I can’t remember the last time the City of Brentwood made this many headlines in such a short amount of time. But congratulations, everyone. You’re becoming regulars!
Unfortunately, nobody nationally is talking about Brentwood because City Hall cracked the code on economic development, fixed traffic, attracted some incredible businesses or created the greatest local government in California.
Nope.
Brentwood keeps making headlines because weird crap keeps happening.
And after enough weird crap happens, you have to stop pretending it’s bad luck.
Brentwood, you have a City Council problem.
The latest masterpiece involves City Manager G. Harold Duffey, whose salary jumps from $304,515 to $313,650—even though he’s been on leave since June.
How? Because when Brentwood negotiated Duffey’s employment agreement, somebody thought it was brilliant to guarantee him a minimum 5% base salary differential above the highest-paid employee reporting to him.
That’s right. Somebody gets a raise underneath him?
Cha-ching.
The city manager gets pulled up with them.
Great gig if you can get it.
And before everybody starts screaming that the contract requires it—THAT’S THE POINT.
The city council negotiated poorly. No one read it and said, “yep, fantastic deal for Brentwood taxpayers. Sign us up”?
And let’s not forget the cherry on top: the guy Brentwood should have hired is now running the City of Pittsburg and cleaning up that city.
You almost have to admire it.
Brentwood whiffs on the hire and the City of Pittsburg gets the prize.
Then Came the Flock Fiasco
The council approves 32 Flock cameras for police last March. Pretty simple stuff, 32 cameras, rules in place and somehow the city couldn’t stick the landing.
Instead, cameras apparently ended up approved for public access when they weren’t supposed to be. Partly Flock’s fault? Absolutely. But staff owns plenty of this disaster.
How does nobody catch this?
At some point, somebody needs to say what everyone else is thinking: These guys aren’t nearly as smart as they think they are.
And unfortunately, we have receipts of many more times Brentwood has made headlines.
Shall We Go Down the List?
Yolanda Ramirez:
Whatever you believe about every allegation in the case, it brought enormous scrutiny to Brentwood and its police department from the start by fumbling transparency.
Once again, Brentwood becomes the story instead of simply running the city.
Vinnie’s:
Another situation that somehow became a full-blown municipal circus. Brentwood City Hall has this incredible superpower where something that should require a screwdriver somehow turns into a complete engine rebuild. Planning Commissioner Rod Flohrs comments during this discussion should have had him removed the next day.
Fighting Fire Stations:
This one remains insane to me.
Brentwood continues approving growth with more houses, residents, cars, calls for service and somehow we get city officials actively advocating against fire station proposals – to the point of going to war with Contra Costa Count Fire Protection District.
Outstanding.
Apparently we can approve thousands of homes but when somebody asks how emergency services are supposed to keep up, suddenly everyone becomes a fiscal conservative.
Maybe the fire engines can just drive faster.
Problem solved. But not at an additional $500k to taxpayers over brick color and shapes of windows thanks to the Brentwood City Council.
Fighting County Services
Then there’s the bizarre obsession with taking shots at county services and the new administrative building.
Here’s your geography lesson for the day:
- Brentwood is in Contra Costa County.
- Your residents pay county taxes.
- Your residents use county services.
Maybe stop treating every disagreement with another public agency like it’s a UFC title fight.
Not everything needs to become a turf war and stop trying to send residents 40 miles west to the City of Martinez and dealing with Highway 4 each time they want to get a copy of a birth certificate or get veterans services.
The City Attorney
Somehow Brentwood managed to hire a city attorney whose previous work involving the City of Antioch should have caused somebody to say: “Maybe we should ask a few more questions.”
Instead? Welcome aboard!
Apparently reference checks are optional and Google Search didn’t work that day.
Run the Economic Development Director Out of Town
This one deserves an award because Brentwood had a talented economic development director.
So naturally, instead of turning him loose and saying, “Go bring us economic development,” City Hall managed to frustrate the guy and run him out of town after failing to let him do his job, particularly involving PA-1. He is now in Stockton and thriving.
Imagine hiring Tom Brady and telling him he’s not allowed to throw the football. Then wondering why he leaves.
That’s Brentwood economic development in a nutshell these days.
A Councilmember’s Husband vs. a Priest
Yes. That’s a real sentence I just typed.
During campaign season, a councilmember’s husband ends up going after a priest.
Because apparently Brentwood politics wasn’t weird enough already.
Normal cities argue about potholes.
Brentwood somehow unlocks the priest storyline.
Jan 28, 2025 City Council Planning Commission Appointment meeting
Planning Commissioner: Conscience Over Law
Then the council appoints a planning commissioner who essentially says he’ll follow his conscience instead of the law.
Fantastic.
That’s generally not how government works.
You don’t get appointed to a public body and then announce you’re operating under the Choose Your Own Adventure version of municipal code.
And the council kept him.
Of course they did.
Commissioner Rod Flohr demanding businesses conform to Brentwood.
Planning Commission: Business Optional
Then there’s another planning commissioner who appears to view economic development as an opportunity to remake Brentwood according to his own personal vision.
Businesses?
Jobs?
Tax revenue?
Property rights?
Apparently secondary considerations.
The question shouldn’t be: “Would I personally like this business?”
The question should be: “Is it legal, appropriate for the location and beneficial to Brentwood?”
This isn’t your personal SimCity game Mr. Flohr.
Photo via Lazy Dog concord FB Page.
Want to Open a Business in Brentwood?
Godspeed.
Alcohol.
Tobacco.
Tattoos.
Conditional Use Permits.
Pick your poison.
Brentwood talks a fantastic game about economic development and then sometimes treats actual businesses like they’re trying to open a nuclear reactor next to an elementary school.
And we’re not just talking about new businesses.
Look at the treatment of some existing businesses.
Why would somebody dump hundreds of thousands—or millions—into Brentwood when City Hall can turn a routine business issue into a political cage match?
Cities all over California are begging entrepreneurs: PLEASE INVEST HERE.
Brentwood’s message sometimes feels closer to: PROVE TO US YOU DESERVE TO EXIST.
Then everyone scratches their heads wondering why economic development isn’t moving faster.
Mystery solved.
The Ice Rink
This might be the crown jewel.
Brentwood managed to drive an ice rink out of town. A rink that families enjoyed and people actually used. It also brought activity downtown.
So naturally?
Get it out of here.
Then turn around and contemplate spending significantly more taxpayer money on a two-day event involving temporary sheds.
You couldn’t write this script.
“Hey, should we keep the private operator providing an attraction people like?”
Nah.
“Should we spend more public money recreating activity for two days?”
NOW YOU’RE TALKING.
Absolute galaxy-brain government.
Then They Tried the Media Policy
And this one was spectacular.
Brentwood entertained a policy governing where city advertising dollars could go and the standards media organizations would have to meet.
Translation?
City Hall gets to decide who qualifies for taxpayer-funded advertising while those same outlets are covering City Hall.
What could possibly go wrong?
You want favorable media coverage?
Here’s my media policy: STOP DOING STUPID STUFF.
Costs taxpayers zero dollars.
Requires no consultant.
Fits on one page.
You’re welcome.
At Some Point, It’s Not Bad Luck
Here’s the thing.
One controversy, it happens. But this keeps happening. Its now its becoming a rerun because the bad choices are now impacting multiple areas of the city from planning commission appointments to contracts to staff hires.
My list was much longer but I started developing carpal tunnel typing it out.
The problem comes down to the Brentwood city council decision making.
Yet somehow there always seems to be another explanation:
- Staff screwed up.
- Flock screwed up.
- Contra Costa County sucks.
- The Contra Costa County Fire Protection District sucks.
- Businesses don’t understand.
- Residents don’t understand.
- The media is mean.
- Mercury must be in retrograde.
Anything except: Maybe we’re making bad decisions.
That’s leadership.
You don’t get to take credit when everything goes well and then suddenly become an innocent bystander every time the clown car crashes into the guardrail.
Brentwood Doesn’t Need to Save the World
This City Council seems increasingly focused on impressing outsiders instead of taking care of the people actually living and doing business here. Enough!
Brentwood is a city of roughly 70,000 people.
You’re not running California.
You’re not negotiating Middle East peace.
You’re not fixing Washington.
You’re running Brentwood.
Fix roads.
Plan infrastructure.
Support police and fire.
Attract businesses.
Stop screwing with existing businesses.
Spend taxpayer money responsibly.
Hire competent people.
Let competent employees actually do their jobs.
Read the damn contracts before approving them.
And when something obviously isn’t working, fix it instead of holding a workshop to discuss scheduling a future workshop about potentially fixing it – a consultant, to consult, with the consultant and then another consultant, that is played out.
This should not be this difficult.
Municipal government is supposed to be boring.
Boring is good.
Nobody wakes up wanting to see Brentwood trending locally, statewide and nationally because City Hall stepped on another rake.
And maybe the council should embrace one simple governing philosophy: Stop being weird.
Stop picking unnecessary fights.
Stop pretending every criticism is an attack.
Stop making businesses jump through flaming hoops.
Stop treating other public agencies like enemies.
Stop creating problems and then congratulating yourselves for studying the problems you created.
Just run the damn city.
Because Brentwood doesn’t have a PR problem.
It doesn’t have a media problem.
It doesn’t have a county problem.
It doesn’t have a business problem.
It has a leadership problem.
And right now, that leadership sits behind the dais.
Brentwood, you have a Mayor and city council problem. These decisions simply just are not aging well.
Mike Burkholder
Publisher of ContraCosta.news
[email protected]
