By Patrick McCarran, Prudential California Realty

The mortgage and debt reduction act has been extended but only through the end of the year. This means you have to close by December 31, 2013. This is important because without it you may be liable for income tax on the forgiven debt whether you short sale or later go into foreclosure. If you are struggling to make ends meet and have negative equity in your home a short sale can help you get a fresh start. Get out from the burden of a cumbersome mortgage payment and toxic asset with negative value. Start fresh and in as little as three years buy a new home with a manageable payment and start re-build equity and wealth.

What about a modification? Most lenders are now offering modifications to homeowners in distress. These are often more of a temporary solution as the banks seldom offer principal reductions. Usually the bank will offer to lower you payment over a fixed period of time. The problem with these terms is that without a principle reduction you are not building equity. In today’s market where a homes value may be upside down or have a negative equity, projections show it would take years just to break even on the balance of the loan. This makes your situation like a long term lease.

Foreclosure or simply walking away from the home is another option. California is a non-recourse state and has what is called a one action rule which basically states that if your homes is foreclosed and sold by the trustee that is the only recourse for the lender. Which means, generally speaking you can walk away with little or no legal consequence.

However if you have a second loan it could very well be a recourse loan which means the lender can, and most likely will pursue other assets and wages. A short sale will prevent this. If you are considering a default I highly suggest you look into a short sale an option. Choosing a short sale will put you back in control of your life and when you need to move. Because a short sale is perceived as a proactive choice by the borrower the credit compiling agencies tend to score it higher than a foreclosure or a deed-in-lieu.

I would always advise my clients to seek advice from an attorney under bankruptcy protection a well. Many homeowners have incurred a substantial amount of debt in this economy and a bankruptcy may be a good option to help you afford to keep your home by eliminating burdensome debt. Although legally you may not need to pursue a short sale after the bankruptcy, in regard to credit building it is still a good option.

Let me be clear, I am not advocating to anyone to ignore their financial obligations. What I am saying is that you should look at your own situation and make the decision that is best for YOU and your family and not the bank.

Take control of your situation and call an experienced Short Sale agent today to discuss and compare your options.

Patrick McCarran is a local Realtor and can be reached at (925) 899-5536 or www.Callpatrick.com. Prudential California Realty is an independently owned and operated member of The Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., a Prudential company. Equal Housing Opportunity.

By Greg Enholm

Voters in East County as well as the entire County are likely to be able to vote for the construction of a Far East County 110-acre community college similar to Los Medanos College (LMC) or Diablo Valley College (DVC) and a related 17-acre satellite campus in the June 2014 election. On February 27, the Board of the Contra Costa Community College District directed the District’s staff to start the process for a new bond. County voters approved college bonds totaling $406 million in 2002 and 2006. The new buildings are very prominent on the LMC, DVC, and other campuses.

Now the months long process begins to decide exactly what will be funded. The elected five-member College Board will be meeting monthly to consider the specific projects. One project is to build a 17-acre satellite campus in southernmost Brentwood at Marsh Creek Road starting construction as early as 2015. Another is a 110-acre full community college for Far East County at a new eBART station. Start of construction of the college will depend on when the eBART station is to be built.

A 17-acre satellite campus in Brentwood will replace the small heavily-used Brentwood Center on Sand Creek Road. About 700 Antioch, 500 Oakley, 800 Brentwood, and hundreds of students from other communities take classes at the Brentwood Center, a converted grocery store opened in 2001, owned by the City of Brentwood. The new Brentwood Campus has been in the District’s planning process for years so construction could begin soon.

Having a new 110-acre community college located at a future eBART station will allow Far East County students who now go to DVC or LMC to complete their career training courses, associate degrees, certificates, or programs much closer to home. Students from high schools across the County would be able to attend classes in the evenings and on weekends without a car by using BART from stations near their homes. A new college will take decades to reach its full potential so additional bonds will be needed to fund construction of new buildings just as happened with DVC (opened in 1949) and LMC (opened in 1974).

Anyone who wants to comment on what should be included this June 2014 bond is encouraged to attend College Board meetings set to be held on Wednesday, March 27 at the District Office, 500 Court St, Martinez and on Wednesday, April 24 at the LMC Library, 2700 Leland Ave, Pittsburg. Comments can be emailed to the elected East County College Board Trustee at gbenholm2@hotmail.com. Detailed information about College Board meetings is available at http://www.4cd.edu/gb/agendas_minutes/default.aspx.

Projects for all 5 campuses including Contra Costa College in San Pablo and San Ramon Campus would be funded by the June 2014 bond.

Enholm is a DeVry University professor and represents Antioch as a Trustee on the Contra Costa Community College District Board. Send comments to gbenholm2@hotmail.com.

By Luke Johnson

Deer Valley High School played in its first Northern California Division I boys basketball regional championship on Saturday, March 16, but ended up falling to the Pleasant Grove Eagles, 73-60, at the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento.

After the loss, Deer Valley’s UNLV-bound point guard Kendall Smith was brought to tears when he realized his high school career with his long-time friend and teammate, Kentucky-bound power forward Marcus Lee, was over.

“This has been my family, my cousin. I did everything with him. He’s been my point guard since day one,” said Lee. “Knowing this is probably my last game with him… it hurts. We’ve been through a lot and conquered a lot.”

Throughout the postseason, Smith averaged nearly 22 points and six assists per game, while Lee put up nearly 18 points, 19 rebounds and 9 blocks per game.

“One thing you can take to the bank is that you’re going to hear from both of these guys again. I promise you,” said Deer Valley Head Coach Lachet Phillips.

In the previous game, Smith suffered an ankle sprain against Bellarmine. In that game, Smith drove past three defenders to make a clutch layup that put the Wolverines up by two with only 10 seconds left in regulation. Then on the next possession he stole the ball in transition to secure a trip to Sacramento.

Smith said he felt about 65 percent healthy in the championship game, as he was unable to display his explosiveness. Clearly hobbling up and down the court, Smith still played all but about two and a half minutes of the game.

Pleasant Grove put constant pressure on the 6-foot-10 Lee by double-teaming him every time he touched the ball. The Eagle’s defensive strategy limited Lee to only 10 points in the contest.

“I saw a man in front of me and a man behind me,” said Lee. “They did a good job on us.”

The Eagles’ resiliency from the free throw line was one of the key components to their victory. Pleasant Grove was successful on 27-of-28 attempts.

“We really stress free throws in practice and shoot a lot of free throws over and over,” said Eagles Head Coach John DePonte. “Once we got on a roll, I think everyone just fed off the success.”

The Antioch City Council is busily debating how to increase revenues via a sales tax, parcel tax, a business license tax or a combination of taxes. City staff has been asked to determine the cost of returning to the pre-recession level of 126 sworn officers or a more optimal level of 144 officers and eliminating furlough days, which apply to all city employees except sworn police officers, as Concord did last week.

Apparently Concord was aware of the recent legislative analyst’s report stating that the state employee furlough policy, instituted under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been found to be fiscally unsound. The reason – state employees were using furlough days instead of vacation/annual leave days and now the state will have to pay them $3 billion for unused time off when they retire which is more than it would have paid if they hadn’t been furloughed at all.

Last September I asked Dawn Merchant, Antioch’s Finance Director, about city policy in regard to vacation, sick and comp time. She replied that vacation, sick and comp time roll over from year to year based upon the maximum accruals allowed by the Memorandum of Understanding for each bargaining unit. Vacation and comp time are paid to employees when they leave. Sick leave is only paid out to those employees with more than 10 years of service and is capped at 40% of total hours for a maximum of 20 hours. (The payouts are not used in calculating pension benefits.) Perhaps it’s time now for Antioch to take a look at how furlough days are impacting retirement payouts. Council should have that information before deciding decides whether to retain or eliminate them.

Speaking of poor policy decisions, four of the state’s 24 largest independent municipal retirement systems decided to send board members in May to the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems to be held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort which has 5 swimming pools. However, after unfavorable publicity by California Watch, several Contra Costa County Employees Retirement Association (CCCERA) board members decided to cancel. When I called Monday to get a final head count I was told to leave a voice mail message on Marilyn’s phone line which I did but when I did not get a return call by the next day I called back was told Marilyn would not be in until Thursday and no one else could answer my question. Perhaps CCCERA needs to be reminded that access to information concerning the conduct of the peoples business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in the state and stalling the release of the
information is a disservice to the people. As of Thursday, March 21, I had not yet received a call back from Marilyn.

Also note, attorneys for the state Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) members are attempting to overturn pension reform initiatives approved by voters in San Diego (67%) and San Jose (70%) by filing complaints that officials failed to bargain in good faith on pension issues with unions representing city employees. Additionally, just this week federal officials charged Federico Buenrostro Jr, CEO of CalPERS from 2002-2008 and Alfred Villalobos, a former CalPERS board member and former vice mayor of Los Angeles with fraud for fabricating documents with a fake CalPERS logo to trick investment firm Apollo Global Mgt. into paying fees to Villalobos’ firms for helping sell securities.

By Lt. Diane Aguinaga, Antioch Police Investigations Bureau

Antioch Police are currently investigating a homicide that occurred at 12:22 pm, on Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at the intersection of William Reed and W. Madill. The victim is a 20 year-old male, Antioch resident. The victim was shot multiple times.

More details are expected, some time on Thursday.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Antioch Police Department at (925) 779-6926. You may also text a tip to 274637 (CRIMES) using key word ANTIOCH.

The City of Antioch is encouraging residents and businesses to participate in Earth Hour 2013 by turning off their lights on Saturday, March 23rd from 8:30 – 9:30 p.m. This simple action is an easy way to “think globally and act locally,” as well as acknowledge and celebrate the City’s commitment to protecting the planet. The City of Antioch is using this year’s event to kick off a ‘lights out at night’ program for City Hall.

The City of Antioch is one of 34 nationally recognized cities to participate in the “Earth Hour City Challenge.” With more than 70% of the world’s CO2 emissions generated by cities, the Earth Hour City Challenge was created to mobilize action and support from cities in the global transition towards a 100% renewable future. It also aims to stimulate the development and dissemination of best practices for climate mitigation and adaptation.

By participating in the Earth Hour City Challenge, the City of Antioch is building on its Climate Action Plan, adopted in May 2011, and joining progressive cities across the globe to raise climate awareness and set an example that will inspire similar actions through the U.S. To find out more about the City’s Climate Action Plan, please visit:

www.antiochclimateaction.org

Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia, in 2007 when 2.2 million people took a stand against climate change by turning off their lights in homes and businesses. But that was only the start, and in 2011, over 1.8 billion people in 135 countries across every continent officially switched off to pledge their support for the planet.

To learn more, visit www.earthhour.org for more information on the City of Antioch’s environmental programs visit www.ci.antioch.ca.us/environment, call the Environmental Resource Line at 925-779-6137 or “like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ecoantioch.

Lifelong Antioch resident and longtime community volunteer Gloria Martin was honored with Antioch’s 2012 Citizen of the Year Lifetime Achievement award at the Antioch Chamber of Commerce’s annual dinner on Friday, March 8, 2013.

Gloria quietly gives back to her community through philanthropic support by way of the Martin Family Foundation, through countless volunteer hours in various community service organizations and provides continues support of the history of Antioch through the Antioch Historical Society and as an Antioch Senior High Alumni.

Gloria developed her community spirit as a student in Antioch schools, attending Fremont Elementary, Antioch Junior High School and was among the first graduates of the current Antioch High School on 18^th Street. “I learned early that this is the way the community is; you can’t help but get involved. Kids and schools need help,” She said in a recent interview. “I love to help kids who need help in our community.” She is a proud Rotarian with twenty years of perfect attendance. She’s held the office of Sergeant at Arms for many years and lives the Rotary motto of “Service above self”, participating in dictionary and coat give-away projects for local children. She’s been an active board member of the Antioch Schools Education foundation for more than ten years; chairing their Fellows Award dinner which honors Antioch’s outstanding teachers. She’s visited the classrooms of nominees, and assisted with the raffle and the auction each year to raise money for grants for school class rooms.

Gloria loves sports; especially football. She is an active member and supporter of the Antioch Historical Society’s Sports Legends since its inception six years ago. She has chaired their Hall of Fame Gala each year for more than 300 people.

Gloria is an active member of Holy Rosary church, belongs to the Pittsburg Elks Club and is a member of the Antioch Woman’s Club. She’s been a member of the Umpqua Bank advisory board since 2002. She has participated in red ribbon week, food banks and the Antioch Senior Center while supporting dozens of other nonprofits including An Elderly Wish Foundation, the Police Activities League, Antioch High School, East County Boys & Girls Club with a special place in her heart for the REACH project. And she’s been a member of the Antioch Chamber of Commerce for nearly 20 years.

Gloria Martin is a life time Antioch resident who was born in a house in the 2800 block of Lone Tree Way. In, 1967, Gloria and her late husband Jimmie Martin founded the successful Merit Ends, after finding a niche in the steel industry. Gloria with her children, Jim “Mac” and daughter Marlane, work endless hours support and volunteering at numerous fundraisers in Antioch.