Tried to keep it secret from councilmembers; one organizer reconsidering participation in effort

By Allen Payton

A flyer being distributed via social media by a group labeling themselves Antioch Homeless Advocacy Coalition said they were going to be holding “One Homeless Night” at Antioch City Hall Tues., July 9 through Wed. morning, July 10.

The effort is to “protest the City of Antioch’s policies and their lack of a shelter or warming/cooling center for homeless residents.” It was to run from 10:00 AM Tuesday through 10:00 AM Wednesday.

The event flyer also includes a message “Please keep this event private. Do not post on social media. We want our city council members to be surprised.” However, city officials had already been made aware of the effort and received a copy of the flyer days before The Herald received it.

According to the flyer, the coalition includes three organizations listed on the flyer, Facing Homelessness in Antioch led by Nichole Gardner, Urban Upreach, which was formed in Antioch in March by Ashley Mahan, and Shower House Ministries, which is led by Ken Rickner and provides free showers to the homeless in Antioch. (See related article). (NOTE: An earlier version of this article had the incorrect organization of the same name based in Seattle for the Antioch based Facing Homelessness, Inc. The Seattle organization’s name and website is what appears first in an online search.)

9:30 PM UPDATE: However, the protest has been postponed because the group has chosen to obtain a city permit from to hold the event.

Instead of responding to questions emailed to them (see below) via email or phone call, Gardner and Mahan chose to create a video response and post it on YouTube by Gardner and Mahan, “We’re here to let everybody know in the community that we weren’t trying to be sneaky or not let everybody know what exactly we’re doing,” said Mahan. “We didn’t pull the permit for the protest so we were having it on a different day. That’s why it (the flyer) wasn’t released. Not that we were trying to do something to not let everybody know about it or to piss off the government.”

“We already know that the city had our protest flyer. It’s not new to us,” she continued. “So, to inform everybody we just changed the date. And when we have the protest, we’ll let everybody know what we are doing.”

“It was no news to the city council, what we were going to do, as we sit on the Homeless Task Force,” Mahan stated.

However, Rickner wasn’t aware they had changed the date or were going to pull a permit to hold the protest.

Gardner’s group, according to their Facebook page, “was created to bring awareness for those living in our city of Antioch that are without shelter and other basic needs. Want to get involved? We will let you know when we will be feeding the homeless in our city. We need all the help we can get. So if you are able to volunteer to cook, help pass out food, pick up donations, etc. please do so. We will also be taking donations such as clothing, blankets, sleeping bags, toiletries, head wear, shoes, and other basic necessities. Its [sic] time for us to face homelessness in our city and do something about it.”

The mission statement for Urban Upreach, published on their Facebook page reads, “By providing resources and support to people experiencing homelessness, we will empower them to feel worthy of dignity and become more self-sufficient. We believe treating all people with kindness and respect is paramount to eradicating homelessness once and for all.”

Each of the organizers were asked the following questions in an email at 1:54 PM:

What are you hoping the City Council will do in response to your effort?

Did anyone in your coalition attend any of their recent budget sessions and ask the Council for funds for a shelter or warming/cooling center for homeless residents to be included in the budget?

How many members are there in the Antioch Homeless Advocacy Council? When was it formed?

Also, is Facing Homelessness the same organization that is based in Seattle? This last question was answered by a search on Facebook.

In addition, a phone call was made to Mahan looking for comment and for answers to the questions.

6:00 PM UPDATE: So far, Rickner has been the only one to respond, saying he doesn’t think anyone spoke during the council budget hearings, asking for money. He also said he didn’t know his organization’s name was going to be used on the flyer.

“I’m a homeless advocate and just like going out there and doing it,” he said. “I’m part of the city’s Homeless Task Force and I want to work with the city, not against them, and I don’t think getting at odds with them is effective, at all.”

“I’m rethinking participating with this event, the way they’re doing it,” Rickner added.

While neither Gardner nor Mahan responded to the email, phone call, they did post comments on the Herald Facebook page below the posting of the original article. Additional requests to them to respond to the questions were made by this writer in comments on Facebook. As of the update those attempts have been unsuccessful.

In addition to the email to the organizers, a separate email was sent to Mayor Sean Wright, Mayor Pro Tem Joy Motts and Councilman Lamar Thorpe who serve on the city’s Homelessness Task Force, and City Manager Ron Bernal at 2:00 P.M. with the following request and questions:

Looking for any comments you might have about the event mentioned in the attached flyer.

Are you aware of the Antioch Homeless Advocacy Coalition, Facing Homelessness or Urban Upreach?

Other than Ken Rickner of Shower House Ministries, do you know or have you spoken to any of the organizers?

Have any of their representatives spoken at the task force meetings or during the recent budget hearings, to ask for funds [for] a shelter or warming/cooling center?

An auto-response email message was received from Bernal that he will be out of the office until Tuesday, July 9.

Motts responded by phone call while the writer of this article was unavailable. When reached for comment later, Motts said she will respond tomorrow, as she is out for the evening.

Please check back later for updates to this report.

During the recent debate over flying the LGBTQ rainbow flag at Antioch City Hall, I was most taken aback by the comments by one supporter of the effort. The lady literally said to the council, while directing her comments to those of faith in the audience, some who spoke against flying the “pride” flag, “You get to have freedom of your religion in the privacy of your own buildings.”

It’s not the first time I’ve heard that argument in someone’s effort to support what they claim to be the “separation of church and state”.

It was her way, and that of others, to attempt to silence those, mainly self-identified as Christians, to prevent them from arguing their point that the flying of the rainbow flag is an offense against the Bible and the Christian faith.

Her argument is completely hypocritical. What she’s basically saying is, Americans of faith are free to exercise it, but not publicly, and not have it   impact how they will be governed, while she and people on her side of the issue get to not only express themselves publicly, but have their views impact how we will be governed, and implemented into government policy and even law.

It’s ironic that she and her side complain that those on the other side of the issue are intolerant. Yet, her statement clearly shows her lack of tolerance of those with a different point of view.

Her statement is also completely false. The inalienable, God-given, and constitutionally protected freedom of religion – the first freedom and right enumerated in the Bill of Rights, because that’s what our nation was founded upon, going back to the Pilgrims in 1620 – can be exercised anywhere people of faith want to. That includes in the public square, specifically in public debate, discussion and decisions affecting all of us.

You can’t help but have how you believe, your views, and your faith impact how you will live and how you want to be governed in a democratic republic, such as the United States.

In fact, in this country we get to have what we believe implemented into law. It’s been said that every piece of legislation is a piece of morality, determining right from wrong, or what’s better or best about an issue.

Finally, there is no separation of church and state in the Constitution. The Bill of Rights are limitations and restrictions on the power of government, not the other way around. It’s actually separation of state from church. While there is not to be a state-run church or religion, as there was and is in England, the Church, i.e. people of faith, can influence how we are to be governed.

If you go back and study it, you will learn that Thomas Jefferson’s argument in his letter to the Danbury Baptists wasn’t about which religion’s views would be dominant in our government, but about which Christian Protestant denomination would be the dominant one in our federal government. Nevertheless, we don’t have or want a government-run church.

While flying the rainbow flag was a policy issue for the council to decide, the argument that those of us who still believe we are “One Nation Under God”, as is written in our Pledge of Allegiance, and that our nation was formed “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence” as our Founding Fathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence, aren’t allowed to share our views and values based on our faith, and want and can have them implemented by the government, is simply wrong.

The battle over whose views and values will dominate public discourse and decisions will continue. But those of us who are people of faith will not be marginalized, silenced or forced into the privacy of our buildings in order to exercise our freedom of religion – as Christians, Muslims and others of faith are forced to do in Communist China.

NOTE: Their ad in the July issue of the Antioch Herald showed they would be open until 11:30 p.m., after the fireworks. They have decided to instead close at 8:00 p.m. Now, their staff can enjoy the fireworks, as well.

Three seats will be up for election in 2020, two in 2022; Rocha, Householder currently live in same district

By Allen Payton

At a special meeting on Monday, July 1, the Antioch School Board approved a map for their first ever district elections on a 4-0 vote. Trustee Crystal Sawyer-White was absent at the time of the vote. The new districts will take effect during the November 2020 election. AUSD Trustee Map 4B & Statistics

The entire meeting lasted a little more than four minutes, with no members of the public speaking. The board’s vote took place during the first two-and-a-half minutes of the meeting, and Sawyer-White arrived about three minutes late. (View the meeting, on the District’s YouTube Channel, here).

According to the staff report, Board members are currently elected in “at-large” elections, where each member is elected by voters throughout the District. At its May 23, 2018, meeting, the Board adopted a resolution No. 2017-18-28 indicating its intent to transition to “by-trustee-area” elections, in compliance with the state’s Voting Rights Act, and in response to a threatened lawsuit. The same attorney who threatened to sue the District, is the same one who threatened the City of Antioch, which also changed to district elections beginning in 2020.

In May, the district published four proposed trustee area maps on the District’s website for consideration by the Board and the community. Community meetings were held on May 28, 2019, and June 1, 2019. As a result, revised scenario maps 1A and 4A were created and posted. An additional map, scenario map 5, was submitted for consideration on June 6, 2019, and posted on June 7, 2019.

At the June 12, 2019, Board of Education meeting, Trustee Ellie Householder requested revisions to scenario map 4A. Scenario map 4B was then created and posted.

A hearing was held at the June 26, 2019, Board meeting and the Board members requested an additional hearing, which occurred Monday night.

The vote also means not all trustees will be up for election at the same time, but all five seats will be up for four-year terms. Three seats will be up in 2020, those of Board President Gary Hack, Vice President Diane Gibson-Gray and Sawyer-White. None of them live in the same district as another trustee. Hack lives in District 4, Gibson-Gray in District 1 and Sawyer-White in District 3.

For the two seats up for election in 2022, the other two trustees, Mary Rocha and Householder live in District 5. So, if both choose to run for reelection, they will either have to run against each other or one would have to move to the other district. None of the incumbents currently live in District 2, which is also up for election in 2022.

The districts are based on the 2010 Census and will have to be redrawn in 2021, prior to the 2022 election and be based on the District population determined by the 2020 Census. Rocha and Householder may end up not living in the same district. But, if they end up living in the district of another trustee who was elected in 2020, they would either have to move to the other district or not be able to run.

The five districts as currently drawn have population sizes ranging from 20,810 to 22,507, and each includes at least two elementary schools.

Filing for candidates in the November 2020 election opens next July.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This ad, published in the July issue of the Antioch Herald, inadvertently had the incorrect date. The event is on Thursday, July 25 not July 5. Apologies.

By Scott Alonso, Public Information Officer, Contra Costa District Attorney

Earlier this week, the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office charged Hakeem Doeparker of Antioch with multiple felonies including a series of carjackings, attempted extortion, second degree robbery and criminal threats. The criminal complaint filed against Doeparker also alleges multiple enhancements for the defendant’s use of a firearm during the commission of these alleged crimes. Doeparker pleaded not guilty on July 2 to the charges our Office filed against him. He remains in custody and his bail is $787,000.

Doeparker allegedly used female profiles on apps such as Skout and MeetMe! to arrange meetings with unsuspecting male victims. After instructing victims to go to a particular address on Tehachapi Court in Antioch, Doeparker would approach them from behind, point a gun (often with a green laser) at the victim, and threaten to shoot or kill them if they did not hand over either money or their car keys.

The current charges relate to four known victims, with those offenses occurring throughout the month of June 2019. All victims were able to get away unharmed, though the defendant did succeed in taking money and two cars. The cars were later recovered by Antioch police officers near the defendant’s residence.

Doeparker attended Skyline High School in Oakland where he played football and was on the track team, according to his Facebook profile and Athletic.net.

The District Attorney’s office is actively working with Antioch Police Department on the case. The investigation is ongoing, and police believe there may be several additional victims in the Bay Area. Victims and anyone else with information are encouraged to contact Antioch Police Department Detective Adrian Gonzalez at 925-779-6923.

The public is also urged to exercise caution when arranging meetings with unknown persons through various phone apps, as this is increasingly becoming a strategy used to set up unsuspecting victims.

Case information: People v. Hakeem Zimikael Doeparker, Docket Number 04-197157-1

Allen Payton contributed to this report.