Travis Credit Union, in partnership with Data-Safe, invites local individuals and small businesses to take the first step in identity protection: If you don’t need it, dispose of it…responsibly.

The free community service will take place on Saturday, April 27th from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The event will take place at Travis Credit Union’s Slatten Ranch Branch, located at 5819 Lone Tree Way in Antioch where expert advice and resources for protecting personal information from ID thieves will be made available to the public. Free on-the-spot document shredding and prescriptive advice for protecting personal identity from ID thieves will also be provided. In addition, the Antioch Police Department has been invited to be on site to answer any questions on Fraud Prevention.

Area residents and small businesses could bring up to three boxes or paper grocery bags of documents to be shredded as well as take home the tips and resources they need to help protect their confidential information.

“Shredding sensitive paper documents is an important first step, but it doesn’t end there,” said Barry Nelson, president and CEO of Travis Credit Union. “That’s why Travis Credit Union will also distribute important advice and simple steps everyone can take to prevent ID theft in their daily lives, both online and off.”

Last year alone, 16.7 million Americans became victims of ID theft, a record high compared to the previous year, according a report from Javelin Strategy and Research. The report notes that the majority (56 percent) of ID theft occurs when the thief had direct contact with the victim’s personal information, through a stolen or lost wallet, rifling through a personal mailbox or trashcan, or even lifting documents from inside a home or business.

“This is largely a crime of access,” added Nelson. “Our goal here is to make personal information less accessible and empower people to be their own first line of defense against identity theft.”

Headquartered in Vacaville, California, Travis Credit Union is a not-for-profit, cooperative financial institution serving those who live or work in Solano, Yolo, Sacramento, Placer, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Napa, Contra Costa, Alameda, Sonoma, Colusa, and Merced Counties. Currently, Travis Credit Union is the 14th largest credit union in California, with more than 203,000 members and more than $3 billion in assets. As one of the leading financial institutions in Solano, Contra Costa, Yolo, Napa, and Merced Counties, Travis Credit Union’s strength lies in its faithful commitment to its members; its solid, secure history; and its long-standing track record of dedicated service.

For more information call Travis Credit Union 1-800-877-8328.

Happy Easter! He is risen!

By Larry Adams

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, . . .1 Corinthians 15:1-4

We receive plenty of messages throughout our lives that are of great importance, but none more important than the message of Easter.

The good news of Jesus’ death on the cross to pay for our sins and His burial in a tomb is a vital part of that message. But the best news of all is that the grave couldn’t hold Him. Jesus rose again! He conquered sin, death the grave for all of us. He is alive and is offering hope, forgiveness and eternal life to all who believe and receive Him into their lives.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is our historical proof and guarantee that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, the only way to God. His resurrection sets Christianity apart from every other religion and approach to God.

All the religions of the world except four are based in pure philosophy. They are the inventions of men.

The four religions that remain are based on the teachings of their founders, (Judaism/Abraham; Islam/Mohammad; Buddhism/Gautama and Christianity/ Jesus Christ).

All four founders died. Three are still in their graves. Only Jesus rose again and only Jesus lives to offer eternal life to all who come to Him by faith.

That’s why Easter is celebrated by millions of people worldwide. Easter is the celebration of life in Jesus Christ who died for our sins, conquered our death and rose again to give eternal life to all who believe and receive Him. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) This is still life’s most important message.

Larry Adams is the Senior Pastor of Golden Hills Community Church, which has campuses in both Antioch and Brentwood. He and his wife Karla are residents of Antioch.

This was first published on April 19, 2014.

Thursday morning, April 18, 2019 around 3 a.m., Antioch Police officers were dispatched to a suspicious circumstance involving a man with a gun in the area of Aster Drive. Officers located the man walking away into a nearby apartment complex and were able to quickly catch up and detain him.

During a search of the area K9 Purcy located a .40 caliber Glock handgun with an extended magazine in a nearby bush.

The man was arrested for multiple weapons violations and K9 Purcy was rewarded with his favorite toy.

Named for denomination’s only African American deaconess

By Allen Payton

St. George’s Episcopal Church in Antioch recently merged with St. Alban’s in Brentwood and together have taken on the new name of St. Anna’s. The congregation is the first Episcopal church in the nation to be named after an African American woman, Anna Ellison Butler Alexander. A daughter of freed slaves, she was also the denomination’s only African American deaconess, serving in Georgia in the early 1900’s. She is a new saint in the Episcopal tradition.

This Sunday the church will hold its first baptism since the merger and renaming.

“We are thrilled to baptize Wynter J’adore Smith on Easter Sunday,” said Rev. Honodel. “Not only is she related to Betty Smith, one of the members of the first board of Saint Anna’s (and the long-time leader of Antioch’s Rivertown Jamboree), Wynter will be the very first person baptized in St. Anna’s Episcopal Church named after Anna Alexander of Pennick, Georgia.”

“We are very excited, and we’ve planned some lively music for the service,” she continued. “We’ll also be reading a sermon from St. Chrysostom an early church Father from the original Antioch in Syria from the 4th century.”

“We are developing our relationship with the people of The Church of the Good Shepherd in Pennick, Georgia, the church founded by Saint Anna,” Honodel shared. “In fact, some of the members were taught to read by her directly during the era of reconstruction immediately following the emancipation proclamation.”

Honodel has been invited to attend the renaming of a chapel in Saint Anna’s name at the Diocese of Georgia on May 3rd.

Anna Alexander will be recognized as a saint of the Episcopal Church in Lessor Feasts and Fasts, with which every seminarian and clergyperson in the Episcopal Church is well acquainted.  The book provides the Collects (prayers) and readings specific to the saint of their assigned day (their feast day). Saint Anna’s day is on September 24th.

“We will certainly have a special Feast Day planned for her,” Honodel stated. “We may start the day off with Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing known as the Negro national anthem written in 1900 as a poem by James Weldon Johnson and set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson in 1905.”

The church will also have a public, community celebration on July 21st. The public is invited to attend. St. Anna’s Episcopal Church is located at 301 E. 13th Street in Antioch. To learn more about Anna Alexander, click here. For more information about the church visit www.saintannas.org or their Facebook page.

Contra Costa County Public Works will host an Earth Day event at Upper Sand Creek on Saturday, April 20 from 9am – Noon.  The event will take place at 6600 Deer Valley Road in Antioch.

Join the Earth Team interns of Antioch High School, Supervisor Diane Burgis, the Contra Costa County Flood Control District, Contra Costa Resource Conservation District, and Friends of Marsh Creek as they celebrate Earth Day.

Spend the morning in the beautiful Upper Sand Creek watershed, exploring an area that is usually closed to the public. In 2013, the Flood Control District held the first planting event to celebrate the completion of the detention basin. Come see for yourself how much the basin has changed.

Participants will help with removing invasive species, plant new oak trees, learn how to protect the environment around them and compete in a trash pickup.

The students will be showing off the skills they’ve learned over the year they spent interning with Earth Team.

Activities will include:

• Trash Talking Showdown – Join a team to see who can pick up, and properly identify, the most trash.
• Help remove invasive species and plant the volunteer nursery native plants – Since the initial planting in 2013, a lot has changed with the volunteer nursery, but we still need your help to keep it going!
• Learn about water quality sampling, your local creeks and what you can do to keep them clean!

You can sign up at uscb2019.eventbrite.com.  Earth Day is celebrated around the world. It is a day celebrating environmental protection and raising awareness of how our actions affect the environment.

What to Bring:

• Waiver, filled out and signed.
• Sturdy shoes
• Gloves
• Reusable Water Bottle

Why Earth Day?

Every year Earth Day is celebrated around the world. It is a day celebrating environmental protection and raising awareness of how our actions affect the environment.

FAQs

Are there minimum age requirements to enter the event?

Children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult. All volunteers under the age of 18 must have a waiver signed by their parent or guardian.

By Daniel Borsuk

The Contra Costa County Supervisors were presented Tuesday a proposed $3.69 billion budget for fiscal year 2019-2020 that sparked dialogue among supervisors of potentially developing a new tax source in order to support the county’s growing service needs, especially in the areas of health, medical, employment and human services.

The proposed 2019-2020 budget consists of $1.7 billion in county imposed general fund revenue that is approximately the same level of local tax revenue budgeted for the current 2018-2019 fiscal year. State and federal funds make up the other $2 billion in budget revenue.

Supervisors voted 4-0 to instruct county administrator David Twa to present the budget for adoption at its May 7 meeting. Vice chair Candace Andersen of Danville was absent at the time of the vote.

“After several years of relative stability, we now enter a period of needing to adjust our county budget to meet challenges due to uncertainties to countywide revenue streams (especially in the Health Services and the Employment & Human Services departments), compounded by sharply rising wage and benefit costs,” County Administrator Twa wrote in his 2019-2020 budget presentation. CCCo Budget Presentation 19-20 Draft

In the 2019-2020 fiscal year county officials plan to wrap up labor negotiations with the Physicians and Dentists Organization that represents workers in the Health and Human Services and at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and Clinics, the District Attorney Investigators Association, the Deputy Services Association and the In-Home Supportive Services Association.

Even in a good economy, Contra Costa County employees find themselves underpaid on average 5 percent to 8 percent of what their counterparts earn at similar jobs in the Bay Area. Supervisors listened to a number of speakers representing the county’s health care system, Contra Costa CARES, that the county needs to boost salaries of its healthcare workers 8 percent if it expects to retain employees.

For next fiscal year, county medical director Anna Roth proposed that the supervisors approve a 3 percent cost of living adjustment, designate $135 million in county general funds, count on $1.6 billion in revenues, but expect expenses of $1.8 billion. The department plans to expand the West County Behavioral Health Center next year, she said.

“We’ve got some work to do,” said District 4 Supervisor Karen Mitchoff of Pleasant Hill upon noticing a projected a combined general fund deficit from health services and human services of at least $30 million.

Noting how other Bay Area counties like San Francisco, Alameda, and San Mateo can adequately pay county workers because of additional tax revenues streaming in from property and sales tax sources, board chair John Gioia of Richmond said, “Other counties have robust tax revenue resources. We don’t have that.”

“You say we need more money,” said District 5 Supervisor Federal Glover of Pittsburg. “We have to be creative.”

Employment and Human Services Director Kathy Gallagher said to balance her department’s budget for 2019-2020 she will have to eliminate 67 positions. For next fiscal year, EHS will have 1,904 fulltime positions in order to operate its diverse operations such as Adult Protection Services that has undergone some criticism for alleged financial abuse of its clients.

Sheriff-Coroner David Livingston has proposed a $7 million increase for salaries and benefits for his 685 sworn officers and 350 non-sworn personnel. For next fiscal year, the sheriff plans to hire three additional sworn officers. Planning for a proposed 128 bed mental health facility for the West County Detention Center in Richmond is back on track after being sidelined for rising construction costs, mostly related to steel tariffs.

With $44 million proposed for the District Attorney’s Office, District Attorney Diana Becton plans to increase staffing in the human trafficking unit by $1 million. The DA Office has 222.5 positions on the payroll of which 102 are attorneys, 33 are investigators, 17 are victim/witness experts, and 70.5 are administrative support.

A $3.7 million project at Buchanan Air Field is one of the big tasks on drawing boards for the Public Works Department next fiscal year, department director Brian Balbas said, but the biggest challenge is retaining staff. With a $254 million budget and 545 employees, Balbas said his department is hampered by a high turnover rate of more than 20 percent when workers find better paying jobs at other counties or in the private sector. “The focus for 2019/2020 will be in recruitment and retention,” he told supervisors.

Public Defender Robin Lipesky said in addition to handling 6,900 misdemeanor cases, 3,747 felony cases, and 450 bail hearings, her department handled 600 Stand Together Contra Costa legal consultations, a new duty of her department. Citing a decline in the county’s juvenile population and a decline in the juvenile hall population, the department plans to cut 22 juvenile justice positions, she said.

Supervisors Salary Ordinance Approved

On a 3-2 vote, with supervisors Candace Andersen of Danville and Diane Burgis of Brentwood casting the dissenting votes, supervisors approved an ordinance that will raise their salaries at an established percentage, 65 percent of the annual salary of the Office of Superior Court Judge, effective January 1, 2021.

Effective June 30, each supervisor will earn a monthly base salary of $9,736.75, equivalent to an annual salary of $116,841.

From July 1, 2019 through Dec. 31, 2019 supervisors will each earn an annual salary equal to 60 percent of the annual salary for the Office of Superior Court Judge as prescribed by the state legislature. Supervisors will receive another salary boost effective January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020 at a base of 63 percent of a Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge. A third and final salary hike equal to 65 percent of the annual salary for the Office of Superior Court Judge in Contra Costa County would go into effect after January 1, 2021.

In addition to the pay increases, each supervisor will receive reimbursement for “reasonable expenses incurred in the conduct of such office” and “eligibility for an eighty-five-dollar monthly contribution to the county’s deferred compensation plan in the same manner as other exempt management employees.”

Each supervisor will also receive an automobile allowance of $600 per month and, in addition to the automobile allowance, mileage at the rate per mile allowed by the Internal Revenue Service as a deductible expense, for all miles driven by the supervisor on county business outside that supervisor’s district.

Supervisors OK Revised WCCTAC Transit Mitigation Fee

In other business, supervisors unanimously approved revised property transportation mitigation fees developers in unincorporated parts of the West Contra Costa Transportation Advisory Committee area of El Cerrito, Hercules, Pinole, Richmond, and San Pablo that have been in place since 1997.

No one spoke either in favor of or in protest against the fees that are assessed to go towards construction of transportation projects.

Since the inception of the WCCTAC transit mitigation fees in 1997, $11.6 million has been raised to help alleviate transportation impacts from residential, commercial or industrial development, said John Cunningham of the Contra Costa County Conservation and Development Department.

Revenues from the transit mitigation fee cover 19 percent of the construction costs of transit projects in the WCCTAC area. Some of those projects include $9,672 towards a $50,903 San Pablo Avenue complete streets project, $156 for the I-580/Harbour Way Interchange pedestrian and bicycle access improvements, $10,175 for the Hercules Regional Intermodal Transportation Center, and $20,749 for capital improvements to the I-80 Express Bus Service.

Accessory dwelling units are exempt from the revised transit mitigation fees that will go into effect July 1, 2020 and will increase or decrease every July 1 thereafter based by the annual percentage change in the Engineering News Record Construction Cost Index for the San Francisco Bay Area for the 12 month period ending with the February index of the same year in which the increase or decrease will take effect

The new WCCTAC transit mitigation fees are multi-family residential, $5,439 per dwelling unit; senior housing, $1,469 per dwelling unit; hotel, $3,481 per hotel unit; retail/service, $6.59 per square foot; office, $8.12 per square foot; industrial, $5.56 per square foot; storage facility, 0.76 per square foot; and other, $7 per square foot.

Red Cross Community Services Award Recipients

As a consent items, supervisors adopted resolutions honoring Bryan Canty of Antioch as recipient of the 2019 Red Cross Good Samaritan Award, Samantha Barhouse, also of Antioch, as recipient of the 2019 Red Cross Disaster Service Award, and the San Damiano Retreat Center of Danville, as the recipient of the 2019 Red Cross Community Service Award.

Also, two of the league’s banners are missing. If you know who has them please have them returned to Jim Bonwell. Call (925) 978-5020.