Low voter turnout has allowed Gabe Quinto to keep his seat on the Council. As readers of this blog will likely surmise, this author is not pleased. Akin to a few other Contra Costa County results like the Sherriff’s and County Assessor’s races, El Cerrito lacks accountability, transparency and humanity in El Cerrito. Even so,Continue reading “Low Voter Turnout”
Category Archives: Financial Mismanagement
El Cerrito Election Links
There is still time to vote! Do you need to cram to catch up on the issues? If so, this post is for you! You can find many of the essential links here. Enjoy! Web pages Vanessa Warheit’s web page Vanessa Warheit’s YouTube Channel Carolyn Wysinger’s web page Gabe Quinto’s web page Disclosures El CerritoContinue reading “El Cerrito Election Links“
Conflict of Interest
In this town, things are getting worse. They have scheduled an event titled “Lunch with El Cerrito’s Mayor and City Manager,” where members of the public join them to have a conversation with Mayor Gabe Quinto and City Manager Karen Pinkos on the latest happenings in the City of El Cerrito, and what’s next forContinue reading “Conflict of Interest”
Press Release Gone Bad
Last week, the Council Members posted on social media. Then the City of El Cerrito issued a press release claiming victory over the financial crisis. Still, the State Auditor and the East Bay Times disagreed. On October 24, 2022, the East Bay Times article here said, “While this is the first year the cityContinue reading “Press Release Gone Bad”
Budget Update
On September 15th City Council met and discussed two items in regards to the budget. The meeting was over 4.5 hours and it is not a reasonable expectation that most people will listen to it all. I will confess I listened to 2+ hours only. The first item was regarding the Finance Department’s monthly reports.Continue reading “Budget Update”
Is El Cerrito Making Data Driven Financial Decisions?
This coming Tuesday, August 11th El Cerrito is having another meeting to discuss the budget. The consultants are recommending at least an additional 1.5 million dollars in cuts occur. Their recommendations are as follows: The problem with both the 1.5 million dollar number and the recommendations that are made is that there is no specificityContinue reading “Is El Cerrito Making Data Driven Financial Decisions?”
23k paid to consultants who advised cutting the library hours.
Management Partners, the consultants used to advise on budget issues, were first hired for a 25k contract to help revise the Strategic Plan. The original contract was for between $25,900 and $32,500 depending on whether the city had Management Partners do the public workshop or not. About half way through that contract the city modifiedContinue reading “23k paid to consultants who advised cutting the library hours.”
Looking backwards-El Cerrito did not get into a 5.5 million dollar hole yesterday. Part Two of Two
El Cerrito is in the midst of a major financial crisis. This the second of two blog posts addressing four issues we have found with how El Cerrito has managed it’s financial issues for years. Please refer back to the first post here and that post has the references used here also. NO LONG TERMContinue reading “Looking backwards-El Cerrito did not get into a 5.5 million dollar hole yesterday. Part Two of Two”
Looking backwards-El Cerrito did not get into a 5.5 million dollar hole yesterday. Part One of Two
El Cerrito is in the midst of a major financial crisis. In October 2019 the State Auditor stated that El Cerrito was #7 on the list of CA cities most likely to go bankrupt. The issue was so serious that the auditor got state approval to do a full audit of El Cerrito. Unfortunately dueContinue reading “Looking backwards-El Cerrito did not get into a 5.5 million dollar hole yesterday. Part One of Two”
El Cerrito’s history of loans to keep afloat
El Cerrito has been using Tax Revenue Anticipation Notes (TRANS) since 2011 to keep the government afloat. Someone online calls them payday loans and to a large extent that is what they look like. Each year more is borrowed. It started in 2011 with 3.5 million and in 2019 it was 9 million which wasContinue reading “El Cerrito’s history of loans to keep afloat”
El Cerrito Committee for Responsible Government (ECCRG) 