Concord council reviews goals, from homelessness to climate change

CONCORD, CA (Apr. 23, 2024) — Every spring, the City Council holds a Saturday session for goal setting wherein the staff, led by the city manager, makes a presentation on what the top and secondary goals were last year and what was accomplished, setting the stage for our discussion on what the goals should be for the next fiscal year.

It is also an opportunity for councilmembers and the public to pitch what they would like to see emphasized.

As part of my preparation for this, I talk to people in line at Safeway, sitting around Peet’s Coffee, stopping them in their dog-walking tracks and even door to door. The question I ask is simple: “What three goals should the city work on?” I give no examples so as not to slant the results.

Overwhelmingly, the No. 1 goal was to address homelessness. The views on approach were evenly split between a compassionate “we need to help the homeless get off the street” to “we need to just get them off the street,” expressing exasperation or fatigue.

Then by a significant margin came “fix the roads” and public safety. Even when I explain that we are in the middle of $114 million of roadwork and they can see the results on Treat, Meadow Lane, Willow Pass, Oak Grove, etc., they still point to other streets that are not done. We’re on it.

As for public safety, the most common focus is for more traffic cops. We have three, but had 12 a decade ago. Now that more roads are fixed, people have decided that they can drive like they’re attempting to reach Star Trek’s warp speed. The increase of safety technology such as drones and license plate readers continues to be welcomed.

Staff reminded us that we have additional nearly classic goals to carry over, namely:

• Base redevelopment.
• The two-year budget cycle that starts this July.
• The Housing Element.

Plus, what is described as a heavy lift: the entire rework of the city’s enterprise software program across all departments. (I love computers; it’s software I hate.)

Also important is economic development to attract more jobs and industries to the city, which leads to a Tier 2 goal to review the policy on street vendors that are having a negative impact on retail grocers, particularly in the Monument Corridor.

Climate change

Finally, the council brought up climate change issues as a focus point. In discussion, we found out that we were not fully aware of the things that the city staff has already done. We have requested an update on this, so we can pass it on to you all and add to it.

One of the points raised was that we are spending a lot of effort fixing our roads, but we are converting more to electric vehicles as part of the clean air effort. However, an all-electric bus weighs eight times more than a gasoline bus – leading to more road damage.

Setting goals, like so much in life, is a delicate balancing act that we look forward to accomplishing.

Send comments and questions to EdiBirsan@gmail.com.