FLIPPING TENSE… Pacific Grove City Council appointed a new mayor Sept. 16 – with a coin toss. Deadlocked 3-3 on whether to fill former mayor Dan Cort’s seat with Carmelita Garcia or Bill Kampe, councilmembers left it up to chance. The quarter landed tails-up; Garcia clinched it. Earlier in the evening Mayor Pro Tempore Vicki Stilwell announced her resignation, effective Sept. 18, leaving two vacancies on the council. The city is accepting applications through Sept. 28 and will make the appointments at a special meeting Sept. 30. Read all the dramatic details at www.montereycountyweekly.com/pgmayor. [KA]

SALINAS SHINES… Salinas leads in the number of solar roofs in Monterey County, with 79 grid-tied photovoltaic installations, according to Environment California’s Solar Cities report. Close behind – and with one thirty-sixth of Salinas’ population – is Carmel-by-the-Sea, with 73 installations. Monterey ranks just behind Carmel, with 72 solar installations. Pacific Grove places fourth in the county, with 19 systems, followed by Seaside, with 15. Marina has eight systems, Soledad has two, Del Rey Oaks has one, and Sand City – with all its flat warehouse roofs – finishes dead last, with zero. [KA]

NATIONALIZED GREENS… The U.S. Department of Agriculture is holding the first of seven hearings on a proposed national marketing agreement for leafy greens in Monterey this week. The voluntary agreement is modeled after the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, which local growers helped establish after the 2006 E. coli outbreak in bagged spinach. Small farmers and environmentalists fear the national agreement will encourage more animal fencing and removal of riparian habitat to keep wildlife out of fields. The three-day hearing was expected to wrap up Thursday Sept. 24, but could be extended an extra day. [ZS]

GARDEN GROWTH… Members of the Seaside Green Team met with City of Seaside engineer Tim O’Halloran in late August to talk about how California American Water can make up for damaging the volunteer-built dry garden at Laguna Grande Park. (Cal Am contractors ripped out vegetation while repairing the underground water system.) Volunteers, who work at the garden the third Saturday of each month, plan to ask Cal Am to help clean up the garden and supply new plants for restoration. [KA]