ANTIOCH – The Board of Director of the Contra Costa Event Park, Home of the Contra Costa County Fair announce their search for a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Current CEO Joe Brengle announced that he would be retiring at the end of June 2025.
Under the Board’s guidance, the CEO plans, executes and manages the annual Contra Costa County Fair. In addition to the Annual Fair, the CEO leads the planning, organization, recruitment, and management of the Contra Costa Event Parks facility rental program (Interim Events), along with negotiating and facilitating long term rental agreements.
Current CEO Joe Brengle with a character during the 2024 Contra Costa County Fair. Photo: CC Event Park
The Monthly Salary Range for the position is $8,630 – $10,567. The salary will be based on the successful candidate’s qualifications with CalHR approval. An example of additional benefits include: State of California, Public Employment Retirement System (PERS), Vacation & Sick Leave, Health Plan, Dental Plan, Vision Plan and State Holidays.
A full description of the position and application process is available on the Fairs website CEO-Flyer.pdf, or can be picked up at the Fair Administration Office, 1201 W. 10th Street, Antioch.
Monica’s Riverview is located on the water at 1 I (eye) Street in Antioch’s historic, downtown Rivertown. For their menu and more information see visitmonicas.com.
On February 12, 2025, at approximately 10:24 p.m., Antioch police officers responded to the area of Hillcrest Avenue and Larkspur Drive for reports of shots fired in the area. When officers arrived on the scene, they found a victim who had been shot at least once. Antioch police officers provided aid to the victim who was transported to a local hospital.
The 22-year-old male victim later succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.
The Antioch Police Department’s Investigations Bureau, consisting of Crime Scene Investigators and detectives with the Violent Crimes Unit responded to take over the investigation. This is an active investigation, and no further information will be released at this time.
Any further information or additional press releases will be provided by the Investigations Bureau. Any tips or other information can be directed to Antioch Police Detective Cox at (925) 481-8147 or by email at jcox@antiochca.gov.
It was the second fatal shooting in Antioch this year.
Former Antioch Police Commissioner Lesli May speaking at the Antioch City Council meeting on Jan.. 17, 2025, at which she made her racist comment and during the Commission meeting on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. Councilman Don Freitas at the council meeting on Jan. 28, 2025, at which he called for May to publicly apologize or resign. Video screenshots
Leslie May claims she and her family “have endured numerous attacks on [her] individual property” and from local media baselessly saying they were “constantly pushing false narratives…inciting violent rhetoric”
Blames Councilman Freitas for “cultural misunderstanding” of her racist comments without explaining what she meant
Claims her “work on the commission has been transformational”
By Allen D. Payton
The City of Antioch finally released the resignation letter from former Antioch Police Oversight Commission member Leslie May, following her use of “the N-word” twice during the Jan. 17, 2025, special council meeting to describe City Manager Bessie Scott and then-City Attorney Thomas L. Smith. May submitted it on Monday, Feb. 10, after District 3 Councilman Don Freitas, who initially called for her to publicly apologize and resign from the commission.
After she refused to do either, he later requested to have a vote for her removal placed on this past Tuesday’s city council meeting agenda. Scott announced May’s resignation on Monday but did not provide the letter emailed to her, Mayor Ron Bernal, the City Clerk’s office and copying District 1 Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker that day. (See related articles here, here and here)
As previously reported, each council member could choose one member from their district to be nominated for appointment to the commission during the council meeting on Feb. 13, 2024. Torres-Walker nominated May for a two-year appointment that was to last through November this year, but she served a little less than a year.
In her resignation letter, below, May claims Freitas called for her “resignation due to a cultural misunderstanding” but did not explain what she meant by that.
Following is her emailed letter of resignation:
From: Leslie May To: Bessie M. Scott; Ron Bernal; City Clerk Cc: Tamisha Torres-Walker Subject: Resignation Date: Monday, February 10, 2025 8:35:22 AM Date: 02/10/2025 Time: 8:30 am
To whom it may concern,
After talking with family and reflecting on my personal experience, it is in the best interest of my safety and health, I, Leslie D. May, am resigning effective immediately from my role as a commissioner for the Antioch Police Oversight Commission. My family and I have endured numerous attacks on my individual property, attacks from local opinion papers constantly pushing false narratives about my advocacy, inciting violent rhetoric now and prior to my appointment with the Antioch Police Oversight Commission. The dangerous attacks against me have increased since my appointment and most recently fueled by Councilmember Don Freitas calling for my resignation due to a cultural misunderstanding.
As a 73 year of age Black woman, I am a grandmother, a great grandmother, and a surrogate mother to many in our community. I am a physically disabled person from birth and over the past three years I have experienced derogatory statements about my facial features, my physical disabilities and false statements to my employer threatening the economic stability of family.
Related to these attacks the Federal DOJ has received reports, the California DOJ has received reports, the Antioch Police Department has received reports, the Federal Bureau of Investigations has received reports, and the Contra Costa County District Attorney Office has received reports. These agencies are actively investigating threats and actions made by community members in Antioch, surrounding cities, as well as local elected Officials.
Despite these attacks, my work on the commission has been transformational and has clearly defined Constitutional non bias policing in the City of Antioch starting with the following actions I have taken. I have been present, prepared, and attentive to the needs of those impacted negatively by policing in Antioch since my appointment. I have spent time reviewing the budget, policies, practices, and procedures of the police department and due to my due diligence, I have made credible recommendations like increasing mental health services for officers, increasing staff to meet these needs with a sense of urgency, and increased community engagement in our highest needs communities to foster trust and transparency.
I have been an advocate and activist, fighting for the civil rights of everyone. I have marched in Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, Georgia, the Carolinas, with Ceasar Chavez and the farmworkers, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesse Jackson, and many more activists since I was 8 years old. I can assure the City of Antioch and all my supporters that I will continue my advocacy and activism as a private citizen uninhibited by bureaucracy and the status quo.
Former Antioch Police Oversight Commissioner Leslie D. May
Publisher’s Note: Neither the Antioch Herald, nor I as the publisher and reporter on this matter, ever attacked Ms. May, published false narratives about her or her advocacy or incited violent rhetoric either in articles on the website or on the Antioch Herald Facebook page, prior to or since her appointment to the commission nor since her racist comments that were made during the special council meeting on Jan. 17, 2025.
I stand by and will defend the reporting of the facts about what she said, and what she and others have said about the matter. Furthermore, I rarely offer my opinion on the Antioch Herald news website but do so frequently on the Facebook page as I engage with our readers, as I, too am a resident of Antioch.
Yet, I have always shown Ms. May respect when challenging some comments she has written on that social media outlet and gave her the opportunity to edit them as I afford all of those who choose to comment there but include certain words that get them automatically hidden by the settings on the page – based on the community standards I have determined for it – or were administratively hidden.As I’ve said to politicians in the past, if you don’t like or want what you say, write or do reported, then don’t say, write or do those things. The same goes for any government official or candidate for public office.
Help shape the future of Antioch’s Police Leadership! También en Español
By Antioch Police Department
The City of Antioch is searching for its next Police Chief, and we want your input! Join us for a Community Meeting to share what qualities and experience you believe are essential for our city’s next law enforcement leader.
Thursday, February 20, 2025 6:30 PM Antioch Police Department (Community Room) 300 L Street, Antioch
This is your chance to shape the future of public safety in Antioch—don’t miss it!
En Español
¡Ayuda a dar forma al futuro del liderazgo policial de Antioch!
La ciudad de Antioch busca a su próximo Jefe de Policía y queremos conocer tu opinión. Únete a nuestra Reunión Comunitaria para compartir las cualidades y la experiencia que consideras esenciales en el futuro líder de nuestras fuerzas de seguridad.
Jueves, 20 de febrero de 2025 6:30 PM Departamento de Policía de Antioch (Sala Comunitaria) 300 L Street, Antioch
¡Esta es tu oportunidad de moldear el futuro de la seguridad pública en Antioch—no te lo pierdas!
District 1 Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker speaks at the city council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Video screenshot.
Posts video and written thoughts on Facebook
Says, “We are entering…some unprecedented cruel times” participates in class warfare, complains about “the ruling class” of which she’s a part, but wants everyone to “unify, lock arms, and work together” before blasting council colleague at commission meeting the following Monday.
By Allen D. Payton
During the City Council Committee Reports and Communications portion toward the beginning of the meeting on Feb. 28, 2025, Antioch District 1 Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker offered another of her diatribes from the dais, this time lecturing the public with more accusations based in class warfare on the supposed evils of “the ruling class”, of which, ironically, she’s a part. (See 2:59:20 mark of meeting video)
The councilwoman also posted the video of her speech and wrote most of her spoken comments on her official Facebook page on Wednesday, Feb. 5th saying, they “and those who aspire to join them don’t care about everyday people.” Torres-Walker complains about “the filthy rich, colonialism, and capitalistic state and people of color adjacent to this state with too much time on their hands who rise to positions of power most often to close doors and seal them behind them.”
The councilwoman does, however, offer one solution and ends with it in a confusing180-degree turn from her comments demonizing the wealthy and powerful in our society. She said, “We in Antioch have an opportunity to unify, lock arms, and work together despite our differences.”
Torres-Walker’s post on her official Facebook page on Feb. 5, 2025. Screenshot.
Following is the written statement from the councilwoman’s latest lecture:
“We are entering into some unprecedented cruel times, and if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.
“Most often, the problem with the government is that it’s full of people who could do something about poverty, homelessness, community, and state-sanctioned violence, but they won’t.
“Why?
“Because the ruling class and those who aspire to join them don’t care about everyday people, you will hear these kinds of people proclaim that Government efficiency is their priority which translates to profit over people under the guise of balancing the budget while systematically dismantling critical resources that serve our most vulnerable communities.
“It is most often the filthy rich, colonialism, and capitalistic state and people of color adjacent to this state with too much time on their hands who rise to positions of power most often to close doors and seal them behind them. This is not a right-left thing. It’s a forgotten thing; poor people and working-class people have been forgotten.
“Octavia Buttler wrote an essay for Essence magazine in 2000. Which states that, ‘There is no single answer that will solve all of our future problems. There is no magic bullet. Instead, there are thousands of answers at least, and you can be one of them if you choose to be.’
“There is no, one major thing to fix everything, or leader that is going to solve all our problems, and no solution to cure everything because it doesn’t exist. She says that, “we need to look to, all the small answers that accumulate to the fix, to the healing, and to the liberation we all want to see.”
“Community is the answer to the problem and only together will we build a healthy community for us all.
“I understand the value of peace, and I’m also prepared to show up for conflict. When I ran for this council, I agreed to face conflict head-on, no matter how small. Because showing up for conflict is how we create peace and overcome fear.
“As we all watch in real time the fall of our democracy, the potential of a very real oligarchy leading this country with policy mandates that are meant to harm the working class, the poor, and our undocumented “and documented neighbors.
“We in Antioch have an opportunity to unify, lock arms, and work together despite our differences of opinion or politics.”
Yet, as previously reported, during the Police Oversight Commission meeting on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, that both Torres-Walker and District 3 Councilman Don Freitas attended, she berated her colleague. That was done during public comments on the emergency item about the racist comments made by then-Commissioner Leslie May at the council meeting on Jan. 28, 2025, for which Freitas had asked May to publicly apologize and then, for her resignation. But she did neither.
He then requested an item be placed on the agenda for the Feb. 11th council meeting for a vote to remove her from the commission. But May resigned on Monday, Feb. 10th.
The councilwoman was also upset about Freitas’ call for the resignation of the former city attorney, who later did. (See related articles here and here)
New Antioch Police Captain Desmond Bittner (center), as an Explorer (Cadet) in 2000 (left) and in his early years as an Officer (right). Photos: Antioch PD
Inspired by his late uncle, a Pittsburg cop, to pursue a law enforcement career, Antioch native Desmond Bittner worked “his way up through the ranks” from cadet
By Antioch Police Department
During a ceremony at the Antioch Police Facility on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, Interim Chief Joe Vigil administered the oath of office to the department’s new Captain Desmond Bittner.
The chief said and later posted on the APD Facebook page, “Today we are excited to announce the promotion of Captain Desmond Bittner.
Bittner participating in a NorCal Law Enforcement Special Olympics Torch Run. Photo: APD
A true Antioch native, Captain Desmond Bittner has dedicated his entire law enforcement career to the Antioch Police Department—starting as a police Cadet (then called the Explorer program) and working his way up through the ranks to Captain!
Over the years, Captain Bittner has: Served in Investigations Been a Recruit Training Officer at the academy Led the SWAT team as Commander Overseen Field Services & Operations (But you won’t catch him in Traffic or Canine—he doesn’t like writing tickets and is allergic to dogs!)
With a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Criminal Justice Administration, plus advanced leadership training, Captain Bittner is a well-respected leader in the department.
Outside of work, he: Coaches his son’s baseball team Practices Brazilian jiu-jitsu Once competed professionally in CrossFit!
New Antioch Police Captain Desmond Bittner offers his appreciation and thoughts during his oath of office ceremony on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. Photo: APD
During the ceremony, Chief Vigil shared about the new captain:
“Captain Desmond Bittner was born and raised in the City of Antioch. He began his law enforcement career with the Antioch Police Department as a police cadet. While working as a Community Service Officer, he was hired as a police officer. Throughout his time in the Antioch Police Department, Captain Bittner has been promoted through the ranks and has served as a Corporal, Sergeant, Lieutenant, and most recently acted as Captain.
“Throughout his career Captain Bittner has worked in investigations, been a recruit training officer at the police academy, and has served as the departments Special Weapons and Tactics commander. He has overseen field services and operations and has never worked in traffic or canine because he does not like writing tickets and is allergic to dogs.
“Captain Bitter has also completed Management School and participated in California’s Police Officers Standards and Training Leadership and Wellness Symposium.
“He has been married to his wife Kristel for the last twenty-one years and they have a fourteen-year-old son named Patton. In his spare time Captain Bittner enjoys managing his son’s baseball team and practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu. In his younger years, Captain Bittner competed professionally in the world of sports and fitness, which we know to be CrossFit.
“Fun Fact: Captain Bittner met his wife Kristel when they were just eight years old!
Join us in celebrating Captain Bittner’s leadership and dedication to our community!”
New Antioch Police Officers Canaan Lutu and Charise Holloway, and new Captain Desmond Bittner are given their oaths of office by Interim Chief Joe Vigil on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, as friends and family look on. Photo: Antioch PD
As previously reported, Vigil administered the oath of office to Bittner, along with two new officers, Canaan Lutu and Charise Holloway. The chief later led them, new Dispatcher Paige Garner and part-time Records Technician Sirinity Burkett in reciting the International Association of Chiefs of Police Oath of Honor.
Bittner then shared some thoughts and thanks for the promotion.
Offers Thanks, Says He Was Inspired by Late Uncle – a Former Pittsburg Cop When reached for comment about his promotion Bittner said, “First and foremost, as a Christian, I always thank God first in looking over my family and the department and guiding me in my career.”
He then shared what he said at the ceremony.
“I thanked Chief Vigil for the promotion,” the new captain stated. “I invited the retired APD officers I worked with through my career and thanked them and made sure they know they’d never be forgotten. I also invited some officers from the Pittsburg PD and thanked them for all they do for the City of Antioch and our department.”
“I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Pittsburg PD,” Bittner continued. “My uncle Norm Bittner worked for Pittsburg PD in the 1980’s. He was instrumental in me becoming interested in law enforcement. He passed away some years ago. It’s always been a big part of my life.”
“I also gave thanks to all the staff I’ve worked with through the years who worked under me and always made me look good as a lieutenant,” he added.
The new captain is one of two currently on the Antioch Police force including Captain Matt Koch. Bittner currently oversees Support Services which include investigations, Internal Affairs, training, recruiting and dispatch. Koch oversees Field Services, which includes patrol, SWAT, the Crisis Negotiation Team, the UAS-Unmanned Aerial System (drone) Team, traffic and volunteers.
“There will be a third one, soon,” Bittner stated. “They’re creating a new division in for the agreement with DOJ, which should be operational sometime in July.” That captain will take on some of Bittner’s responsibilities “to spread out the work,” he added.
Eastbound and westbound views of the now open Sand Creek Road Extension including the bridge over the creek. Herald file photos.
Connects Heidorn Ranch Road and Hillcrest Avenue in Antioch to Hwy 4
By Allen D. Payton
The City of Brentwood announced on Monday, “The Sand Creek Road Extension is NOW OPEN! We’re thrilled to bring this new roadway to the community and hope it enhances your travels. Please drive safely and enjoy the new route!”
About the delay in the road’s opening two weeks after the ribbon cutting, Assistant City Manager Darin Gale said, “The extension is a unique project because it starts at an intersection that’s controlled by Caltrans and ends at an intersection that’s controlled by Antioch.”
“There were still some items that needed to be completed before we could open the road,” he shared, reiterating what City Manager Tim Ogden said during the ribbon cutting ceremony on Jan. 28. (See related article)
“We appreciate the partnership with those two agencies in getting the road open as quickly as possible” Gale added.
“Part of the intersection built by the developer in Antioch had not yet been approved by the City of Antioch,” he explained as one of the reasons for the delay.
Aerial view of the Sand Creek Road Extension at Heidorn Ranch Road. Source: City of Brentwood
Gale was asked about the timing of the opening and if it had anything to do with the new Costco opening nearby.
He responded, “The City of Brentwood was moving forward with the Sand Creek Road anyway. However, the road does provide a connection to Costco. While it was coincidental to the timing of the opening of Costco, it helped us with attracting the store to Brentwood.”
“We look forward to Sand Creek Road serving the Brentwood Innovation Center (located to the north) and bringing jobs to the residents of East County,” Gale stated.
The new section of the road now connects to the Antioch section at Heidorn Ranch Road, then to Hillcrest Avenue and west to the road that runs north adjacent to Dozier Libbey Medical High School in Antioch.
Gale also reiterated what Antioch Mayor Ron Bernal said at the ribbon cutting, as previously reported. He said, “Richland Communities over to the west of us, they’re going to be starting this year, I’m told, on their subdivision that’s going to build that final link between Sand Creek Road, where it terminates right now, and Deer Valley Road. So, that’s going to be able to get residents and folks over to Kaiser, which is important, getting people off of Deer Valley Road.”
Sand Creek Road will eventually connect to Dallas Ranch Road in Antioch, on the west side of Deer Valley Road and run through The Ranch 1,177-new home subdivision developed by Richland Communities and approved by the Antioch City Council in July 2020.