Dear Editor:

Being a business owner, homeowner, husband, father and grandfather, I’ve learned the great advantage of investing in a future. It’s hard and takes sacrifice but, the end result is worth going all in. November offers a chance to invest in something worthwhile, improve our quality of life and that of those who follow.

Today, Antioch offers great opportunities. Antioch is rising with new   businesses, lower crime, blight reduction and landscape renovation. Real estate prices are a Bay Area bargain. A new and energetic City Manager, Police Chief and Mayor are working hard to make quality changes.

Antioch needs the work and investment of those who live and play here. Moving beyond the current sales tax measure, which has shown positive   results, and ushering in measure W, we will continue improving our city.

Measure W adds a half-cent local tax to what we are investing today, enabling continuation and increased funding to the police department but, also does much more.

W offers opportunity to a better quality of life. By increasing funding for reestablishing youth programs, water quality, maintaining 911 services and code enforcement, we can be a part of the solution.

If you spend $500 a week in taxable purchases in the City of Antioch,    Measure W increased cost to you would only be $2.50 a week! Some lose more in their couch while watching TV. This small amount will generate $7 million to improve our city. I’m hoping residents agree this small investment will make a very big dif  ference.

A city’s health depends on four factors: image; real estate market; physical condition; and management of quality-of-life issues. Measure W offers the    opportunity to improve each of these factors. Please join me and vote yes on W.

Tim McCall

32-year proud resident, small business owner, and Economic Development Commissioner.

Dear Editor:

As a business owner in Antioch, Measure W affords a unique opportunity to improve this community, and thereby, your chances of business success here. Looking past the one cent tax increase, you will discover the many ways Measure W will positively impact your business.

Many of the problems affecting our city can be attributed to a handful of causes – insufficient police resources, blight and homelessness, and a lack of resources for our youth.

The major benefit to Measure W is that it targets all these factors.

For example, Measure W will help make Antioch safer by maintaining 911 police response and the number of police officers patrolling city streets, directly improving the efficacy of our Business Neighborhood Watch program.

The funds from Measure W could also be used to clean up illegal dumping, thereby reducing the unsightly blight and rampant homelessness that are ravaging this city.

By restoring after school and summer programs for youth, businesses can rest assured that they will be less encumbered by the many problems that unsupervised youth can bring to a community, especially in the afternoons and on school breaks.

When you consider that Measure W costs the consumer one cent for every dollar spent (except on critical food products like groceries and prescriptions), you will surely agree that it is a small price to pay to ensure our city is safe, clean, and well-maintained.

Richard Pagano, President and CEO

Antioch Chamber of Commerce

By Acting Sergeant James Colley #4705, Investigations Bureau, Antioch Police Department

On Tuesday, October 9, 2018 at approximately 3:59 pm, Antioch Police Department officers were dispatched to the 100 block of E. 18th Street on the report of a shooting. Upon arrival officers located one juvenile gunshot victim. The victim was located critically wounded and died at the scene. The case is currently under investigation.

This preliminary information is made available by the Investigations Division. Any further information or additional press releases will be provided by the Investigations Bureau.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Antioch Police Department non-emergency line at (925)778-2441 or Detective Bledsoe at 925-779-6884. You may also text-a-tip to 274637 (CRIMES) using the key word ANTIOCH.

By John Crowder

Last week the California Department of Education released the 2018 test scores in English and math for all districts and schools in the state.  This is the fourth year of data from this latest testing scheme, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Test (SBAT), meant to align with the Common Core teaching standards and methods.  Students completing the test are placed into four broad categories in the subjects tested.  These are, Standards Not Met, Standard Nearly Met, Standard Met, and Standard Exceeded.  By combining the percentages from the latter two categories, we can compare how well schools and districts are doing in preparing students to, at a minimum, meet basic standards.

As has been the case since California began using this test in 2015, the results are not good for the Antioch Unified School District (AUSD).  AUSD students have the lowest scores of all eighteen school districts in Contra Costa County (See table below).  Further, the results for AUSD have remained, essentially, unchanged for the last four years.  In 2015, the percentage of students achieving success in English was 30%, while it is currently 31%.  In math it was 19% in 2015, and it now stands at 18%.

It is this low performance, combined with a lack of progress, that led hundreds of Antioch parents to sign the petitions and to turn out to the hearings held over the last couple of years to support bringing new charter schools, the Rocketship Elementary School and the Tech Academy Middle and High Schools, to Antioch.

The Charter School Act of 1992 was passed by the California legislature to address exactly the situation we find in Antioch.  Public charter schools, with longer school days, more interventions, and proven programs, bring hope to parents who want their children to have a good education, but who can’t obtain it from the district schools they find their children assigned to.

Parents only have one chance at ensuring their students learn the skills they need to be prepared for college and the job market.  They can’t afford to wait years, or decades, for change, especially when progress toward positive outcomes is nonexistent.  Each year of delay is another year lost.

Establishing high-quality, public charter schools in districts where students are not being adequately educated is imperative for communities where students are being failed by the education establishment when the district schools can’t, or won’t, change.

English Language Arts – Contra Costa County School Districts

Rank                            District                                                                        % Meet/Exceed

1                                  Orinda Union Elementary                                           88

2                                  Lafayette Elementary                                                  85

2                                  Moraga Elementary                                                    85

4                                  Acalanes Union High                                                 82

4                                  San Ramon Valley Unified                                        82

6                                  Walnut Creek Elementary                                           73

7                                  Canyon Elementary                                                    67

8                                  Brentwood Union Elementary                                    60

9                                  Liberty Union High                                                    58

10                                Byron Union Elementary                                            56

11                                Martinez Unified                                                        53

12                                Mt. Diablo Unified                                                     51

13                                Knightsen Elementary                                                43

14                                Oakley Union Elementary                                          39

15                                John Swett Unified                                                     37

16                                Pittsburg Unified                                                        34

16                                West Contra Costa Unified                                        34

18                                Antioch Unified                                                          31

Source:  https://caaspp.cde.ca.gov/sb2018/Search

Mathematics – Contra Costa County School Districts

Rank                            District                                                                        % Meet/Exceed

1                                  Orinda Union Elementary                                           85

2                                  Lafayette Elementary                                                  82

3                                  Moraga Elementary                                                    79

4                                  San Ramon Valley Unified                                        77

5                                  Walnut Creek Elementary                                           71

6                                  Acalanes Union High                                                 69

7                                  Canyon Elementary                                                    65

8                                  Brentwood Union Elementary                                    50

9                                  Byron Union Elementary                                            47

10                                Martinez Unified                                                        42

11                                Mt. Diablo Unified                                                     39

12                                Knightsen Elementary                                                38

13                                Liberty Union High                                                    31

14                                Oakley Union Elementary                                          27

15                                John Swett Unified                                                     26

16                                West Contra Costa Unified                                        23

17                                Pittsburg Unified                                                        20

18                                Antioch Unified                                                          18

Source:  https://caaspp.cde.ca.gov/sb2018/Search

Crowder is a candidate for Contra Costa County School Board, Area 4

“Lights. Camera. Action!”  Contra Costa voters can now see and hear where local candidates stand on important issues through televised roundtable discussions and forums. Local “Election Preview” offers Contra Costa voters a chance to be educated on candidates and issues before casting their ballots.

Contra Costa County Elections Division partners with the County’s Contra Costa Television (CCTV), the League of Women Voters of Diablo Valley, the League of Women Voters of West Contra Costa and the Contra Costa County Library to provide candidate forum programming for Fall Elections 2018. “Election Preview” shows begin airing this week on TV and online.

“We’re happy to provide this incredible resource that gives voters the opportunity to educate themselves about important issues,” Contra Costa Registrar of Voters Joe Canciamilla said. “Decisions made at the local level have the greatest impact on our daily lives, and without this program, voters likely might not have any other chance to see and hear from these candidates.”

“With the support of the Board of Supervisors, election preview shows on Contra Costa Television continue to be a priority,” said Susan Shiu, Director of the County’s Office of Communications and Media, which oversees CCTV. “We’ve been airing voter education shows since 1996. Now through television and social media channels, voters can have more access to information ahead of the November 6^th election.”

This year’s production featured well-known journalists as moderators, including KCBS radio reporters Bob Butler and Doug Sovern, ABC7 News reporter Laura Anthony, KTVU reporters Alex Savidge and Claudine Wong, and former ABC7 News reporter Alan Wang who is a public information officer for Contra Costa County’s Employment and Human Services Department.

As part of the Election Preview partnership, the Contra Costa County Library is hosting Candidate Forums at local libraries that will be streamed live on its Facebook page. For a list of upcoming public forums, go to: https://ccclib.org/pressroom/pressreleases/2018/CandidateForums.jpg

A total of 39 local races and ballot measures will be available for viewing on Contra Costa Television broadcast channels leading up to Election Day. “Election Preview” roundtables and forums can be seen 24/7 on the Contra Costa Television channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD1z6XC8_fqZXP3HayI-kQA.

More information about “Election Preview” in Contra Costa County is available on the Elections Division website at www.cocovote.us and the County’s website at www.contracosta.ca.gov.

Crash in Pittsburg on Oct. 4, 2017 took life of Discovery Bay woman

On October 2, a Contra Costa County jury found defendant Frank J. Newkirk, a 26-year-old transient, guilty of gross vehicular manslaughter. The victim, Theresa Frazer, was killed on October 4, 2017 during the morning commute on Highway 4 in Pittsburg. Newkirk was driving westbound on Highway 4 in a 2004 Chevy Tahoe in the slow lane when the incident occurred.

Newkirk now faces a sentence of up to six years in state prison. According to the D.A.’s Office Public Information Officer Scott Alonso, “Newkirk was a transient and his last known address according to court documents was Discovery Bay. But he lived all over including Bay Point and may have lived in Antioch at the time of the crash.”

Contra Costa County Deputy District Attorney Aron DeFerrari prosecuted the case behalf of the People for this felony jury trial. Sentencing for Newkirk will occur on November 16 by the Honorable Barry Baskin in Department 7 at the Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez.

On the morning of October 4, 2017, Newkirk was driving his girlfriend’s 2004 Chevy Tahoe without a license and careened into Frazer’s Nissan Sentra. Frazer was driving her friend to work when the accident occurred. The impact of the crash spun the Nissan around and crushed the vehicle. In total, five cars were impacted by Newkirk’s crash into Frazer.

California Highway Patrol investigated the crash and found Newkirk was traveling at an unsafe speed between 54 to 61 miles per hour in traffic with cars slowed in front of him due to an unrelated accident. Evidence gathered by CHP showed the vehicle’s brakes were never activated before the crash. Newkirk also did not take his foot off the throttle. Newkirk’s collision led to the unfortunate death of Frazer, a 47-year-old mother of three children. Restitution for this case will be determined at a later date.

Traffic collisions can cause very serious injuries and even result in fatalities. According to the California Office of Traffic Safety, traffic fatalities are increasing, totaling 3,623 in 2016 and serious traffic injuries are on the rise.

Earlier this year our office filed the following counts against Newkirk:

• Count 1, Vehicular Manslaughter – Felony
• Count 2, Driving Without a License – Misdemeanor

Case information: People v. Frank J. Newkirk, Docket Number 05-181281-7.

Dear Editor:

Election time is breathing down our necks. Like me, you may want to take a moment to reflect on the performance of those you’ve already elected to office and make some changes – or not.

Political signs are up, emails, Facebook, and other means of communication are being sent out on an almost daily basis, and it’s just going to get worse before it gets better.

I’ve received the election Voter Information Guide.  It’s full of useful information and you should take a moment to read up on what you’ll be voting on.  Many candidates have listed a way for you to communicate with them directly if you have any questions.

Two current councilmembers are up for reelection: Lori Ogorchock and Tony Tiscareno. They want our vote and I think they have earned it.

It’s been a rough couple of years.  But progress is definitely being made under the current council.  We may not have as many police officers as we’d like, but we do have hired more officers than we did have. It may not seem like a large number, but it’s astronomical when you see the competition Antioch faces from other law enforcement agencies in the state.

While we may be short on personnel in the police department, they are getting much needed help to identify and apprehend law breakers; K-9 police dogs assist our patrol units, Cameras have been added to the Sycamore Corridor and Cavallo Road, and license plate readers are all tremendous tools.  Antioch is definitely on the right path to making our community safer.

Frankly, I don’t always agree with all their votes.  It might even scare me a little if they always agreed with everything I said or did.  I’ve lived long enough to know that with good information anyone can be right, or grudgingly agree they were wrong, because they went with their gut instead of facts.

I’m not going to reward hard work and personal sacrifices by removing them from office.  They’ve earned reelection.

Barbara Herendeen

Antioch