Citing harassment, Vice Mayor Alexander Pedersen resigns from Capitola City Council

Capitola Vice Mayor Alexander Pedersen abruptly resigned from the city council on Thursday night, citing in part what he said was a “sustained and increasing effort” by a local citizens group to remove him from office.

Pedersen pointed to the group Concerned Citizens of Capitola, which he alleged had mounted a harassment campaign against him over the past eight months. He said the group spread “harmful lies” about him and contacted his supervisors and colleagues to “jeopardize my employment.” Pedersen is the director of the Santa Cruz County Small Business Development Center.

“When I ran for office, I did so with the intention to serve this community and to have a positive impact,” he said at the start of Thursday’s city council meeting in announcing his decision to resign. “I had no expectation of the level of vitriol that would be expressed by this small and vocal minority.”

Correspondence from a Capitola resident and Concerned Citizens of Capitola included as part of Thursday’s council meeting agenda accused Pedersen of not meeting the residency requirements to serve on the city council because he bought a home in Santa Cruz earlier this year. They said he should either resign or be investigated and censured.

Pedersen — who was elected to a four-year term in November 2022 and in January was named vice mayor — said Thursday that he and his wife recently purchased their first home outside Capitola city limits. He has continued living in a rental home in Capitola while his wife moved into their new house because their mortgage requires someone to be living on the property for the first year. 

In an interview Friday with Lookout, Pedersen said he had been reported to the California Fair Political Practices Commission for receiving a grant for a nonprofit he ran before his election, but the commission rejected the claim.

He also said he had also been the target of harassment over the council’s contentious vote last month to reject a plan to move a section of the Coastal Rail Trail onto city streets. While he voted with the rest of his councilmembers to reject the plan, Pedersen told an April 17 council meeting that the idea had “significant merits.” He said opponents had accused him of not honoring Measure L, a 2018 ballot measure that prohibits the construction of the rail trail on city streets.

Pedersen said he had originally intended to serve out his term, which ends next year, but the ongoing issues led him to call it quits. He said it’s been “really damaging to my emotional well-being and that of my wife.”

TJ Welch, who helped form the Concerned Citizens of Capitola group, told Lookout on Friday that the group does not engage in threatening behavior: “These are people who have taken the high road, and we’re going to continue to take the high road.”

Capitola City Councilmember Melinda Orbach said she was saddened that Pedersen was the subject of community anger and politically motivated attacks. Orbach, who supported a plan to build the rail trail on city streets but ultimately voted against it, told the April 17 council meeting that she had also been the recipient of threats and harassment, including from some opponents who had come to her workplace and home. 

At the meeting, several staunch opponents of the Park Avenue option condemned the threats and harassment some councilmembers said they had received, though Orbach said Friday that she continues to receive emails threatening to launch a recall campaign against her. 

“It seems it’s the younger and more progressive councilmembers who are the recipients of the vitriol. I feel like what I’m trying to fight for is going to be underappreciated and underrepresented in the city,” she told Lookout, adding that she worries that it will deter people from wanting to run for office. “I’m doing this for my community because I think this is right, but this is discouraging me from wanting to serve.”

Capitola Mayor Joe Clarke and Councilmember Gerry Jensen said that amid the questions about Pedersen’s residency and threats of a recall against him, they felt the councilmember did what he felt was best at the moment. “I’m glad he made what he believes is the best choice for himself and his family,” Clarke told Lookout on Friday. 

Capitola City Manager Jamie Goldstein told Lookout it will be up to the city council to decide on how to fill Pedersen’s seat, whether by appointment or a special election. Pedersen is the second Capitola member to resign from the five-member council since January. Margaux Morgan was appointed by the council to fill a seat vacated by former Capitola mayor Yvette Brooks, who took the helm of the United Way of Santa Cruz County. Morgan did not immediately respond to a request by email for comment.

Pedersen said he hopes his resignation does not validate the type of behavior he said he experienced or dissuade future leaders from running for office, but said his family no longer has the will or financial ability to continue defending against legal accusations.

Pedersen said that he got into local politics because he saw a need, but that the position is time-consuming, bureaucratic and can be toxic and emotionally difficult. He said that he currently does not have any interest in running for office again anytime soon.

“If there’s some great need for me to serve and people want me to serve in the future, maybe I’d consider it, depending on what’s happening with my family and my career at that time,” he said.

– Christopher Neely contributed to this report.

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