Del Mar City Councilmember Terry Gaasterland rotated out of the mayoral spot during the council’s annual reorganization on Dec. 15, with Tracy Martinez and John Spelich taking over the roles of mayor and deputy mayor, respectively, through the next year.
It was the first time Gaasterland, first elected to the council in 2018, served as mayor while holding in-person meetings, following a 2021 term that included all virtual meetings due to the Covid-19 pandemic. She was reelected to the council in 2022.
It was also a year presiding over a four-member council, after Councilmember Dwight Worden resigned in September 2024 due to health concerns and the remaining council members could not agree on an appointee or a special election, allowing the vacancy to persist until the 2026 midterm elections.
“In some ways it’s a good thing,” Gaasterland said. “We have fewer variables. When you have four variables instead of five, you have less surprises, but at the same time we’ve had I guess 25% more work for each of us.”
As some of the accomplishments over the last year, Gaasterland mentioned continued negotiations with the Del Mar Fairgrounds on an affordable housing project, continued work on citywide utility undergrounding, a short-term rental ordinance that allows the city to collect transient occupancy tax, and advocating for alternative routes as the San Diego Association of Governments rail relocation project moves forward, and sand replenishment.
Earlier in the meeting, the council also approved the first reading of an ordinance that further restricts single-use foodware, adding to regulations that include bans on balloons with lighter-than-air gasses such as helium.
Gaasterland also credited city staff for its work on the budget and making sure that “in a difficult year, our expenses are lower than our revenues.”
“Kudos and big balloons, except not the ones that we banned in our plastic ordinance, to our city manager,” she said.