El Cerrito’s Library and Senior Center Mirage

Behind the promises lies a project built on misrepresentation and political spin.

Greg Lyman has once again reappeared in El Cerrito politics, this time working alongside the City of El Cerrito, the Contra Costa County (CCC) Library system, CCC Supervisor John Gioia, and developer Halladay—the lead partner on the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) project known as C West. Together, they are selling voters a package built on misrepresentation. And their target audience? Seniors.

It’s beyond cynical. Enticing older residents with false promises of a new “senior center” while glossing over the inconvenient truths about who controls the library, what the City’s actual responsibilities are, and what this project will really deliver. Lyman even had the audacity to make his pitch at the Eskaton Senior Center on San Pablo—armed with slick presentations and plenty of statements he has no authority to make.

The reality is that the City of El Cerrito does not operate the library. That authority lies entirely with the Contra Costa County Library system, which staffs, funds, and manages 26 branches across the county. Each branch is guaranteed 40 staffed hours per week, financed by the countywide ad valorem secured property tax. The City’s role is limited to providing a building and maintaining it. Full stop.

Here are the facts. Contra Costa County Library operates 26 branches, guarantees 40 staffed hours per branch funded by county property taxes, selects and manages all book collections, does not accept local donations of money or books, and controls staffing, operations, and policy. The City of El Cerrito provides the building, maintains the facility, and may choose to fund extra operating hours—nothing more.

The CCC library system is intentionally egalitarian. Wealthier communities like Lafayette or Orinda cannot pour in donations of money or books, because that would create inequities across the system. Collections are curated by county library specialists, catalogued, and shared across all branches. Any talk of local fundraising or in-kind donations for the El Cerrito branch is misleading and simply not how the system works.

The only financial contribution the City can make is to pay for additional hours of operation. Anything beyond the guaranteed 40 hours must come from El Cerrito’s already overextended general fund. That fact alone should temper the City’s ambitious promises, but instead the narrative keeps growing bolder.

Then there’s the building question. The current El Cerrito branch occupies 6,400 square feet leased from the City. The C West project proposes a 20,000 square-foot library space, but no one has explained whether CCC will lease all of it, part of it, or the same square footage it leases today. If CCC takes the full 20,000 square feet, then the “senior center” so heavily marketed to older residents vanishes, because the space would be controlled by the County Library and open only during library hours. If CCC leases only part of the space, who pays for the rest? The unanswered questions pile up.

Even if the City tried to carve out space for senior or community programs, the logistics are daunting. A functioning community center requires separate entrances and exits from both the library and the 100-plus residents who will live in the affordable housing units above it. That means added design costs, security needs, and operational expenses that the City has never publicly accounted for.

And yet, Greg Lyman continues to make sweeping statements as if he speaks with authority. He doesn’t. Every serious presentation about the C West project and the so-called new library or senior center should include people who actually hold decision-making power: a City Council member, the County Librarian, CCC Supervisor John Gioia, and Halladay, the developer and future condominium co-owner. Anything less is political theater designed to mislead. And given Lyman’s track record of half-truths and omissions—most notably during the city’s past financial crises—residents should ask the obvious question: why should we trust Greg Lyman now?

The bottom line is that the Contra Costa County Library system is not for sale, not for manipulation, and not a political tool for the City of El Cerrito. Seniors deserve honesty, not empty promises. Voters deserve transparency, not bait-and-switch tactics. If El Cerrito truly wants to provide a senior center, it should be upfront about the costs, the location, and the operations—not hide behind a developer-led project and a former mayor’s political gamesmanship.

Behind the promises lies a project built on misrepresentation and political spin.

Don’t trust Lyman with your future. Vote no on the new library initiative. Meanwhile, don’t sign his petition, it’s misleading and just plain wrong.