By Barbara Zivica

Senator Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) recently announced new staff members: Antioch Mayor Wade Harper, who’s up for a vote in November, 2016, Lafayette School District Board Member Teresa Gerringer, Pittsburg City Councilman Ben Johnson, and Elizabeth Patten of Oakland a former intern in Glazer’s 2015 Senate campaign. She will act as Constituent Services Coordinator.

I voted for Steve Glazer because I admired his public call for an end to BART strikes, which caused havoc to commuters and was critical of the system’s unions and management. I also give him kudos for having a number of Republicans on his staff. I criticize him now only because I think he should have done a better vetting job before putting Mayor Harper on his staff.

Perhaps Glazer is unaware that Antioch residents tried to recall the controversial mayor who campaigned on zero tolerance for crime and hiring 22 more police officers, which along with the 103 previously authorized by Council would have brought the force to a total of 125. However, despite passage of Measure C, a half cent sales tax which he said the city would dedicate to acquiring more police, as well as code enforcement personnel, the police force today, according to City Manager Duran’s monthly report on October 1, consists of 87 full-time sworn employees, four of which are in various stages of the field training program, five whom have medical conditions preventing them from full duty, and several police trainees currently attending the 78th Police Academy.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 19th, 2015 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.