El Cerrito had long been flagged on the California State Auditor’s dashboard of cities in distress. The City ranked as the sixth most troubled on the 2020 list, and the audit laid out how it wound up in such bad shape.
City Manager Karen Pinkos spent 12 years as Assistant City Manager before becoming City Manager in early 2019. Not much has changed after more than three years after the auditor report. The City moved up a mere seven points to the bottom 3% and 13th most troubled City, meaning over 400 California cities are managed better than El Cerrito.
There was a short-lived bright ray of hope in 2022 during the brief tenure of Sandra Dalida as Finance Director and Treasurer. After tremendous strides in accountability, transparency and fiscal responsibility, she lasted just over a year before leaving the City earlier this year. Rather than wait to secure a high-performing successor, within a month, the City Manager replaced the high-performing Finance Director and Treasurer with someone with little experience addressing troubled finances.
The City Manager touted a balanced FY24 budget, but the budget is far from balanced. Although there’s a small surplus in the so-called balanced budget, there are over $475,000 planned operating expenses and another $1.1M in capital expenses conveniently omitted from the “balanced” budget. If properly accounted for, the $1.5M deficit would again be covered by – you guessed it, the general fund balance.
The City Manager alleges close collaboration with the Financial Advisory Board (FAB). Yet, despite recommendations regarding the Emergency Disaster Relief Fund (EDRF) and increasing general fund reserves, the City Manager ignored the FAB recommendations in May. The City Council ignored the recommendations and rubber-stamped the budget in June.
In addition to these woes, the Council asked the Financial Advisory Board to review their salaries. This request comes on the heels of significantly increasing their own junket budget. The Council now wants paid vacations and a salary increase to run one of California’s most troubled and mismanaged cities. All while ignoring community feedback and FAB recommendations.
El Cerrito also plans a compensation study which undoubtedly will suggest increased salaries – all paid for by the general fund.
In addition to the unacknowledged budget deficit, pension liability costs have continued to rise; the City has done little to set aside the money needed to cover pension costs.
El Cerrito Committee for Responsible Government (ECCRG) 
Which City Council member(s) are most responsive to your concerns? I don’t recall any being focused on the chronic deficit spending during their campaigns.
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Mr. Adams, we are glad you asked. The City Manager ignores the State Auditor’s feedback and public feedback. She repeatedly claims to work with FAB but has ignored their input. She has historically not created ample space for ongoing communications with the council FAB and the community. The council typically voted 5-0 in favor of her proposals.
The council significantly increased their travel budget in May and asked FAB to increase their salaries. They seem oblivious to fiscal responsibility
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Aagh! Passive Council members. I will not vote for any of them again.
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To be accurate, an interim FD stepped in for Dilada. On 17 July, a new permanent FD begins working for the City.
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The interim finance director was not mentioned because they were interim.
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My comment was made as you specifically mentioned Sandra. When she quit on short notice the interim guy (Salazar) was dropped into the Finance Dept. with extremely limited duties. A new Finance Director/Treasurer was hired rather quickly but cannot begin until 17 July. Hopefully, you give her a chance before criticizing. The FD is short staffed.
As for the FAB, which is now down to three people, the Mayor has stated their recommendations will be heard next month. I’ve no problem with that. Apparently, neither does the Mayor.
Regarding City Council travel expenses I submitted my comments as two of that body requested excessive amounts—one for more than $16,000! There was a long dialog from one member justifying a high number but in the end a sort of reasonable compromise was approved. The Mayor did mention Lafayette council members work for free. I appreciated that remark. But blowing money on travel and photo ops is not a good use of City funds. A majority of the Council seems to agree.
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Thank you for your commentary. The author appreciates your clarification.
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Mr. Stashik, the author was tracking with travel. It doesn’t pass the smell test. If the Council or a majority agreed that increasing the travel budget is equivalent to blowing money, they would not have voted for a significant increase in the junket budget.
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Any thoughts as to why there is high turnover in the Finance Director position? Why did Ms. Dalida leave after a “brief tenure”?
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Thank you for asking There’s an article posted recently that shared our thoughts https://elcerritocommitteeforresponsiblegovernment.com/2023/03/27/el-cerrito-hiring-challenges/
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