Analysis: The Top Questions Facing Martinez Officials and Residents in 2024
Refinery woes, officer-involved shooting investigation, city and school district budget challenges, housing goals and waterfront revival top list of topics to follow; plus, election preview
I’m taking some brief time off to start the new year but thought I’d share some quick thoughts on what’s ahead for the city and its residents in 2024, based on all that I and my colleagues reported in this newsletter in 2023. So here are my top five issues for the year in the form of questions (since I don’t know the answers at this point).
The PBF refinery as seen from Parkway Drive near Mountain View Park on New Year’s Day.
What will 2024 hold for the PBF refinery and the various questions and investigations swirling around its operations?
Any thought that the questions surrounding the November 2022 spent catalyst/toxic dust release at PBF Energy’s Martinez refinery, as well as the facility’s overall safety, would be quickly resolved fell by the wayside in 2023. A string of hazardous materials incidents in 2023 further shook the community and tested the patience of city leaders, culminating in a sea of outrage directed at refinery officials at the last City Council meeting of the year. Meanwhile, various federal and local investigations have dragged on with no end in sight, and no evidence yet of smoking guns showing illegal behavior or gross negligence on the part of the refinery. Will refinery officials get their act together and begin to restore public trust in the facility by preventing more unplanning flaring and releases in 2024? Will the investigations by Contra Costa District Attorney, Contra Costa Health (CCH), Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), FBI and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency turn up any hard evidence of chronic mismanagement and unsafe practices at the refinery? Finally, will the lingering court fight be resolved over whether the refinery is required to install a device known as a “wet gas scrubber” to comply with a new BAAQMD rule on reducing particulate emissions? The planned start of that trial on that question was delayed into 2024 as negotiations continue between the refinery and air district on a possible settlement to the refinery’s lawsuit.
What will be the fallout from the Velvet Cannabis officer-involved fatal shooting?
The August killing of a 20-year-old burglary suspect by Martinez police officers outside the Velvet Cannabis dispensary remains under investigation by the state Department of Justice. No developments in that investigation have been announced since police released video footage from police body and dispensary surveillance cameras in late September. The video footage raised more questions than answers in terms of the central question of whether officers’ use of force was warranted, as the burglary suspect who was killed appeared to be driving away from the scene when officers opened fire on his vehicle. Another question that remains unanswered is why one of the officers’ body cameras was not turned on during the shooting. In addition to the state DOJ probe, the Martinez Police Department initiated a separate administrative investigation by an outside firm into whether the officers’ actions complied with department policies and procedures. Will these independent investigations resolve these questions in 2024, and, if so, what, if any, fallout will there be for the city and police department? And will city officials move ahead with a proposal to amend the city’s cannabis ordinance provision requiring 24/7 on-site security at dispensaries, particularly in light of last week’s fatal shooting of an Oakland cop while responding to an overnight burglary cannabis dispensary in that city?
How will the city and school district navigate the budget challenges ahead?
Both the city and Martinez Unified School District are facing financial headwinds and the prospect of budgetary belt tightening. In both cases, one-time funding sources related to the COVID-19 pandemic are expiring, in the face of rising expenses (largely the result of inflation-induced pay increases for employees amid a tight labor market) and stagnant revenues. In the case of the city, years of declining population are beginning to weigh on tax revenues (fewer residents means fewer people buying goods and services). According to state Department of Finance estimates, Martinez’s population fell from 37,537 in April 2020 to 36,543 as of January 2023. Similarly, the school district has seen its enrollment fall by nearly 10% over the past four years, cutting into its Average Daily Attendance (ADA) funding. The school district is also in the midst of contentious contract negotiations with its teachers union, which, despite significantly cooling inflation numbers and the district’s structural budget deficit, is asking for a 9.5% pay hike on top of the 19% increases granted over the past two years.
Will the city make progress on its housing goals?
With its revised 2023-31 Housing Element submitted to the state for certification, we should start to see some signs in 2024 of whether Martinez will finally make long-awaited progress in creating affordable housing. Previous Housing Elements have done little more than collect dust, with the city failing miserably to even approach state-mandated targets for housing creation. Will this time be different? The answer may go a long way toward determining whether the city and school district can climb out of their budget woes. The traditional narrative about housing growth serving as a drain on public resources and budgets has largely been flipped on its head in the wake of a steady population decline that have impacted tax revenues and school district attendance that is a key generator of school funding. School board members and district officials seemed to be waking up to that fact at their last meeting of 2023, which was dominated by the district’s budget challenges and featured some discussion about whether they could play a more active role on the housing front, both to provide places where their employees can afford to live and where families can afford to send their children to school. There is also a growing realization that a lack of stable, permanent affordable housing is directly related to Martinez’s continuing struggles with homelessness, which continued to be a focus of attention and concern in 2023.
Will Martinez’s dream of a waterfront revival start to become reality?
Renovating and reviving the city’s marina and waterfront area has been a signature issue for first-term mayor Brianne Zorn, and the City Council spent a big chunk of 2023 working through visions, plans and details for a waterfront revival at workshops and meetings. The blueprint is now headed to the State Lands Commission for approval. The vision for the waterfront is anticipated to take decades to be fully realized, but will it start to at least come into view with tangible action and changes in 2024? The first step will be badly needed marina repairs.
Looking ahead to election season
As we all know, 2024 is also an election year, and there will be big races to keep an eye on locally as well as nationally. Two City Council seats (currently held by Mark Ross and Satinder Malhi) will be up for election. There will be three open seats on the Martinez Unified School District Board of Trustees (ones currently occupied by Courtney Masella-O’Brien, Anne Horack Martin and Carlos Melendez). There will be a race to succeed retiring Contra Costa County Supervisor Federal Glover. And Martinez will get a new representative in the state Assembly to fill the seat currently occupied by Tim Grayson, who is running for state Senate.
But before we get to November, Martinez voters will decide in the March primary whether to do away with the city’s elected city clerk position (which performs a largely ceremonial role) and empower the city manager to appoint a full-time city clerk.
For the past 20 years we have seen the City Clerk but 3 times...would a hired City Clerk do more work? The person you see at the Hall and taking minutes at CC is the deputy city clerk.