Take action-budget meeting August 1st

The City of El Cerrito will be hosting a virtual town hall on the budget on Saturday, August 1st From 10-12. For information on joining the Town Hall click here.   We urge you to participate, and this is why:

1.  The city is facing a 5.5 million dollar budget deficit.
2. The city has been very slow to take action and COVID  is exacerbating what was already a crisis situation. The longer the city takes to act the worse situation we will be in. 
3. The city is paying consultants thousands of dollars for them to suggest cuts in services, including library, recreation and senior services. 
4. The city has not addressed the extreme amounts of overtime paid to the fire department (over 1.5 million last year). This is an issue that was called out by the state auditor. While we all agree we want El Cerrito to stay fire safe it seems it might be prudent to look at ways to control expenses. 
5. Public safety is 50% of the budget. Members of the public need to decide what the priorities of the city should be and let their elected representatives know what they are. Cuts need to be made. Do you want to prioritize police or the recreation center? Let the council know. 
6. The City has poorly managed the budget for years. We need to hold them accountable for this mess and they need to get a reserve built and stop taking out pay day loans. They will tell you the crisis is COVID related but the State Auditor called the city out in October well before the current crisis.


The City Council and staff need to know that the community is paying attention and is going to hold them accountable. We need a more transparent process.Please participate in the meeting. You can send in questions via email to cityclerk@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us.  Please note that all questions will not be answered and they are not guaranteeing answers subsequent to the meeting. If you email please encourage them to answer all questions in writing on the city website.