This Series:
YOU CAN’T JUST LEAVE THOSE WHO CREATED THE PROBLEM IN CHARGE OF THE SOLUTION
Part I
Tyree Scott was a U.S. labor leader and civil rights activist deeply involved in many minority workers’ and equal opportunity organizations. His quote, ‘You can’t just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution should inspire us all.
Several weeks ago, one of our readers provided examples that should inspire us to be more active. It took a while for the El Cerrito Committee for Responsible Government (EECRG) to investigate and corroborate the allegations raised.
EECRG contacted six municipalities of comparable size to gather data, information and documentation regarding employee perks and employee credit cards. Five of six cities responded within 48 hours, and all responded within four days.
On the contrary, the City of El Cerrito responded 12 days later. While the law requires Cities to respond to public information requests within ten business days, the City typically abuts the deadline, particularly when the information provided casts a dark shadow on El Cerrito.
The accusations were serious, so ECCRG did not want to publish this information before vetting. Here is what we found:
- Consultants paid to perform staff work. The hiring practices of El Cerrito have come under scrutiny due to additional structural issues. According to reports, the City hires people into positions with specific responsibilities. Subsequently, the City contracts with consultants to do the same jobs the City pays employees to perform. This practice has resulted in consultant agreements totaling $3 million to $5 million yearly. The practice has raised questions about the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the City’s hiring process and management of staff. The city officials have yet to comment on the issue of paying for the same job twice.
The City was a victim of a ransomware attack, which had begun with other agencies around the Bay Area starting Jan 2023. The City has four I.T. staff on the payroll but agreed to pay $332k in March this year (source-city council meeting) to prevent this.
For perspective, the salaries are approximately $125k each for four employees ($125k x 4 = $500k) plus $200k in benefits for a $700k total. Employees should mitigate the risk of cyber-attacks. Still, the failure required the City to hire I.T. consultants in addition to existing employees. It is irresponsible for I.T. staff to neglect to perform intrusion tests and I.T. security evaluations; the City spent $1M yet suffered a significant breach and remains vulnerable to future occurrences.
2. Excessive Employee Perks -The City has a contract for $75k a year to fund a vending machine full of junk food in the Police department. Since the program’s inception, the City has spent $45,243, with $24k spent on energy drinks, candy/chocolates, chips, and cookies. The signed contract is for $75k annually for three years. Do people need free junk food?
In addition to the $75k for vending machines, increasing City Council travel by $50k.
3. Dining on Us In addition to salary and benefits, staff receive free dry cleaning. Over the five years, the City Manager dines out an average of 2.5 times per week using the city credit card. The City Manager routinely takes staff and council to lunch at taxpayers’ expense. The City Manager’s average expenditure on lunches per week often exceeds $150/week – approximates $5k per year.
The City Manager’s expenses often include food, alcohol and visits to the Berkeley Country Club.
While the City was on the brink of bankruptcy, requiring the equivalent of payday loans, the City Manager jet-setted across the U.S. and abroad on the taxpayer’s dime. There is no reason a city with 25,000 residents needs to sponsor an international junket. Frankly, there’s no valid business reason to travel outside California.
Doesn’t this luxury international travel resemble a City-funded vacation? El Cerrito residents, does your company foot the bill for your leisure?
City leaders are clearly out of touch and have behaved irresponsibly for so long that they think it is normal. ECCRG contacted six California cities of comparable size to El Cerrito. Not one City CEO routinely conducts meetings at restaurants at taxpayer expense. Not one City CEO purchased alcohol at taxpayer expense.
As the City Manager’s supervisor, a member of the City Council should review and address the City Manager’s credit card expense report. The signatory line says “supervisor,” yet the Assistant City Manager – a subordinate signs the City Manager’s expense report, which clearly violates El Cerrito expense report requirements as well as the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and circumvents the requirement for an objective review. The City has yet to comment on this practice or the remedy,
El Cerrito residents, this is not the private sector. You are paying the cost of this continued practice of waste and abuse.
The City plans a ballot measure requesting more taxes. Before El Cerrito gets another taxpayer bailout, reforms need to be implemented to make the agency more accountable to taxpayers.
El Cerrito, the City needs you. You can help by
– Sharing this post
– Commenting on the post
– Attending the monthly Financial Advisory Board meetings in person. Council meetings are both remote and in-person.
The City Council meeting will be on September 19. The schedule is here.
The next FAB meeting will be on September 26 at City Hall. The schedule is here.
Karen Pinkos, City Manager
El Cerrito Committee for Responsible Government (ECCRG) 
This is appalling. Thank you for bringing it light.
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@ECRG, what did your survey of other cities show for comparison? Do other cities allow their city manager to expense meals out a restaurants? Do other city CM’s have as much travel expense as ours? I suspect not, but it would be good to know.
Of everything in this post, the CM’s expenses are the thing that stand out as likely exceptional and showing a sense of entitlement rather than service. Also the Council travel budget increase, which is ridiculous. They like to crow about how much they learn, and how they promote El Cerrito, but since all they ever do is rubber stamp whatever the CM puts before them, clearly they have not yet been trained in the role of leadership as an elected official. Neither of these is big money, but both are indicative of dysfunction, failed leadership, and being out of touch.
The other stuff, I don’t know … sadly it’s very common for cities to hire staff to be Planner or Attorney or IT Specialist but then what they actually do is supervise contract specialists. And the ECPD vending machine, that doesn’t bug me … every city has a hard time hiring and retaining cops, and if little perks like this are beneficial then fine. But of course, that leaves open the question of whether they are really beneficial, and it seems unlikely that the CM or Council ever ask that question.
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Miguel, thank you for raising the question. Public Agencies aren’t known for strict internal regulations. They lean toward “what they are required to do” And “ what they WANT to do.” That leaves considerable room for latitude.
The point of his article is that the City should and could behave more responsibly.
Some of the other agencies had tighter policies, and some did not. However, after interviewing these leaders who graciously answered our questions, they reportedly put far more emphasis on fiscal responsibility and integrity.
Lastly, you are correct about the everyday practices of public agencies but many are under fire because of waste and abuse.
PS – Do you have any evidence that having vending machines leads to increased hiring?
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“Do you have any evidence that having vending machines leads to increased hiring?”
Oh, heavens no; I have no idea how it is working out for ECPD. And I’m confident that nobody there is bothering to ask the question.
Overall, El Cerrito lives in an inward-looking bubble, completely unaware of how other cities function and perform, and totally unaware of the notion of benchmarking, or of finding and adopting best practices. Which is what seems so valuable about your efforts to reach out to other cities; I hope that you’ll do another blog post that goes into depth about the specific differences and where EC is falling short.
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Benchmarking. What a wonderful idea
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Miguel, thank you for your input. We are finding the right balance of examples, data and references to messaging. Some posts are heavy on analytics and references, and feedback says we lost the audience. This blog required a review of 300 + docs, interviews and six public info requests. If you have received a response from a PIF, you know the doc has a separate PDF. Attaching the documents to reference them became a nightmare. Most of us work, so this is a (very) part-time. So, this time, we opted for simplicity. I hope that explains. You are the second person who had that comment, so it was worthy of explanation. It
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With the ECPD almost fully staffed after a period where staffing was dangerously low, someone is obviously doing something right. Not being able to offer big bonuses as other cities, relying on inexpensive perks does make a positive difference. Those include the snack machine, gym membership, uniform cleaning. El Cerrito is better off with a full complement of officers to serve the public.
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So wasteful. Conscientious citizens are just ignored by current regime ( both staff & council members).
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I recently moved to El Cerrito…sigh! Wonder if I made a mistake. BTW, I was born and raised in the famously corrupt city of Chicago. Would you call what’s going on in El Cerrito similar to what I experienced in Chicago…… just on a smaller scale?
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Hello Nancy, El Cerrito is a lovely City with considerable unrealized potential. The cities are vastly different. EC has 25000 ppl and about 4 Square miles. Chicago has 2.7 million people and is about 230 square miles
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It’s not the size or the level of corruption but it none the less if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it’s a duck!
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Understood and agree
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Welcome to El Cerrito. There is no corruption in city government here. That’s a fact.
Now as for the state, I make no claims. It is a different entity. California can be dysfunctional to say the least.
Chicago is a great town. I love my visits there. Frank Sinatra had it correct!
Enjoy El Cerrito and don’t pay too much attention to internet blogs. We’re small but full service with good public safety and lots of parks.
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Sir, your attempts to discredit the blog lack evidence of errors, misstatements and flat out lies. The comment doesn’t compare city to city and fails to acknowledge the EC dysfunction
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The ICMA Code of Ethics with Guidelines Tenet 12
Tenet 12
Public office is a public trust. A member shall not leverage his or her position for personal gain or benefit.
Guidelines
Gifts. Members shall not directly or indirectly solicit, accept or receive any gift if it could reasonably be perceived or inferred that the gift was intended to influence them in the performance of their official duties; or if the gift was intended to serve as a reward for any official action on their part.
The term “Gift” includes but is not limited to services, travel, meals, gift cards, tickets, or other entertainment or hospitality. Gifts of money or loans from persons other than the local government jurisdiction pursuant to normal employment practices are not acceptable.
Members should not accept any gift that could undermine public confidence. De minimus gifts may be accepted in circumstances that support the execution of the member’s official duties or serve a legitimate public purpose. In those cases, the member should determine a modest maximum dollar value based on guidance from the governing body or any applicable state or local law.
The guideline is not intended to apply to normal social practices, not associated with the member’s official duties, where gifts are exchanged among friends, associates and relatives.
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See above…..who approves comments??
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El Cerrito Commitee for Responsible Government approves all comment irrespective of whether EECRG agrees
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