City Council reshuffles responsibilities, appoints Louise Smith as mayor pro tem
During its regular meeting, the last one of the calendar year, the Solvang City Council passed an item authorizing city engineering firm Tetra Tech to study the possibility of making Fredensborg Canyon Road in the north part of Solvang a one-way road.
Also, with the new year approaching, the council also re-evaluated its members’ committee responsibilities and needed to appoint a new mayor pro tem. Councilmember Claudia Orona had that role in 2025, but city policy requires the council to appoint a new one at the start of a calendar year.
City Attorney Chelsea O’Sullivan, participating in the meeting on Zoom, reminded the council that members Claudia and Elizabeth Orona, Mark Infanti, and Mayor Dave Brown had all been mayors pro tem in the past and according to city policy can’t serve in the position again unless all members have served at least once. That left the newest councilmember, Louise Smith, who was appointed last January as the default choice.
Smith said she would like to serve in that position, but that city policy also says that a councilmember must serve at least a year before taking the position; O’Sullivan said the rule of everyone getting the position at least once supercedes the one-year requirement.
After that, Infanti moved to appoint Smith as MPT, with Brown seconding, and the motion passed 5-0.
Then Brown said council needed to decide on seating arrangement on the dais for 2026. While everyone said they were content to sit in the same seats, Brown pointed out that the MPT should sit next to the mayor, which would require Smith, currently at far right to switch seats with Claudia Orona (second from right) effective the first meeting of 2026. The new arrangement will also have the councilmembers sitting in order of district number — Infanti (1), Claudia Orona (2), Smith (3), and Elizabeth Orona (4) — with Brown in the middle.
Finally, the council was required to set the committee representatives, and agree to keep them unchanged from last year. In the appointment of two members to the Ad Hoc Budget Committees, Infanti suggested keeping Elizabeth Orona and Smith on the committee, but O’Sullivan suggested they should make at least one change to keep each committee distinctive from the year before. With that, Orona offered to step down and Claudia Orona agreed to take her place on the committee with Smith.
After that, the council heard the item on Fredensborg Canyon Road, one that extends from Chalk Hill Drive near Hans Christian Andersen Park to Viborg Road.
Public Works Director Bridget Paris gave the report and said the city is currently in the design phase of the Fredensborg Canyon Road MPT Project. During a community event, a community member brought an idea to city staff suggesting an alternative to constructing significant infrastructure specifically, a retaining wall to widen the right-of-way, to adequately accommodate both two-way traffic and the multipurpose trail. The suggestion proposed using the existing right-of-way instead, which would require converting Fredensborg Canyon Road between Chalk Hill Road and Viborg Road from two-way traffic to one-way operation.
In response, staff requested a proposal from Tetra Tech to modify the scope of their existing agreement to evaluate this alternative. The scope modification removes previously scoped construction administration services and adds new tasks to perform an operational traffic analysis and develop conceptual design options reflecting the one-way conversion concept.
Tetra Teach proposes additional services for lump sum of $30,600, funded through reallocation funds previously budgeted for construction admin services ($33,932), would leave remainder of $3,332 to be retained for optional tasks under project’s existing agreement.
During council questions, Brown was asking what direction a one-way road would go on Fredensborg Canyon, with Paris saying that might depend on plans to make the road a part of the pedestrian and bike trail planned for the area. Brown said he believed the road should go south, toward Chalk Hill Road, for safety and emergency exit purposes.
“It’s a question of direction during an emergency,” he said. “I don’t think they’re hurrying to go in, they’re hurrying to go out.”
Infanti asked if staff consulted police or fire on a possible one-way road and how it would affect them.
“We haven’t spoke to them,” Paris said. “In an emergency, you can go in any direction; it would be a good location for local fire station.”
In public comment, Solvang resident Dennis Beebe said the council is missing the point on what needs to be studied.
“The reason we’re considering this is cost, and we need more analysis either way, north and south,” he said. “However, the biggest problem on Fredensborg is speeding, and this isn’t addressing that.”
When the item went back to council, Elizabeth Orona addressed Beebe’s comments and said she believed if they made it part of the trial and there were pedestrians there all the time and active, drivers will slow down. Paris said, “When you narrow the road, they’ll slow down as well. I hear analysis both ways.”
Ultimately, Infanti moved to approve the amendment to include scope of work, to see impact to speed, emergency response or residents being impacted, and determining north or south direction. Claudia Orona seconded and motion passed 5-0.
The Solvang City Council will meet next on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 at 6:30 p.m.
