Keeping the Momentum 

It has been a tremendous honor to serve you as your City Councilmember and your Mayor these past four years.  We have weathered a period of great uncertainty and change and come through better and more resilient.  When I started on the City Council in 2020, not only were we in the midst of the pandemic, the City’s fund balance was -$110,000 and the State Auditor had put El Cerrito on the high risk list for fiscal stability.  Today, we have a General Fund balance of $16 Million, of which $9 Million is set-aside as our Emergency and Disaster Relief Fund, and over $1 Million is in a trust fund to address our future pension fund needs.  

This was not easy and took hours of probing questions, hard work by staff, furloughs, cuts and a boon in the form of federal COVID relief funds to bring us back to financial stability.  We have fulfilled all of the requirements of the State Auditor to bring our risk level down, including changing policies and procedures and bringing more transparency and community input into the budgeting process.  I am very proud of my part in the work that lead us to where we are now: a strong city fund balance, restored staffing and services, and the return of some of our most beloved community programs, like the Fourth of July Festival.