Richmond, California
A civic pamphlet. Not a newspaper. No ads. Nothing for sale.
Publius
21 May 2026.
There is an honest little document that every city produces once a year and nobody reads. It is the write-off. It lists the money the City was owed and has given up on: bills unpaid, accounts gone cold, debtors who moved or folded. It is the municipal equivalent of cleaning out the refrigerator. Nobody enjoys it, and everything in there has been in there too long.
On May 19, on the consent calendar, the Council adopted a resolution writing off $535,499.12 in delinquent and uncollectible accounts receivable. Half a million dollars, gone with a single motion and no discussion.
I do not object to the write-off. Carrying dead receivables on the books is worse than admitting they are dead. Auditors like a clean ledger, and so should residents. But a write-off is also a confession, and a confession deserves at least a moment of silence. What were these accounts? How old? Which departments failed to collect, and why? The answer to those questions is how a city learns to collect next time. The consent calendar is not where anyone asks.
The same night, the Council found time for item Q.1, a presentation on the proposed Montezuma CO2 Hub and a resolution opposing carbon-dioxide pipelines through Richmond, Contra Costa, and Solano counties. The resolution passed 5–0. It was heard, discussed, and voted on, which is more than the half million got.
And on the consent calendar, pulled out for a separate vote, was the Complete Streets funding allocation plan, which decides how a pot of street money gets split among paving, streetscape, and the rest. That passed 4–3, Councilmembers Bana, Brown, and Zepeda with the Mayor in favor, and Councilmembers Jimenez and Wilson and Vice Mayor Robinson against.
So, tallied by attention: a pipeline that has not been built got a presentation and a resolution. A street plan that will decide which potholes get filled got a split vote with no recorded explanation in the minutes. And half a million dollars the City will never see got nothing at all.
I do not say the pipeline is unimportant. Carbon pipelines carry real risk, and a city is entitled to say so. I say only that the City’s own ledger is closer to home than Solano County, and that a Council with limited hours has to choose where to point the lamp. On May 19 it pointed the lamp at the horizon and left the ledger in the dark.
A practical suggestion, free of charge: when the write-off comes next year, pull it from consent. Ask staff to list the five largest accounts and the reason each was lost. It would take ten minutes. It might save a good deal more than ten minutes’ worth of money.
The next regular meeting of the City Council is Tuesday, May 26, 2026.
— Publius