Category Archives: Uncategorized

After being a bit optimistic after the last meeting when the council directed staff to come back with 1 million dollars in cuts the meeting on February 16, 2021, was a disappointment. The City Manager came back with a scorched earth level of cuts including cuts that would devastate recreation and fire which we allContinue reading “The City Council Caves to the City Manager…again”

I will be honest. This is a very hard post to write. While I expected the City Manager to do exactly what she did with her proposed cuts reading her memo raised my blood pressure through the roof. This blog, along with many members of the public, have been asking for more cuts since SeptemberContinue reading “City Manager goes scorched earth with cuts”

The city’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report was posted today. I am going to report on what stood out to me in no particular order. 1. On page 10 (all page numbers correspond to the pdf page number) it states that city management began to tackle financial issues in 2020. This made me laugh since 2017Continue reading “THE CAFR is out and it ain’t pretty”

This meeting was a study session on the budget. The packet can be found here. The Finance Director presented all the worksheets and then stated that the city needed to make cuts between the $664,000 end of the year predicted earlier versus the $303,000 currently predicted. First Councilperson Rudnick brought up the idea of cutting moreContinue reading “The Do Nothing Council is Trying to Do Something!”

The next city council meeting is next Tuesday at 7 pm (2/2/21). On the agenda (item 7A) is a mid-year budget review. The packet is found here and the budget information starts on page 12. It is my understanding that this meeting will be a study session and any actions will be at the following meeting. HereContinue reading “City Council Meeting February 2, 2021 The Mid-Year Budget Amendment”

The agenda is out for the next city council meeting. THERE IS NOTHING ON THE AGENDA ABOUT FINANCES!!!!!! I want to keep the blog family-friendly but WTF!!!!!! Seriously! They take a month off during a massive financial crisis plus pandemic and they can’t even have a new financial forecast. The last one was 12/15/2020 andContinue reading “Do Nothing City Council-Does Nothing-First meeting January 19, 2021”

This blog post is from a guest poster Sherry D. I did give some input into the post.  When a city goes bankrupt: Vallejo case study El Cerrito is struggling with budget deficits and sluggish revenues and risks bankruptcy unless the council takes decisive action. Bankruptcy is a means by which businesses restructure their organizationContinue reading “When a city goes bankrupt:Vallejo case study”

It is a new year and we have a new city council. Paul Fadelli is our new Mayor. Council-People Lisa Motoyama and Tessa Rudnick have been sworn in replacing Greg Lyman and Rochelle-Pardue-Okimoto. Janet Abelson and Gabe Quinto remain on the council and will be up for election in 2022. I have been highly criticalContinue reading “What could a transparent El Cerrito look like?”

Many more people have been engaging in dialogue around the state of El Cerrito’s finances. People want to know how we got here. Here are some essential facts you may not know. Starting in 2016-17, our independent auditor warned that the city might not continue to be a “going concern,” meaning it was at riskContinue reading “10 Things you should know about El Cerrito’s financial crisis”

The City of El Cerrito will be hosting a virtual town hall on the budget on Saturday, August 1st From 10-12. For information on joining the Town Hall click here.   We urge you to participate, and this is why:  The city is facing a 5.5 million dollar budget deficit. The city has been very slowContinue reading “Take action-budget meeting August 1st”