Former Antioch Police Chief offers his complete comments on Planning Commission Chair’s removal
EDITOR’s NOTE: During their special meeting on Friday night the Antioch City Council limited public comments to just one minute each from their regular three minutes. Former Antioch Police Chief had prepared three minutes of comments. Following are his complete comments:
“Good evening.
I am Allan Cantando and as you know, I am the Retired Antioch Police Chief –having served Antioch for over 29 years.
I am advocating that the Council refrain from removing Mr. Turnage from the Planning Commission due to a personal opinion he shared on his personal Facebook Page. If you remove Mr. Turnage, I believe you are violating his First Amendment rights.
The Staff report says, ‘The Chair of the Antioch Planning Commission posted a social media communication that does not represent the City of Antioch or the City Council.’ At no time did Mr. Turnage make a nexus to his volunteer position with the City of Antioch or even mention the City in any way.
Next, it is noted ‘The City Council and the public, through comments, emails and phone calls have questioned the ability of the Chair of the Antioch Planning Commission to represent them and many Antioch residents have called for the Commissioners resignation or removal.’
It appears on its face, that a Brown Act violation may have occurred and I am requesting the City Clerk to report this to the proper authorities. I would ask, how many people complained? Today’s ECT (eastcountytoday) article showed photos that were on Council Member Thorpe’s Facebook Page that appear to be mocking or advocating for Human Trafficking, and another, objectifying women. He has since taken these down. However, I would ask, do those represent the values of the City Council and the City of Antioch? How many people have to call in for Mayor Wright to ask for Thorpe’s resignation? This is a slippery slope and I am asking this council to refrain from going down it. Why? Because like it or not, Mr. Thorpe had a right to post his personal preferences and opinions on his personal page. Additionally, you cannot hold yourselves to a lower standard than you for unpaid city volunteers.
Let’s call this what it is…a political attack on Mr. Turnage because he has been critical of this Council on many occasions. Most recently he was vocal about this council not providing more Measure W monies to fund the hiring of police officers. In addition, this is politically motivated because Mr. Turnage has announced a possible run for the City Council seat that Ms. Wilson currently holds. A certain faction of the City Council are concerned that Mr. Turnage will get Ms. Wilson’s seat because in her two terms in office, she has done very little and was unable to fulfill her campaign promise of building up Antioch’s economic vitality. Ms. Wilson has spent a great deal of time piggy-backing on the Red Sand project that is a police department function combating Human Trafficking which Mr. Thorpe apparently thinks is funny. I don’t recall Ms. Wilson asking for his resignation, but I guess Mr. Thorpe is not running against her in the next election.
While I do not agree with the personal opinion Mr. Turnage posted, he has a constitutional right to express it –especially when it is not in his capacity as a member of the planning commission just as Mr. Thorpe has the same constitutional right to post undignified pictures on his personal Facebook Page that I might find offensive; it doesn’t go both ways.
Do the right thing. You have already most likely broken laws related to the Brown Act. Please do not compound this by violating a person’s constitutional first amendment rights and furthermore abusing the power given to you by the citizens of this city.”
