The Concord City Council has selected a new mayor and vice mayor. Laura Nakamura on Tuesday was chosen as mayor and Dominic Aliano as vice mayor, both in unanimous 5-0 votes by the council. Concord’s mayor runs the council meetings, among other ceremonial duties.
Outgoing mayor Carlyn Obringer at Tuesday’s meeting thanked her family, current and former colleagues, and other supporters before the vote to install Nakamura in the role of mayor. Nakamura said she was “truly grateful for the opportunity given to me tonight here by my colleagues” and also thanked her family and supporters in attendance.
She talked about some of the challenges the city faces, including the long-delayed redevelopment of the Concord Naval Weapons Station, the city’s structural budget deficit, a lack of affordable housing in the area, and the need to find a new city manager after current City Manager Valerie Barone retires at the end of the fiscal year in June 2026.
Yawn. Same old crowd, saying the same old things, doing the same old jobs, and failing the same old ways.
Yep the same group constantly keeping others out of “their” sandbox…the whole city council should be removed and the positions need to be elected by citizen vote with citizen oversight. Minimally there needs to be term limits.
bddp,
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When Laura Nakamura was running for office in 2022 and was asked about term limits, she responded, “elections are term limits.”
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Mayor Laura Nakamura is in her final year of her 1st term, 4th year.
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Vice Mayor Dominic Aliano is in his final year of his 2nd term, 8th year.
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Councilmember Laura Hoffmeister is in her final year of her 7th term, 29th year, as her first term was extended to a five year term, due to the change of the Concord City Council, City Clerk (voters passed Measure G in 2008 to make the position of City Clerk an appointed position beginning after the 2010 elections), and City Treasurer (voters rejected Measure J in 2012 to make the position of City Treasurer an appointed position after yhe 2014 elections) elections going from odd year elections to even year elections.
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Councilmember Carlyn Obringer is in her second year of her 3rd term, 10th year.
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Councilmember Pablo Benavente is in his second year of his first term, 2nd year.
You are welcome to get elected and join tbe party…
Why would anyone with good character values want to become a member of a corrupt and self-centered mob of politicians?
Not really the same old crowd at all. While 3 councilmembers are undoubetedly backed by the same local rainmakers, two of them – Nakamura and Benevente – are both fresh faces serving out their first term. In fact, they both won uphill races, unseating incumbent mayors who had both served multiple council terms and multiple years as mayor. In fact, the only one left of “The Seeno Three” is Dominic Aliano.
Never heard of them.
The city needs to go outside and find a new City Manager and not put Justin Ezell in that job. He would be a disaster just like he was as the Public Works Director. Concord needs a city manager who will hold the incompetent Dept head’s accountable and curb the wasteful spending that goes on. The Dept Heads treat their budget like it belongs to them and not public funds. It is shame how much waste goes on while the current city manager’s motto is “let the departments run their operation” from home since most of them are rarely in the office.
radar,
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Since the Concord City Council has requested Concord City Manager Valerie Barone to stay on the job for an additional 6 months to give them time to find a replacement, it suggests that they won’t replace her with Deputy City Manager Justin Ezell, despite their constant mantra of wanting to promote from within, unless they have no other candidates to choose from.
The City Council asked her to stay because the city will go into negotiations with all the bargaining groups in January and they want to get a contract done by the end of the fiscal year. The city has squandered so much money so they don’t have any. As a result, I doubt they will get agreements with the bargaining groups.
Dominic is a nice guy, I only know him a bit. I am sure he leans left of me (not sure there are many right of me), but in my chats with him, nothing was regarding politics. Not sure the level of execution the Mayor would have, and even less so what a Vice Mayor would have.
Vice Mayor Laura Nakamura and Councilmember Dominic Aliano shouldn’t have voted for themselves for mayor and vice mayor, they should’ve abstained, these shouldn’t have been 5-0 votes, but 4-0 votes. The fact that they voted for themselves, tells us exactly what they think of themselves.
Forgive me, but that’s a silly criticism. You’re either ill-informed or being intellectually dishonest. The way decisions on Council are made that one councilmember makes a motion, and once it gets a second, it goes to public comment and then comes to a vote by the body. In this case, the outgoing mayor made a motion nominating the vice mayor. It would be weird to have the incoming mayor vote against that nomination, essentially declining the nomination, especially considering everyone else up there was onboard. If you’re saying the nominated individual shouldn’t be allowed to vote on that decision, you’re asking for a procedural change. Unless/until that change comes to fruition, criticising a member of a voting body for voting is ridiculous.