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Pleasanton residents welcomed a new City Council majority on Dec. 17 when Jack Balch as sworn in as mayor and Craig Eicher and Matt Gaidos joined the council.
Balch defeated incumbent Mayor Karla Brown easily, while Eicher won his district over Valerie Arkin. Gaidos topped the race with no incumbent in the other district.
Balch and his colleagues know they were elected to take a much more aggressive look at the city’s finances. Brown, Arkin as well as Jeff Nibert and Julie Testa had voted to put a half-cent sales tax increase on the ballot. It went down badly and demonstrated distrust between the majority of voters and the council and city staff.
Compare the defeat in Pleasanton with the easy win for the 1-cent increase in San Ramon (twice the hit, same duration) and unified city leadership behind it — current and past.
That’s the type of credibility Balch and the majority need to rebuild and help the staff get there. The initial meeting had some bumps as Balch wanted to get moving with a citizens committee to help review the budget that included himself and another council member. The city staff presented a different plan. After plenty of discussion, it was pushed back to staff to bring forward a proposal.
City Manager Gerry Beaudin expressed the concern about hitting a timeline to allow adequate discussion and evaluation before the two-year budget is adopted in June.
The staff also presented and the council agreed to a different approach to the capital improvement program, The city’s revenues have shrunken against expenses to the point that council members will have to set priorities and make choices. They decided to adopt a revised approach that should be sensible given the new realities.
Balch’s efforts to pull the public in are correct. There is an amazing amount of skill and talent in the Pleasanton community—it’s been demonstrated several times over the years when people have been actively engaged. Note: flash polls or one-off meetings do not quality—people need to be able to dig in and understand the assumptions and built in expenses.
Gov. Newsom and the Democrat-dominated legislature made their viewpoints crystal clear with new laws that took effect Jan. 1.
Among them was a law forbidding an employer from requiring employees attend a meeting about why organizing in a union is not in their best interest. Many employers have used these meetings to explain their views because the union organizers are pushing the opposite view.
It’s remarkable that the Legislature feels it has the prerogative to add yet another burden to business. The meetings take place on the employers’ time—they’re on the clock so employers are getting paid. They’ve got a different subject matter than an all-hands meeting to discuss quarterly plans.
Here’s hoping employer groups ban together to challenge the blatantly pro-union law.
It’s the same when it comes to voter ID. Nearly 75% of citizens believe voters should have to show identification before casting their ballot. Not so in California. The Legislature and the governor now forbid localities from establishing their own ID requirements in their jurisdiction.
This fits with the horrible state law that now registers anyone getting a driver’s license—people have to opt out—thanks to the Legislature and Gov. Brown illegal aliens are free to get licenses. When I asked Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s office what procedure was in place to ensure that the newly registered license holders were U.S. citizens, there was no return call. Draw your own conclusions about whether a procedure exists.
The restaurant business is ever changing—particularly given the pandemic shutdown and its aftermath (business lunches anyone?)—plenty of restaurants have closed. I was checking for the Sunday night special at Gianni’s Bistro, a favorite Italian restaurant in San Ramon, and was saddened to learn it closed in July, Gianni and his wife, Melanie, actively gave back to the community by inviting nonprofits to serve and keep all of the tips every Monday. It was a popular fundraiser that agencies got in line to serve. We will miss both the fine food and the warm hospitality.
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If Mayor Balch truly wanted to pull the community in and “hit the ground running”, he would have supported Staff’s initial recommendation of appointing an eleven member citizen’s Budget Advisory Committee. Instead he chose to collude with Councilmember Matt Gaidos before the December 17th city council meeting to advance the idea of a two member Ad Hoc budget committee. This body would not be bound by Brown Act rules and could result in a process that is not subject to public scrutiny or participation. A two member Ad Hoc as indicated by Mayor Balch would elevate District 4 budget priorities (both Gaidos and Balch reside in District 4 and have served or are serving for District 4) over other Pleasanton districts. This Ad Hoc committee would set the parameters for a budget process and come to dominate the decision making. This body would only use the citizen’s Budget Advisory Committee to rubber-stamp the Ad Hoc committee’s findings. It should concern every Pleasanton resident, irrespective of who they voted for Mayor, that our current Mayor is using the rhetoric of “transparency, public engagement” to advance a budget making process that lacks both transparency and public engagement.
@Critical Thinker: spot on with every comment. Thank you for this.