The El Cerrito Library Foundation is a community-based, non-profit organization developing support for creating and maintaining a modern public library in El Cerrito that will meet the learning, cultural, and recreational needs for persons of all ages. We believe that a great community library cannot be created with public funding alone.
The Foundation’s strategic objectives:
- The Foundation is raising funds to purchase needed equipment and materials for a new library that cannot be purchased with construction bond funds.
- The Foundation has established a Permanent Endowment Fund to provide perpetual support for El Cerrito Library programs, equipment, and services.
- Until a new library is built, the Foundation is also raising unrestricted private funds to support vibrant programming, materials, and new and refurbished equipment at the current El Cerrito Library.
Please see Making a donation for details.
Foundation Board Meetings
The Foundation Board meets on the fourth Tuesday of October, January, April, and July. Since COVID-19 the board have met virtually by Zoom. The meetings are open to the public. If you are interested in coming to a meeting, please contact us first to confirm the date, time, and receive a private link to the Zoom session.
El Cerrito Library Foundation Bylaws (2014, Rev 2015. PDF)
Foundation officers 2024-2025
- President- Al Miller
- Vice-President – Tom Rogers
- Financial Officers – Tom Panas & Amy Rogers
- Secretary – Gary Pokorny
Election of officers is conducted at the ECLF Annual Meeting held every year in January.
About the board members
Dave Belden and his wife Debi Clifford have lived in El Cerrito and then across the street on Panama Avenue in Richmond since 2007. They both love the library and library staff. Dave is retired and volunteers as a restorative justice facilitator and writer. He is making good use of LinkPlus for writing a memoir.
Mark Figone is a third-generation El Cerrito native. He is President and CEO of East Bay Sanitary, El Cerrito’s franchised garbage and green waste collection company started by his grandfather back in 1940. Mark is also involved in the El Cerrito Community in several other ways. He is a member and Past President of the El Cerrito Rotary Club as well as a member and Past President of the El Cerrito Chamber of Commerce. He has served on El Cerrito’s Integrated Waste Management Task force and currently serves on the El Cerrito’s Economic Development Committee.
Tracey Logan has lived in El Cerrito since 2017. She has 2 stepdaughters in El Cerrito schools and a little one at home. She spends her days leading technology for the West Contra Costa Unified School District. With a lens for innovation and creativity, she is excited to nurture and expand a library environment that inspires all community members to explore, learn, and grow.
Alan C. (Al) Miller and his wife, Barbara, have lived in El Cerrito since 1979. He retired from the Navy, with the rank of Captain, in July, 1985, after serving for 26 years. Since then, Al managed a PTSA sponsored tutoring center at El Cerrito High School for five years, served on several city commissions and committees, and served as a Director of the Stege Sanitary District July 1985 – December 2022. He became a Life Member of the NAACP, and a member of the El Cerrito Branch of the NAACP in 1990.
Tom Panas serves on the boards of, and is the Treasurer of, the Richmond Emergency Food Pantry, the El Cerrito Historical Society, and the Friends of the El Cerrito Library. He has lived in El Cerrito since 1975. He is on the steering committee of the El Cerrito Community Garden and of the Friends of Topaz and served as a member of the West Contra Costa Unified School Board from 2016 to 2020.
Gary Pokorny is a long-time resident of El Cerrito. He was City Manager of El Cerrito from 1989 to 2000. He retired as City Manager of Walnut Creek where he helped that community build a new library that opened in 2010.
Amy Rogers has lived in El Cerrito since 2000. She is an eLearning librarian who works with librarians and teachers in education. She envisions a beautiful, upgraded community library that will become the pride and joy of El Cerrito.
Thomas Rogers has lived in El Cerrito since 2000. He is a retired professor of communications and has taught at UC Berkeley, UC San Diego and San Jose State University.
Joy Shioshita has lived in El Cerrito since 2012. She has been a librarian for over 24 years, previously as a Supervising Librarian with the Berkeley Public Library.
Honorary Board Members
An Honorary Board Member contributes in an advisory capacity on the Board, but has no voting privileges.
Heidi Goldstein—Senior Community Library Manager. She has lived in California since 1999 and currently lives in Richmond. Heidi has been a librarian since 2005, first in a private arts college and then for Contra Costa County. Heidi has worked for Contra Costa County Library since 2015.
Michael A. Fischer -El Cerrito Library Commissioner. He is a lifelong (except for four years) resident and native of the East Bay and has lived in El Cerrito since 1998. He served as a senior attorney for the California Administrative Office of the Courts for nearly 37 years prior to his retirement. In addition to being the El Cerrito City-designated member of the Contra Costa County Library Commission, he is a legislative policy advocate for AARP, mentors students seeking careers in public interest law, and is a director of the Friends of the El Cerrito Library, Founding Director of the Library Foundation of Contra Costa, and Vice Chair of the Committee for a Plaza Station Library.