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The City of Trinidad has a five member council. Four seats are up this year, and with four candidates qualifying, everyone is guaranteed a seat.

Each candidate didn’t initially plan to run, but was urged to by another person, and found it important to serve on the small coastal city’s governing body. They are all proponents of delving deeper into the city’s problems with water supply.

Three currently serve on the council and one newcomer is slated to join them. We spoke with candidates for the November 2026 election to hear their goals and thoughts on what the city faces.

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Kati Breckenridge, a psychologist in her fourth year of a city council term, said she wasn’t initially planning on running again, but she threw her hat in the ring to help fill out the seats.

“The council needs a full contingency,” Breckenridge told the Outpost.

Trinidad, with a population of roughly 300, sometimes has trouble finding enough candidates to fill the five member council. New residents are often urged to make a go of it by friends and neighbors.

The key issue the city faces going forward, said Breckenridge, is addressing the water system.

In January, a massive water leak in Trinidad emptied the town’s water supply, a crisis that shuttered restaurants for multiple days and required residents to ration water. The city took on a rapid response, tanking in water to refill tanks, but it brought to light weak spots in the system that is otherwise supplied through Luffenholtz Creek.

Breckenridge is in support of a full feasibility study on the future of Trinidad’s water system.

Elected in 2022, about a year after moving from Los Angeles, Breckenridge said she’s made friends and learned a lot about the city through the process. “At times I felt very useful, and other times felt like I should live here for twenty years to know enough,” she remarked.

She moved to Trinidad to care for her son. Early on, “I knew it was going to be my home,” she said. She continues to work full time, running her private practice remotely from Trinidad.

She said everyone on the council works hard to keep the city stable and moving forward, but not at too rapid of a pace. “We don’t see things the same way, always,” but she described the group as respectful and willing to thoroughly discuss topics.

She’s particularly looking forward to having another woman on the council, with Gretchen Riddle putting her name forward.

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A retired neuroscientist who moved to Trinidad after spending years trying to find a home in the community, Gretchen Riddle said she was initially trepidatious about joining the council. But a friend urged her to run, and she had the spare time to volunteer.

Her number one priority, she said, is to get more people involved in city government.

“Especially in a small community, I think people do want to be heavily involved,” said Riddle — particularly with the seaside community facing eroding cliffs, sea level rise, earthquakes and climate change.

“That’s how we’re going to solve problems and protect the resiliency of this community, by having everyone participate,” she said.

When collecting signatures, and asking residents what concerns they had, she assumed people would have the same focus, but she found a surprising volume of different concerns.

A key issue she sees ahead is addressing the water supply. She thinks there’s a balance to strike, being a community committed to avoiding issues with overdevelopment while maintaining a steady supply of water.

In the next few months, Riddle plans to continue speaking with people and watching recent city council meetings.

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When I called Trinidad City Councilmember John Waskiewicz, he was on a brisk walk with his German shepherd Xena. The pair has been training together for responding to search-and-rescue situations.

Waskiewicz, a retired airline pilot captain who moved to Trinidad seven years ago, similarly wasn’t planning to run, but neighbors asked him to in 2024 after a council member had to step down. He’s running for another two-year term, despite not considering himself a politician, per se.

“The nice thing about the city council, that I find worthy of being on, is that it’s an apolitical position.” The council members each check their ego at the door and take care of business, he added.

In a pattern of three, like the root word of Trinidad, his priorities are keeping the town safe, secure and healthy. He wants a defensive perimeter around the town to prevent fire. He wants to keep a secure environment for small businesses. And he wants a sustainable, healthy environment, with the water situation.

Like others, he wants to see a comprehensive study on Trinidad’s water supply. “Without water, there is no community,” he said. 

Waskiewicz moved to the community primarily for the fresh air, he said, after living inland and breathing in smoke each year from wildfires.

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Trinidad City Councilmember Jack Tuttle, a wholesale distributor of solar equipment, was first appointed to the council in 2022, and was elected by Trinidad voters shortly thereafter.

Tuttle has a few priorities for this term. He’s interested in getting a microgrid in Trinidad, which could generate power for the community during emergencies. He also wants to work towards a feasibility study on connecting the city to Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District, a pipeline that’s been proposed in the past.

Grants, he said, are key for funding these projects.

He also wants to see more low-income housing by encouraging the construction of accessory dwelling units. He is interested in lowering the cap of short-term rentals in the city, gradually, as homes are sold.

“We’ve been seeing that the elementary school is getting less and less children, and the town is becoming more of a hotel and less of a community, and I really want to see more full-time residents in the City of Trinidad,” Tuttle said.

He also wants to work on protecting the slope of Edwards Street.

Tuttle moved to Trinidad in 2020 from Truckee to be closer to family after his daughter was born. “I never envisioned myself to be on the city council,” he said. “It was the last thing I would’ve considered.” But at the time, the mayor asked him to join.

He was hesitant, but felt the town needed him, and has since enjoyed his time. The role he enjoys the most is serving on the boards of the Humboldt Transit Authority and Redwood Coast Energy Authority, with his focus being clean transportation.

A proponent of renewables, he drives electric and doesn’t consume any gasoline, propane or natural gas — everything in his house is powered by the sun.

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Want to hear from candidates in other local races? Check out LoCO Elections here. Election Day is November 3.