Concord residents and members of the business community are invited to participate in one of three scheduled Community Conversations to learn about what the City has done to address its immediate budget challenges.
“Concord’s City Council wants to hear from the community,” said City Manager Valerie Barone. “It is important that Concord residents share their perspectives on how the City should address its long-term fiscal challenges and prioritize funding for the future.”
The meetings have been set for the following dates and locations:
Saturday, October 5
9 to 11:30 a.m.
Centre Concord, 5298 Clayton Road
Thursday, October 10
6:30 to 9 p.m.
Concord Senior Center, 2727 Parkside Circle
Wednesday, November 6
6:30 to 9 p.m.
Monument Crisis Center, 1990 Market Street
At these meetings, participants will hear from City leaders about the issues that are creating financial challenges. Attendees will also take part in a mock budgeting exercise that will explore the options for closing the projected gap, and they will be asked to share their opinions on community priorities.
Participant registration is appreciated, but not required. People can register at www.cityofconcord.org/budget or by phone, (925) 671-3009.
Information in Spanish about this initiative is available at www.cityofconcord.org/budgetSP.
In order to have a meaningful discussion about the budget you would have to see where the money is coming from and specifically where it is going before the discussion.
You can request a copy of the proposed budget and it will have all that information and more.
55% of our $109M budget goes to the police. Maybe that’s normal for a city our size, but it seems excessive to me.
Randy If they can give information in Spanish they can also publish the budget with the notice of the meeting if they want a useful meeting.
Other wise you just get people talking that have no real idea what is going on. Like usual.
First of all, slash all city personnel salaries that are over 200,000. Second, all those making over 150,000 must pay for their own medical. Third, no pensioners should take retirement from more than one city job.
The moneys saved will go towards our roads and BART. We need to cull the homeless into those that can be helped, those that need help and those that refuse help.
Those at the top, need to sacrifice. The middle/lower income tax payers have done their part for the last decade. It’s YOUR turn. Time to show come class.
100k is more than enough for 40 hours of work. And contribute a reasonable amount toward their medical and retirement benefits.
There you go, making ‘Justifiable’ sense and suggestions to those fat-cats who are too numb and cozy to care about the middle/lower income tax payers. They want MORE, and tohellwithyou, and me, and everyone not on the taxpayer-funded magic carpet ride.
Well if they would simply consider not biting off more than they can chew they would really have a better perspective.
Stop overtaxing those of us who work hard and do not try to work the system to get freebies and not pay our share. Stop trying to imitate Alameda County with all the freebies to generational welfare and immigrant families who suck off the system thus making my taxes higher because they can’t pay their criminal fees, etc. Enough said. Live within your budget as the rest of us have to.
What city taxes should they reduce?
No new taxes. Cut services as needed and consider salary reductions similar to what we have to do when expenses exceed revenues.
I would love to go to a meeting, but they won’t want to hear my comments. There will always be an ever increasing budget crisis until there is government pension reform.