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East Palo Alto’s priorities and budget discussion turned to personal attacks at a City Council meeting last week, after Vice Mayor Mark Dinan and council member Carlos Romero clashed over a new proposal to boost funding for the YMCA.
The spat came as the council adopted its list of priorities for 2025 and 2026, a list that includes civic engagement, governance, organizational strength and fiscal sustainability, comprehensive housing, land use, economic and workforce development, parks, recreation and community facilities, public health, safety and quality of life and public infrastructure and utilities.
City council voiced support and passed the priorities with minimal comments at the June 3 meeting.
Things got feisty, however, when council members debated a list of projects that would fall under those priorities, including creation of a residential parking permit program, development of a home repair program, a Sister City initiative and subsidies for YMCA memberships. The new projects would cost over $1.6 million despite the city being in a $2 million general fund deficit.
All “hell broke loose,” City Council member Ruben Abrica said, when the council began adding new changes to the project list.
The biggest split came over funding for a program under which the city would help pay for YMCA memberships for low-income families. City staff had recommended allocating $100,000 of transient-oriented-tax funds – hotel taxes dedicated to youth-based organizations – to YMCA membership subsidies.
Dinan argued for a much higher subsidy and asserted that the city has not been spending enough on recreation services.
“The city of East Palo Alto has neglected parks and recreation, it’s neglected community services as long as I’ve been here,” Dinan said.
Council member Carlos Romero quickly pushed back, asking to postpone the decision so other local organizations had the opportunity to make a case for the funds. He was irked when Dinan and Mayor Martha Barragan attempted to move forward with a motion to increase YMCA funding to $300,000 without further discussion.
“You cannot run a meeting this way, we have a council member that wanted to speak on it, that is dispiteous,” Romero said.
Romero also took issue with Dinan’s assertions that the city has neglected local recreation services, calling them “just false” and citing the city’s history of directing money from hotel taxes and Measure C toward these services.
“That your child doesn’t want to go to multi-racial groups that are doing basketball and football and all this other stuff, that’s another issue, that you think they should only go to the YMCA,” Romero said.
Dinan took issue with this comment and suggested that Romero can’t relate to local families because he doesn’t have children of his own. He called the reference to his child a “cheap political point.”
“You don’t have kids Carlos, you don’t know what’s going on,” Dinan said.
Romero called Dinan’s argument “specious” and countered that having a child does not give him the right to unilaterally make budget decision. After minutes of bickering, the council took a brief recess recommendation. When they returned, Romero apologized for offending Dinan and Mayor Barragan suggested a compromise: increasing YMCA’s funding to $175,000.
East Palo Alto’s city council voted 4-1, with Romero dissenting, to move forward with all of the proposed projects and increased YMCA funding.
The contentious meeting reflects a quickly changing dais. Since Webster Lincoln and Dinan joined the council in November 2024, the group has clashed with the veteran council members over longstanding city practices and new costly initiatives like adding a new staff member for low-level code enforcement.
“If we had all the money in the world, I would certainly add these things but at this point, I think, caution is advised,” Romero said.
Aside from YMCA debates, council members Romero and Abrica voiced concerns about setting aside funding for a parking permit plan before its official adoption in July.
City staff were only able to provide “ballpark” estimates on the parking permit program costs, but Dinan and councilmember Lincoln suggested that permit fees and ticketing could account for spending on the program, which city staff could not confirm.
“No organization, public or private, I think, can handle these kinds of increases without being clear about how the money is being spent,” said council member Abrica.
East Palo Alto’s City Council will officially vote to approve its budget on June 17.
