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www.claytonpioneer.com
July 7, 2017
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Council approves new budget Revenues – Total Budget* 2017-18
JIM DIaz
MAYOR’S CORNER
City Council OKs 2017-18 budget
1.93% - The Grove Park
1.82% - Neighborhood St. Lights
4.46% Measure J 5.07% Gas Tax
15.71% - Landscape Maint. Dist.
1.93% - Stormwater 1.77% - Grants
3.59% - Misc. Other Funds**
Expenditures – Total Budget* 2017-18 2.81% Grants
2.48% - Stormwater
5.04% Misc. Other Funds**
1.74% - Neighborhood Street Lights 1.61% - The Grove Park
6.29% Gas Tax
8.49% - Measure J
53.54% - General Fund
TAMARA STEINER & CARINA ROMANO Clayton Pioneer
At its June 20 meeting, the City Council passed a balanced budget for FY 2017-18 with room to spare. At $4,455,080, the General Fund makes up the biggest portion of the city’s total budget, with 53 percent of that going to the police department. With projected revenues of $4,465,880, the General Fund will see a surplus of $10,830, the result of the police department running short-staffed for most of last year. The current fiscal year will close with a reserve bal-
The City Council approved 18.02% - Landscape 63.72% - General Fund its fiscal year 2017-’18 city budgMaint. Dist. et and the five-year Capital Improvement Program (CIP) budget on June 20. The city budget includes a $4.455 million General Fund **Includes following funds: GHAD, Presley Settlement, Dev Impact Fees, CERF, budget, a CIP budget of $2.817 Self Insurance, Endeavor Hall, and Successor Housing Agency.*Excludes Capital *Excludes Capital Improvement Program and Fiduciary Funds Improvement Program and Fiduciary Funds million, Other Funds budget of $4.817 million and a $711,000 plan to continue retiring the debt PROJECTED 2017-18 REVENUES WILL EXCEED EXPENDITURES by nearly $11K. additionally, an anticipated expense in the obligations of our Successor Successor agency last year failed to materialize, which gives the city $250,000 for a new Pension Stabilization Fund to See Budget, page 6 Agency (formerly the Redevel- help offset market fluctuations in the coming year. opment Agency). The General Fund services plan projects a modest annual surplus of $10,830 to address any contingencies in the coming year. All in all, city services continue on financially sound footing under the watchful leadership of Mayor Jim Diaz, who CARINA ROMANO finance manager Kevin Mizuno organizes the show, says that Pioneer Staff Intern and city manager Gary Napper. 20 to 25 vehicles are typically Clayton residents took a on display. A Local DJ, Don CAMERA SYSTEM IN drive down Memory Lane this Vogel, plays music from these FINAL STAGES At earlier public meetings, June with the commencement decades, filling the street with the City Council approved of the third annual Clayton cheer and nostalgia. Until three years ago, the agreements to purchase and Classic Car Show on Main owners of Skipolini’s Pizza install four camera systems for Street. produced the classic car show. Classic cars from the 1940s use by the Clayton Police When the restaurant could no Department. The two sets of to the 1970s stood in brilliantly longer put on the show cameras will be located at the colored rows, dazzling passersbecause of a lack of space, four entry and exit points to by as they shone in the late Diaz agreed to take over and evening sun. Every car was in Clayton. the City Council approved the This new technological tool pristine condition, so it was new venue in the public parkfor local law enforcement has easy to see the owners had ing lot next to the Clayton become more prevalent in Con- taken great care. Museum. The Clayton Classic Car tra Costa County and across the Dennis, a classic car owner nation as part of the constant Show is a free summertime who didn’t want his last name vigilance to maintain safe com- event, and classic car owners used, entered the first show on munities. It consists of Auto- from across Contra Costa June 14 with his light blue mated License Plate Readers County are invited to display 1958 Chevrolet Corvette. Den(ALPRs), plus “event” cameras their cars. The event occurs 6nis has presented it in other for use when follow-up criminal 8 p.m. every other Wednesday Carina Romano shows, but this was his first investigations become necessary through Sept. 6. Don’t miss T HE TOWN ’ S CLASSIC CAR SHOW IS BACK for the third year this summer. Head down to the next trip into the past on See Car Show, page 6 Main Street for cars and music from each decade since the 1940s. See Mayor, page 6 Wednesday, July 12.
Classic cars sizzle at Clayton’s summer shows
St. Bonaventure’s Mangini retires after 50 years CARINA ROMANO Pioneer Staff Intern
A young boy of five sat in a pew with his older cousin, looking up with wide eyes at the altar in Queen of All Saints Church in Concord. It was 1945, and the Catholic mass was still celebrated in Latin. Though the small boy did not understand the words the priest was speaking, he was fascinated by the liturgy, and looked forward to mass every Sunday. It was here, at the age of five, that Father Richard Mangini knew he wanted to become a priest. This summer, he has retired from the priesthood at St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Con-
siblings in downtown Concord, visiting his grandmother at the Mangini Ranch on the weekends. “I would say I had a very quintessential oldtown kind of growing up,” says Mangini. He portrays his childhood environment as happy and simple. “We weren’t poor, but we weren’t rich. We seemed to have had all that we needed.” Mangini’s family has lived in Concord for generations. “Our roots are very deep Concord native, Richard Mangini, will spend the first three here, and I feel very much at months of his retirement in Italy, where family and friends will home,” he says. “One of the visit him in his rented farmhouse outside of Lucca. things I enjoy about being a priest in the community so cord after 21 years. Born in Concord in 1940, many years later is still servLongtime Concord Resi- Mangini spent his early years ing many of the same famident living with his parents and lies with whom I grew up.”
Catholicism has always been a part of his life, and he never wavered in the decision he made at 5-years-old to become a priest. “I always had this sense that this is what I was called to be and to do,” says Mangini. When he was to begin high school, he chose to attend St. Joseph’s College, a high school and college seminary program in Mountain View. His parents wanted him to wait, feeling he was too young to go away to school. “It was like going to boarding school,” Mangini says. “But I prevailed upon it. It was what I really wanted to do.” He describes life at St. Joseph’s as very strict and
regimented, but he enjoyed it. Though many of his classmates ended up leaving seminary school, he never once questioned his calling. By the time his class graduated, only 13 of the original 53 students remained to move on to St. Patrick’s Seminary and University to complete their education.
See Mangini, page 6
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