By Allen Payton, Publisher

Antioch Mayor Harper and the Council majority made their decision, tonight and appointed Tony Tiscareno, a retired steelworker, former labor union leader, and 42-year Antioch resident to the vacant City Council seat.

The seat is the unexpired term of Harper, who stepped down mid-way through his first term on the Council after being elected Mayor.

Tiscareno was one of nine applicants, including former Mayors Jim Davis and Don Freitas, as well as former Mayor Pro Tem Manny Soliz, Jr. who sought the appointment.

Following three-minute presentations by each of the candidates, and comments from the public, the council deliberated, with the guidance of City Attorney Lynn Tracy Nerland, on how to proceed with the appointment process.

After three rounds of votes to advance or eliminate applicants, only two candidates emerged with at least three votes of the council members: Freitas and Tiscareno.

Recently rumored to be a favorite, along with Antioch Planning Commissioner Vincent Manuel, the 56 year-old Tiscareno was chosen on a 3-1 vote, with Councilman Gary Agopian dissenting. Following the vote, Agopian asked that he be allowed to make it unanimous to show solidarity on the council and support for the newly appointed councilman. The official vote was changed to 4-0 in favor of Tiscareno.

He was then given the Oath of Office by City Clerk Arne Simonsen.

Tiscareno worked for 33 years as a steelworker, and served as the Political Director for the Contra Costa Labor Council, until March of last year. He then served as Campaign Director, this year, for newly elected Assemblyman Jim Frazier, who was in attendance during tonight’s council meeting. Tiscareno also used to own a small business in Antioch, in the 1990’s, trading sports cards. He stated he had coached youth sports in Antioch, as well. He is married and has a daughter and a son.

In his appointment application statement, Tiscareno said he will focus on public safety, youth, economic development and public works.

Congratulations to Antioch’s newest council member, Tony Tiscareno. Good luck, God bless and do well.

 

Antioch Mayor Wade Harper, community and faith leaders, residents of The Commons at Dallas Ranch and the Antioch community will join together for a prayer vigil in memory of those who lost their lives at Sandy Hook School in Connecticut, last Friday.

The vigil will be held on Wednesday, December 19, 2012 at 5:30 p.m., at The Commons at Dallas Ranch, 4751 Dallas Ranch Road, Antioch.

To obtain additional information regarding the vigil, please contact Dina Osakue at (925) 754-7772 or dosakue@commonsatdallasranch.com.

By Allen Payton, Publisher

Newly elected Antioch City Clerk returned from Scotland, this week and was sworn in on Thursday, December 13 in the City Council Chambers by outgoing Clerk Denise Skaggs, before a small group of family, friends and supporters.

His parents Otis and Betty Simonsen held his grandfather’s Bible upon which he took the oath.

Before taking his oath, Simonsen joked “I just hope the Mayor won’t call me Madame Clerk.”

Following the brief ceremony, Simonsen offered treats from Scotland to those in attendance. One humorous moment occurred when he was questioned whether it was appropriate for an elected official to give out “Flake” chocolate candy bars. (They’re made by Cadbury and are tasty). Former Mayor Don Freitas, who was in attendance, said “It only matters if you eat one.”

By Allen Payton, Publisher

Nine Antioch residents have submitted the required paperwork to be considered for appointment to the City Council to fill the final two years in Mayor Wade Harper’s vacant seat.

The Council voted on December 4 to appoint the fifth council member, instead of appointing former Mayor Jim Davis who was the third highest vote-getter in the November election or have an election next June.

The applicants are Davis, former Mayor Don Freitas, former Councilman Manny Soliz, Jr., Planning Commissioner Vincent Manuel, Antioch Chamber of Commerce CEO Sean Wright, two-time Antioch School Board candidate Debra Vinson, former Political Director for the Contra Costa Labor Council Tony Tiscareno, Robert Miller and Jonathan Hernandez, a 24 year-old bail bondsman who was going to run for city council, this year, but didn’t.

They each submitted an application, Nomination papers with at least 30 signatures of registered Antioch voters, a Candidate Statement of up to 400 words and a Statement of Economic Interests form.

Documents for each of the nine candidates will be posted on the City’s website as part of the Council’s Agenda packet on Friday. To see the entire packet with details of all the applicants, click here.

The current four council members will make their decision at next Tuesday’s special council meeting, which starts at 6:00 p.m. in the Antioch Council Chambers, 200  H Street in downtown Rivertown.

Following the appointment of and Oath of Office ceremony for the new council member, the council will decide appointments to various committees and boards.

By Sergeant Robert Quintero, Antioch Police Patrol Bureau

On Monday, December 10, 2012 at 10:17 a.m., the Antioch Police Department received numerous 911 calls from persons reporting a drive-by shooting in the area of Mandarin Way and Mahogany Way. Upon arrival, police officers located two victims on scene that had been shot. Both victims sustained non-life threatening gunshot wounds and both were transported to undisclosed area hospitals for treatment of their injuries. The victims, whose names have not been released, were identified as a 28 year-old Antioch man, and a 26 year-old Richmond man.

The suspects are still outstanding and the investigation is on-going. No further information will be released at this time. Anyone having information on this shooting is encouraged to contact Acting Sergeant Castillo at (925) 779-6933.

You may also text an anonymous tip to 274637 (CRIMES) using key word ANTIOCH.

By Barbara Zivica

Tis the season to be merry but a pall hangs over the city of Antioch where council members were naughty, not nice. Acting like Scrooge they refused to appoint former mayor Jim Davis to the vacant council seat even though he came in third in the now certified election, getting 22.08% of the vote compared to Monica Wilson’s 23.46%. Council should have done what had done in the past with the exception of 2008 when Arne Simonson came in third and was also tossed on the heap.

Apparently Council has also chosen to do something similar as to what was done in 2008 to choose a new council member. They are asking candidates to submit applications signed by no less than 20 and no more than 30 signatures of registered voters, a FPPC form 700 Statement of Economic Interest and a statement not to exceed 400 words to the City Clerk no later than 4:30 pm on December 13th.

Applicants would then be able to speak for no more than 3 minutes each at the Tuesday, December 18th meeting at which time an appointee could be selected if they garner at least 3 votes from council.

I think it’s likely we’ll see a repeat of 2008 when someone who didn’t run for office appears and wins appointment. That person was Martha Parsons, a Democratic political consultant. Could this year’s selectee be Vincent Manuel who claims a strong background in public administration and was Senior District Representative to Supervisor Federal Glover, said to be mentor to Antioch’s new Mayor Wade Harper?

NOTE: There will be an additional Council meeting on December 27 when ALL council members meet to vote on amending the signed September 1, 2012 contract agreement with police officers and restoring the more lucrative 3% at 50 pension formula for veteran police officers and a 2.7% at 55 formula for employees hired for other city jobs. This is a dumb move. The city is already in financial difficulty. Abrogating signed contract agreements sets a very bad precedent that could haunt the city in future contract negotiations. Bah humbug.

Council to reconsider more expensive 3% at 50 pension plan

By James Ott

Antioch’s first African-American Mayor Wade Harper was sworn in during last Tuesday’s special council meeting.

In another first for the city – newcomer Monica Wilson became Antioch’s first female African-American council member as well, when she was sworn in during the same ceremony.

Harper won a decisive victory to become mayor, beating out competitors by garnering over 40 percent of the vote. The runner-up was current council member Gary Agopian who managed to pull in over 32 percent of the mayoral vote.

The council voted for long-time council member Mary Rocha as Mayor Pro-Tem – a position Harper held under former Mayor Jim Davis, since she was the top vote-getter in the council election.

During his speech at the swearing in ceremony, Harper thanked his supporters and his family and went directly to listing some of his plans for Antioch.

“I’ll forego the usual victory lap speech,” Harper said. “We can do the victory lap as a council when we reduce crime and improve economic development in this city.”

The first thing Harper asked for was a Mayor’s office so that he and the council have a place to meet and discuss plans for Antioch.

He also said he plans to create subcommittees to help deal with crime and beautify the city, particularly in well-known crime hot spots such as L Street and A Street and the infamous Sycamore area.

Harper also announced that he would be retiring from his job as a police officer effective January 4. The announcement perhaps lends some weight behind his goal to become “the best mayor in East County” over his upcoming tenure as mayor.

Harper has his work cut out for him. Antioch’s crime has skyrocketed over the last few years as its property values and city revenues have fallen.

Council will make appointment to fill Harper’s vacant council seat

With Wade Harper elected mayor, his former council seat – with two years left – is now vacant and there is some controversy over how that position is to be filled.

During last Tuesday’s special meeting the council voted three to one to choose the new council member themselves after allowing people to apply for the vacant council seat through an application process. New Mayor Wade Harper and council members Mary Rocha and Monica Wilson voted for the application/selection process to fill the empty council seat. Council member Gary Agopian was the lone dissenter.

This “application process” was selected over two other options that the city could have chosen in order to fill the available council seat.

One of those options would have been to hold a special election to allow Antioch voters to decide who should fill the vacant position. But this option was ultimately rejected by all of the council members because City Attorney Lynn Tracy Nerland said that such a special election could cost the city over $200,000.

The third option considered was to allow Mayor Harper to appoint someone to fill the vacant council seat.

Although this option at first seems undemocratic, in the past Antioch has used this process to fill the vacant seat with the runner-up from the recent election for city council. In this case that person would have been former Mayor Jim Davis, who decided only to run for city council this time around.

In fact, Davis was only narrowly defeated by Monica Wilson and Mary Rocha in what was a very close race for council.

There were two council seats available during the election; the first was won by Mary Rocha who received 24.75 percent of the vote, or 11,795 votes. Wilson won the last remaining council seat with the second most votes, but she did so by getting 11,190 votes to runner-up Jim Davis’s 10,524. The two candidates were separated by just 1.4 percent or 666 votes.

Supporters of this option say that by appointing Davis to the newly vacant council seat, the Mayor and other council members would effectively be appointing someone who was “voted” in by Antioch citizens.

Gary Agopian made it clear that he believed this option to be the most ethical and democratic option available to the council. He said that regardless of the application process, council would still be choosing who they believed should be on the city council rather than Antioch voters, who should be the only ones to select their leaders.

“Government is instituted by the people,” said Agopian. “The people reserve the right to choose their leaders. It is an American tradition that many have fought and died to protect: The right of the people to choose – not a council – the people.”

Agopian said that he would be inclined to support the option to hold a special election so voters could officially elect someone but that the cost would be too great considering the poor financial state of Antioch.

The next most democratic solution, Agopian argued, was to appoint whoever received the third-most votes to the newly available third council seat.

Harper – the only other council member to make comments of any notable length on the subject, – said that he thought a special election was too expensive and so allowing people to apply and then selecting from that pool who council thinks is the best candidate is the preferred, and most democratic option available.

“I believe this is a fair process,” said Harper. “It had its flaws in the past but it can be done better.”

Those interested in applying for the vacant council seat must live in Antioch and be a registered voter.

Applicants must write a statement s to why they should be considered for council and it must not exceed 400 words or exceed three minutes when the statement is read allowed during interviews.

Aspiring council members must also fill out an official application, Conflict of Interest 700 form, (available at city hall), and have a minimum of 20 and maximum of 30 signatures from registered Antioch voters who support their bid for a council seat.

All of these items must be completed and turned in to the city by Thursday, Dec. 13 at 4:30 p.m.

Interviews will be held by the city council on Tuesday, Dec. 18 at 6:00 p.m.

Also At the Meeting

The council voted unanimously to consider increasing the retirement plans of future police hires as well as other miscellaneous hires the city might make. The city feels it would be unfair to increase retirement rates for new police but not for other new employees.

Currently, new police hires would receive a 3 percent at age 55 retirement plan.. This means that a police officer could start collecting their pension at age 55 that is equal to 3 percent of their top salary for every year on the job.

If the city votes to make the increase, new police hired will instead be able to start that same collection five years earlier, which will inevitably cost the city more money.

If miscellaneous employees receive an increase as well, they will go from the current two percent at age 55 formula to a new 2.7 percent at age 55 retirement plan, which would also cost the city more money.

Human Resources Director Michelle Fitzer gave a presentation at the council meeting to try and determine how much the new pensions would cost the city, but the answer is a little tricky.

Her best estimate was that the city would be paying roughly 4.4 percent more per new police hire if the city goes with the new 3 percent at 50 formula. That rate, like all CalPERS rates, will go up over time.

Fitzer estimated that if the city were to hire one experienced officer on July 1 of next year it would cost the city about $4,502 more with the old retirement plan versus the proposed 3 percent at 50. The city currently needs 15 officers and expects that number to double over the next month or so.

If the city hires 15 new experienced officers under the proposed pension increase, it will cost the city about $67,530 extra per year. That number will also climb roughly every year.

Dear Editor:

I’m putting my money where my mouth is and, on principle, not applying for appointment to Wade Harper’s vacant City Council position.  This is despite some flattering encouragement for throwing my hat in the ring as some suggest that after a series of anticipated deadlocks the Council might possibly default to a non-partisan centrist who prides himself on being a harmonizer and a dialogue stirrer. Others, though, believe that this Council has political debts to pay and will inevitably pick a true blue union/party loyalist.

My bottom line, though, centers not on the risk to reward of a probable futile fight but on a moral dilemma.  In my humble opinion, the third top vote getter clearly deserves the spot. In fact I hope that they enshrine this as a city ordinance for future precedent. I’d champion the same fairness rule regardless of who of us five Council contenders had placed third.

Facts are, we know who committed to running, an exhausting exercise,  and we clearly heard the voters ranking. It was relatively close, no landslide, and though I applaud Ms.Wilson for a smart and tireless race had Mr. Davis, and not her, been first on the random ballot or had two men, not three, run against two women the results could well have been reversed.

Citizens of good will are all hoping that this Council gets off to an enlightened start, rising above partisan politics, resisting pressure to pay back chits and to stacking the deck 4 to 1. Fair is fair and this group of leaders, coming off a wave of history setting, can aspire to lofty heights and transcend pettiness.

Inspired leadership is, of course, Solomon-like and inclusive, not isolating the occasional “loyal opposition”. Why stifle healthy debate and lord over as, anyway,  the voting majority already exists?

Truth be told, it would be therapeutic for the city at large to balance a Council now having three liberal-minded public employees with someone from the private sector more middle of the road. Gary Agopian, unarguably versed with budgets and property value determiners, should not stand alone. To my humble reckoning, if Jim Davis gets spurned this Council can still benefit by at least choosing an alternate counterweight from the business community.

Walter Ruehlig

Antioch