Pacific Grove City Council · District 3
Priorities are the difference.
I've lived in Pacific Grove for twenty years. I've spent the last ten of them at City Council meetings, asking questions. I'm running to keep this town livable, prepared, and solvent.
Andrew Kubica, Chairperson of the Pacific Grove Planning Commission.
Why I'm running
I've been in the room for ten years. I'd like a seat at the table.
I chose Pacific Grove for the warmth and charm of a small city nestled within the greater Monterey Peninsula, and for its beautiful coastline. My wife Colleen and I live here. I have two children, Ryan and Dana, and three grandchildren. Twenty years in, this is home.
For more than a decade I have come to City Council meetings to make comments and ask questions about the things residents actually care about. Not every meeting is interesting. I go anyway. When the new fire truck came before the council, I was one of the residents who pushed until we got it.
I love the beauty of our beaches, our trees, and the small-town qualities of this place. The history and local culture of Pacific Grove are unlike anywhere else on the Monterey Peninsula, and I would like to still recognize the town in twenty years.
I support and value community input, and I enjoy collaborating with city staff to best serve the residents.
Andrew Kubica ยท Candidate statement, District 3
Why an engineer
I spent twenty-seven years making sure big projects didn't fail.
I worked at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale for twenty-seven years as a systems engineer. I wrote system requirements and ran hardware testing for the Hubble Space Telescope. I did the concept definition for Ikonos, the first commercial digital imaging satellite. I worked on the satellite system this country uses to detect a missile launch.
None of that makes me special at a city council meeting. But it taught me three things I use every month on the Planning Commission.
I can read a budget.
Planning, scheduling, budgeting and risk management were my job description for most of my career. When I open Pacific Grove's budget I want to know what is actually funded, what has quietly been deferred another year, and what our CalPERS obligation will cost us five years from now. I don't need to wait for a consultant to explain it to me.
I know when a project is slipping.
For years I was the person on the other side of the table from a contractor, making sure what was promised was what actually showed up, on the date agreed and for the price agreed. Repaving a road is the same problem as delivering a satellite component. Smaller. Not different.
I've had to find out what went wrong.
I sat on the Anomaly Team at Lockheed. When something failed, we were the people who had to establish why — not who to blame, why. Our roads and sidewalks did not get this way by accident, and somebody on the council should be comfortable asking how we got here.
What I'd work on
Five priorities for District 3.
Housing
Look hard at partnerships with builders and providers, and add housing people can afford without losing the residential character of the town.
Wildfire resilience
Treat wildfire preparedness as infrastructure, not an afterthought: defensible space, a real evacuation plan, and support for our fire service and CERT volunteers.
Infrastructure
Repave the roads, fix the sidewalks, and improve street lighting where safety requires it — on a funded plan, not deferred one more year.
Environmental stewardship
Protect the habitat and biological diversity that make this place what it is, from the shoreline to the trees to the butterfly sanctuary.
A balanced budget
Bring some budget discipline to city spending, and work with other Peninsula communities and the state on the pension and CalPERS costs squeezing all of us.
The election is November 3, 2026.
This is a resident-funded campaign. The most valuable things you can give are your time and your vote.