UPDATE: The meeting has been postponed until March 24
A special meeting of the Concord City Council on the status of labor negotiations between builders and local unions over development of the former Naval Weapons Station will be held this evening.
In an effort to reduce possible exposure to the novel coronavirus, city officials appealed to the public to monitor the 6 p.m. public meeting either online (www.cityofconcord.org/TV) or on cable stations (Comcast Channel 28, Wave Channel 29 and AT&T U-verse 99) rather than attending in person.
Those who do come to the Concord Senior Center at 2727 Parkside Circle will find a limited number of seats, placed at least 3 feet apart.
City officials strongly urged persons at “high risk” to the virus, such as the elderly, those with compromised immune systems or anyone exhibiting flu-like symptoms, to refrain from attending the meeting in person. Anyone who wants can send email comments to be entered into the public record can do so via cityclerk@cityofconcord.org.
The Project Labor Agreement under consideration will determine the number of union jobs on the project, which is estimated to be worth $6 billion covering 2,300 acres, 13,000 housing units and millions of square footage of commercial space.
Developer representatives from Lennar Concord and FivePoint have said that the local union demands would cost an extra $500 million, making the project financially untenable.
The labor agreement also covers how many jobs would go to local residents and veterans, the development of apprenticeship programs, prevailing labor rates and more. The negotiations have been going on for more than a year.
Frustrated by the lack of progress between developers and the Contra Costa Building Trades Council, the City Council put off any decision on the labor agreement at a meeting in January. That meeting drew hundreds of
citizens and union members and lasted until the early morning before being suspended.
Lennar has threatened to walk away from the development contract, which would scuttle years of preparation work and force the project into another round of bidding to find a new developer. Lennar and FivePoint were chosen in 2016 and have already invested $15 million in the project.
UPDATE: The meeting has been postponed until March 24
Nothing will be built there if the City council insists on using anywhere close to the amount of union labor requested. They seem to think Lennar is bluffing…they WILL walk away and no one else will develop there under those parameters either. I’d be willing to bet that if you could get the council to answer who did any major renovations on their homes in the last 5 years and whether it was all union labor used, 100% would say NO.
Judging by Lennar’s work on Mare Island and Hunter’s Point, I’m not sure the city would be losing anything if Lennar walked. Just sayin…
Remember it was Lennar who wanted to leave the Kinney bridge as is. It was the other developer who planned on rebuilding it into a safe bridge with 2 lanes in both directions. Lennar wanted to cut corners and leave it alone until prompted by the city.
I am skeptical the City Council will do the right thing and allow Lennar to use the contractors that provide the best quality at the best price union or non-union. Judging by their past actions I would wager that McGallian, Aliano, Birsan, Hoffmeister, and Obringer will obey their union masters and vote to force Lennar to use union labor. 90% of residential contractors are non-union. Not only does Lennar have to pay a higher cost because of union rules and wages, they also must pay a higher cost because of the lack of competition. This is a bad idea, but the Concord City Council seems to love bad ideas, just as long it furthers their political careers.
Does this mean the money has already changed hands, or are they just deciding who get how much money?
why was the meeting postponed?
Per Concord’s web site:
In light of public health concerns related to coronavirus (COVID-19) and in compliance with State and County recommendations for social distancing, the City of Concord is postponing its March 12 Special City Council meeting. City staff are evaluating options that allow for essential City meetings to continue in a way that is consistent with public health guidelines.
The March 12 meeting agenda item entitled “the City’s response to Lennar’s letter of January 17, 2020 related to the Reuse Project at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station” has been postponed. The tentative new date is Tuesday, March 24.
The City of Concord will continue to monitor and evaluate the public health situation and update its practices based on the State and County guidelines.
Please this is all what lennar wants
And was their plan form the beginning and is working out wonderfully
They knew exactly how the city Council was way over their heads and feet deep in their own self righteousness
The city council will bend the knee and allow the starks to rule the north
And the city coffers and citizens who pay taxes will get fed to the dragons
While the city council laughs its way to the bank
I mean they chose lennar after a closed door meeting the day before they held a supposed legit vote
It was so obvious that the their bidding party actually cried foul
But the council not course deemed themselves in the right
And are currently creating yet another plaque to plaster on to the naval yard front gate applauding them and admiring themselves for jacking over the city yet again
It really makes me laugh that this is allowed and voters don’t take it into consideration that the city council spends all of its time patting their own backs for spending our money
I mean throwing money at a park the only park in the city they throw money at yearly and continually
The only park they promote
and have cleaning trucks doing early morning cleaning all the time
The only park with banks bordering it with of course lots of employees
So we can obviously see who the city council is actually spending g the money for
So we can easily see this whole fiasco is a smoke screen to line pockets and steal tax money again
Let’s see how this will play out
The city council will have to change the demands for the numbers of union workers wages they wanted
Allowing a cut to those numbers and allowing lennars outside area contractors in who undoubtedly will get most of the work orders
The job will get along about 1/3 of the way and the council will say something or it will be brought to their attention
They will agree to increasing money to afford more union employees getting more work orders
After imposing a half cent tax to pay for it and cutting taxes and fees from lennar to finish
In the end the council will be runnith over with campaign donations and kickbacks while the citizens get strapped with bond measures for 40 years to pay the tax that leannar was absolved of
The city council has never shown it is in anyways concerned or even trying to run the city so every one gets a boost and a better city with progressing business and incomes
Instead favoring slums and section 8 kickbacks over people actually working hard and having success and benefits by backed and afforded help in those endeavors
A reduced police force and backing legal theft as well as backing sanctuary status and as well as leading the treat Blvd to Ygnacio /Clayton corridor to run down and push for low income thrift stores and again reduced police presence
As the roads around todos corruption park are new and maintained
Treat Blvd is literally crumbling and they are not even cleaning up the chunks of asphalt left on it
The fact that voters are allowing this farce is beyond me
The fleecing or tax money and in favor of being dem PC Compliant
AND complying with agendas to push citizens into debt and misery following a mismanaged attempt to flood the city with illegals and crime to misdirect attention and force chaos
Chaos is the tool used to rule the masses and have them raise their hands and applaud genocide
I still cannot believe that a group of volunteer con artists were allowed total power
over a multi billion dollar land deal paid for by tax payers
That’s like letting a group of 15 year olds pay your taxes and run your bank account
All while deciding your allowance and running your business
Oh well at least your children will have their whole lives to pay for your clearly advanced educated voting to indenture their servitude to the bond measures and lap dances paid to the city council members
As they split the city into districts to further their grip and spread your voting knowledge into separatism and directed purgatory
Wow just wow
Open borders sure did make this state great and prosperous for politicians
You get higher taxes and uneducated children and lower wages while having to give up what’s your to thieves
and pay the courts wages since the criminals won’t have to
Not one has answered yet
What have the democrat politicians done to help you succeed and progress your family
So why isn’t the surplus vacant military property of the Naval Weapons Station being used to house veterans? Follow the money.
If Concord council members cave in to the obnoxious demands of these labor union bosses- and this fabulous planned development project goes down the tubes – I believe a group of reform minded Concord residents should organize to recall these stumble-bum council people from their jobs.
As many are aware, the city of Concord is looking at a 13 million deficit in a few years, thanks to poorly negotiated union contracts with city workers. The labor bosses that represent labor unions for the city literally order Laura Hoffmiester, Tim McGallian, and Carlyn Obringer around like school children (McGallian never votes on anything without getting his marching orders from the Concord POA)
As a result of this total dominance the city labor unions have over our Concord city council, the labor union bosses have created a gravy train for city of Concord workers that is unprecedented in it’s scope. I invite any ClayCord reader to go visit this Transparent California website and start comparing what Concord city officials are paying our city workers, compared to what other cities are paying.
City of Concord workers are among the highest paid city workers in the state of California, the average city worker in Concord makes 30,000 than city workers do in Walnut Creek (see transparent California, the data shows Concord city workers are paid more than workers in SF, Oakland, San Diego, LA ,Fresno, and you can throw in Palm Springs and Beverly Hills too!) City of Concord workers – per employee, make 20,000 to 30,000 per worker than workers make in the named cities here, cities that have way,m way more tax revenue to work with.
Given this I find it highly doubtful Hoffmiester, McGallian, or Obringer will be standing up to any labor unions bosses anytime soon, including these construction labor bosses – labor bosses that are trying to strong arm the council on this project (which will include astronomical amounts of built in wasteful construction spending).
As has been proven time and time again, Hoffmiester, McGallian, and Obringer have no backbone whatsoever, none, when a labor boss get’s near them they raise the white flag. It’s no accident they call these council members the “three Jellyfish” – talk about wimps.
In fact, all these three care about – Hoffmiester, McGallian, and Obringer – is getting re-elected, they just want to hang on to their pathetic low paying 20,000 a year council seats. Because that’s all they care about they regularly cut deals with labor union bosses, deals that are a complete sellout for us Concord taxpayers, deals that insure we residents will never get a new library in Concord, a teen center, a badly needed gymnasium, or a theater arts venue – all things that surrounding smaller cities have built, or are in the process of building.
I believe a recall is the only way to solve the problems going on at the city of Concord, the wasteful spending, the corruption, the seedy back room deals, etc. Time to give Hoffmiester, McGallian, and Obringer thier richly deserved walking papers. RECALL IS IN THE AIR!