Concord City Councilmembers this week voted to give themselves a $500 a month raise.
The raise will take effect after the 2024 City Council election.
Currently, Council compensation is $1,433.12 per month ($17,197.44 per year), an amount approved in February 2022.
After the 2024 election, they’ll make $1,900 per month ($22,800 per year).
For….?
They must’ve agonized over the decision
Really City Counilmembers? A 34.89% raise? What in H do you believe entitles you to that size of a raise? How about giving me a 30% cut to my property taxes.
It was a 4-1 vote. Mayor Laura Hoffmeister, Vice Mayor Edi Birsan, Councilmembers Dominic Aliano, and Councilmember Laura Nakamura voted for the pay increase, while Councilmember Carlyn Obringer voted against the pay raise. Mayor Hoffmeister praised California State Senator Bill Dodd and the State Legislature for introducing and passing the bill that allows City Council’s to increase their pay by a larger amount than the previous law allowed. Councilmember Laura Nakamura has now voted for two pay raises in her 8-months on the Concord City Council. They all knew what the pay was when they ran for the position, if they didn’t like the pay they shouldn’t have sought out the position, they weren’t asked to do the job! Concord residents passed the Measure V 1% permanent sales tax because the Concord City Council said we needed the money. They now squander that money by giving themselves a $500.00 a month pay raise, giving the City Manager and City Attorney a 14% pay raise over the next 3-years, and the voted for “deep green” which cost the City of Concord an extra 25% in PG&E/MCE energy costs. These people need to be recalled or voted out of office the next time they run for reelection.
They’re all crooks, but Edi Birsan is the biggest one.
Imagine saddling all people of Concord with a sales tax increase, then giving yourself a nice pay raise.
Scum.
He has so much money he eats a nice restaurant every meal.
I forgot to put this in my first post, repeal Measure V!!!
REPEAL MEASURE V!!!
REPEAL MEASURE V!!!
REPEAL MEASURE V!!!
REPEAL MEASURE V!!!
REPEAL MEASURE V!!!
REPEAL MEASURE V!!!
REPEAL MEASURE V!!!
REPEAL MEASURE V!!!
REPEAL MEASURE V!!!
REPEAL MEASURE V!!!
REPEAL MEASURE V!!!
REPEAL MEASURE V!!!
REPEAL MEASURE V!!!
REPEAL MEASURE V!!!
fix the roads with that money
They also gave both the City Attorney and City Manager each 14% raises over the next three years. All while refusing to require better oversight of money borrowed from the general fund to go toward the CNWS (outstanding loan owed the city is $14.6M). Concord also received $27M in covid relief funds in 2021 and immediately kept $7M for administrative purposes. Council positions were not meant to be full time jobs, the pay is supposed to be supplemental to an outside employment income. As The Black Knight commented on other posts, it’s time rescind the Measure V extra sales tax. They clearly have plenty of money to give themselves even as the public is paying high interest rates and escalating retail and gas prices.
Pretty sure EVERYBODY with a taxpayer-funded-government-paycheck made money off of the COVID fiasco.
This should be a public vote.When are you moron citizens going to vote these leaches out of office.And this starts at the top President,Governor and city officials.I guess you people that voted for them have deep pockets.
When there’s not an even worse option. Everyone who runs in this progressive sanctuary are way worse down the wokster leftist communist defund rabbit hole.
That’s not a big raise it will basically buy you a sandwich for lunch everyday.
That is $25 a day….5 days a week.. 52 weeks.. less 2wk vacation and 10 holidays… Perhaps they could do with a $12 sandwich..
If you expect to pay around $21 for a sandwich, then you are correct.
I’m sure those who actually have to live on that kind of monthly pay are happy for them.
The position of Councilmember was never intended to be a job that you make your living from. Councilmembers are supposed to be representatives from among their peers. The correct term for the money councilmembers receive is “stipend” not pay or salary. Councilmembers who make their living by sitting on council can’t represent their peers because they lose touch with the day to day reality of the lives of their peers. They used to get good benefits to make up for the extra time – in Concord they used to get lifetime healthcare benefits upon election. They recently changed that to lifetime health benefits if you are on council for five years. How much do you think that adds to their stipend? Which of their low income constituents are receiving lifetime health care benefits? No one who works full time and lives on $22,000 year is happy that they have to pay an extra City sales tax in addition to county and other sales tax while the council gets $500 more per month plus lifetime health benefits.
I am relieved to learn that I am wrong about the lifetime health benefits. It’s my understanding they changed it to 30 years of service.
@Hope
I believe Dorothy was just being facetious.
Amen sister!
I remember when raises were merit-based…😟
Ah, yes. As if all the other corruption and kickbacks are not enough. Thank you, dems. Let’s just keep voting in these fraudsters. Please punch yourself in the face if you voted for them.
Do we actually know their political affiliations? As I recall that information is not given in the voting handbook.
More pigs at the government feeding trough.
Whaddya wanna bet that back room deals were made to make it “look” like there was some dissension?
What’s that being their pay up to?
Must be nice to vote yourself a pay increase.
Those bozos need to give $500 a month back for all of the wrong decisions.
They get enough under the table to make up for that.
The raise will take effect after the 2024 City Council election. Great vote these crooks out before the election. Being a city council member is not a full time job.
This is at least $100k/yr job. These folks are heroes working for peanuts.
Absolutely not. Concord is a city manager based government. Council prepares for meetings by reviewing agenda packets based on research and ideas completed by staff. Staff prepares agendas and forwards ideas from city workers for council to mull over. Sometimes councilmembers will make their own suggestions of ideas but that is not common. This council does little more than rubber stamp staff. That aside, see my post above – they receive very good benefits including LIFETIME HEALTH INSURANCE. Repeal Measure V, the extra sales tax that council said was required to save emergency services, or accept only small monetary increases. Don’t like it? Get a full time job and step down from council.
Anyone who wants their councilmember to make $100K can feel free to donate their own money to all their councilmember’s continually ongoing campaign accounts.
I am relieved to learn that I am wrong about the lifetime health benefits. It’s my understanding they changed it to 30 years of service. Did not intend to mislead anyone, just didn’t know it was 30 years.
You havent seen Concord have you?
Job has it’s perks, city council members sometimes get their names on Bronze plaques
Like those arches at Todos Santos plaza, Bronze plaque is mounted at a level where large bred dogs can rinse it off.
It appears they just admitted Bidenomics isn’t working very well for them either.
GOOD FOR THEM!!! THEY EARNED IT
Recall them all. You didn’t do a thing to earn extra money usurymemebers. I see Concord falling apart by the day these people are a joke. Violent homeless walking up and down Clayton Road threatening people outside of stores way to go Concord police department, not doing your job. We also see tamales and fruit stands everywhere in Concord. I know they’re not licensed again….Do your job in Concord Police Department, the laziest police I’ve ever seen, I don’t care if it’s the health departments job. You’re the enforcers do the darn job get them off the street. They can pay the license fee, just like every other business does or u can confiscate their stuff, throw it away for breaking the law like any sane country would do… maybe I should run for mayor. My first implementation would be checkpoints on Monument Boulevard checking for citizenships with the INS and law enforcement there to send you packing if your not a citizen . Most people of average intelligence could do a better job than these lames.
BILL CUTTING,
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Yes, Mayor Laura Hoffmeister, Vice Mayor Edi Birsan, Councilmember Dominic Aliano, and Councilmember Laura Nakamura should be recalled! We’d have to wait until December in the case of Councilmember Laura Nakamura because we have to wait until a councilmember has served 1-year of their term before being eligible to be recalled. I’d have to check if that 1-year limit also applies to Mayor Laura Hoffmeister and Vice Mayor Edi Birsan because they were last sworn-in in December 2022 and I can’t remember if the 1-year wait time applies to them since they were reelected to the Concord City Council. In the case of Councilmember Dominic Aliano, he free to be recalled at this time, let the recall effort begin!
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It was about 5-years ago that Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill which made it easier for vendors to set up shop on sidewalks and harder for them to be prosecuted.
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You can’t run for Mayor of Concord because the City of Concord doesn’t have a directly elected Mayot, it has a a rotating Mayor and Vice Mayor chosen by the Concord City Council each December.
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You also couldn’t set up internal immigration checkpoints on Monument Boulevard or anywhere else in city limits because the City of Concord is not a strong-Mayor city, it’s a weak-Mayor city, run by a City Council-City Manager form of government. A Mayor of Concord therefore wouldn’t have the power to set up internal immigration checkpoints and state law also probably forbids local governments from setting up internal immigration checkpoints. Since the City of Concord falls within 100 miles of a water border of the United States the federal government could set up an internal immigration checkpoint in the vicinity of, if not within, the City of Concord.
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We should also begin the effort to repeal Measure V, the 1% permanent sales tax passed by voters in 2020, because the Concord City Council has shown us that it no longer needs to remain in place. Election night 2020 results showed Measure V passing by 540 votes out of 57,002 votes cast, 50.47% – 49.53%.
I’m in favor of repealing Measure V; how do we get this going?
I wish I could vote to give myself a raise. Where are the controls?
$500 a month is rather hefty. And most political officials don’t get flat rate but a percentage. A 5% per month raise would be more in line with the norm
WELL FOLKS,
.
Per month or per year?
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Are you enjoying retirement in Nevada?
Do they even do 20 hours a month of work?$100 per hour?
Really?
I shop in Pleasant Hill where the sales tax is 9.25 %
More shenanigans from Concord City Council, who knew that they would be so sneaky? Hasn’t Laura been in city government for at least thirty years now? As for the raise, I am pretty sure that its just “mad money’ for their enjoyment because I think most of these people probably have good incomes from other sources, am I correct?
Since the Concord City Council knows that they will probably not be recalled, maybe they will bring back some exciting new “spirit poles” at the cost of tens of thousands of tax payer dollars, make downtown beautification a controversy again, we shall see?!