EL CERRITO
The city of El Cerrito’s Draft Proposed Biennial Budget for Fiscal Years 2024-25 and 2025-26 has been released. This year, for the first time since before the pandemic, the city has developed a two-year budget that provides for an improved view of projections for revenues and expenditures related to programs, projects and services.
The proposed biennial budget is the product of the city’s staff team working in a collaborative manner to align resources that are consistent with the City Council’s and community priorities as determined in the newly adopted Strategic Plan, while continuing to maintain fiscal responsibility.
Over the past several months, including during the midyear budget presentation in March and in the community budget workshops, city staff have communicated to the council and the public that the current state of the economy projects a period in which city revenues remain flat but costs continue to increase.
This is happening for agencies throughout the state and is occurring due to much that is out of the city’s control, such as high inflation, high interest rates, increasing insurance costs, high gas and energy prices and a continuing form of recovery from the pandemic.
Though the next two fiscal years will be tight, the proposed budget is balanced. This was achieved using a combination of strategies including revenue enhancements, one-time savings and some expenditure reductions with the goal of providing the level of service that our community expects and without using General Fund reserves.
As long as the city faces this current external environment, we will need to continue to right-size the budget and consider additional strategies to ensure our long-term sustainability. This will include examining our revenues by conducting a cost allocation and fee study and analyzing our organization to seek efficiencies by conducting a service delivery study.
The Financial Advisory Board was to review the draft proposed budget this week, and the first City Council budget hearing will be held at next week’s City Council meeting on Tuesday. Visit el-cerrito.org/budgetprocess online for budget updates and more details.
— El Cerrito City Manager Karen Pinkos
ALBANY
Free household hazardous waste drop-off event Sunday
Spring is the perfect time to clean out the garage or basem*nt and get rid of items like leftover paint, pesticides, old electronics and computers. You can bring all your household hazardous waste to the free drop-off event hosted by Alameda County public agency StopWaste at Albany’s Golden Gate Fields from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday.
The process is simple — register for a drop-off time at stopwaste.org/hhw-albany, and you’ll receive event details and packing instructions. The event is free for all Alameda County homeowners and renters. Business owners have a separate process and drop-off times.
This event is sponsored by Alameda County Household Hazardous Waste with support from the cities of Albany, Berkeley and from StopWaste — an agency that helps Alameda County residents, businesses, schools and governments become better stewards of the environment by preventing waste, saving energy, conserving resources and taking action to increase community resilience to climate change.
— StopWaste
BERKELEY
Humane Society’s Pints for Paws fundraiser set for Saturday
In honor of the upcoming National Beer Day, the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society (Berkeley Humane) has announced that tickets are now on sale for their 10th anniversary craft beer festival, Pints for Paws.
Voted Best Fundraising Event in the East Bay for several years running, Pints for Paws will take place from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday at 2700 Ninth Street in Berkeley. This event, which will start an hour earlier for VIP ticket holders, sells out every year.
Community volunteers organize this dog-friendly event for ages 21 and older with all proceeds going to support the medical and behavioral needs of shelter dogs and cats. To learn more or to purchase tickets, visit berkeleyhumane.org/pints-for-paws online.
— Berkeley Humane
Symphony to present ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ on Sunday
The Berkeley Symphony, led by Music Director Joseph Young, will present “Pictures at an Exhibition” in Zellerbach Hall at 4 p.m. Sunday. Color and light will converge in a program of mesmerizing symphonic works by Jimmy López Bellido, Duke Ellington and Modest Mussorgsky, which will comprise the final Symphonic Series concert of the 2023–24 season.
“Throughout our 52nd season, we’ve explored musical colors and styles, welcomed a diversity of artists and created orchestral experiences that are powerful, joyful and inclusive,” Young said. “I dedicate this final program to all who went on this musical journey with us, especially the musicians of the Berkeley Symphony and the audiences who turn out to support us all season long.”
Spanish-born violinist Leticia Moreno, celebrated for her “natural charisma, virtuosity and deep interpretative force,” will be featured in the West Coast premiere of Jimmy López Bellido’s luminous “Aurora Violin Concerto,” following a successful world premiere performance and Grammy-nominated recording with the Houston Symphony. Concert attendees will be dazzled by the accompanying light show, giving each person an immersive experience with their ears and eyes.
Also on the program is Duke Ellington’s wistful foxtrot “Solitude.” Recorded by Ellington himself numerous times and covered by jazz legends including Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, the 1934 standard comes to Zellerbach Hall as a string orchestra arrangement by Morton Gould. Famously written by Ellington in just 20 minutes, this brief yet poignant work has had a lasting legacy.
The final piece on the program, Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” began as a Romantic suite for solo piano and was transformed in scope by the magnificent orchestration of Impressionist composer Maurice Ravel to vividly depict scenes by Mussorgsky’s contemporary, the Russian architect and painter Viktor Hartmann.
For tickets (wich start at $25) or more information visit berkeleysymphony.org online or call 510-841-2800.
— J. Richter Communications
SAN PABLO
City partners with county, El Cerrito on homeless services
The San Pablo City Council recently approved a new agreement to expand vital homeless outreach services to the city’s unhoused and most vulnerable populations through a new regional partnership with the city of El Cerrito and the Contra Costa County health department’s Health, Housing and Homeless Services division.
This new regional partnership establishes a one-year program to share costs for Coordinated Outreach Referral, Engagement (CORE) services team from the division of Contra Costa Health (the county health department) that works to engage and stabilize the homeless through consistent outreach to facilitate and/or deliver health and basic-need services and secure permanent housing services.
Since 2018, the city of San Pablo has contracted with the division for a CORE services team in partnership with the city of Richmond. For the past five years, the CORE program has been successfully funded and integrated into operations of the San Pablo Police Department, which regularly coordinates with a CORE team to provide these critical homeless outreach services in San Pablo.
Last fall, a new collaboration opportunity emerged to expand these services with other local cities that also face simliar impacts from increased homeless populations in their communities. These discussions have resulted in the formation of a new partnership with the city of El Cerrito and Contra Costa Health’s homeless services division to expand and share costs with another CORE team in West Contra Costa County.
“San Pablo saw an opportunity with the city of El Cerrito to expand homeless outreach services and to partner with another local City to expand the availability of these much needed services for our most vulnerable populations,” said San Pablo Mayor Patricia Ponce.
Since July 1, 2023, and with the new partnership with city of El Cerrito and Contra Costa Heath, the San Pablo council has approved a total investment of $442,771 of city general funds to expand homeless outreach services to four days a week (32 hours) using dedicated CORE services through June 30, 2026.
“In a time with limited budgets and available funding, regional partnerships with local agencies have become paramount when you look how effective these types of services can become if you have the right partnerships in place,” said San Pablo City Manager Matt Rodriguez.
— Strategy Research Institute
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