates are looking to reach the same goal, the issues they want to prioritize will be slightly different.

However, both look to put the community’s concerns first and foremost. 

For Tyller Williamson, he wants to make sure people who live in Monterey can afford where they’re living and know they can be heard.

“66% of Monterey Residents are renters, and being on the council for the last four years, I rarely ever hear from that part of the community, and if they make up the majority of the residents, I think there is something that’s fundamentally wrong with that,” Williamson said. “It’s not about listening to renters at the expense of homeowners. It’s about listening to everybody.”

Dan Albert wants to make sure the city of Monterey has sustainable water for future projects.

“Everything in our city is connected to sustainable water,” Albert said. “We can’t build without water, and we have no water ourselves in the city. So we had four projects that we were looking at on city property, and only one of the pieces of the property has water.”

Both candidates emphasize that both voters and the community as a whole are crucial to Monterey more than they realize.

“It’s either they’re contacting me, or they come to the council meetings, or they get involved in their local neighborhoods,” Albert said. “Neighborhoods are the most important. So for me, it’s a matter of communicating with the people, getting out with people and talking to them. That’s one of the reasons why I like elections is because I get to go out, knock on doors, and talk to people one on one.”

“I think there’s such a great opportunity here for us to, particularly coming out of the pandemic, find a space to come together, meet each other in person, have conversations, have that debate,” Williamson said. “That healthy debate so that we can make the best decisions together. The only way that we’re gonna be able to move forward is together.”