What we are tracking in Piedmont
On the night of 16 June 2026, Jennifer Roberts, who lives on Bonita Avenue, wrote in a comment on the Piedmont Exedra, a local news site, that she was "already unable to get in and out of my own driveway" after parking on her block changed to diagonal spaces. The city's community pool opened on 11 April 2026 after nearly six years without one. Piedmont's police chief told the City Council on 16 March 2026 that burglaries were still elevated even though overall crime was down, and the city runs 48 Flock cameras that read license plates. Piedmont built 14 homes in 2025, against a state target of 587 homes by 2031, and neighbors have asked how an evacuation would work once Moraga Canyon has an estimated 400 to 1,000 more residents. In March 2026, more than 60 families wrote to the school board asking for less classroom technology. The page also follows e-bike head injuries among children, the city's new fire code, a transfer tax measure on the November 2026 ballot and the aging buildings, storm drains and roads the city must pay to maintain. Piedmont has worked hard to serve all of its residents. Let's explore the topics that are still open and think through how we can support the city, so that everyone here can keep living in the place they want to call home.
Six topics: Parks, the dog park, the community pool and the Play School building (3), Bonita Avenue, school-area parking, Moraga Avenue crossings and e-bikes (3), Moraga Canyon: new homes, the evacuation route and the state housing target (4), Burglaries along the Oakland border, wildfire rules and earthquake planning (3), Aging buildings, roads, storm drains and sewers, and how Piedmont pays for them (3), Schools: classroom screens, phones, the calendar and district leadership (3). Full entries carry who raised the issue, for how long, what the city has and has not done, and what would show it moving. Items where a decision has already been made or money is already committed are kept to one paragraph at the end of each topic. Resolved items are not listed.
Parks, the dog park, the community pool and the Play School building 3 issues
Read the entries by clicking here3 issues
Residents commenting on the Piedmont Exedra, the city's local news site, have asked since April 2025 where a fenced dog park will go now that the Linda Park off-leash area has closed, and one commenter says the Sustainable Parks Management Plan reported on 1 September 2026 does not propose a new one. Pool users have asked why the Piedmont Community Pool closes from 1 to 2 p.m. on summer weekdays, and the city's own notice says the pool approached capacity on several days. More than 130 families signed a letter in September 2025 opposing the end of the Piedmont Play School's agreement for the city building at 401 Hampton Road. The city has acted on parts of this: the Linda hillside has been restored and its paths reopened in March 2026, the pool opened on 11 April 2026 after nearly six years without one, and the Linda Beach tot lot reopened in November 2025 as the city's first inclusive-play playground.
Piedmont has no fenced dog park since the Linda Park off-leash area closed, and commenters say the remaining areas are overused
On 29 May 2026, Michael Henn added a comment under a column in the Piedmont Exedra, the local news site, about off-leash dogs. An off-leash area is a place where dogs may run without a leash, and Linda Park had one until the city closed it in 2025. Henn wrote:
"The current overuse of the offleash area at Dracena Park is directly a result of the closure of Linda Dog Park."
Michael Henn, reader comment on the Piedmont Exedra, 29 May 2026
He also wrote that "The recent park survey showed that the demand for an actual dog park was the highest scoring park need for Piedmont residents." That is his reading, and we have not checked it against the survey.
On 10 May 2025, Tom Gandesbery commented on the Exedra's report of the council vote: "Why not put the dog off-leash area back where it was decades ago: on the flat section at the north end of the property?" On 2 September 2026, Garrett Keating commented on the Exedra's report on the Sustainable Parks Management Plan, the city's plan for how to maintain its parks. He wrote that "three Council members directed a fenced dog park be evaluated as part of the SPMP," and then: "Yet there is virtually no mention of how to maintain the off/leash areas nor development of new areas to account for the loss of Linda in the plan." We read the Exedra's report of the plan and not the plan itself, so we cannot say how complete his reading is.
The city's reasoning is on the record. In spring 2025, a resident complained to the Regional Water Quality Control Board, a California state agency that protects the state's waters. The Exedra reported that the Board asked the city for a more detailed analysis of next steps and long-term erosion control by 9 April 2025. The city said the Board required a plan of action by then, and warned of fines as high as $66,000 a day for noncompliance. The council supported permanent closure on 7 April and confirmed it on 21 April 2025. The city said a lasting fix would mean closing the area for years to regrade the hillside and build drainage and retaining walls, likely costing millions, with no money set aside.
That account is contested. The Exedra reported council members saying the city faced no fines, and Keating wrote that the Board imposed none. We have not seen the Board's letter.
The hillside was seeded to hold the soil, and paths reopened in March 2026. In April 2025, Public Works Director Daniel Gonzales said the city would prioritize finding another site for an enclosed dog park during a study of all city parks. The city's June 2026 announcement of the plan says its guidelines treat fenced dog parks and off-leash areas as amenities to weigh against site conditions, maintenance and long-term cost. Off-leash areas remain at Blair, Dracena and Piedmont Parks.
Space is the hard part. The plan, which drew over 500 residents and reached the council on 7 July 2026, found that resident demand "exceeds landscape carrying capacity," meaning the parks take more use than the land can sustain. The Exedra's summary of the 2026-27 budget lists pathway repairs in Piedmont and Dracena Parks but no dog area. Where things stand: in the sources we read, no replacement site has been named, and commenters were still asking in September 2026.
Worth tracking
What would show movement: candidate sites named for a fenced dog area, a budget line for it, or a statement that the city has decided against one. The city meetings on how to act on the plan, beginning with the Park Commission on 1 September 2026, are where it might appear.
Neither the Water Board's requirements nor the choice of a site is a federal decision. The Board uses powers the federal Clean Water Act, the national law protecting waterways, gives to the states. The office could ask the state and the city for updates and help the city check federal programs such as the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which pays for parks and outdoor recreation. If cost is the obstacle, a direct appropriation request, which is how a member of Congress asks Congress to fund a named local project, could cover part or all of a fenced area depending on its price.
Where a dog area goes, and what it displaces, is for Piedmont and its residents to decide. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you have used Linda, Dracena or Blair Park, tell us what you would put first.
Sources: Piedmont Exedra, off-leash column with reader comments, May 2026, Piedmont Exedra, council approves closure of Linda off-leash dog park, April 2025, Piedmont Exedra, council moves toward permanent closure, April 2025, Piedmont Exedra, paths reopen at former Linda Park, March 2026, Piedmont Exedra, Sustainable Parks Management Plan, 1 September 2026, Piedmont Exedra, council adopts 2026-27 budget, June 2026, City of Piedmont, Linda off-leash dog area closure, April 2025, City of Piedmont, Linda off-leash dog area temporarily closed, City of Piedmont, Linda off-leash dog area closed, City of Piedmont, Linda Park hillside restoration, March 2026, City of Piedmont, park stewardship recommendations, June 2026, City of Piedmont, city projects
Piedmont's new community pool: a midday closure, crowded days and a project that cost more than its bond
Barbara Dukas, a reader of the Piedmont Exedra, Piedmont's local news site, left a comment on 2 June 2026 under the city's announcement of the pool's summer hours. The hours, which ran from 8 June through 19 July, kept a closure from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays. She asked:
"I just don't get the Piedmont Pool 1-2pm midday closure on SUMMER weekdays. Why? Is there insufficient staffing during the week?"
Barbara Dukas, reader, comment on the Piedmont Exedra, 2 June 2026
The next day Mary Nelson wrote, "Totally agree." On 9 June Garrett Keating, another reader, wrote, "If I read this right, on weekdays, more hours and possibly more pool area are devoted to swimming lessons than free swim. City programming comes first above community access." On 26 August Kenneth Polse, who wrote that he has enjoyed swimming in the pool, commented on the city's pool survey post and suggested, "We need more benches; for example a long bench across from the showers would be helpful."
The city has made changes since the pool opened. Once it opened, the pool was oversubscribed within ten days, meaning more people wanted to swim than it could comfortably hold. The city asked visitors to come at off-peak times, expanded open-swim hours and evening lap hours, and ran a user survey that accepted responses through 30 September 2026. The summer notice says, "The Activity Pool has reached capacity on several days since the pool opened," and that when the pool is nearing capacity, passholders get priority over drop-ins. We have not found a reply to the comments.
The pool itself took years. Piedmont's old community pool closed in March 2020, and by 13 February 2026 the city had gone nearly six years without one. That day a resident whose name was not recorded asked during public comment, the time set aside at meetings for residents to address city officials, "when will the pool be completed?" Voters had approved Measure UU, a $19.5M bond, in November 2020. A bond is money the city borrows and repays over time. The all-electric pool on Magnolia Avenue at the Civic Center opened on 11 April 2026. Its final approved cost was $34.9M, and a 2022 estimate had put it at about $21.6M.
The opening date slid for years. Reported causes included underground fuel tanks, an unexpected natural spring, soil problems, electrical service delays and rain. In August 2025 the city could still only say the opening was to be determined, and project managers described the testing of the pool's systems as necessary care.
The final cost is $15.4M more than the bond. The city covered part of the gap by drawing $1M, $2.1M and $2.8M from the Facilities Capital Fund, the reserve meant to cover aging buildings, storm drains and roads, in December 2023, July 2024 and December 2024, in that order. The Piedmont Recreation Fund raised more than $2M privately. Together those come to a little over $7.9M, leaving a large part of the $15.4M without a published source. Annual pass rates rose about 10% on 1 September 2026. The city had delayed the increase from 1 July to give users three extra months at opening rates, and $5 drop-ins held flat.
Worth tracking
Movement would look like survey results being shared, an explanation of the 1 p.m. closure or a change to the open-swim and lap schedules after summer hours ended, and a plan to put money back into the Facilities Capital Fund.
The swim schedule, the closure and the pass rate increase are Piedmont decisions. The cost overrun is a question of money. A direct federal appropriation, meaning money Congress sets aside by law for a specific purpose, could address it in whole or in part depending on the amount. We have not found an existing federal program that reimburses a city for a construction overrun. The $2M from the Piedmont Recreation Fund is private philanthropy.
Community Project Funding is money a member of the House of Representatives requests for a named local project. It can pay for a recreation construction item going forward, but not for a completed project or to rebuild reserves. Whether the schedule, the crowding or the reserves matter most is for the city and its residents to decide. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list, and we would like to hear what you would put first.
Sources: Piedmont Exedra, summer hours at the community pool, June 2026, Piedmont Exedra, community pool survey, August 2026, Piedmont Exedra, pool opening date still to be determined, Piedmont Exedra, city releases the pool hour schedule, Piedmont Exedra, city extends evening lap swim hours, Piedmont Exedra, council approves annual pass and drop-in fees, City of Piedmont, council considers pool pass fees, City of Piedmont, pool commissioning update, November 2025, City of Piedmont, pool commissioning update, January 2026, City of Piedmont, community pool Q&A, February 2026, Piedmont Exedra, pool opens April 11, 2026, Piedmont Exedra, a look back at how the pool got here, Piedmont Exedra, the pool is open for business, City of Piedmont, pool opens April 11, 2026, City of Piedmont, additional funding for the pool project, December 2024, TPH News, 2022 pool redesign and funding shortfall, Piedmont Exedra, pool ribbon cutting, Piedmont Exedra, pool so popular city asks visitors to consider off-peak hours, City of Piedmont, Piedmont Recreation Fund fundraising, San Francisco Chronicle, Piedmont community pool, Piedmont Exedra, pool pass rates rise September 1, City of Piedmont, pool pass rates increase September 1, 2026, City of Piedmont, pool survey, August 2026, City of Piedmont, reserved open swim at the activity pool, June 2026
Piedmont Play School's eviction from 401 Hampton Road and the recreation space squeeze behind it
Piedmont Play School is a cooperative preschool that parents help run, and it has operated for 77 years. It has used the city-owned building at 401 Hampton Road under a 25-year agreement with the city. That agreement expired in June 2025. In September 2025 the city announced that it would not renew it. More than 130 Piedmont families signed a letter opposing the decision and asking for a public hearing. On 3 November 2025 the city put out a statement explaining itself, and this is the reason it gave:
increasingly severe space constraints due to aging infrastructure,
City of Piedmont, official statement on the Piedmont Play School decision, 3 November 2025
The city's reasoning is documented, and the space problem behind it appears to be real. The Recreation Commission's April 2026 annual report is the commission's first comprehensive report in over a decade. It records growing demand for recreation programs and limits on the facilities that house them, and the city says it currently rents private space for its own programs. The city's statement on the decision cites severe space constraints and aging infrastructure. A growing list of programs and too few rooms to hold them is a hard position for any city, and Piedmont is a small one.
The city offered the school three things: free use of the building through December 2025, a $37 hourly rate to use the building from January to 15 June 2026, and a twelve-month transition while the school's time at the building comes to an end.
The decision was handled in closed session, which is a meeting held out of public view. No public hearing was granted beforehand, and none has been held since. That is what the families are responding to. Letters to the Piedmont Exedra, a local news site, called the move a breach of community trust. Others took the opposite view, and a letter from a former student argued that the site is not sacred.
The families ask a specific question that the city has not answered. Which other city space, including 358 Hillside Avenue, is underused, and how does its use compare with that of 401 Hampton Road? The complaint about broken trust is about how the decision was made more than about whether the Recreation Department needs the room.
Worth tracking
The key deadline is the end of the twelve-month transition. Within it, three things are worth watching. The first is whether the city publishes usage figures showing how much its facilities are used, including 358 Hillside Avenue. The second is whether it holds the public hearing the families asked for. The third is whether it says if an alternative site is on offer and on what terms. If none of those happens, the matter is stuck.
There is no federal role in the decision itself. The office could still ask the city questions on the record if residents want that, and it would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. Which of the three things above should come first is a call for the city and its residents, and if you have a view, we want to hear it. The use agreement, the decision not to renew it, the closed-session handling and the refusal of a hearing belong to the City Council and the Recreation Department. They are governed by California's Brown Act, the state open-meeting law that sets rules for when a public body may meet in private. The federal child care programs, the Child Care and Development Block Grant and Head Start, pay for child care slots and subsidies. They do not pay for building disputes.
What could make the difference
A public hearing, and published information on how city buildings including 358 Hillside Avenue are used, could answer the families' questions. Decisions that respond to what those families raise, and funding for more or updated recreation space, could ease the squeeze on programs.
We are still collecting feedback. If you feel strongly about this issue, please reach out to team@jamiejoyce.com to discuss further.
Sources: Piedmont Exedra, Play School gets a year to transition, City of Piedmont, statement on the Piedmont Play School use agreement, Piedmont Exedra, commentary: keep Piedmont Play School at 401 Hampton, Piedmont Exedra, letter to the editor on the Play School lease, piedmontexedra.com, piedmontexedra.com, piedmont.hosted.civiclive.com
Bonita Avenue, school-area parking, Moraga Avenue crossings and e-bikes 3 issues
Read the entries by clicking here3 issues
Residents of Bonita Avenue and the Civic Center wrote in June 2026 about driveway access and emergency evacuation on the 300 block of Bonita Avenue, which became one-way with 17 diagonal parking spaces, and one asked where teachers will park. On 17 August 2026 a pediatrician told the City Council that he sees severe e-bike head injuries in children every week. The city built every phase of its Civic Center parking plan on its announced schedule, from the Highland Avenue drop-off zone in January 2026 to the one-way block in July 2026, and it finished the Grand Avenue bulb-outs in 2025. Four Moraga Avenue crossings have a county grant behind them, and the city's project page lists the work as in design through 2026.
Neighbors on Bonita Avenue ask about driveway access and emergency routes now that the block is one-way with diagonal parking
On the night of 16 June 2026, Jennifer Roberts, who lives on Bonita Avenue, posted a comment under the Piedmont Exedra's report that parking changes on her block were underway, a local news site. Crews were changing parking on the Havens Elementary side of the street from parallel, where cars line up along the curb, to diagonal, where cars angle in so more fit. Roberts wrote:
"I live on Bonita Avenue, and I am already unable to get in and out of my own driveway."
Jennifer Roberts, Bonita Avenue resident, reader comment on the Piedmont Exedra, 16 June 2026
She added that without a stoplight at Bonita and Oakland Avenues, traffic could back up and block the street, and that "if I do have an emergency at home, the police or fire department won't be able to reach me either."
Other residents raised related points. The same night, Jane Cullinan commented, "Plus signs and street painted warnings have turned our neighborhood into a commercial zone." On 19 June 2026, Michael A. Gardner, who has lived in the Civic Center neighborhood for 41 years, wrote in a letter to the editor of the Exedra, "I remain unconvinced that increasing parking density on this already constrained block improves safety, traffic flow, or emergency access." He also called the block "an important access and evacuation route during emergencies." Earlier, on 1 April 2026, Gillian Bailey had commented on the Exedra's report about added short-term parking: "Where will teachers park? There are 4 schools in this area. Very few live in Piedmont and this issue has not really been addressed."
These are four residents over eleven weeks on one news site, so they show what these people said and not how the wider neighborhood feels. Piedmont does not publish its service requests, so there is no request count.
The city had been working on a real shortage. The Civic Center is the area around City Hall, the Fire Department, the Community Pool and the schools. Parking there had tightened as 57 spaces were lost in 2023 during pool construction, and a community survey drew nearly 500 responses, with about half of respondents finding parking somewhat or very difficult. Council approved the plan with modifications on 5 May 2025. The city then built it in phases: a Highland Avenue drop-off zone in January 2026, time-limited spaces on Bonita and Magnolia Avenues in April, and then the diagonal spaces. The city announced that the block between Vista and Oakland Avenues would become one-way heading toward Oakland Avenue starting 6 July 2026, with 17 new spaces, two of them ADA spaces, meaning accessible spaces for drivers with disabilities. The Exedra reported on 7 July 2026 that permanent one-way signs were up. Finding room for more cars beside a school, a pool and a fire station is hard.
Where things stand: the Exedra reported in May 2025 that "Both city staff and councilmembers agreed to revisit the parking plan in a year to assess its effectiveness." A year after the one-way conversion would be July 2027. In the city announcements we read, we did not find a review date, a published assessment of emergency access, or a reply to the residents' comments. Those steps may not have been announced yet.
Worth tracking
What would show movement: a council date for the one-year review, parking counts for the time-limited spaces, and a written Fire Department assessment of how the street works as an emergency route. Silence on all three would suggest the questions are still open.
The decisions on Bonita Avenue belong to the city, and no federal agency reviews a city's parking layout. A congressional office could still ask the city when the review will be scheduled and pass residents' questions along. One federal source of money sits near the issue. Safe Routes to School work, which pays for improvements to school drop-off areas and crossings, is funded inside the Transportation Alternatives set-aside, a portion of federal transportation money reserved for walking, biking and similar projects. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area's regional transportation planning agency, assigns that money. A future project near Havens could draw on it, though it could not reopen a decision already made.
What comes first on this block is for Piedmont and the people who live on it to decide. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you live on Bonita Avenue or drive it for work, tell us what you would put first.
Sources: Piedmont Exedra, Bonita Avenue parking reconfiguration is underway, with reader comments, June 2026, Piedmont Exedra, letter to the editor by Michael A. Gardner, 19 June 2026, Piedmont Exedra, more short-term parking in Civic Center, with reader comments, March 2026, Piedmont Exedra, Civic Center parking options, March 2025, Piedmont Exedra, council approves central Piedmont parking plan, May 2025, Piedmont Exedra, Bonita Avenue officially one-way, 7 July 2026, City of Piedmont, Bonita Avenue reconfiguration
Severe e-bike head injuries among Piedmont children, and the push for licensing standards
Dr. James Crawford-Jakubiak, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital Oakland, spoke to the Piedmont City Council on August 17, 2026 about e-bikes, meaning electric bicycles. The bikes he described weigh 50 to 60 pounds, can reach 20 to 28 mph, and are ridden by increasingly young riders. What he sees at the hospital, he told the council, is "a dramatic increase in severe head injuries... every week".
His testimony is the only evidence of a trend so far, and it comes from the clinician who receives the patients. Piedmont has not adopted any local rule on e-bikes.
The city has begun to respond, and its response so far is education rather than enforcement. Police Chief Frederick Shavies presented an education-before-enforcement approach in August 2026, in which the city teaches riders and families about safe use before it penalizes anyone. The city would coordinate with the Piedmont Unified School District (PUSD) and parent groups. The chief described the risk this way: "The concern arises when young or inexperienced riders are operating a vehicle that is capable of significant speed." Vice Mayor Conna McCarthy expressed interest in licensing standards, meaning a set of requirements for riding e-bikes. The City Administrator, the city's top appointed manager, called it the beginning of a conversation. Two bills are also pending in the state legislature. The education program has not yet been delivered.
The concerns about moving quickly to licensing are practical ones. Younger riders use e-bikes to get to school. Licensing would be difficult to enforce. And any fines would be paid by families. The case for something more than education rests on the injuries the pediatrician described. Dr. Crawford-Jakubiak says the injuries arrive at the hospital every week. The question for the city is whether to act before its conversation about licensing has finished.
Worth tracking
Two local markers matter. One is whether the education program with PUSD and parent groups is actually delivered. The other is whether the council takes up rules on e-bike speed, on modifications that make e-bikes faster, or on licensing standards, which are the decisions that are entirely Piedmont's. The two pending state bills will likely be decided before any federal action could take effect, so what happens to them matters too.
There is a federal lever, but it is slow. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal agency that oversees the safety of consumer products, has legal authority over e-bikes and can write federal rules on battery safety. It is the only federal body that could set a speed classification standard, a national category system that sorts e-bikes by how fast they go. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which regulates motor vehicles, cannot set one, because its authority does not extend to bicycles. A federal speed class would define what a 50-to-60-pound bike capable of 20 to 28 mph may be sold as, and what a modification kit, an add-on that changes how a bike performs, may lawfully do to it. A congressional office could press the commission on whether it will set one and could back legislation directing it to. That is authorizing work, which changes what an agency is directed to do, rather than an appropriation, which is a decision about spending. A federal standard is unlikely to arrive soon enough to affect the current discussion in Piedmont. Commission rulemaking, the formal process of writing a federal rule, runs for years, and the state bills will likely be decided first.
The priority call belongs to Piedmont and its residents. We would work with the city rather than arrive with a list, and we would like to hear what you would put first: education, speed rules, limits on modifications, licensing, or something else.
Sources: Piedmont Exedra, city steps up education around e-bike usage
One more item in this area where a decision has already been made or money is already committed, kept to a paragraph each with the one thing worth watching.
Moraga Avenue crossing upgrades
Moraga Avenue crossing upgrades. On Grand Avenue, the county agency Alameda CTC put $500,000 into the work and sidewalk extensions and beacons were built. For Moraga Avenue, the council accepted a $748,000 county grant, $998,000 in total, in August 2025 for similar upgrades at Ramona, Highland, Mesa and Red Rock. The Piedmont Exedra reported construction from May to September 2026, but the city page lists design through 2026. In September 2025 letters, an Oakland resident described chokepoints that hide people crossing, and five Piedmont residents cited 11,000 cars a day at an average 40 mph, their own figure. A construction date is worth watching, alongside the Moraga Canyon Specific Plan.
Moraga Canyon: new homes, the evacuation route and the state housing target 4 issues
Read the entries by clicking here4 issues
Jane Pingatore Holland, who lives in Oakland near Moraga Canyon, wrote to the Piedmont Exedra on 26 September 2025 about what an emergency evacuation would look like once the canyon has more residents. Five Piedmont residents who followed the canyon plan for three years wrote on 5 September 2025 that Moraga Avenue carries 11,000 cars a day at an average of 40 mph, which is their own figure. The city's Specific Plan for the canyon would add an estimated 400 to 1,000 residents, and the city has published videos on traffic safety and evacuation questions. Piedmont built 14 homes in 2025, all of them backyard units, against a state target of 587 homes by 2031, and the city has updated its ADU rules to help owners build more.
Whether Moraga Avenue can evacuate the canyon before Piedmont builds in it
Jane Pingatore Holland lives in Oakland, near Moraga Canyon. Piedmont has adopted a Specific Plan for the canyon, the city's document setting the rules for development, that would add an estimated 400 to 1,000 residents. On 26 September 2025 she wrote to the Piedmont Exedra, the city's local newspaper, about what an emergency evacuation from the canyon would look like, and about who had been told about the plan. Her letter read:
An emergency evacuation would be catastrophic as all emergency vehicles would be using the same two lanes as the fleeing cars from Oakland and Piedmont. We Oaklanders have been kept in the dark throughout the process and we are affected more than anyone. This is not safe!
Jane Pingatore Holland, an Oakland resident near Moraga Canyon, in a letter to the editor of the Piedmont Exedra, 26 September 2025
Holland is not alone in that concern. Neighbors on Moraga Avenue and at Blair Park, joined by residents of adjacent Oakland, say the street carries 11,000 vehicles a day at speeds of 40 mph and is the only way out of Moraga Canyon. They say evacuating residents and emergency vehicles would share the same two lanes in a wildfire. They also say that problems with sight distance, meaning how far ahead a driver can see in order to stop safely, were flagged in a 2010 assessment by Caltrans, the California Department of Transportation, and have never been resolved. The concern goes back to 2011 and 2012, when Blair Park was the subject of a local dispute, and on the neighbors' account it has never been settled. The road is used by people who live in both Oakland and Piedmont, which makes the question a shared one.
Five residents, Marj Blackwell, Vincent Fisher, Julie Watters, Daphne Albert and Peggy Esposito, put the question in a joint letter to the Piedmont Exedra on 5 September 2025: "How will emergency crews reach the Canyon if Moraga Ave. is gridlocked as residents desperately try to leave?" The same letter set out the numbers behind the question.
Moraga Ave. is a designated emergency evacuation route and the only way out for the estimated 400 to 1,000 new Canyon residents, as well as for many existing nearby Oakland and Piedmont residents.
Marj Blackwell, Vincent Fisher, Julie Watters, Daphne Albert and Peggy Esposito, residents, joint letter to the editor of the Piedmont Exedra, 5 September 2025
The city has responded, and its answer is that the upgrades the plan requires are themselves the improvement. The adopted Specific Plan promises better sight distances, a new traffic signal and a third lane on Moraga Avenue. The city's budget for fiscal year 2026-27 also pays for pedestrian-safety upgrades at four Moraga Avenue intersections. The fire chief describes the upgrades required in the canyon as a chance to make the area more resilient. The city points to better bicycle and pedestrian access, traffic improvements and wildfire safety enhancements tied to the plan, and it produced explanatory videos on traffic safety and evacuation.
What has not been published is an independent evacuation analysis for Moraga Avenue, meaning a study by someone outside the city of how quickly residents and emergency vehicles could move along it in a fire. The plan for the canyon would add an estimated 400 to 1,000 residents at the far end of that road. No independent, current measurement of traffic or of stopping distances, meaning how far vehicles need to stop at the speeds drivers actually travel, has been published either.
Opponents respond on four points. First, they say the third lane would in practice work as a bike lane rather than a lane for moving cars. Second, a traffic engineer hired by the group Friends of Moraga Canyon says the planned signal ignores real-world stopping distances at the speeds drivers are observed to travel. Third, they say taxpayers would carry the cost if a developer defaulted, meaning failed to meet its obligations, partway through two things the plan requires. One is widening the road. The other is burying utility lines, known as undergrounding. Fourth, they say the plan's own authors concede that construction could make the road dangerous in heavy rain before the new stormwater drains are in place.
Worth tracking
Two things would signal movement. One is a speed and sight-distance survey done by someone neither the city nor Friends of Moraga Canyon hired. The other is an evacuation run for the added residents, meaning a simulation of how long people would take to leave the canyon in a fire, published together with the assumptions and data behind it. If the city answers with more videos and no new numbers, the question is likely to stay stuck. The city has already adopted the plan, and a new study could produce results that call parts of it into question, which is what makes it a hard thing to ask for.
Federal agencies have little to do with this question. An evacuation and traffic analysis for Moraga Avenue is a matter for the city and for Caltrans. The disputed stopping-distance findings trace to the 2010 Caltrans assessment. The commitments on sight distance, the signal and the third lane sit in the city's adopted Specific Plan. And no federal agency reviews a city's evacuation study or makes a local land-use approval, meaning a city's permission for a development, depend on one.
The nearest federal lever is help with grants. In March 2026 Piedmont adopted an updated Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, the document that FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, requires before a city can receive its mitigation money. Evacuation-route analysis is the kind of work that plan makes eligible for FEMA mitigation funding, which the state administers. A congressional office could help the city apply for that money, which could pay for the independent study opponents want. It would not settle whether Moraga Avenue can evacuate 400 to 1,000 additional residents. That is an engineering finding the city would have to make and publish. The priority call belongs to the city and its residents. A congressional office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list of its own, and we would like to hear what you would put first.
What could make the difference
An independent study of how quickly residents and emergency vehicles could leave Moraga Canyon along Moraga Avenue could give the city, Piedmont residents and Oakland neighbors the same facts. Funding for the road and safety upgrades the city has described could also matter.
We are still collecting feedback. If you feel strongly about this issue, please reach out to team@jamiejoyce.com to discuss further.
Sources: Piedmont Exedra, letter to the editor on emergency evacuations, Piedmont Exedra, letter to the editor: questions on the canyon development, Piedmont Exedra, new videos address traffic safety and evacuation questions
3 more items in this area where a decision has already been made or money is already committed, kept to a paragraph each with the one thing worth watching.
Moraga Canyon housing and the December 2026 deadline
Moraga Canyon housing. The city adopted the Moraga Canyon Specific Plan unanimously on 6 October 2025, after more than 600 pages of public comment. It calls for at least 130 homes on city-owned land at Blair Park and Coaches Field, 60 of them affordable to low-income households. In March 2026 the council directed a request for qualifications, a public notice asking developers to show they are qualified, and it was posted in May 2026. No development partner has been selected. Piedmont needs one under negotiation by December 2026 or it loses $2.1M in Alameda County Measure A1 affordable housing funds. Residents keep raising road access on Moraga Avenue.
Piedmont's 587-home state target and backyard units
The 587-home state target. On 20 July 2026 the council received the 2025 Housing Element Annual Progress Report, the yearly update on housing. In 2025, 14 homes were completed, all of them accessory dwelling units (ADUs), the small second homes built on an existing lot, against 587 homes the state expects the city to plan for by 2031. None of the 14 is held to an affordable rent. In February 2026 a budget committee recommended four ways to raise affordable housing money, and none is adopted. Whether the council adopts the Affordable Housing Fund and an in-lieu fee, a payment made instead of building affordable units, is worth watching.
Piedmont reach codes survey
Reach codes. In October 2025 Piedmont opened a resident survey of under five minutes about its reach codes, which are local building rules that go beyond the state minimum. Adopted in 2021, they require solar panels on new second stories or substantially expanded roofs, and circuits for electric vehicle charging when a garage renovation costs more than $50,000. City staff were exploring higher dollar thresholds that keep pace with inflation and more ways to comply. No resident testimony and no council decision has been reported. What is worth watching is whether a proposal reaches the City Council, and whether it comes with an estimate of its effect on emissions.
Burglaries along the Oakland border, wildfire rules and earthquake planning 3 issues
Read the entries by clicking here3 issues
Piedmont's police chief told the City Council on 16 March 2026 that burglaries were still elevated even though overall crime was down, and burglaries rose from 47 to 76 in 2024. The city's police blotter, its public log of incidents, listed a Grand Avenue theft on 10 August 2026 and a car on Jerome Avenue stolen twice on 11 and 12 August, shortly after one of the city's Flock cameras was tampered with on 9 August. The city runs 48 of those cameras, opened a new 9-1-1 dispatch center in December 2025 and holds monthly meetups where residents can meet officers. It also adopted a new fire code in December 2025 and an updated hazard mitigation plan on 2 March 2026.
Burglaries and car thefts along Piedmont's Oakland border, and the 48-camera Flock network
On 16 March 2026 Piedmont's police chief, Frederick Shavies, presented the department's 2025 year-end report to the City Council, in a small city of about 11,000 people that borders Oakland. Overall crime was down. Burglaries were still elevated compared with the city's history, and the chief told the council:
It doesn't matter what numbers say if individuals don't feel safe.
Chief Frederick Shavies, Piedmont's police chief, speaking to the City Council, 16 March 2026
Burglaries in Piedmont jumped from 47 to 76 in 2024, even as overall crime in the city fell. Auto burglaries, which are break-ins to parked cars, drove the increase. Police logged 11,883 calls for service in 2025 in a city of about 11,000 residents. Calls for service are requests for the department to respond.
The burglaries cluster along the border with Oakland and on the quieter streets behind it, including Arbor Drive, Requa Place, Crocker Avenue, Scenic Drive and the Grand Avenue corridor. A July 2025 police blotter, the department's public log of incidents as published by the Piedmont Exedra, the city's local news site, reported an armed robbery and a $10,000 burglary in the same week. In the robbery, on Arbor Drive, four suspects took a construction worker's tools at gunpoint and were arrested within hours.
Summer 2026 blotters show the same pattern. They record repeat auto burglaries and porch thefts, meaning packages taken from front porches. The 18 August 2026 blotter described three items from a few days in August. On 9 August police confirmed that one of the city's Flock cameras had been tampered with and was pointing toward the bushes. On 10 August a 2025 Honda HR-V was taken on Grand Avenue. Overnight on 11 and 12 August, a BMW and a Mercedes-Benz EQ were reported taken from a residence on Jerome Avenue, and Captain Chris Monahan said the suspects returned that night and took the Mercedes a second time. The items we read do not say whether the cameras helped.
The city has responded in several ways. Piedmont runs 48 Flock automated license plate reader cameras, which automatically read the license plates of passing vehicles. In 2025 the cameras were credited with 24 arrests, 250 incident responses and 38 recovered stolen vehicles. A Scenic Drive home invasion in March 2026 was solved using them: police used the cameras to identify the suspect vehicle, found it in Oakland, and arrested one suspect. The city also opened a new 9-1-1 dispatch center in December 2025. Dispatchers answer emergency calls and send officers, and the center expanded dispatch staffing for the first time since 1978. Patrol, the officers who respond to calls across the city, and dispatch are still not fully staffed.
The unresolved part is oversight of how the cameras and their data are used. Councilmembers Lorrel Plimier and Jennifer Long asked for monthly audits, meaning regular reviews of how the camera data is used, and for better communication with the community. The audits have not started. Police say they are committed to safeguarding the privacy of everyone who lives in, works in or passes through Piedmont, and describe the program as meeting strict data-control standards and complying with state law.
Resident Susy Struble suggested in public comment that the city could do everything right and still depend on a camera vendor she describes as a little unreliable. That rests on a single comment. No police objection to the audits has been documented.
Jamie Joyce's position
Jamie Joyce personally and vehemently opposes Flock and Axon as companies, and she opposes surveillance technology in general. She believes it is incredibly important to dismantle and delete the surveillance state, because data collected this way can be abused. Flock's own conduct adds to the concern: in 2025 its chief executive called DeFlock, a volunteer project that maps the company's cameras, a “terroristic organization,” before apologizing in July 2026.
She would rather equip police officers with other tools and technology that help them keep crime low and do their jobs safely and effectively. Police deserve support, but we should be wary of tools that can be used to surveil people and abuse data.
She also believes each community has the right to decide for itself what technology is appropriate for it. If Piedmont wants to keep its Flock cameras, that is Piedmont's choice to make.
Worth tracking
The first sign of movement would be the monthly audits starting and their results being shared with residents. Staffing is the other thing to watch, meaning whether the patrol and dispatch positions are filled.
Staffing, patrols and the audits are decisions for Piedmont's council and police department. The federal role is limited and indirect. The Byrne Justice Assistance Grant is a federal program that sends money to state and local law enforcement and can support the investigative work behind solving property crimes. A city of 11,000 would likely be competing for it against much larger cities.
Privacy is the bigger open question, and part of it reaches beyond the city. No federal standard governs how long plate-reader data is kept or who it can be shared with, and only legislation from Congress could set one. It would not produce the local audits the councilmembers requested. Which of these matters most is for Piedmont and its residents to decide, and the office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you have a view on what should come first, we want to hear it.
Sources: Piedmont Exedra, police department year-end report, Piedmont Exedra, burglaries up in 2024 even as crime fell, City of Piedmont, police 2024 annual report, Piedmont Exedra, the blotter: over $10,000 of property taken, Flock Safety transparency portal, Piedmont Police Department, NBC Bay Area, home invasion in Piedmont, San Francisco Chronicle, Piedmont home invasion arrest, Piedmont Exedra, Cop on the Block for August, Piedmont Exedra, Cop on the Block for August, second notice, Piedmont Exedra, National Night Out, Piedmont Exedra, the blotter: car stolen twice in Piedmont, August 2026, Piedmont Exedra, the blotter: suspected auto burglar arrested, Piedmont Exedra, the blotter: porch pirate pilfers packages, Forbes on the Flock chief executive's apology, Jamie Joyce on Flock, Instagram
2 more items in this area where a decision has already been made or money is already committed, kept to a paragraph each with the one thing worth watching.
Ordinance 787 and citywide wildfire rules
Ordinance 787. The council held readings on 17 November and 1 December 2025, and the city's new fire code took effect on 1 January 2026. It designates the whole city a Wildland-Urban Interface area, meaning a place where buildings sit next to land that can burn, and requires 30 feet of defensible space, cleared and managed ground, on developed and vacant parcels alike. It also creates a Bureau of Fire Prevention. Fire Chief Dave Brannigan wrote in December 2025 that the code is a start. The single evacuation drill on record was in June 2025 in the Blair, Scenic and Alta neighborhood. Drills elsewhere are worth watching.
Piedmont hazard mitigation plan
The hazard mitigation plan. On 2 March 2026 the council adopted an updated Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, a city list of steps to reduce damage from disasters. FEMA requires one before a city can receive mitigation money. It lists 30 actions, nine carried over and 21 new, including seismic retrofit of critical city facilities, and was approved by FEMA and the state in January 2026. Piedmont sits under a mile from the Hayward Fault. Homeowner retrofit grants were offered in March and October 2025, and both rounds have ended. The plan does not yet give costs, so whether any action gets funded is worth watching.
Aging buildings, roads, storm drains and sewers, and how Piedmont pays for them 3 issues
Read the entries by clicking here3 issues
Former mayor Jen Cavenaugh wrote in September 2026 that Piedmont looks after 75 miles of streets, more than 450 storm inlets and buildings that are 70 to 110 years old. The Budget Advisory Committee told the council on 2 June 2025 that the Facilities Capital Fund would be largely depleted by the end of that budget year, and the city was reported to be about $800,000 a year short of what it takes to bring its streets back to a low-70s pavement score. The city has kept working through it: in July 2026 it used $151,000 from the fund for park accessibility and swing repairs. The last phase of the sewer rehabilitation is waiting on funding approval, and a transfer tax measure on the November 2026 ballot is estimated to raise $1.5 million a year.
Piedmont's Facilities Capital Fund drawn down, with aging buildings, storm drains and roads unfunded
On 29 September 2026 Jen Cavenaugh, a former mayor of Piedmont, wrote a letter to the editor of the Piedmont Exedra, the city's local news site, about what it takes to keep the city running. She wrote:
"There are over 75 miles of streets and sidewalks, more than 450 storm sewer inlets connected to miles of underground pipe, and five large public parks."
Jen Cavenaugh, former mayor of Piedmont, letter to the editor, Piedmont Exedra, 29 September 2026
She added that the city maintains more than 20 municipal facilities, "including buildings ranging in age from 70 to 110 years old." She supports Measure GG, a transfer tax on the 3 November 2026 ballot that needs more than 50% of the vote to pass. A transfer tax is paid when a property is sold. She wrote, "It is simply a fair, practical way to try and generate additional revenue to pay for the upkeep of our aging infrastructure."
Her letter echoes an earlier warning. At the 2 June 2025 public hearing on the FY2025-26 budget, the Budget Advisory Committee, a citizen group that advises the city on its finances, said the Facilities Capital Fund would be largely depleted by the end of that fiscal year, the city's 12-month budget period. The fund is the city's reserve for capital projects. The city was also reported to be roughly $800,000 a year short of the money needed to restore street pavement to a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) in the low 70s. The PCI scores road surfaces from 0 to 100, and a higher number means a better road.
The warning has come back in every budget cycle since, repeated by the Budget Advisory and Financial Planning Committee and city staff across five budget records from June 2025 to June 2026. Each says the fund is significantly drawn down, meaning much of its balance has been spent. Staff describe the cause as an unprecedented run of concurrent projects, meaning many building projects under way at once, among them the new 9-1-1 dispatch center, where emergency calls are answered.
The fund also pays for smaller jobs. A staff report for the council's 6 July 2026 meeting recommended a $156,364 contract for the Piedmont Park ADA and Swing Improvement Project. ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act, the federal accessibility law. The estimated construction budget was $172,000, with $151,000 from Facilities Capital Funds and $21,000 from the Piedmont Beautification Foundation. We have not confirmed the council's vote.
The city has kept its books in order. The budgets have been adopted balanced, meaning planned spending does not exceed planned revenue. For scale, FY2025-26 is $40.5M in the General Fund, the account that pays for day-to-day operations. The first $538,000 of money from Measure F, a local ballot measure, pays for two dispatch positions and camera expansion. FY2024-25 closed $3.1M better than budget, helped by higher transfer tax and permit revenue, and the council moved $2.6M of that into facilities capital, equipment replacement and maintenance.
More than 60% of Piedmont's budget comes from property-linked taxes, meaning taxes tied to real estate. Budget analysts describe that as a concentration that leaves core services exposed to a real estate downturn. Outgoing public works leadership acknowledged that the department can never fully keep pace with the maintenance backlog.
Worth tracking
The Measure GG vote on 3 November 2026 is the nearest marker, and the decision belongs to Piedmont voters. After that, the thing to watch is whether the city identifies a recurring source of money sized to its buildings, storm drains and roads, and what the Facilities Capital Fund holds in the next budget.
Congress does not replenish city reserves, but federal money can take individual items off the list if each is a specific, ready project. A named capital project can be submitted as a Community Project Funding request, which is how a member of Congress asks for money for a particular local project. Storm drain work can be financed through the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Water State Revolving Fund, a loan program for water infrastructure that the State Water Board passes along. Paving on qualifying arterials, the major roads that carry through traffic, draws Surface Transportation Block Grant money, a federal highway program that the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area's regional transportation agency, and Alameda CTC, the county's transportation agency, assign to projects. None of these pays for ongoing staffing and upkeep. Which to pursue first is for the city and its residents to decide, and the office would work with Piedmont rather than arrive with a list. What would you put first?
Sources: Piedmont Exedra, letter to the editor by Jen Cavenaugh, September 2026, Piedmont Exedra, city leaders kick off Measure GG, City of Piedmont, council agenda report, 6 July 2026, City of Piedmont, council adopts a balanced budget, City of Piedmont, council considers the proposed budget, City of Piedmont, FY2025-26 proposed budget, Citizen Portal, first public hearing on the FY2025-26 budget, City of Piedmont, budget study session, April 2025, Piedmont Exedra, city adopts budget for 2025-2026, City of Piedmont, council allocates year-end funds, City of Piedmont, budget document, Piedmont Exedra, council adopts budget for 2026-2027, City of Piedmont, FY2026-27 budget adopted, Piedmont Exedra, proposed FY2026-27 budget available for review
2 more items in this area where a decision has already been made or money is already committed, kept to a paragraph each with the one thing worth watching.
Sewer rehabilitation Phase 7
Sewer rehabilitation Phase 7. On 3 February 2025 the council approved a design contract of up to $805,147 with the engineering firm EKI for Phase 7, which covers 23,257 linear feet of pipe at about $8.4 million. It is the last mainline phase of a program the city has run since 2001 under a consent decree, a legal agreement with the EPA. The 2026-27 budget also funds about 17,000 more feet, roughly 12% of the system. In July 2026 the departing Public Works Director, Gonzales, said a sewer project was waiting on funding approval. A construction contract and start date are worth watching.
Measure GG transfer tax
Measure GG. On 21 July 2026 the council unanimously placed Measure GG on the 3 November 2026 ballot. It would raise the transfer tax, paid when a property is sold, from $13 to $17.50 per $1,000 of sale price, so a $1,000,000 sale would carry $17,500 instead of $13,000. The city projects about $1.5M a year beginning 1 July 2027. Officials say it would fund police, fire, emergency medical services and upkeep of aging buildings, parks and roads. A nearly identical 1.75% measure narrowly failed in 2020, and the tax falls on sellers and buyers. The vote is worth watching.
Schools: classroom screens, phones, the calendar and district leadership 3 issues
Read the entries by clicking here3 issues
In March 2026 more than 60 Piedmont families wrote to the school board asking for less classroom technology, saying they wanted their children to learn to use tech, but not use tech to learn. Parents have also written about how the 2026-27 school calendar was decided. The board has acted on part of it by directing a bell-to-bell phone ban at the high schools for 2026-27 and asking for a faster audit of how students use Chromebooks, which was not complete at last report. Piedmont voters passed the Measure H school parcel tax on 2 June 2026 with 82.44% of the vote.
Organized Piedmont parents demand a say in PUSD screen time, phones and the school calendar
In March 2026, more than 60 Piedmont families signed a letter to the school board of the Piedmont Unified School District (PUSD). The district was drafting a new four-year instructional technology plan, its plan for how technology is used in teaching, and the parents wrote a letter that asked for classroom technology to be reduced. They cited distraction and in-class gaming, and they put their case in one line: they wanted their children to "learn to use tech, but not use tech to learn". The families were not named individually in the coverage.
The letter also asked for an earlier say in district decisions, and it urged the board to speed up an audit of how students use Chromebooks, the low-cost laptops used in classrooms. Board president Ruchi Medhekar directed Superintendent Jennifer Hawn to expedite that audit. The board later directed a bell-to-bell cellphone ban, meaning students may not use phones from the first bell of the day to the last, at the high schools for the 2026-27 school year. The ban replaces a policy that allowed phones at lunch. The board acted under California's Phone-Free Schools Act, a state law. The parent group Piedmont Unplugged had campaigned for that ban. Medhekar said at a school board meeting on May 12, 2026 that there was "no other topic more impactful to students".
The district has taken part of the parents' concern on board. Superintendent Jennifer Hawn said in her State of the District address on March 4, 2026 that the district should "reconsider the extensive use of technology in every K-12 class". The Chromebook audit has not been completed. The district's four-year instructional technology plan is under review, and no evidence-based plan has replaced it. Students and some teachers oppose tightening the phone rules. The authors of the district's technology plan have their own case for one-to-one devices, meaning one device for each student.
A separate complaint is about process, and it is unresolved. Parents wrote repeatedly to protest the 2026-27 academic calendar, the schedule of school days and breaks for the year. They asked for a collaborative family-input process before it was adopted. The board adopted the calendar without one. April Gruber and Jill Saper, parents at Havens, one of the district's schools, wrote letters to the Exedra, a Piedmont news website, in November and December 2025. They have been among those pressing the point. A student who attended a November board meeting also wrote publicly about what the process looked like from the inside.
Worth tracking
Two things would show the technology question is moving: the Chromebook audit being completed, and an evidence-based instructional technology plan replacing the four-year plan under review. Until both happen, the district has made statements about technology but has not yet changed its plan. The high-school phone ban is due to start in 2026-27. On the calendar, the board adopted the 2026-27 version without a family-input process and has declined that request once, so what to look for is whether it offers one the next time.
No federal office decides any of this, but the office could still put a question on the record or help bring parents and the district together if residents want that. Screen time, the phone ban and the calendar are decisions for the PUSD Board of Education, and the ban was directed under state law. Two federal measures are related to this subject, but neither decides it. The Federal Communications Commission, the federal agency that regulates communications, runs the E-Rate program, which subsidizes school internet connections and made one-to-one Chromebooks practical. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, the federal consumer-protection agency, governs what technology vendors may collect from students under 13. Neither sets instructional technology policy, and neither would give the petitioning families the collaborative calendar process they asked for. The priority call belongs to the school district and Piedmont families, and the office would work with them rather than arrive with a list. If you have a view on what should come first, tell us what you would put first.
Sources: Piedmont Exedra, parents want technology dialed back, Piedmont Exedra, school board tightens the mobile device policy, Piedmont Exedra, letter on a collaborative approach to the calendar, Piedmont Exedra, letter to the editor on the district calendar, Piedmont Exedra, student commentary on a November board meeting
2 more items in this area where a decision has already been made or money is already committed, kept to a paragraph each with the one thing worth watching.
Measure H school parcel tax
Measure H. On June 2, 2026, voters passed Measure H with 82.44% of the vote, where two-thirds was required. It extends the $3,174 per-parcel school tax with no end date and preserves roughly $12M a year for the Piedmont Unified School District. In January 2026 critic Rick Schiller wrote that the 2013 switch to a flat rate raised bills by 6% to 21% for the 76% of taxpayers with lots under 10,000 square feet. No public answer on its merits has been reported. Education Foundation giving, which covers positions state funding does not, depends on donors each year.
Leadership changes at City Hall and PUSD
Leadership changes. Planning and Building Director Kevin Jackson retired on May 8, 2026, and the council appointed Leslie Mendez in July 2026. The city also named a finance director in May 2025 and a police chief in July 2025. Superintendent Jennifer Hawn announced her departure in July 2026, leaving August 12, and the district named Donald Evans interim superintendent, its third superintendent transition in about four years. Fiscal year 2024-25 vacancy savings reached $450,000 in Planning and Building and $433,000 in Police. A permanent superintendent and full patrol and dispatch staffing are worth watching.