Layoffs, service cuts and other reductions are all on the table as Concord city leaders work to close a $14.6 million general fund deficit for the 2020-2021 fiscal year, as well as a $6.2 million revenue gap to end the current fiscal year.
While the city is looking at cutting 23 full-time-equivalent positions, only nine people would be laid off, as 16 other positions are already vacant, City Manager Valerie Barone told the City Council Tuesday.
Among those proposed cuts is the assistant city manager. Also, Barone said, five employees have agreed to take “voluntary separations.”
Among other proposed cost-cutting measures are eliminating the city’s Domestic Violence Victim Advocate position, a contract position that’s already vacant; cutting some operations at the city’s Camp Concord near South Lake Tahoe; reducing code enforcement staff, and closing the Concord Community Pool over the winter.
Several members of the public told council members not to cut Camp Concord’s summer family camp. Others, citing the national unrest connected to the May 25 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, suggested funding could be transferred from the Police Department to other social services.
Barone said the city’s plan is to adjust Camp Concord operations to serve a higher percentage of Concord families.
Concord had been facing financial challenges even before the COVID-19-related shelter-in-place orders had, in particular on local businesses and the sales tax they generate. The expected Concord general fund shortfall is $6.2 million for this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
The city plans to dip into its reserve fund for $11.2 million to boost the 2019-20 budget, and for $4.6 million to help fill the 2020-2021 budget hole.
Projections of sales tax losses due to the pandemic range from 10 to 15 percent or 2019-20, and from 22 to 32 percent for 2020-21. Barone and other city budget officials said predicting the exact impacts of COVID-19 over the next year is a very inexact exercise, making it hard to plan with any degree of precision.
Concord has plenty of company in dealing with COVID-19-driven budget crises. The League of California Cities said every single city in the state, regardless of size and population, faces significant projected revenue loss for their 2019-20 and 2020-21 budgets – a total shortfall of more than $7 billion.
The City Council is expected to vote on a 2020-2021 budget at its June 23 meeting. Barone also said it is likely the approved budget will have to be revisited in the fall, as COVID-19-related changes occur.
My guess is that the sad state of Concord streets aren’t going to be repaved anytime soon.
They’re finally repaving Oak Grove between Whitman and Treat. Unfortunately, it won’t last as they are going the cheap route and not fixing the underlying problem of a cracked base. They’re going to pave over the cracks and in a few years it will be back to what it was.
NoMoreFreeRide
True.
Just passing the problem along to the next City Council.
The City Manager should have outlined to costs to the council. Or if she did, the council could’ve ignored her.
Concords great at doing things in half measure.
We need much better representation from the people we elect.
Such as people who won’t be swayed by shiny things.
Does this mean they are going to shut down the Homeless Hotel.
Never. The liberals need the druggies to vote for them. That is why they get free room service and alcohol at our expense.
They should start with Valerie Barone who is the highest paid City Manager in all of Contra Costa County as she receives over $400K sitting on her arse cutting people’s jobs who are working in important programs in the city. How can she lay off the ONLY Graffiti Control and painting employee the city has (Ed Moore) when that individual and the program he implements is the ONLY thing saving our city from being tagged with gang-related graffiti and otherwise that would and many times does litter our buildings, bridges, etc? Not only that, but Ed is one of the most professional, caring and engaging people I have ever met and I have heard the same from many other people over the years. Take half of Barone’s wages and keep Ed and his Graffiti Control program in tact! Enough is enough with the quid pro quo political deals in Concord. Save our good employees and programs or watch our city collapse further!
YES to cutting Barone’s wages in half, as well as cutting many others’ at the PD!
I didn’t see in the text where they are eliminating the graffiti control. But, if so, why not just place it under the police budget? Call it “Re-Funding”.
@ Peter. Agreed , well said !
The City would do very well without her.
Ah, cutting funding to Camp Concord, eh? The place that benefits families and seniors. Y’know the taxpayers ….. remember them? Sure, all of those Community Center programs will probably go away too. I didn’t see anything in there about “defunding” (word of the day) any homeless services though. Gotta protect useless junkies but willing to cut services to those who pay for them. Stop catering to deadbeats and bring this community up instead of driving it into the ground. Hey, bring back Music & Market!
Keep Camp Concord Summer Family Camp and serve a higher percentage to the community by transferring funding from the police department? That’s a priority?? Are you kidding me? And exactly how will that affect the police department? Less police officers? Less police officers showing up to incidents? Less 911 operators?
But wait, I thought Measure Q was supposed to save the day??! Oh what’s that you say, the 10 year old temporary tax has been squandered?
Fire all of Concord’s management, they obviously have done an incompetent job. Do6nt blame covid this time, you blamed the 2007 meltdown last time. No more chances if you can’t get it right in 10 years time.
wow an utter surprise that barone has failed us yet again
her abuse of the system fleecing not one position but several to bilk millions from us …..
and we get what ……? anyone
nothing yep
she has given herself a raise and provided nothing
well accept an obvious tax hike next year on us because of what ….yep you guessed it …..the roads can not be repaired unless we pay more taxes
my question is this …..the roads have been bad for years many years like 15 years actually more ……the question is
how do these crooks pass a budget that does not include road maintenance …..they obviously have enough money to bring in thousands of illegals ……and give tax loop holes to builders
yet the city is crumbling and filled with bums and crime and no outlook or plan to make it better
how can you live with yourselves letting these crooks do whatever they want and not provide anything but sorrow and despair
the facts of doing nothing out way anything they have promised and or said or even hinted at
pushing for legalized theft while they increase their pay
the list is endless of what they have taken and does anyone have a list of what they have provided
I would surely be interested
and the timing of the next day after WC pleaded its case of boo hoo
and yet the higher tiers of lackluster officials are still taking full wages and bonuses
wow if I was a direct employee of these clowns I would be pissed that she ran us ragged through covid times and now says bye bye ….watch your arse on the way out ill be on my boat this summer
wake up vote for us the people and tax payers
stop putting people in charge that have no business sense or regard for the city of concord
voting democrat for 40 years has gotten us what ….anyone ….
can anyone answer that question
well besides higher taxes and lower education for our children and a slanted view of how the city should cater to criminals through sanctuary tactics
still can not believe people with property are still voting for these lame duck democrat politicians……
a dem voter response of well there is nothing better …..
then abstain for everyone vote for slot machine next election …..
because that’s what we get anyways a one armed bandit ….with its payout so tight it has no payouts to the people paying it
best part is this they say this with a straight face as we are gripped with violence on the streets …….
eliminating the city’s Domestic Violence Victim Advocate position, a contract position that’s already vacant;…….
so nobody needs domestic violence help anymore …huh
cutting some operations at the city’s Camp Concord near South Lake Tahoe;…
so the kids have their schools shut down and placed on lock down for months and your response is cut any fun they could have as long as you get your paycheck right
reducing code enforcement staff….
so yeah legalized theft and vandalism might as well let it all go to hell
hey why not just let people throw trash out their windows and in the streets too
Detroit ave already has old couches thrown in front of apartment’s and that I guess was with code enforcement …..lol
what a joke that people are ok with disrespecting the city and just letting it rot as long as their approved party is in power ….they keep voting democrat to ensure their demise and that of their children while the officials get rich off of them laughing all the way
just don’t get it …..maybe a dem can fill me in …..or at least ridicule my punctuation as a deference to answering the question
Very well put Random. spot on all the way.
Eliminate the ten highest paid employees. Use those savings to pay those out there doing actual work.
@the wizard
I would rather see a graffiti cleaner unemployed then the police or fire departments.
I agree
You’re saying that you want the police and fire departments to be unemployed AFTER the graffiti cleaner.
The city of Concord spends more per capita on policing than any other comparable size city in the state of California. This is absolutely ridiculous. I’ve looked up the numbers before, but I believe we spend almost double per capita than Thousand Oaks, for example, while having a very similar population size.
The fact that the city is looking to cut from public works and other services for the people, rather than looking to the bloated PD for savings opportunities, is really sickening.
@Foo
Per Sperling, the population of Concord and Thousand Oaks is very similar. Income and crime levels are different tho, with Concord having lower income and higher crime.
https://www.bestplaces.net/crime/city/california/concord
https://www.bestplaces.net/crime/city/california/thousand_oaks
No disrespect, but Thousand Oaks is not comparable to Concord. It’s a very wealthy area; CBS named it the 7th richest city in America.
It may help a little if businesses were all allowed to fully open and get the economy moving !!! GET TO WORK !!!!!!
AD
One positive outcome of this whole coronavirus impact is that the politicians are finally having to make difficult decisions on what to cut versus just raising more taxes to cover shortfalls.
Think again. The main “solution” to the long term issue discussed at Tuesday’s Council meeting was to place a measure on the ballot to extend and double Measure Q sales tax.
The problem with city finances is the pension system. Government employees get juicy payouts for life. The strongest unions guarantee their employees the largest piece of the pie.
Eliminate the pensions for new hires. Freeze the pension program for existing employees. Set up a 401k for these folks and have them fund their own retirement like the rest of us.
This would free up a TON of money to pay down debt, direct toward other programs, and fund existing projects.
Isn’t that what happens? They nor the employer pays into Social Security but instead that is invested in a qualified pension program like a 401k which they pull out future payments Based on their life expectancy.
@Ozzie
You really don’t have a clue about how a pension works vs. a 401k.
A 401k is a defined contribution plan. That means that the employee decided what % of their pay to contribute to their own plan. They get to invest it how they want. If they prefer to spend the money vs. fund their 401k then that’s their choice.
A pension is a defined benefit plan. That means that the employer determines how much will be paid in the future, usually based on a percentage of the employees’ salary. The employee funds the account and the employee gets a lifetime check at retirement.
But here is the problem with pensions. The first thing is that they are woefully under-funded. You see, the actuaries use estimated future returns to determine how much to fund today. The real returns that they get have been consistantly below projections. This means that the employer is on the hook for the difference.
Why do they over estimate their returns? Because it allows them to fund them at a lower rate today and piss that extra money away on other things.
The second problem is that people live a lot longer then the projections used at the beginning of employment. For example, if today’s new hire has a life expectancy of 80 (today), chances are that he will actually live longer. This means more $ payed out over the life of the plan and a shortfall that the employer must make up.
Essentially, a pension plan is structured the same way that Social Security is. And we all know how solvent that program is. Unless, of course, you believe Al Gore and his “lock box” b.s.
I’m including a link to Investopedia that explains this is more detail.
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/100314/whats-difference-between-401k-and-pension-plan.asp
Good grief some of you lefties…first it’s using a Concord/Thousand Oaks comparison as a basis to attack police funding, and now it’s someone with no clue how pensions work and how utterly irresponsible and unsustainable they are in regards to public employees…no wonder you people float around in this ethereal plane of cotton candy clouds and unicorns.
Here’s a quick primer: the “Big 3” of worst pension in the state are UCRS, CalSTRS, and arguably not just worst in the state but the entire nation, CalPERS.
They use absurdly high discount rate (“ROI”) so they can overstate current assets which has the double-whammy effect of allowing them to NOT require increased contributions from employees and/or employers, the latter ultimately being the TAXPAYERS. But this inevitably leads to the pension funds being woefully underfunded, i.e. unfunded liabilities, which CA alone is $1 TRILLION. Then as they sink into insolvency, take a guess who the safety net is? That’s right, THE TAXPAYER. All public pensions should be ended YESTERDAY and those employees shifted into 401k/403b type defined contribution. Public employee unions and pensions are two of the worst self-inflicted scourges ever seen.
The city doesn’t really hire fulltimers very much anymore. They stick lots of people under a thousand hour rule where you can’t work over that in a year so as not to pay out pensions.
Does anyone else see the absurdity in how big a chunk of the pie goes to the PD compared to the other departments? It is pitiful.
About 15-20 years ago the City used to mail a questionnaire to all residents suggesting to the Council what they would like to see happen. One year, the citizens were asked to prioritize a list of issues for the Council to address. There had been a few high profile crimes in the City that year so the #1 issue was crime. The Council responded by increasing the Police budget but it was still less than 50% of the total budget.
The police percentage of the pie used to be less
Reduce the Concord PD budget and watch Concord become a no-go zone for the rest of the bay area. Good luck with that!
I don’t get it. Why is there a Camp Concord family camp at all? Dump the whole thing and sell the property. We pay taxes so that our CITY can run properly, not a campsite 3 hours away that only a very small fraction of people can use, let alone get to.
Keep the graffiti cleaner and sell the camp.
Reduce the PD budget and watch the crime rates soar. A large PD allows multiple units to arrive on scene, when needed, which reduces…yes, reduces the chances of perps or officers getting injured or worse. A perp who is willing to escalate with one officer typically thinks twice when facing 4 officers and a K9. Concord PD has a great track record of conserving lives whenever possible and being able to show up in large numbers to contain and de-escalate is a big part of that success and so is having K9 units. Don’t be so easily manipulated by the media into poorly informed opinions. If you want a smaller defunded PD, please move to Chicago. You will be a better political fit there and I hear real estate prices are dropping.
Don in Concord – the problem with the PD is that it is top-heavy with 3 Captains, numerous Lt’s and Sgt’s, all of whom draw huge salaries. When Swanger was here, he gave out promotions right and left. Concord does not need 3 Captains.
Why is Concord in the business of having a camp? Seems odd.
It is not a business, it’s a service.
Having a summer camp in a wild like setting is quite common for many companies and cities. They are often an extension of city’s recreation departments but on a grander scale. The seasonal staffs are often college students and are not paid very much. I’ve never heard from anyone who didn’t love C.C. Check out the yelps.
Camp Concord might be an enterprise that is self supporting or nearly so like the golf course and sewers.
https://cityofconcord.org/365/Family-Camp
How about reducing salaries, benefits, and looking at savings on pensions/retirements?
I’m totally okay with not having a camp during a recession. Bring it back when times are better. I’m okay with not filling positions when times are bad. Fill them when you have the money.
We’ve been cutting costs for years where I work. Cities have to be more responsible.