Editor:

Good Evening Mayor Harper, City Council, Chief Cantando and associates.

My name is Tina Chavez – Rouse. I have been a citizen of Antioch for 20 years. My father worked as a prison guard for the state penitentiary of New Mexico and was a traffic cop. My mother worked for the City of Santa Clara on W. Hedding St. as a social worker for juvenile delinquents. To clarify, yes, I am the wife of Fred Rouse.

I have sat back for many years/months now, that I find myself having to speak up. The nice Leo in me is now going to roar.

I wish I had the liberty to discuss the issues I am presenting to you in better length – but you have your “three-minute rule”. May I suggest five minutes for those individuals that need additional time to get their message out there. Some comments may be three minutes, while others may take five minutes. Suggestion: You could even incorporate this into your speaker document giving the citizen the choice (3 minutes or 5 minutes) to circle the time needed to convey their comments.

First up, is candidates currently running for office or re-election. It is very upsetting to me that all candidates are not playing fair game. Many of you are in fact making promises you can’t or won’t be able to keep. That is apparent by the actions you have shown to this city. Many of you are unscrupulous and take or make back door deals. These are not fair deals and in a sense are lies to the citizens. I personally, better respect one’s character when they can be 100% honest.

You must show your “true colors” and show compassion of what you can realistically do for the city you are representing. Showing candor, honesty, respect, proven accomplishments and going beyond the scope of your jobs. Sorry to say, but I have not seen that in these past four years. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Tell people what you plan to do and what you plan to accomplish – but don’t make empty promises.

I am truly surprised many of you haven’t learned this quality throughout your years of experience. Listen to the people. If you make a mistake, admit it. Don’t make excuses. You will have more respect of the citizens if you take accountability and responsibility for your actions. Honesty is the best policy. Even though the truth hurts or is good, always tell the truth – otherwise there are ramifications that you will have to answer to, later. Be wise about your actions. Be real.

Note: there are secrets that are known about some of you, but have not leaked out. Having this knowledge tells me who to vote for.

Boycotting is not the way to show your support of the city. That is your personal way of hurting yourself of being re-elected. It is a good way to ruin your chances of re-election. It is basically sticking your foot in your mouth and stifling yourself. Be courageous, after all, wasn’t that your initial plan?

Collections of past due monies to the City: I am really surprised the City Manager hasn’t enforced this problem. While I have an accounting background of all areas, as well as logistics, office management, project management, etc, I had to place Lien’s on properties for non-payment. Why hasn’t the city done this in an effort to collect their monies? Construction & other various companies have to use this tactic all the time. In fact, there are many other areas within the city that can cost next to nothing or use better managed processes to save thousands of dollars.

In addition, I am quite surprised that while being the second largest city within our county that the City Manager hasn’t fought or negotiated harder and smarter for our city. Just doesn’t logically make sense to me. My husband has handled millions and billions in both budgets and contractual agreements. He has always been ahead of schedule or on time, in fact his division was ranked in the 90 percentile against other companies throughout the valley.

Please note: Time slots for Public Comments are limited, therefore I was not able to publicly state my complete comments. What I have mentioned here, is a snippet of what I plan to speak about in a future meeting with Chief Cantando and his police staff.

Police force: Many tactics can be utilized to better manage our crime. Many of the laws here in Antioch and across the U.S. are not followed. I just don’t get it. Chief and Police Officers, I know you will understand this statement: “What better place to hide, than to hide in plain sight?” Those citizens that have unknown specialized backgrounds can help/consult in ways to assist in cracking down on these issues.

Lastly, city residents, please remember to vote. You currently have 14 days to vote. Your votes are very crucial to bring “change” to this city. Vote for whom you believe is honest, fair, committed, accountable and responsible. Vote for whom you believe is true. I say fake is a snake – personally, I hate snakes.

Thank you all for your time.

Tina Chavez – Rouse

Antioch

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 27th, 2016 at 7:23 pm and is filed under Opinion, Letters to the Editor, Opinion, Politics & Elections. 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.