This special post is “Talk About LOCAL Politics”.
Please use this post to talk about LOCAL politics, and keep state and national politics out of this thread.
Thank you, and be kind to each other.
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21 comments
There were comments here on Friday! What happened to them?
It’s disgusting seeing Laura Hoffmiester election banners around. Hasn’t Concord been plagued with her long enough. Let’s move on and actually get some one who cares about the city and job.
Those are DUI checkpoints.
SICK OF IT,
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I agree with you, Concord City Councilmember Laura Hoffmeister definitely needs to go away!!! She has been on the Concord City Council for almost 25 years, first elected in 1997 when we were still on an odd year election cycle (Concord voters sure did make a mistake when they voted for going to an even year election cycle which allows the attention and interest in high-profile and high-voter turnout races for governor, senator, and president to sway the results in local elections).
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The only problem with voting her out of office this year are her opponents, Robert Ring and Quinne Anderson:
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Robert Ring is the “CONCORD POLITICAL MACHINE” candidate, his campaign is funded by the Concord Police Officers Association, the Garaventa Family and their Garbage Company, and local labor unions. He is more of the same, a clone of the other CONCORD POLITICAL MACHINE funded politicians like Concord City Councilmembers Laura Hoffmeister, Carlyn Obringer, Tim McGallian, and Dominic Aliano!!!! Robert Ring is the only Concord City Council candidate running this year, from Districts 1, 4, and 5, that has said he’s supportive of term limits, the five other candidates don’t believe in term limits or have stated they believe in the theory “elections are term limits.”
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Quinne Anderson isn’t attempting to win this race. She’s only accepting campaign donations of $100.00 or less, and is only running as a progressive candidate (which is maybe 15% – 20% of Concord’s electorate) and isn’t trying to expand her voter base by appealing to liberals, moderates, and conservatives. It’s great that she’s being honest about who she is and what she believes, but that isn’t enough to win in Concord.
The City of Clayton is accepting applications for the “COMMUNITY FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE”, for which there is no compensation. What this says to me is that Clayton’s funds have been terribly mismanaged, and the city council is looking for a bunch of volunteers to help sort it out. That’s just pathetic.
The real reason for this “finance” committee is to get 5 so called trusted people to sell Clayton a $400 parcel tax since Peter Cloven has realized no one trusts him or his crony council member pals who vote lock step with him. Council Member Wan opposes the tax so Cloven and his pals want him gone. Cloven has turned out to be the biggest mistake Clayton ever elected. It’s too bad he isn’t up this year, odds are he would be voted out of office. So far this year under Cloven’s watch, the city has lost a lot of staff. First the police chief, then the finance director and now the city manager. Way to go Cloven! Knowing you, you will find a way to blame everyone else but yourself.
Claycord friends, here is my pitch for the re-election of Concord City Councilmember Tim McGallian , who represents my district 5.
Both Tim and his opponent, Laura Nakamura, are Democrats so this is not a partisan vote. I know both Tim and Laura. They are both really good and caring people, so this is not a vote about personalities. This is vote about experience and policy positions, and there is a HUGE difference between Tim and Laura in both areas.
EXPERIENCE:
Tim McGallian has 6 years of experience on the city council, including 2 years serving as mayor during the pandemic. He served 4 years on the Planning Commission, 2 years as Concord Treasurer. 12 years of service compared to Laura’s city service which began last year as an appointee to the Human Services Commission.
KEY POLICY DIFFERENCES:
Tim supports our police officers and has voted for important new technologies which are helping to find lost children, catch criminals, and recover stolen cars.
Laura has called for “defunding the police” and is co-founder of a group called Concord Communities Alliance which also calls for reducing police patrols in our neighborhoods.
In a recent survey of priorities, she chose public safety as her last priority.
Tim is working with city, county, and state agencies to humanely improve the homeless situation.
Laura is an advocate for the homeless too, but her solutions include a recommendation the city set up and manage homeless encampments in our city parks, including our largest, Newhall Park.
Tim has made every effort to get funding to repair our roads, which are in deplorable condition. Laura is an advocate for using road improvement money to reduce car lanes in favor of bike lanes.
As I said, a HUGE difference in policy and priorities.
Concord Communities Alliance’s stance on policing is not about fewer patrols. They have supported foot patrols in areas where direct contact with police would be more useful than driving by in a patrol car. McGallian has done nothing over the years to direct public safety resources toward areas in Concord that people still continually complain need to be addressed.
McGallian and this current council’s “plan” regarding people living on the streets was to spend money on a new full time homeless coordinator employee and then even more money on hiring a consultant to come up with a plan for Concord. The plan is expected to take at least one year to be developed. McGallian’s “work” on this issue has been to pass the buck from one ineffective government entity to another.
McGallian advocated for Lennar to develop the CNWS despite Lennar’s poor history in nearby cities. He knows the Lennar fiasco cost the general fund $14M yet he then advocated for Seeno to develop the base even though Seeno would not provide financial info to show it could take on the project. Worse yet, Lennar’s $14M cost to the general fund was about developing only one section of the base while Seeno was offered the entire base without providing any financials to back up its plan. Council dug themselves a deeper hole. Now we have an ad hoc committee that meets out of public view to try to sort out the fact that Seeno is having a hard time coming up with a finance plan. Nakamura went out into the community with volunteers and collected thousands of in-person signatures asking council not to partner with Seeno. She presented them to council and all of them, including McGaillian, brushed the public’s concerns aside and opted for the continued same old corrupt players at city hall.
Would be curious to know details of McGallian’s “every effort” to fund repairing the roads. So far, council’s only effort was to continually increase the sales tax to coordinate borrowing funds. Even then, city staff admits this plan isn’t going to provide enough to fix what needs to be done to the roads. If McGallian has been part of city service for 12 years and the roads are still in deplorable condition, he is clearly part of the problem.
Hope, let me respond to a couple of your comments.
First, Laura’s organization, Concord Community Alliance (CCA), clearly has been an advocate for reducing police patrols:
“Significantly reduce police patrol staff, end use of gang member databases, eliminate qualified immunity, etc”
https://concordcommunitiesalliance.org/community-safety/defund-concord-pd-rebrands/
To say CCA is hostile to the police is an understatement.
Second, as far as Lennar is concerned, Tim was not even a member of the council when Lennar was selected. I thought you knew that since you and I both spoke at City Council meetings objecting to the Lennar choice. (The only person left on the council who originally voted for the Lennar selection is Edi.). Tim and the other members of the council will keep the Seeno partnership on a short leash. They are not beholden to Seeno and will cancel them if they don’t perform.
Third, Thanks to Tim’s work with the council and staff and his support for measure V, money is now set aside for a number of major road repairs, including Treat Blvd from the Walnut Creek border to Clayton road. That work starts next year and completes in 2024. Monument Blvd is also scheduled for resurfacing. Laura Nakamura on the other hand wants public transit and bike lanes to be prioritized ahead of road improvements supporting private vehicle traffic.
I responded to your comment that Concord Community Alliance wants to reduce police patrols because it is misleading. That group’s position does not revolve around patrols, as anyone who clicks on your link can see. You’ve cherry picked one sentence from multiple ideas about initiating community policing, which is what my comment references as part of their goal. People on this platform frequently complain about areas of the Monument or issues with drug addicts, homeless, etc. at Todos Santos. McGallian hasn’t provided any new ideas or requested any changes that would address any of those issues. So with him, you can expect more of the same.
McGallian supported the selection of Lennar during his time on the Planning Commission. He advocated right along beside Grayson the entire time. He wasn’t on the council when the first vote was taken but he advocated for their selection. He also voted himself as a member of the council to extend Lennar’s negotiating time multiple times and was very adamant Lennar stay on as master developer when the construction trades realized Lennar had duped them. He was also on council and voted to loan money from the general fund to the project multiple times without asking for an accounting of the money or why Lennar wasn’t paying part of it. You are once again being disingenuous about McGaillian’s role in Lennar costing the city $14M by saying he wasn’t on council for the first vote – as if the entire rest of his support for the company, knowing Lennar had already siphoned money from Vallejo and cheated CalPERS put of $900M, means nothing.
Council has already not got Seeno on a tight leash. Seeno has already blown its deadline to show even a draft set of financials on how they intend to fund the project. They are already not “performing” and council’s response is to already go behind closed doors with Seeno to decide how to present an explanation for the missing finances to the public. They voted for a developer that wouldn’t show them how it intends to pay for it. A developer with a long history of corruption. McGallian being elected to council changed nothing.
Lastly, every politician in CA raises taxes – that is not “making every effort.” He spent a bunch of time telling people to increase the sales tax on themselves – nothing else. And sales taxes are regressive – they take a bigger bite out of people with lower incomes and seniors on fixed incomes. Council better hope there isn’t a recession – the sales tax money is not a guarantee. They didn’t count on the pandemic and now not on the recession. How many more people will fall through the cracks and end up on the streets or self-medicating with cheaper street opioids. I do not expect one person to come up with the answer but this council, including McGallian, has literally offered no ideas to mitigate any of it.
Mike McDermott,
I’m not pro-Laura Nakamura, but I’m anti-Tim McGallian.
Why did you use the word “appointee” (to the Human Services Commission) for Laura Nakamura, while using the word “served” for any and all positions held by Tim McGallian? The fact is that Tim McGallian was APPOINTED to the Concord Planning Commission, he was APPOINTED Concord City Treasurer, he was APPOINTED to the Concord City Council, he was APPOINTED Vice Mayor of the City of Concord, and he was APPOINTED Mayor of the City of Concord, and yes, he did win election to the Concord City Council in 2018, but because we were forced into district elections and he ran unopposed, otherwise he stood a good chance of losing again just as he lost in 2012. That list of APPOINTED and elected positions is the pathway to higher office for a Concord POA and Garaventa funded candidate. The fact is that Tim McGallian doesn’t have his eyes on Concord, he has his eyes on higher office! Since Concord City Councilmember Laura Hoffmeister failed in her attempt to be appointed Contra Costa County Clerk/Recorder and Concord City Councilmembers Edi Birsan and Carlyn Obringer lost in their attempts to be elected to the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, this now puts Tim McGallian at the front of the line to run for higher office. Do you really want his replacement being chosen by the other 4 sitting Councilmembers with the next POA, Garaventa Family and their garbag company approved candidate?
You’ve decided to bash Laura Nakamura when it comes to “bike lanes” because she wants to follow state law. The fact is the “Complete Streets Act” requires cities and counties to make roadways available for not just cars, but and/or for pedestrians, and/or bicycles, and/or carpool lanes, and/or bus lanes, and/or light rail lines, and/or rail lines whenever these roadways are repaved. Your PRECIOUS, Tim McGallian, and the other 4 Concord City Councilmembers have already narrowed and/or removed existing traffic lanes in order to add bike lanes. If you aren’t aware the State of California declared a “War on Cars” more than a decade ago by purposely causing traffic and a lack of parking by not creating more lanes for cars and requiring less parking in an effort to force Californians into public transportation. I personally believe that bike lanes are underused and unused, and largely a waste of money and roadway space.
Homelessness in Concord isn’t going anywhere, so we should start dealing with it and managing it. The outrage over the suggestion that Newhall Park possibly be used as a city administered homeless encampment sounds like it has more to do with Concord City Council Districts 1, 4, and 5 actually having to deal with the number of homeless that District 2 and 3 already deal with. If you haven’t noticed Concord parks are already being used by the homeless. Having the City of Concord provide a piece of property, parks or otherwise, where the homeless have restroom facilities and running water benefit us all, so that our streets aren’t used in place of restrooms and so that water isn’t stolen from our fountains, businesses, and homes by the bucket full as is currently happening.
If elected, Laura Nakamura wouldn’t have the power to reallocate any of the Concord Police Department budget, she’d be one of five votes. You don’t have to worry about the District 1 election, Councilmember Laura Hoffmeister and candidate Robert Ring won’t be splitting the vote and electing Quinne Anderson. Candidate Quinne Anderson isn’t trying to win the election, she is attempting to get the vote of maybe 15% – 20% of District 1 voters.
TBK, I need to joust with you on a couple of points. Glad we agree on the futility of more bike lanes on major arterials, but I disagree that the council has zero influence on “complete street” design. If that were true, why do we see so many design alternatives presented?
I also completely disagree on your assumption that Tim is focused on running for higher office. Tim is focused on Concord, where is job and family reside. Just because other councilmembers have gone in that direction says nothing about Tim.
Do you think Concord, a city that struggles to fund basic city functions like road repair, park maintenance, and police protection can afford to set up and staff 24×7 several homeless encampments in our city parks?
This is a regional problem and what we need are members of the board of supervisors to step up and provide appropriate shelter space and mental heath services.
Do you know the size of the county budget? 4.4 Billion this fiscal year. About 35X the size of Concord. The county needs to expand homeless services and they have the resources to do it.
Mike McDermott,
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Yes, the Concord City Council has different designs to choose from when it comes to “complete streets” mandated by Sacramento. I believe we don’t yet have any “protected bike lanes” (although i think that’s what’s going in on Pine Hllow Road), but we either have “buffered bike lanes” or “sharrow bike lanes.” Our existing City Council oversaw the removal of a lane of traffic in favor of buffered bike lanes on Meridian Park Boulevard, Galaxy Way, and narrowed lanes to add a buffered bike lane downtown on Concord Boulevard/Clayton Road, and sharrow bike lane markings were just added to Chestnut Avenue.
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If you think Tim McGallian doesn’t have his eyes on higher office to become a career politician then you haven’t spoken with him or his family members. Yes, the other 4 Concord City Councilmembers also have eyes on higher office and becoming career politicians. I understand he’s interested in replacing that crooked preacher Tim Grayson in the California State Assembly in 2026.
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Homelessness isn’t a regional problem, it’s a national problem for urban and suburban cities across the country. If it was a regional problem then it would be dealt with by ABAG (an organization i despise) as they love “mission creep” of all kinds. You can believe it is the job of Contra Costa County to deal with homelessness but they aren’t, so it’s left to Concord to deal with it. I didn’t say homeless encampments had to be set up in Concord parks, i said property, including parks, i’d rather we not have to deal with it, but we do. The health and safety of Concord residents is what’s at stake, i don’t want someone to die or have a leg amputated because they stepped in human feces, as has happened in other cities across America. I believe having a designated area for the homeless with restroom facilities and fresh water available would be a better situation than what we have now. The courts have decriminalized homelessness and addiction, and the Concord City Council has repeatedly blamed “Bell v Boise” and its successor case, “Martin v Boise” as the cause of our current homeless problem.
TBK, Yes I know Tim. He is a neighbor of mine and I have known him for over 10 years. He has helped our HOA when I was on the BOD, he has volunteered at church and at his kids school. What you see is what you get with Tim. A real good guy. I walked with him recently doing some door knocking and no, he is not itching to move on and be a career politician.
I have nothing negative to say about our other council members either. All good, descent people even though I may disagree with particular policies. Although I strongly disagree with Laura Nakamura’s policies I know her and she is a very nice person.
I know nothing personally about 2 of the district 1 candidates. I agree with you that Robert Ring is being heavily promoted by CPOA and other status quo players. I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing, especially considering the alternative: Quinne Anderson who shares Laura Nakamura’s hyper-progressive policies.
I also agree with you that Tim Grayson has been a big disappointment. A 100% rubber stamp for the failed Sacramento leadership. Agreed: ABAG is a disaster.
Your frustration with the homeless situation is understandable. It is a tough nut to crack for a lot of reasons, and Sacramento has a lot to do with it. California has about 30% of the homeless in the entire country. That is evidence enough that California is uniquely horrible in terms of homeless policy.
I have no objections in theory to identifying a vacant lot for a shelter with toilets and showers. That sounds like a humane temporary solution. However if it was that simple, why aren’t all the other cities with a homeless problem doing this? Not even Oakland, a city with a huge budget, seems to be able to do this!
When McGallian was appointed as city Treasurer, he assured us that he would serve out the full term. Then he instantly did the opposite by applying for and accepting the appointment to city Council the moment an opening was available even though he had not served his full term as Treasurer as promised. This was when Grayson was elected to higher office and before district elections so McGallian was not applying for a seat with limited appointees due to where he lived. If you don’t think McGallian is waiting for his chance to move up, shame on you, you are on the fool me twice part of the old saying.
McGallian didn’t run for the Board of Supes because he knew he has not been successful being elected unless running against no one, he knew he could not get more votes than Obringer or Carlson, and he knew that, if he loyally followed the will of the people who dominate local politics (the Garaventas, Seenos, etc) who want Carlson elected, they would find a way for him to move up to higher office.
Debora Allen and Laura Nakamura have both thrown a wrench in the political machine’s planned progression of favored candidates. Whether you support either of them or not, it’s excellent to have a challenge to the status quo.
Mike McDermott,
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I think you forgot Boy Scouts on your list.
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I believe you’re wrong about Tim McGallian having dreams and desires to move onto higher office, as Hope Johnson has pointed out he already ditched one office for higher office, but time will tell which one of us will be correct in the future.
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I have to disagree with you about the Concord political machine of the CPOA, the Garaventa Family and their garbage company picking and funding their candidates, thereby convincing voters to vote-in their candidates with their propaganda.
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Just because Contra Costa County and the City of Oakland have larger budgets than Concord does doesn’t mean they have extra money laying around to set up a city maintained homeless encampment property, they have larger populations, larger areas, and larger problems than Concord does.
TBK, Oakland has a population of 434,000 and an annual budget of 2.2 billion.About $5,069 per person.
Concord has 124,000 people and a city budget of 110 million. About $887 per person. Huge ginormous difference.
Oakland has a huge Port, an international airport, numerous business HQ…and Concord has Park n Shop.
Martinez-vote no on Measure K. This is no time to be raising taxes. Don’t fall for the “it is for the children.”
Mr. Mayor of Claycord,
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Thank you for bringing back “Talk about LOCAL POLITICS,” whether the return is temporary or permanent, it is much appreciated and has been missed over the past year. Thank you.
You’re welcome, The Black Night. We’ll keep it around as long as there is interest in it. Election season is always a popular time to talk about local politics.
I have a wide circle of friends and business associates of various political affiliations. However I have yet to come across anyone who has ever voted for Gavin Newsom. Perhaps they are too embarrassed to admit to being taken.
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