By Allen Payton

On Tuesday, May 7, 2013 a group of citizens, led by Antioch Police and Crime Prevention Commissioner Hans Ho, filed a Notice of Intent to Circulate Petition with Antioch City Clerk Arne Simonsen, to begin gathering signatures to place a measure on the November ballot to implement a landlord rental fee on residential rental properties.

The fee would be $240 per year or $20 per month per single-family home and multi-family unit, such as condominiums, townhouses, duets and apartments that are non-owner occupied. In order to pass the measure will have to garner a simple majority vote of 50% plus one vote of Antioch voters.

If passed, the fee will generate $2,640,000 per year for the City’s General Fund – which pays for police and other city services – based on an estimated 11,000 rental units in the city.

Among those properties which are exempt from paying the tax are residential care facilities and senior housing complexes.

“Every one has been talking about this, for a long time, including the City Council and citizens, as I go to Neighborhood Watch meetings,” said Ho. “We’ve grown impatient waiting for the City Council to act so we jumped in.”

The Council has discussed placing both a residential rental fee and a sales tax on the November ballot.

“Any one of these measures will not fully fund the police department,” he added. “This is not an alternative to the sales tax measure, it’s a companion to it.”

Estimates have been given to the council of over $4 million to fully staff the police department to 126 sworn officers and  Community Service Officers. Over $7 million per year extra is needed to get to the optimum level of police staffing.

The group didn’t want to wait until after next Tuesday’s council meeting, where the results of the city-commissioned survey on the issue will be discussed.

There’s a fear the council is afraid of pursuing the fee on residential properties and the citizens group wanted to take action to ensure they had enough time to gather the signatures to place it on the ballot.

The group has until July 31 to gather and submit the required 4,647 valid signatures, which is 10% of the registered voters as of the last election, to get the measure on the November 5, 2013 ballot. The group plans on gathering 8,000 signatures just to be safe.

According to Simonsen, the group submitted the officially letter to the City Attorney to prepare the official title and summary of the ballot measure within 15 days.

The effort is supported by Take Back Antioch and the Friday Morning Breakfast Club, which is made up of community leaders and residents, as well as many individuals in the community.

Ho, who is acting as a citizen, not in his official capacity in supporting the effort, can be contacted at hans_ho@juno.com, for now. They expect to have a website and Facebook page to provide information to the public and for those who would like to get involved and help circulate the petitions and gather signatures.

For the complete language of the ballot measure click here: Landlord initiative ordinance

Following are the arguments and reasoning for the ballot measure:

-This Community generated initiative would provide an estimated $2.5 to 2.7 million per year to the City for the highest priority areas, such as public safety.  Crime levels in many areas of the City are at unacceptable levels and this will help to provide new resources.  This new revenue may alleviate the demand for an additional high sales tax rate which could depress business in the City.

-This Community-based initiative would mean that each “non-owner occupied dwelling” in the City would be charged a Business License Fee of $240 per year to offset the costs to the community.  This would close a multi-million dollar loop-hole for landlords that results in high costs on local communities for related resources and services associated with the burdens from this area of business.

-Most businesses in the City already pay a business license fee, but currently, many dwellings are rented without any business license.  This initiative would provide a simple frame work to efficiently collect consistent fees from all non-owner occupied dwellings in the City.  This would generate a stable source of revenue, unlike alternatives such as a sales tax.

-The business of “renting” dwellings results in new costly demands on City services such as public safety, and this would allow those engaged in the business of renting to provide compensation for these costs.  The proposed fees would be paid by the owners of the rental properties.

-Most business in the City is conducted in areas zoned for business, but the dwelling rental business typically operates within and among residential areas.  The impacts of a business operating in a residential area needs to be addressed.  Years of complaints due to unresponsive landlords chronically conducting poor business practices among local residential neighborhoods has only become even worse.  This poor quality of life for all citizens can only be addressed with the correct level of resources, including public safety.

This is about:

-Fairness, so all businesses pay a reasonable license fee for their area of business, and at a level related to the impact on resources.

-Fairness, to impacted residential areas through enhanced relief through better resources.

-More resources for priority areas such as public safety.

-A Community-based effort to reducing blight and Crime.

-A stable revenue stream for new resources, unlike other options such as a sales tax.

-Encouraging responsible business owners engaged in renting property, and resources for unresponsive landlords.

-A Community-based solution after years of dysfunctional talk.

-Helping all parts of, and all citizens in the City to live with a higher quality of life.

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The public is invited.

WHAT: Grand Opening of Assemblymember Jim Frazier’s Antioch District Office

WHEN: May 17^th from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

WHERE: Antioch Community Center, 4703 Lone Tree Way, Antioch

Jim and his staff will be on hand to respond to questions, ideas and concerns that are of importance to you and the community.

Jim Frazier, a local small-business owner, was elected in November, 2012 to serve in the State Assembly representing the 11^th Assembly District, which includes his hometown of Oakley, and the communities of Antioch, Brentwood, Discovery Bay, Pittsburg, Fairfield, Suisun City, Vacaville, Rio Vista and Isleton.  Prior to his election, Jim served as a City Council member and former Mayor of Oakley.

Among his top priorities for his first term are: serving his constituents by assisting with interactions with government agencies, protecting the Delta; repairing the infrastructure of our roads and highways; limiting hikes in college tuition; maintaining funds for local public safety and encouraging job creation.

For more information or to RSVP, please visit http://www.asmdc.org/members/a11/ or call Jim’s district offices at 925-778-5790 or 707-399-3011.

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On Thursday, May 16, Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D-Oakley) and Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla (D-Concord) will hold a joint budget town hall to discuss the state budget and collect feedback with an independent, nonpartisan organization, Next 10. Next 10 has created an Interactive California Budget Challenge that mirrors the decisions Assemblymembers Frazier and Bonilla will have to make to balance our state’s budget. The simulation contains accurate figures for California’s revenues and expenditures so that constituents can make their own choices.

At the event, constituents will be given response clickers that allow them to vote on policy options and see the results instantly. They will have the opportunity to choose how much they would spend on schools, prisons, the environment, and other state programs – and how they would pay for them

WHO: Assemblymember Jim Frazier and Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla, along with Next 10, the Los Medanos Political Science Department and Professor Milton Clarke

WHAT: Joint State Budget Town Hall featuring “The California Budget Challenge”

WHERE: Los Medanos Community College – Library Community Room (L 109)

2700 East Leland Road in Pittsburg

WHEN: Thursday, May 16 from 5:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.

RSVP: To contact Assemblymember Jim Frazier please visit his website at www.asmdc.org/members/a11/. To contact Assemblymember Susan Bonilla please visit her website at www.asmdc.org/members/a14/

Assemblymember Frazier represents the cities of Antioch, Oakley, Knightsen, Discovery Bay, Brentwood and Byron in East Contra Costa and shares the City of Pittsburg with Assemblymember Bonilla.

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Comment on Draft Bay Area Housing and Transportation Plan from the convenience of your laptop or mobile device

Online participation tool makes it easy to comment

The Bay Area’s first ever combined transportation and land-use/housing plan, known as Plan Bay Area, is out for public review and comment. Sponsoring agencies — the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) — are urging Bay Area residents to weigh in with their priorities via Plan Bay Area Town Hall, <http://onebayarea.org/misc/open-town-hall.html>. This online platform is designed to prompt a conversation among the region’s residents on how our cities and towns should grow and the types of housing and transportation options that should be available for future generations.

The online tool is an effort to encourage a broader dialogue on regional transportation and land-use issues and involve residents who might not otherwise attend a traditional public meeting. The online forum summarizes and links to each chapter of the Draft Plan, then offers a convenient opportunity for the public to comment. Officials will read the statements and incorporate them into the decision-making process.

“We want the public to be part of the process,” said Amy Rein Worth, MTC’s Chair. “This is an incredibly cost-effective way to empower residents to participate in regional decisions from the convenience of their laptop, mobile device or desktop computer.”

About Plan Bay Area

Nearly three years in the making, Plan Bay Area is an integrated long-range transportation and land-use/housing plan that will support a growing economy, provide more housing and transportation choices, and reduce transportation-related pollution in the San Francisco Bay Area. The effort grew out of 2008 California Legislation (Senate Bill 375, Steinberg) requiring each of the state’s 18 metropolitan areas — including the Bay Area — to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks.

“Plan Bay Area builds upon prior work at the local level and prepares us to be more competitive in the private sector, more efficient in the public sector, and preserves the values that we love about the Bay Area for current and future generations,” noted ABAG President and Napa County Supervisor Mark Luce, who represents ABAG on MTC. “This is a bottoms-up plan that recognizes the diversity of Bay Area communities. Cities and counties identified the best places for growth to preserve the character of existing neighborhoods and protect agricultural lands,” he added. The plan will be updated every four years to reflect new information and emerging priorities.

Multiple Opportunities to Comment

A series of open houses and public hearings is also under way to take public comment, or residents may mail comments to MTC-ABAG, Plan Bay Area Public Comment, 101 8^th Street, Oakland, CA 94607. Comments are being accepted through 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 16, 2013. A final plan is slated for adoption in July. For more information on Plan Bay Area, visit OneBayArea.org.

MTC is the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area’s transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency. For more information, visit www.mtc.ca.gov. ABAG is the council of governments and regional planning agency for the nine counties and 101 cities and towns of the San Francisco Bay region. For more information, visit www.abag.ca.gov.

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No Cost-Benefit Analysis of No-Tunnels Alternative; Hiding the Cost so Taxpayers Won’t Know What They’ll Pay, What They’ll Get in Return?

By Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Campaign Director, Restore the Delta

SACRAMENTO, CA – Restore the Delta (RTD), a coalition opposed to the Brown Administration’s rush to construct massive Peripheral Tunnels to take millions of acre-feet of water from the Delta, today said the Brown Administration appears to have canceled a comprehensive benefit-cost analysis of its BDCP proposal for Peripheral Tunnels to export Sacramento -San Joaquin/San Francisco Bay-Delta water, mainly to benefit unsustainable mega-farms on the west side of the Central Valley. The decision to hide the total costs from public scrutiny once again reveals how the Brown Administration is continuing to doctor up the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, a fatally flawed plan, in order to sell it as something that it’s not to Californians.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta said, “In refusing to conduct a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of the Peripheral Tunnels, the Brown Administration is not following the guidelines established by its own agencies. In its rush to build a project that would exterminate salmon runs, destroy sustainable family farms and saddle taxpayers with tens of billions in debt, mainly to benefit a small number of huge corporate agribusinesses on the west side of the Central Valley, the Administration has yet to complete a valid cost-benefit analysis of its Tunnels and seriously examine a no-tunnels solution. It’s little wonder the Brown Administration is backing away from a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis. The only one done to date showed the costs were $7 billion short of the costs.”

Univ. of the Pacific economist Dr. Jeffrey Michael noticed the change and reported it on his blog. The Administration had contracted with the Brattle Group to perform a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of the BDCP. The Brown Administration is rigging analysis of the proposal by refusing to include a no-tunnels alternative, and excluding some costs that would fall on water ratepayers. Now, they have backed away from a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis and plan to dump partial and incomplete studies on the public. How many water ratepayers will examine 6 partial studies and synthesize their results into a full picture of who pays how much and who benefits how much? They are counting on no one doing that analysis – one that is their duty and obligation to conduct.

“This project will cost billions upon billions of dollars to give ever-increasing amounts of taxpayer and ratepayer subsidized water to corporate agriculture and real estate developers to make millions upon millions in profits. California will not go dry without these tunnels. There are no guarantees that southern California residents will even receive more water,” said Barrigan-Parrilla.

Barrigan-Parrilla said the Brown Administration doesn’t want the true cost of the project known, “The ‘tunnels’ represent more than simply a transfer of good quality water around the Delta. They also represent the largest transfer of private wealth in our history.”

The common people will pay for the tunnels and a few people will make millions. It will turn a Delta waterway, already in crisis, into a sewer pipe. It will be bad for the fish, the ocean and the people of California.

“BDCP is still not considering any alternatives for meeting the coequal goals except the peripheral tunnels, although there are several that could be evaluated,” added Barrigan-Parrilla.

However, in a letter to State Legislators from California Natural Resources Agency Secretary John Laird, “The alternative of a 3,000 cubic feet per second Delta conveyance – which the Portfolio-Based Conceptual Alternative calls for – will be studied in this process. As with all 15 alternatives that we are studying in this EIR process, it will be evaluated against the co-equal goals, as well as other goals including reliability in the face of an extreme event.”

The eight-point alternative being pushed by Congressman George Miller, who represents part of Antioch in the U.S. House of Representatives, which can be read by clicking here, includes the 3,000 cfs Delta conveyance, instead of the two-tunnel plan which will move 9,000 cfs.

For more information on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, visit http://baydeltaconservationplan.com/Home.aspx.   For more information on Restore the Delta, visit www.restorethedelta.org.

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By Allen Payton

Assemblyman Jim Frazier (D-Oakley) released the following statement today in response to reported comments from California Natural Resources Deputy Director Jerry Meral that “BDCP is not about, and has never been about saving the Delta. The Delta cannot be saved.”

“I am appalled by the reported statement from the Deputy Director. This confirms what many of us in the Delta region have long suspected: that BDCP is not about Delta restoration, it’s about Southern California water interests.

For those of us who live, work, and play on the Delta, there is no doubt that ‘conveyance’ means the decimation of the Delta as a critical resource, and a devastating impact on the communities that depend on it, including the habitat that the Delta sustains.”

However, according to an article on the Huffington Post, “The Brown administration…defended …Meral and said his words were taken out of context.

Advocates Tom Stokely and Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla said Meral’s comments were made during a casual conversation with Stokely at an April 15 event.

According to Barrigan-Parrilla, head of Stockton-based Restore the Delta, Meral said that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan is not about saving the Delta, and that the Delta cannot be saved. She said Friday that she was standing a short distance away when she heard the comments, and wrote them down. Stokely said Friday that her account is correct.

A Resources spokesman said Meral’s comments were taken out of context during a discussion about the ‘potentially calamitous threats’ the Delta faces from sea level rise, earthquakes and levee failures.

Both advocates said Meral had been talking about his concern that a mega-flood could someday swamp the Central Valley, as it did in 1861-62.”

In response to Meral’s comments, five Democrat members of Congress whose districts cover portions of the California Delta, including Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton, who also represents most of Antioch, have called on Governor Brown for Meral’s immediate resignation.

According to an article in the Stockton Record, “It’s not surprising that opponents of the administration’s water plan would exploit and politicize out-of-context comments ‘reported’ by a longtime critic of the project,” Resources spokesman Richard Stapler said in an email. “The administration remains deeply committed to maintaining a healthy Delta ecosystem.”

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Representatives from PG&E and local officials turn the first shovels of dirt to ceremonially break ground on the new facility.  photo by Allen Payton

Project will enhance reliability for customers including those in Antioch

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) broke ground on Friday, April 26, 2013 on a more than 37,000-square-foot electric distribution grid control center in Concord that will enhance electric reliability for PG&E customers. PG&E’s Executive Vice President of Electric Operations Geisha Williams was joined at today’s groundbreaking by Concord Mayor Dan Helix, as the new facility, scheduled to be completed in 2014, will provide an economic boost to the city.

“Thanks to investments to upgrade and modernize the electric grid, PG&E delivered our best service reliability performance ever in the first quarter of 2013, and we’re committed to getting even better,” said Williams. “Our goal is fewer outages and faster restoration, and this new facility will help us expedite our response times for power outages and emergency situations so we can provide our customers with the safest and most reliable electric service possible.”

The new control center will incorporate smart grid technology to give operators more real-time visibility into the electric system. A new Distribution Management System (DMS) will incorporate data from Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and customers’ SmartMeters™ to help operators pinpoint the exact location of an outage. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) equipment and automated “intelligent” switches that are being installed on electric circuits throughout PG&E’s service area will also help reroute the flow of electricity to minimize the number of customers affected by an outage.

The new facility will also help PG&E’s disaster resiliency, as the building will be constructed to high seismic standards, with redundant data feeds as well as emergency back-up capabilities. In addition, the control center will have the flexibility to shift operations to other regional centers if support is needed in the event of a storm or natural disaster.

The Concord facility is one of three new electric distribution grid control centers that will control PG&E’s more than 141,000 circuit mile electric distribution system—the system which delivers electricity to individual homes and businesses.

In addition to the long-term benefits of having approximately 90 jobs located in Concord, 250 construction workers will work for one year building the new facility. Mayor Helix said this project has the potential to provide an economic boost to the region as these workers lodge in hotels and patronize local businesses during construction.

PG&E continues to make significant progress in electric reliability that benefits customers throughout its service area. In 2012, PG&E customers experienced the fewest minutes without electricity in company history, and the number of service interruptions was the second lowest on record, just behind 2011. This progress was followed by our best reliability numbers ever in the first quarter of 2013.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to 15 million people in northern and central California. For more information, visit www.pge.com/about/newsroom  or www.pgecurrents.com.

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AB 1162 will require colleges and universities to set in place safeguards for campus debit card programs to ensure that students are not unfairly targeted

SACRAMENTO, CA – A bill to protect student’s financial aid from predatory bank fees has been introduced by Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D-Oakley). Assembly Bill 1162 requires college boards to adopt policies that best serve the needs of students when negotiating contracts with financial institutions to disburse a student’s financial aid onto debit cards.

As college and university budgets have shrunk, many have begun to use third-party servicers to disburse financial aid and issue credit balance refunds to students on debit cards. While many schools are obtaining revenues and reducing costs by outsourcing these services, the relationships between schools and financial institutions have raised questions because students end up bearing some costs directly.

In May 2012, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group released The Campus Debit Card Trap: Are Bank Partnerships Fair to Students, exposing companies and colleges engaging in this unfair practice.

“Colleges must set in place regulations for campus debit card programs to ensure that students are not unfairly targeted,” said Assemblymember Frazier. “In my book, charging our college students high fees for using their financial aid is a predatory practice that needs to be reformed.” 

Assemblymember Frazier is leading the way to protect students with AB 1162 and has gained national recognition and support in a recent press release by Congressman George Miller (D-Contra Costa).

“I applaud Assemblymember Frazier for examining this important issue,” said Congressman Miller. “While I continue to have very deep concerns about financial aid disbursement cards, his new bill will help ensure that students’ limited financial aid dollars aren’t being pilfered by hidden fees and penalties. Congress and the states must do everything in their power to ensure banks play by the same rules on campus as they do off campus, and that schools enter any deals with financial institutions with their students’ best interest in mind.”

AB 1162 was approved by the Assembly Higher Education Committee with a 9-3 vote and will go on to be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee in May.

To contact Assemblymember Jim Frazier please visit his website at www.asmdc.org/members/a11/ or call his District Offices at 707-399-3011 or 925-778-5790, or his Capitol Office at 916-319-2011.

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