When Did the City Know?
- Livable El Cerrito
- May 14
- 4 min read
When Did the City Know?
A report dated April 29, 2025 suggests that city officials and consultants may have been working with substantially higher cost projections months before those figures were publicly presented in January 2026.
The report from consultant Griffin Structures dated April 29, 2025, can be viewed here and states that costs were based on April 2025 values. That report lists the cost of a Plaza Station library as $37,224,000. Its cover also states that it was “re-issued in January 2026.”
It was on Jan. 20, 2026, that city staff members first presented the dramatically higher library cost estimates at a City Council meeting. A key piece of news was Griffin’s estimate that a new library at El Cerrito Plaza BART would cost about $37 million, not $21 million – a 75% increase.
City’s $21 Million Estimate
Public city materials and campaign messaging made reference to an approximately $21 million estimate beginning in 2023.
In December 2025, the City Clerk certified that the petitions submitted for the library tax initiative were sufficient to guarantee it would be placed on a future ballot.
Revised to $37 Million
The city did not revise its $21 million estimate until January 2026, when it announced a $37 million estimate.
It also released estimates from Griffin Structures for four other library alternatives.
In addition to about $37 million for a Plaza Station library, rough estimates for other library options (not including parking) were $10 million to renovate the existing 6,500-square-foot library, $29 million to rebuild and expand the existing library to 13,000 square feet, $41 million to build a new stand-alone library on a new site, and $29 million to renovate a not-yet-selected existing building into a library.
These estimates, presented in a slide show by Will Provost, assistant to the city manager; and Melanie Mintz, community development director, are identical to those in the Griffin report dated April 29, 2025 and re-issued in January 2026.
City “Was Working to Ensure Accurate Estimates”
Asked to explain what happened, Provost said in an email: “While the first drafts of the cost estimates were generated by Griffin Structures earlier in 2025, city staff was still working to refine the assumptions to ensure accurate estimates were provided to the City Council and community. The estimates were finalized and presented to the City Council after a detailed review and evaluation of all the assumptions.”
Provost added: “The date on the (Griffin) report…is misleading. April is when Griffin Structures was developing early drafts of the cost estimates, however it was not vetted and finalized until January 2026 when it was “re-issued,” and the information was shared publicly.”
Did Lack of An Updated Estimate Affect Decisions to Sign?
Several supporters of the ‘No on C’ campaign said that lower estimates -- particularly the claimed $21 million cost for a Plaza Station library -- might have helped persuade residents to sign petitions to place the measure on the ballot.
A leader of the ‘Yes on C’ campaign campaign said more current construction estimates would have been helpful when gathering signatures.
Posted, Reposted, and Much Discussed
The issue of whether the city received and was working with updated cost updates earlier in 2025 but did not share them was first raised by Ira Sharenow in a May 9 post on Nextdoor. Sharenow’s initial post was deleted from Nextdoor after it was reported as spam. Later that day it was reposted on the El Cerrito Wire Facebook page by editor Betty Buginas.
Asked about the reposting, Buginas wrote in an email: “I didn’t intend to repost Sharenow’s claim until I found out it had been removed. That made it newsworthy and I didn’t like the idea of information being suppressed.”
Perspectives on the Timeline
Livable El Cerrito spoke with several sources about the allegation that the city received substantially higher cost estimates months before disclosing them.
Council member William Ktsanes said, “If true, the accusations are disturbing. Though I wouldn’t expect it to take nine months, it’s certainly conceivable that a rough draft of the Griffin report was submitted for review prior to the release of the final report in January. Consultants often share drafts for updates and corrections before their final reports are released. I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions until we know more.”
Greg Lyman, a leader of the ‘Yes on C’ campaign, wrote in an email, “Wow, it would have been good to have had the Griffin report during the signature campaign. As you know, I generated my own numbers during the signature campaign because I did not trust the City’s 2023 estimate. The proposed tax can support the Griffin numbers for many of the alternatives.”
Barbara Chan, a leader of the ‘No on C’ campaign, said, “I’m very surprised. I wonder what was involved that it took such a long time to release that information. I don’t get to be a fly on the wall in City Hall so I don’t want to speculate.”
Thank you Liveable El Cerrito! After reading this, it is indeed another reason to Vote NO on MEASURE C.
Thank you for this post, we are fortunate to have your investigative efforts - seems like a rare commodity in EC politics.
I know you have been trying to be fair to both sides of the Library Tax debate. But this looks like more of the same from City Hall and the City Manager’s allies on the City Council.
This whole project has been shady from the start This is just more proof.
Wow! This is shocking! I wonder if the city broke any laws by trying to hide this information from the public.
Wow! Thank you for doing this research.