Four candidates to challenge Tiscareno, Ogorchock for Antioch City Council

Three of the four challengers running for the Antioch City Council against incumbents Tony Tiscareno and Lori Ogorchock in the November election. (L-R) Joy Motts from her Facebook page, Nora Foster provided by the candidate and Rodney McClelland from his Facebook page. See the photo of Prudence Capelle  in the 8/19/18 UPDATE, below.

Nine candidates pull papers, only six file

By Allen Payton

As of the filing deadline for the Antioch City Council elections in November, six candidates had filed, including the two incumbents, Council Members Tony Tiscareno and Lori Ogorchock whose seats are up for just two years. The four challengers include former Antioch School Board Trustee Joy Motts, Antioch Parks & Recreation Commission Chairman Rodney McClelland and Member Nora Foster, and Caroleve Prudence Capelle.

Three other candidates pulled papers, including Janice Lipnisky, who was in the July 4th parade as Ms. Antioch Plus Size 2018 and showed up to city hall wearing her sash and crown, Howard Kinsel and Sandi Mauricio. According to Antioch City Clerk Arne Simonsen, Lipnisky told him she has decided to run for the Antioch School Board instead, Kinsel chose not to run due to health issues, and Mauricio did not complete the filing process.

When asked why she decided not to run, Mauricio responded, “I’m going to support another candidate who would like to see the same changes in Antioch. I will run when I have more time to commit to my campaign.”

Motts announced her campaign in February when she filed an intent to run and was the only candidate to do so. (See related article.)

Nora Foster

In a response to emailed questions, Foster stated, “I have decided to run for City Council because for the last 4.5 years, I have called Antioch home. I have always wanted to make a difference in the community in which I live. I love my home, my community, and my City. My goal in running is to contribute to making Antioch a place to be envied. A place where its residences are feel safe and proud to call home.

Although there are many issues that needs attention, my main issues are:

1) Reducing/Eliminating Crime in this City,

2) Bringing businesses to our City (more than just corner stores but big businesses even high tech.),

3) Saving our hiking trails and open spaces.

I am currently a commissioner of Antioch’s Department of Park & Rec. and serving on Contra Costa County’s FACT (Family And Children Trust) committee; however, my term will expire this September. I would like to think that my role as a Park & Rec. commissioner and a committee member of these boards have helped to benefit the City and the County.

I currently hold an undergraduate degree (BS) in Organizational Behavior and a minor in Telecommunications. Additionally, I have a Master’s Degree in Social Work and have worked in the field of Child Welfare for over 10 years.”

Rodney McClelland

McClelland was one of the three leaders of the recent referendum effort to stop the city’s cannabis business district. Although it failed to get the necessary 5,100 signatures within 30 days, they did gather over 3,000 signatures from registered voters in Antioch.

When reached for comment about his background he said, “I’ve been involved with Delta Youth Soccer League and served on the Antioch Youth Sports Complex Board of Directors, as well. Interacting with the city and obtained financial aid for some of the kids. I was involved with the development of the back fields and the maintenance plan.”

In addition, McClelland said he works in sales for a wholesale distributor of parts and supplies to refrigeration, heating and air conditioning contractors.

Asked why he’s running, McClelland responded, “I was born and raised in Antioch and have seen it go through a lot of changes, both good and bad. I’m not happy with some of the decisions the current council has made, specifically with Measure C, and the cannabis issue was not well thought out and planned. I believe the police department is what we should go after for improvements. I know they’ve spent some money from Measure C. But, it’s not enough. We still don’t have enough police officers for a city our size of 119,000 people.”

“During the referendum, I met a lot of folks who were retired, and some were elderly. The greatest concern of most of them was that they don’t feel safe to leave their homes in the evening,” he shared. “It’s not that the police officers we have aren’t doing their job, it’s that we just don’t have enough officers to do the job we need them to do.”

“We need to clean up our city to improve economic development and bring in businesses in the empty spots that we have in order to thrive,” McClelland continued. We need to find more career type jobs, not just retail jobs. Everything hinges on the reputation of our city and what they see when they come into our city.”

“We need to do a better job of making Antioch more attractive to businesses and future homeowners, and current homeowners, which goes without saying,” he said. “We have all this landscaping throughout town. Maybe we need to look at something that requires less maintenance and water, and longer lasting. Something more thought out.”

“One of the other things is, we should continue to refurbish our parks. We’ve done a good job at improving our parks with the First 5 Regional Group, including Prosserville Park, Contra Loma Estates Park, and the Antioch Disk Golf, all-access playground and splash playground at Prewett Park,” McClelland stated. “We need to do more of that and bring more programs into our parks. The more programs, the more community engagement you’ll have. We need something for every age group.”

Tony Tiscareno from City of Antioch website.

Tony Tiscareno 

In Tiscareno’s campaign announcement on August 1st he said, “When I ran for election four years ago, I promised to work hard to improve crime prevention efforts, revitalize city services and make Antioch fiscally sound. I have made a positive impact in these and other areas that I care deeply about.”

In the last four years, his announcement continued, Antioch has hired more than 50 new police officers, the city ended employee furloughs and City Hall is open full time.  Staff has been hired to improve city services, including code enforcement.  And, funding was found to provide more youth and senior activities.

“My focus in the next two years is to expand Antioch’s economic growth and attract new businesses and jobs, continue to support our public safety services and hire more police officers, continue to reduce crime, and responsibly manage our budget,” he added.

Tiscareno and his wife have lived in Antioch for almost 50 years. He is a local Realtor.

Lori Ogorchock from City of Antioch website.

Lori Ogorchock

After filing her papers on Thursday, Ogorchock made a brief statement in a video on her Facebook page saying, “Hi, Lori Ogorchock, here. I just made it official. Went inside and filed my papers to run for the Antioch City Council for 2018. I need your vote on November 6th. I’m so excited to run for my seat, again. To celebrate I walked down to RiverTown Sweets to get my cookie with everything on it. I look forward to talking and walking with you, this year. Thank you.”

8/17/18 UPDATE: Ogorchock sent out an announcement about her campaign on Thursday, Aug. 16 stating, “Serving you on the Antioch City Council is my greatest honor. I’m a 45-year Antioch resident, a graduate of Antioch High and a local businesswoman. Together, little by little, we are making a difference to improve Antioch’s quality of life. We’ve hired 55+ police officers, balanced our budget, working to create a facility to support victims of domestic violence. We’ve brought BART to Antioch – now we need to lobby BART for more parking at the new station. There is much more work to do. I would be honored to earn your vote this November.”

Ogorchock is also a local Realtor.

Prudence Capelle

Prudence Capelle

8/19/18 UPDATE: Capelle has worked as a Realtor and manager of 12 apartment buildings until she retired in 2012, when she moved to Antioch after having purchased a home in Rivertown in 2010. She has served on the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy Public Advisory Committee, and as a volunteer at the Senior Center, teaching the Beginners’ Exercise Class. She is a painter and some of her work has been displayed at the Lynn House Gallery, Antioch Historical Society Museum and Antioch Library.

Capelle said, “I decided to run as a result of seeing a flyer about two seats on the Council at the Antioch Senior Center and felt that as an elder and a woman in our community, I could be a valuable addition to the City Council.” Her main issues are “the lack of cohesion and vision on the Council” and supports support the “Save the Yard” and “Stop the Tunnels” campaigns and is “very interested in community building and addressing solutions to what we can do about global warming/climate change in our city.”

The election will be held Tuesday, November 6. Any candidates who are elected will have to run for reelection, in the district where they live, in the 2020 election.


the attachments to this post:


Prudence Capelle close


l_ogorchock


Motts, Foster & McClelland


2 Comments to “Four candidates to challenge Tiscareno, Ogorchock for Antioch City Council”

  1. Selina Button says:

    I’m curious where you got the picture of Joyann Motts because I certainly did not send it to you.

    • Publisher says:

      Ms. Button,
      The photo of Joy Motts was obtained from one of her personal Facebook pages.
      https://www.facebook.com/joyann.motts/photos?lst=1288560146%3A1430758196%3A1534169605&source_ref=pb_friends_tl
      It was the best, most recent photo of her and I used that instead of the one used for the article about her candidacy in February, which she told me she didn’t like. I refuse to use photos of candidates that are years old, such as the one she is using on her campaign’s Facebook page.
      However, I now see you didn’t take the photo, but that it was posted on your page and Joy was tagged in it, which is why it appeared on her page. I will remove the attribution.
      If you remember who took the photo and are willing to share their name with us, we will give them proper attribution.
      Allen Payton, Publisher & Editor

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