FORT BRAGG, CA., 10/27/26 — Monday night’s Fort Bragg City Council meeting opened with awards for local businesses. Then, eight days before the election, it turned to anger over the campaign.
Most of the 11 people who spoke in open public comment talked about the Nov. 3 city council race, social media posts and how people treat each other at City Hall. Later, the council gave first approval to Coastal Trail speed rules, started work on a state-required housing plan and named an interim finance director.
Alan Limbird, a dentist, said a Facebook page posted a voter list showing him registered in Fort Bragg, at an address where he doesn’t live. “I am registered to vote in Mendocino,” he said.
Limbird said county Registrar of Voters Katrina Bartolomie looked into it and found the list had been bought by Marcia Rafanan on Aug. 10. He said he was told Bartolomie then called Rafanan and told her to take the post down. Rafanan is the vice mayor and is running for another term. Limbird thanked Rafanan for taking it down. He said he was also told Fort Bragg resident Jacob Patterson called the registrar the day before the post went up.
Limbird’s wife, Laura Bianchi Limbird, works in the city’s finance department.
Patterson, calling in on Zoom, said he has never had a phone conversation with Bartolomie about anything. He said he has faced harassment too, “including from Laura.”
Later, Rafanan spoke “to the commenter” without naming one. She said she had no idea any posts were up about anybody. “I don’t control what people put on social media,” she said. She said she had no part in anyone’s posts. She didn’t mention the voter list.
Chris Hart of the Mendocino Railway, which runs the Skunk Train, said Laura Bianchi Limbird made claims in the 2024 race that were “100% false.”
Diana Sanchez, the former city clerk, said the city let her go in December 2024 and still hasn’t made her a fair severance offer.
Councilmember Lindy Peters, who isn’t on the ballot, said, “This town used to be different. People were a lot more civil.” Mayor Jason Godeke said social media is “kind of like road rage.”
A 15-mph limit on the Coastal Trail
The council voted 5-0 to introduce a trail law that sets a 15-mph limit for all riders. It drops an earlier plan to ban the fastest e-bikes. Riders must yield to people on foot. Godeke proposed lowering the speed for passing walkers from 10-mph to 5, and other members spoke in favor before the vote. Gas-powered vehicles stay banned. Drones and gliders are banned in city parks unless the public works director says yes.
The ordinance needs a second vote before it takes effect.
668 homes proposed for Fort Bragg
Fort Bragg’s proposed state-mandated share of new housing for the next eight years is 668 homes, City Manager Isaac Whippy said. That’s part of 6,456 homes across the region. The current plan, adopted in 2019, called for 137. The city has approved about 163 homes in the last five years, Whippy said.
The city’s attorney called the number “a benchmark.” The city has to make that much building possible, he saidThe council agreed to form a committee of two council members and two planning commissioners to help write the plan. Whippy said a housing survey of about 20 questions would go online Tuesday.
An interim finance director
The council voted 5-0 to name Wendy Howard interim finance director and city treasurer. Whippy said Howard is a certified public accountant and a former Eureka finance director. As a CalPERS retiree, she can work no more than 960 hours a year, mostly remotely, at $69.38 an hour. Whippy has been doing the finance job along with his own.
Grant Downie, a commercial urchin diver, got another four-year term on the Noyo Harbor Commission.
Whippy said the city is moving its meeting video to YouTube, where meetings will be saved. Monday’s meeting wasn’t on the city’s channel as of Tuesday morning.