Filing for Antioch Mayor, City Council, City Clerk, Treasurer and School Board Opens July 16
By Allen Payton, Publisher
Filing for the November elections for local office opens on Monday, July 16 and closes at 5 p.m. on Friday, August 10, unless an incumbent fails to file for re-election. In that case, the filing period is extended until Wednesday, August 15.
In Antioch, now that Measures L and M both failed, the positions up for election in the City are Mayor, the council seats of Council Members Brian Kalinowski and Mary Rocha, as well as City Clerk and City Treasurer.
Rumor has it that Kalinowski will not seek reelection, but Rocha will be running, again. She will have served 32 years in office in Antioch, both on the school board and council at the end of this year.
Three candidates have been discussed for the Mayor’s race, including the incumbent Jim Davis, Councilman Gary Agopian and former Mayor Don Freitas, who after losing to Davis in 2008 might be making a comeback. But, Davis may opt to run for Council, instead.
The question is where is Don? He hasn’t been seen at any public events, lately, including the July 4th festivities.
For council, School Board Trustee Walter Ruehlig has announced he will be running for City Council instead of re-election. One other candidate, who has already launched his campaign website, is newcomer Noel Pinto, the Director of Parking and Enforcement for the City of Oakland. Other names being bandied about are former Councilman Arne Simonsen and another newcomer, Monica Wilson who works for Mills College as the Executive Assistant to the Dean of Student Life, is a member of the Antioch Economic Development Commission, Vice Chair of the Contra Costa County Democratic Party Central Committee, is the Treasurer for the California Democratic Party Women’s Caucus, and serves as the staff adviser to the Feminist Democrats (Fem Dems), the Mills College Democratic Club.
As of Monday, July 9, two more candidates for city council have stepped forward. First is Jonathan Hernandez, a self-described “lifelong Bail Agent, ” according to his website (although his campaign Facebook page states “I am a financial advisor by profession”), who announced his candidacy in an email to local business owners. His issues are crime, budget and education. In addition to the Facebook page, he has set up an informational and fundraising website at http://www.indiegogo.com/concernedcitizensforantioch offering a campaign T-shirt, bumper sticker and/or pen for contributions ranging from $500 to $5,000, and another campaign website featuring the skyline of San Diego at http://concernedcitizensforantioch.weebly.com and a donation page with amounts ranging from$1.00 to $1,200 using the City of Antioch Police badge icon next to each contribution choice.
Then, in an email to the Herald from a Dr. Douglas Quinn, dated Monday, July 9, 2012, he shared his intention to run for city council, as well. He has “created a little web page to chronicle the process at facebook.com/drdouglasquinn.”
“I’ll be running a rather low-key candidacy, as this will be my first attempt at running for office,” Quinn stated. “However, low-key should not be confused with non-serious. I fully intend to give Noel Pinto, Arne Simonsen and Monica Wilson a good race. If there’s one thing my background gives me legs for, it’s talking up a storm in public venues.”
On the school board, the positions held by Trustees Walter Ruehlig, Claire Smith and Diane Gibson-Gray are up. Both Smith and Gibson-Gray have said they are running. But because Ruehlig will not be seeking reelection, the filing period for school board will be extended five more calendar days.
Also, this year, the City Clerk and City Treasurer positions are up for election. Appointed incumbent Denise Skaggs told me she won’t be running for the position. Treasurer Donna Conley is expected to run for re-election, although she supported Measure L and wanted the position to be appointed.
For more information and filing forms, check with the City Clerk’s office at 779-7009 or the County Clerk’s office at 646-4166 and ask for Candidate Services.
great info allen,
thanks.
here are my thoughts about this election:
the residents have the chance to replace 3 council members, kalinowski, rocha and davis. all three, directly responsible for the mess we have in antioch. all three in office for 2,3 or even more terms. there was a big article about double dipping in the cct, naming davis and kalinowski.
agopian is running for mayor? you must be kidding. he has not even finished one term as council member. he is NOT ready to be our, or anybodies, mayor. how can he vote, and spend $ 120,000 of our money to make the mayor position a rotating position, and now he wants to run for that 4 year term?? makes no sense.
also please remember the word was, that he wanted to jump ship already. so what does he really wants…? he has not proven yet, that he takes care of antioch problems.
i had the chance to meet noel and monica, and off course who does not know walter..lol those three need to come up what and how they want to change antioch for the better.
if arne wants to run again, he needs to come out of his hiding. i respect him very much, but he needs to be more aggressive, and please..no stories about russia and things we can’t do.
we need a council and mayor who is strong, and aggressively want to make things better. we need to re-think how we do business, how to support local businesses, how we spend our money. we need people with a “i can, i do, i will” attitude.
we need a council and mayor, who represent the people and do not have their own agenda.
lastly…don for mayor
i did not fully supported don during the last election, but i have learned, that what is missing the last 4 years, are his very strong leadership skills. we need a strong mayor as leader. off course he also brings the experience and skills to turn things around in antioch.
in closing i urge everybody to go out and vote, specially for our local issues.
Karl,
I just wanted to let you know I appreciate seeing comments like yours. You seem very informed and intelligent. Even though your comments are opinionated you threw a lot of facts in there as well. It is comments like yours that offer the most benefit to others. Well done sir. (b.t.w. I believe there are still some candidate applications available if you aren’t too busy for the next few years.)
Thank you,
Mike Kitterman