Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...PINOLE — Long-term structural budget deficits in Pinole are the focus of a 2026 Contra Costa County Civil Grand Jury report, with the body warning the city needs to get on more stable footing and the city acknowledging there’s work to do.
Titled “Pinole’s Financial Future: It’s a Rough Road,” the report raises specific concerns with the city’s practice of plugging budget holes using one-time funding against its stated financial policies.
Meanwhile, unfunded pension and retiree health liabilities have continued to grow, investments into capital improvements like road repairs have lagged, and the city has lacked the urgency required to address its fiscal health, the body of 19 citizen volunteers argued in the report.
The city of 18,500 residents and a near $30 million budget faces about $80 million in unfunded pension and retiree health liabilities, and about $60 million in road rehabilitation and other infrastructure costs.
“Pinole’s current financial trajectory poses serious risks to its long-term fiscal stability and its ability to maintain essential public services. Choices made by Pinole’s leadership in the next few years will be consequential for the financial and operational health of Pinole,” read the report, published May 8.
The civil grand jury offered the city six recommendations it believes will help correct course: abide by the city’s Financial and Investment Policies for adopting structurally balanced budgets moving forward, direct staff to prepare operating budgets with expenditures that match revenue sources, adopt a long-term plan by fiscal year 2027-28 for balancing its budget, engage the public on how to address fiscal challenges, develop a plan for addressing road improvements, and direct staff to review funding options like asset sales to help fund pension liabilities.
Budget issues are not unknown to the city, having been detailed in a 2024 report by Baker Tilly Management Partners and detailed in the civil grand jury report.
Pinole officials have been grappling with issues raised in the report for months now among individual departments, in subcommittee meetings, and as a City Council.
“The City of Pinole is well aware of the budgetary (and road) challenges it faces this year and into the future. This is an active challenge for many communities in the Bay Area,” Pinole spokesperson Fiona Epps said in a statement.
Some civil grand jury recommendations are already in motion.
Staff have developed a more long-term financial planning vision, dubbed the “Yellow Brick Road,” that will be presented June 16. That plan calls for cutting the city’s deficit from about $4 million to zero through measures like freezing staff vacancies, cutting department expenditures by 6%, foregoing 3% cost-of-living wage increases, and utilizing reserves.
Those measures would be implemented in the 2026-27 budget, which includes a $4.3 million structural deficit if approved by the council on June 23.
“Ultimately, it comes down to must haves, should haves, and nice to have,” interim City Manager Garrett Evans said during a June 2 budget discussion.
The latest budget proposal preserves $480,000 of funding for the Pinole Community Television program, which has aired city meetings, local sports games, debates, and other events for about 40 years.
The program brings in about $200,000 of its own revenue but requires more than twice that amount from the city general fund to operate. Cuts to the program were suggested in the civil grand jury report, but attempts to do so this budget cycle inspired pushback from program staff and councilmembers.
“We have tried to provide more visibility to City Hall, more accessibility to information, and staff have produced and delivered on that. And people have gotten used to that and it’s wonderful,” Councilmember Norma Martinez-Rubin said during the June 2 meeting. “It’s very difficult to take away something that has worked well.”
Also taken off the chopping block was a $15,000 expenditure for the city’s Senior Lunch Day program.
Tave noted the program has been an important resource for seniors. Cutting it was a “nonnegotiable,” for Councilmember Cameron Sasai, who warned impacts of federal cuts made by Republicans to medical and food assistance programs still loom for vulnerable populations.
“Right now we’re going through an affordability crisis,” Sasai said. “I appreciate staff for identifying that, but that’s something that should not be cut because I believe that it really is unconscionable to cut that at this time.”