Concord staff, council ready to maintain city’s quality of life

We are only days away from an election that will most certainly have a long-lasting effect on our country.

Regardless of the outcome, the city of Concord, every council member, every city employee and I, as your mayor, will continue to make Concord a remarkable place to live, work and play.

Our police officers will continue to protect our community. Our hard-working staff will continue to maintain our roadways, parks and playgrounds. The City Council will chart a course in the next year to make sure we can continue to deliver on our promise of making Concord a city of the highest quality, but it won’t be without a few bumps in the road. For that, I ask for your patience and continued resilience as we go down this path together.

In the early spring of each year, the council meets to discuss our top priorities for the year ahead. But that meeting did not happen this year. March 16, 2020, changed our lives and added to our priorities as we all began sheltering in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

My fellow council members and I pulled together as a team and knew what needed to be done in the midst of unprecedented times. We mobilized around creating programs to provide food for our community, helping seniors with meals and lending a helping hand.
We passed an urgency ordinance imposing a temporary rent moratorium on evictions and rent increases for residential and commercial tenants. We secured Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding and distributed those funds to Concord-based Shelter, Inc to help more than 125 families retain housing. We established a program working with the county’s Coordinated Outreach Referral, Engagement (CORE) team to place 37 unsheltered individuals in 15 Concord hotels rooms and provide a portable bathroom and hand-washing station for the unhoused.

We partnered with the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano Counties, St. Vincent De Paul, White Pony Express, First 5 Contra Costa and Kaiser Permanente to create a food distribution center that continues to support the region.

We established a small business grant program with CARES Act funding in partnership with the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce to support 130 small business with $5,000 grants and provide students in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District with more than 250 Chromebooks.

To better connect with residents, we launched a digital newsletter, developed virtual special events and recreational activities, and held multiple town hall meetings in order to keep everyone connected and informed.

So, what’s next? There are still many new things on the horizon, but some of our ongoing priorities will remain at the top of our list, including continuing to work on our fiscal stability, infrastructure improvements, public safety program expansion and improvements, and pandemic recovery.

But we are also looking to next year, when we will be restarting the Concord Naval Weapons Station Base Reuse Project. We will work on selecting new cannabis operators through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process, support new housing being built in our downtown and continue to plan for the future of this great city.

This past year has taught us all to lean on one another, care for one another and help one another in a time of need. We should all be proud of how so many in our community have responded.

As we start to slowly get back to work and kids begin to return to school, let us not forget what it took to get to this place. We need to continue to take safety precautions in wearing masks, washing our hands, testing and following the best practices in public health so that we can all get through this pandemic safely – and stronger – together.

Mayor Tim McGallian can be reached at 925.671.2489 or email Tim.McGallian@cityofconcord.org