A long-time El Cerrito resident attending Tuesday’s City Council Proposed Budget Hearing, shared some concerns. While not an expert in city government or fiscal policy, their interest was piqued when Measure B appeared on the ballot. Desperately desiring a new library, they were disappointed to vote against it after seeing how efficiently nearby cities managed their libraries and seized creative opportunities to minimize costs.
Concerns grew when the State Auditor’s reports highlighted El Cerrito’s severe financial danger, partly due to pension debt. Fiscal sustainability has become a pressing issue. The latest City Manager’s report provided a lengthy explanation of stagnant revenues against rising costs, attributing the latter to factors beyond the city’s control. While there may be some truth in this, there is a notable lack of accountability for the city’s escalating expenditures.
The intention to make “expenditure reductions while providing the level of service our community expects” was evident. However, the City Manager’s invitation to “Join the El Cerrito Safety and Fiscal Sustainability Conversation” seemed disingenuous. It appeared to frame service cuts as the only solution to the financial shortfall, asking residents to choose between public safety, park maintenance, or library hours.
The public safety narrative pits essential services against each other under the guise of achieving fiscal stability. The community’s input was solicited through a brief survey, asking them to rank eight pre-selected options for a “strong, self-reliant El Cerrito,” without providing specific information about the implications of each choice.
A true community conversation about fiscal sustainability must be broader and deeper than this simplistic and predetermined framework. This resident felt insulted by being asked to prioritize without understanding the trade-offs. For instance, fire protection is crucial, but do we need four battalion chiefs? Public safety is vital, but can the funding be used more effectively? What weighs more: library hours or the cost of a city manager and an extensive administrative staff which consists of an Assistant City Manager and an Assistant City Manager?
It might have been wiser to use funds allocated for public surveys about a new library to improve the existing one, even with simple upgrades like comfortable seating. Is the city genuinely exploring how to best support library services?
The City Manager’s focus on accepting service cuts as inevitable overlooks the service reductions that have already occurred. One resident lamented, “Services have been reduced while expenditures have soared. We have fewer police officers, higher crime, no bike patrol on the greenway, no senior center, no passport service at city hall, no city funding for the July 4th festival, which now relies on donations. The free summertime kids’ activities, like the ‘girls’ sports day’ and ‘play in the streets day,’ are gone. We no longer have a city staff person for economic development. What are we getting for this increased spending?”
It seems the City Manager is using a PR strategy to foster uncritical acceptance of service cuts and distract citizens from the real fiscal sustainability issues. They hope that the council will ask tough questions about pension debt, rising costs, adequate reserves, and genuine changes to stabilize the city’s finances. The council must recognize that a new budget proposal should commit meaningfully to El Cerrito’s fiscal sustainability.
*This blog was heavily influenced by a public letter to the City Council
This concerned citizen wrote to the city council. EECRG hopes you want to help as well.
- Share this post with other residents.
- Comment on the post
- Attend the monthly Financial Advisory Board meetings in person.
- Post on Social Media
- Council meetings are remote and in-person, but public comment is now limited to in-person attendees.
If you want to contact City Council Members or the City Managers, all their emails are below:
- Karen Pinkos-City Manager kpinkos@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us
- Councilperson Gabe Quinto gquinto@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us
- Councilperson Carolyn Wysinger cywysinger@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us
- Councilperson Tessa Rudnick trudnick@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us
- Mayor Lisa Motoyama lmotoyama@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us
- Councilperson Paul Fadelli pfadelli@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us
#ElCerrito #FiscalResponsibility #CityCouncilMeeting #CommunityVoices #PublicSafety #LibraryServices #LocalGovernment #BudgetHearing #CivicEngagement
El Cerrito Committee for Responsible Government (ECCRG) 
I have been following the blog posts of ECCRG since the beginning and consider myself an ally in some of the major concerns: city mismanagement and transparency. Although I may always be aligned , I do feel that as a resident I have faced blatant gaslighting by Mayor Tessa Rudnick. As a Jewish American I started to work with other local residents who wanted to seek the passage of a ceasefire resolution in El Cerrito related to the war in Gaza. Other cities nearby found success in getting the mayor and other city council members to listen to their concerns, hear out the community, and ultimately pass a resolution that reflected what anybody with a conscience would say after hearing of the brutal situation of Palestinians trapped in Gaza.
Unfortunately in El Cerrito, I’ve been stonewalled, called anti-semitic (despite being Jewish!), have had friends being called racist terms by city council members, and ultimately made to feel marginalized in my home of 25 years.
Tessa Rudnick, has been at the center of the efforts to silence the voices of her citizens. Tessa Rudnick is co-chair of the Bay Area Network of Jewish Officials (BANJO), a sub-organization of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC). The JCRC is a multi-million dollar organization[1] that openly advocates for Israel[2], including “bring[ing] influential elected officials and civic leaders from across and beyond the San Francisco bay area to Israel, with the goal of helping them better understand Jews, Judaism and Israel through this hands-on journey.”[3] Mayor Rudnick herself went on one of these trips through her affiliation with BANJO (as did Gabe Quinto through an affiliated institution).
When we pointed out her involvement with an organization that lobbies for Israel and suggested it might be a conflict of interest for her to block discussion of a ceasefire resolution, we were called anti-Semitic. It was deemed outrageous to ask openly Zionist mayor who works with an organization that lobbies for Israel to recuse herself from discussions critical of Israel. Mayor Rudnick need not vote for a resolution, but after the number of letters and speakers and calls from the community to at minimal ask for a hearing, she declined meeting after meeting. The JCRC did organize people to support her position to come to city council meetings, even if they didn’t live in El Cerrito.
Recent revelations have shown that our concerns were not only valid but necessary. It has become evident that Mayor Rudnick’s push for opaqueness in city politics extends beyond El Cerrito. She has been using her influence to limit free speech and public participation in other cities as well. As you know, Tessa led the charge to end public comments via Zoom last year. I recently became aware that she has been urging other cities to adopt similar measures through her involvement with BANJO and JCRC[4]. In Marin, a public records request revealed that Mayor Rudnick, using her title as then-mayor pro tem of El Cerrito, advocated for curtailing public comment periods and shutting down virtual public comments.
A public figure should be accountable to all residents, not just some. Siding with the JCRC and their call to stifle discussion is really symptomatic of other practices we see on issues in the city. For example, refusing to hand over data related to a city survey, planning outreach activities for community input and then minimizing input and questions, and worst of all, refusing to allow zoom comment for meeting items and in most cases, refusing to record commission meetings.
It pains me to say that this person whom I thought had progressive ideals, falls short when it challenges her own interests. Unlike other council members who recuse themselves on topics that may overlap with their careers, Mayor Rudnick would rather gaslight her constituents. She cannot represent this city while advocating for silencing and playing deaf to the voices of her constituents. This indifference towards transparency, ethical behavior, and a paternalistic attitude towards citizens is exactly the source of the institutional problems we have in this city.
[1] https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/941156335 [2] https://jcrc.org/blog/bay-area-united-with-israel-resources/ [3] https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/941156335/202441319349302204/full [4] https://marincountyconfidential.substack.com/p/from-mintzer-on-the-hush-hush-the?publication_id=928985
On Mon, Jun 3, 2024 at 9:57 PM El Cerrito Committee for Responsib
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