Category Archives: Uncategorized

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.”

Three City Council Seats up for Election in November  If you have felt like the City Council has not been representing you and the interests of the city now is the time to step up and run for council. In El Cerrito. traditionally the El Cerrito Democratic Club (which includes members that don’t live inContinue reading “We need YOU to run for City Council!”

I wrote previously about the TRAN loans that have been keeping the city afloat since 2011. On May 21, 2020, I sent a request for information on the costs of these loans. It specifically said “I saw in the supplemental slide set some info about the trans. What I would like to know is 1.Continue reading “The struggle for transparency in El Cerrito”

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”

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”

Today the city of El Cerrito put out a packet for the planned budget meeting June 9th at 1pm. The Consultants were brutally honest. The link is here. I will copy some slides below but it is really important to view the entire packet. The consultants call out that El Cerrito was in a fiscalContinue reading “El Cerrito is in a major financial crisis-major cuts proposed”

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”

Post Updated with information from public records request June 2, 2020. I have added the employee positions that received this benefit. I have also clarified that the benefit for everyone except the city manager is $300 (I was told the prior number from a Council Person so I apologize for the error). The City ManagerContinue reading “El Cerrito was giving over 100K in car allowances”

Transparent CA has great information on salaries and pensions for all of CA. There has been much discussion on different forums about the compensation of El Cerrito city employees so I did a quick check on Transparent CA for 4 cities. El Cerrito, Albany, San Pablo, and Pinole. All are reasonably close in size fromContinue reading “El Cerrito Staff Compensation compared to other local cities”

At the City Council meeting on May 5, 2020 some budget announcements were made. The link to the video is below and the budget discussion started 4 hours in. The city announced furloughs for management and SEIU staff. That is 45 SEUI staff and 25 Management staff. They will be furloughed one day every twoContinue reading “The City takes some budget actions”