Numbers
Members of the City Council are set to get an update on the city’s finances at a special! meeting Tuesday night, and it sounds like the news isn’t all bad: The city actually ended the 2009 fiscal year with a surplus, just released budget documents show.
When all was said and done – the “said” being [...]
City moves to cut employee health benefit costs
The City Council is set to consider a resolution Tuesday night that could effectively curb medical and dental benefits for all new public safety hires.
If the resolution is approved, medical and dental benefits for retirees who are hired after November 1 would be subject to a new agreement to be hammered out with the city’s [...]
The taxman stayeth
Our little Island has gotten its fair share of bad budget news, and been subject to the hard knocks of the state’s fiscal crisis. But it looks like we’ve managed so far to dodge one bullet: We’re hanging on to a steady (if small) stream of sales tax dollars.
Late last week, the state Board of [...]
The next disaster
The City Council may have passed a balanced budget this year, but we’re apparently not out of the woods yet, fiscally speaking. “Now what?” you may ask. How’s about multi-million-dollar increases in the city’s pension costs?
Apparently, the investment portfolio of the state-run Public Employee Retirement System, which Alameda uses as its pension fund, has seen [...]
Council okays budget
Early this morning, the City Council approved a $68.7 million general fund budget balanced on $6.5 million in layoffs (and $4.4 million in prior midyear cuts).
The budget, which was $7.2 million less than last year’s, included more money for police and fire and a handful of additional staff (including replacement of an assistant city attorney [...]
Fire ballot drama, continued
All right, I’m just gonna come out and state the obvious: This Island’s got more than its fair share of compelling political drama. But for my (tax) money, one of the hottest ones running right now is the drama between Alameda’s city leaders and our firefighters.
A quick recap: Late last year, the City Council declined [...]
Today’s must-read: Bridge crisis averted!
The state Legislature has passed a budget sans an anticipated takeaway of more than $1 billion in locals’ gas tax funds (the Assembly balked at the last minute). Which means the county’s threats to leave three county-run drawbridges up at night have been stayed.
“I’m relieved and grateful for the Assembly’s actions,” Mayor Beverly Johnson told [...]
UPDATED Budget news: Bleak, bleak, bleak
Updated 10:41 a.m. Wednesday, July 22
City staff is moving full steam ahead with plans to present a 24-month budget plan to the City Council for their approval on August 3, with looming indications that the state could take far more money from the city than it had previously proposed.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Monday that state [...]
The shape of things to come
Tuesday night’s council discussion about the fate of the old Carnegie Library brought with it a few hints about the shape of Alameda’s city government in the midst of our apocalyptic economy.
Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant told the council she’s planning to merge the just-downsized Planning & Building Department with Development Services for a [...]
Fiscal committee presents financial forecast Thursday
Alameda’s Fiscal Sustainability Committee is presenting its just-released long-range financial forecast to the Economic Development Commission at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 18 in the council chambers at City Hall, 2263 Santa Clara Avenue.
The public is invited – no, requested – come on, they’re begging you – to attend and to give input on the report, [...]
Plan B
This past weekend I finally had a chance to read the Fiscal Sustainability Committee’s just-released long-range financial forecast for Alameda. Among the report’s many interesting offerings is a recommendation that city leaders come up with a Plan B for Alameda Point pronto, in the event that things don’t work out with the city’s current master [...]
