Householder launches campaign by challenging Wright with false statement about his lack of comment on Antioch Police Officer under investigation

Hack takes out papers to run for third term on Antioch School Board

By Allen Payton

Not even half-way through her term on the Antioch School Board, Trustee Ellie Householder has decided to throw her hat in the ring and become the eighth candidate to run for Mayor of Antioch, in the November election. She took out Nomination Papers for the city’s top office on Thursday, according to a report by City Clerk Arne Simonsen.

In addition, according to the latest report by the Contra Costa Elections office, Antioch School District Trustee Gary Hack is the first candidate to take out Nomination Papers in Area 4, seeking his third term on the board. The retired Antioch teacher was first elected in 2010 placing first out of eight candidates. Hack lost his race for re-election in 2014, placing third behind Walter Ruehlig and Debra Vinson. He then made a successful comeback in 2016, that time placing third behind Crystal Sawyer-White and Diane Gibson-Gray.

Householder, listed formally as Elizabeth on her papers, is the youngest member of the school board to which she was elected in 2018, placing a distant second behind Trustee Mary Rocha, just after finishing college and while completing her master’s degree. If elected, she would also be the city’s youngest mayor in recent history.

On her personal Facebook page, Householder announced her campaign for mayor Thursday evening by writing:

“Congressman John Lewis once said: Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.

In that spirit, today, I pulled papers to run for Mayor of Antioch.

In December, our current mayor (who is trying to get re-elected) took THOUSANDS of dollars from the police union and we wonder why we still have a killer cop (Officer Mellone) in our community. To date, not the mayor or a single council member has said ANYTHING about this.

We deserve better.”

However, in June, Mayor Wright called for an investigation of Officer Michael Mellone by the Antioch Police Department who was hired while facing discipline by his previous employer, the San Francisco Police Department. According to a June 24 Herald article, “In response to a call by Antioch Mayor Sean Wright for an investigation into the hiring of Mellone, Antioch Police Chief Brooks said on Wednesday, ‘the investigation is still in progress.’” More recently, Brooks told the Herald an outside agency was brought in for the investigation and is reviewing over 1,800 pages of documents related to the case of the shooting death of a homeless man, Luís Góngora-Pat, by Mellone, while an SFPD Officer, and his sergeant, in April 2016.

According to several news reports, at the time Mellone was hired, again by the APD in August 2019 – he had previously worked for the department until 2012 – Mellone was facing discipline by the SFPD for escalating the situation and his use of non-lethal force by shooting a bean bag gun at a homeless man, Luís Demetrio Góngora-Pat, who then brandished a large kitchen knife at the officers, and was subsequently shot and killed by their service weapons. The two officers were cleared by both the SF District Attorney and SFPD Internal Affairs Division for their lethal use of force.

A 10-day suspension was recommended by the SFPD’s IAD, and the citizen-run Department of Police Accountability recommended that the (San Francisco) Police Commission suspend Mellone for 45 days. Neither occurred as he was hired by the Antioch Police Department before a final decision was made on any discipline, which could have been delayed further, if Mellone remained with the SFPD and chose to fight it. (A more thorough report by the Herald about the matter will be published once the investigation of Mellone is complete).

Householder joins seven others, including Wright, former Mayor Wade Harper, Councilwoman Monica Wilson and former Planning Commission Chairman Ken Turnage II, along with three others, including one candidate who ran for governor in 2014.

City Clerk Simonsen reported the following Antioch residents have taken out Nomination Papers as of 5 p.m. July 23rd or Qualified for the following offices:

CITY OFFICES

Mayor

Sean Wright (I) – Mayor of Antioch

Julio Mendez

Rakesh Kumar Christian – Qualified on 7/22/20 – candidate for Governor of California in 2014

Kenneth Turnage II – former Antioch Planning Commission Chairman

Monica Wilson – Antioch Councilwoman

Wade Harper – former Mayor of Antioch

Gabriel Makinano

Elizabeth Householder – Antioch School Board Trustee

—————

The Contra Costa Elections office provided the following information for candidates as of 3:59 PM on Thursday:

ANTIOCH SCHOOL BOARD

Area 4

Gary Hack – Antioch School Board Trustee

There were no additional candidates in the other races in Antioch who took out or filed Nomination Papers as of Thursday at 5:00 p.m. To see the latest list of all candidates visit the Election 2020 page on the Antioch Herald website. The list will be updated each day when additional registered Antioch voters take out or file their Nomination Papers. Filing closes on August 7 unless an incumbent chooses to not seek re-election, which only affects the races for mayor, city clerk and city treasurer.

By Allen Payton

7/23/20 UPDATE: As of Thursday night at about 8:35 p.m., a post on his son Alex’s Facebook page announced Ralph’s passing: “I regret to inform you all my dad has passed away. We appreciate all the overwhelming love and support. Please give my family time to grieve and we will inform you of the funeral arrangements at a later time.
I LOVE YOU DAD”

A drive-by caravan was held on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 to honor 2019 Antioch Citizen of the Year for Lifetime Achievement, as he is battling stage-four cancer. Participants included his wife Laurie, family, friends, business associates from his real estate career, Antioch Police, who provided an escort to the caravan from the Lucky’s shopping center on Contra Loma Blvd., fellow Rotarians, Antioch Chamber of Commerce representatives who presented him with his Citizen of the Year plaque, and ConFire personnel, as Ralph watched from his bed via FaceTime on an iPhone.

Please see related article for more details.

 

Mystery solved about first candidate to complete filing process for Mayor of Antioch 

By Allen Payton

The latest report from the Contra Costa Elections office, as of Wednesday afternoon, July 22, 2020, shows Antonio Hernandez is the first candidate to take out nomination papers to run for the Antioch School Board in Area 1. He will be challenging current Board President Diane Gibson-Gray, who is expected to seek her fourth term on the board. Hernandez is only the second candidate in the three new district races for school board, as Crystal Sawyer-White pulled papers, last week to run in Area 3 for a second term on the board.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Hernandez has worked for UCSF at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center in Pediatrics, first as an Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator beginning in July 2016, then as a Quality Improvement Coordinator since May 2017.

In addition, since September 2017 Hernandez has also worked as a Leadership Specialist with TeamTRI, an organizational and leadership development company. However, their website lists him as a Coaching Fellow.

He’s a 2016 graduate of Stanford University with a degree in Economics, Healthcare Economics. Hernandez is a 2012 graduate of Dozier-Libbey Medical High School and was the 2011 Antioch Youth of the Year. (See related article)

City Races

According to Antioch City Clerk Arne Simonsen, as of 5 p.m. July 22nd the following Antioch residents have qualified for the following City offices:

Mayor

Rakesh Kumar Christian – Qualified on 7/22/20

So far, the only information that can be found on him is that he was a candidate for governor of California in 2014, and that he has a website from 2009 for a new political  party he wanted to create, named the American Public Party, and lists himself as the CEO, Owner.

7/23/20 UPDATE: Mystery solved. When reached briefly for a comment on Thursday afternoon, he said his name is Rakesh Kumar Christian and that he is the man who ran for governor in 2014 and that is his website. He had a spinal injury in 2016 which is why he didn’t run in 2018. Christian said he will call back, later and was requested to email his bio or resume to the Herald for more information on his background. Please check back later for any updates to this report.

There were no additional candidates to either take out Nomination Papers or file them for city offices of mayor, council, clerk or treasurer, as of Wednesday afternoon.

This list will be updated when additional registered Antioch voters take out or file Nomination Papers.

 

A Walnut Creek Police Department Bomb Squad member heads toward the location of the device.

By Lieutenant Powell Meads #3917, Antioch Police Field Services

On Monday, July 20, 2020, at approximately 5:47 PM, Antioch PD officers were dispatched to a business in the 1000 block of Apollo Court, near the Antioch Youth Sports Complex. An employee inside the business was reporting that a former employee, who was recently fired, was on scene and in possession of a possible explosive device. Prior to Antioch PD Officers arriving, it was reported the responsible left the device in front of the business and left in a vehicle.

Arriving officers located the responsible vehicle as it was driving away from the scene. An enforcement stop was conducted, and the sole vehicle occupant was detained without incident. He was identified as Timothy Harrington (50 years old) of Pittsburg, CA.

The object Harrington left in front of the business was located by officers and did in fact appear to be a homemade explosive. The assistance of the Walnut Creek Bomb Squad was requested, and they responded to the scene. The Bomb Squad was eventually able to recover and render the device safe. The device was determined to be a live, homemade destructive/explosive device.

The WCPD Bomb Squad member suits up before heading toward the explosive device.

Harrington was arrested for possession of the explosive device and violation of the terms of his felony probation. A search of his vehicle yielded other materials related to the manufacturing of explosives. A follow-up search was conducted at his residence in Pittsburg, but no other evidence pertaining to this case was located.

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

By Allen Payton

On Tuesday, July 21, 2020, the race for Mayor of Antioch got a little more crowded as business owner Gabriel Makinano took out nomination papers to run for the city’s top leadership spot. He owns Kingdom Paint & Renovations, offering painting, home renovations, fencing and pressure washing. According to his LinkedIn profile, Makinano is also owner of Kingdom Dent, a paintless vehicle dent repair business in Brentwood. However, when reached for comment, he said his full time job is working for HealthRIGHT360 Contra Costa Re-entry Network, helping county residents returning home from state prison and county jail.

With papers in hand, Makinano posted a video on his Facebook page which can be seen above and offers the main reason he is running, which is change, and a bit about his community service in Antioch.

“I believe we need change in our city and if I can be part of that change, it would be amazing,” he said. “I’ve been part of change, especially here in the city of Antioch and I want to continue to further this change…maybe be on the inside…helping the change…and have a voice in my community and listen to the people and what the people want and what they feel like is change and go from there. All I know is I need your prayers to get through all this.”

According to City Clerk Arne Simonsen, the following Antioch residents have taken out Nomination Papers as of 5 p.m. July 21st for the following City offices:

Mayor

Sean Wright (I) – Mayor of Antioch

Julio Mendez

Rakesh Kumar Christian – 2014 candidate for Governor of California

Kenneth Turnage II – former Chairman, Antioch Planning Commission

Monica Wilson – Antioch Councilwoman

Wade Harper – former Mayor of Antioch

Gabriel Makinano

There were no other candidates who took out or filed their nomination papers in the other races for city offices of council, clerk and treasurer or for the Antioch School Board, today.

This list will be updated when additional registered Antioch voters take out Nomination Papers. Filing closes on August 7th unless an incumbent chooses not to run. Then the nomination period is extended five more days. However, the only incumbents are Mayor Wright, City Clerk Simonsen and City Treasurer Jim Davis because all the other races are in newly created districts and all candidates for city council or school board will be running in them for the first time, ever.

A special event to honor 2019 Antioch Citizen of the Year for Lifetime Achievement, Ralph Garrow is planned for Wednesday, Morning.

In a post on Facebook Tuesday night, former Antioch Councilman Tony Tiscareno, a Realtor who works with Garrow in his real estate brokerage, “As you are probably aware, our friend and fellow Realtor Ralph Garrow has been battling cancer for several months. Ralph is now home spending his time with his family. Fellow Realtor Tangie Leverett has arranged for a Caravan of Ralph’s friends and well-wishers to drive by his house to let him know that we love and support him and his family during this very difficult time in his life. Ralph is expected to be out on his porch as the caravan passes by.”

In addition, Garrow will also be presented with a plaque which recognizes his honor as an Antioch Citizen of the Year by representatives of the Antioch Chamber of Commerce.

When: Wednesday,  July 22, 2020

Time: 10:30 AM

Where: Lucky’s Parking lot (Putnam end of the Parking lot) 3190 Contra Loma Blvd., Antioch

We are planning to leave from the parking lot at 11:00 AM to caravan to Ralph’s house.  No one will be leaving their cars, but if anyone desires to bring card, flowers etc.  someone will be available to take them as you drive by.

The following Open Letter was sent to the AUSD Board on Saturday, July 18 regarding the AUSD webinars of July 16, 2020 and Governor Newsom’s press conference of July 17, 2020

Dear Board Members and Others,

My name is Mark Hadox and I am concerned about the AUSD plans for using the hybrid model for the upcoming 2021 school year.

There are many ideas and various models of school re-opening and learning methods for 2021.

On Friday, Governor Newsom laid out mandatory guidelines for opening schools and closing schools. School openings will only happen upon general county-wide health criteria being met as well as specific school and district criteria.  Now AUSD must form a plan which works within the governor’s criteria and has the best chance of success.

After schools are permitted to open the governor’s plan calls for closing schools and returning to distance learning when any of the following conditions are met:

a) One person in a class with confirmed positive would cause the 14-day quarantine of those exposed to that person.

b) school reverts to distance learning when multiple cohorts have positive cases

c) or school reverts to distance leaning when 5% of students and staff test positive

d) district reverts to distance learning when 25% of schools have been closed

After 14 days under each condition the school may return to in-person instruction with the approval of the local public health officer.

How do those state mandated criteria apply to AUSD in real numbers?

From Wikipedia, there are about 17,000 AUSD students so with a student to teacher ratio of, say 27, the result is approximately 630 classrooms and 630 teachers and hundreds more specialty teachers, substitutes, and staffing.

When each of those 630 classes are split into two cohorts for in-class teaching that will be 1,260 cohorts, spread among 25 schools in the district, including two of our six high schools having about 2,000 students each.

Note, per Contra Costa Health on 7/17, the current positive countywide test rate is 8%.

Applying an 8% positive rate to cohorts of 13 students the result would be 1.04 positives, so it seems pretty clear that right off the bat many cohorts will meet the criteria for the immediate 14-day quarantine of that cohort.  Many more than one of the 1,260 cohorts in the district are certainly going to be affected early on in the school year.

Remember, even just two positive cohorts requires a school to revert to distance learning.

Also, an entire district closure happens when 25% of schools close, which would be 6 of AUSD’s 25 schools, it is readily apparent that a few positives will result in the district meeting the 6 school threshold to close the district quite quickly.

Even if the infection rate is cut in half to 4%, that is still about 700 positive throughout the AUSD population of students and staff.  It only takes as few as 2 positives to close a school and so as few as 12 positives can close six schools and thus the whole district.

The missing key to the governor’s positive test criteria is how will any school find out about any person’s positive test results?

Unless schools themselves test every person entering campus and maintain the results thereof, then the heath of everyone on site will be left up to parents reporting to the school the medical condition of their children. Certainly, the first thought of a parent with a sick child will be childcare and not to call the school to report it. And what about asymptomatic positives? Without testing they will never be found.

While we all want to return to the days prior to corona virus, we must keep in mind that our hope does not out weigh the fact that the corona virus is out there, people transmit it easily, unknowingly, and it will not stop simply because we wish it to.

It is also clear that even if a vaccine is produced, it will likely not be 100% effective and on top of that there may well be a large percentage of parents who will refuse it even if it were 100% effective.  That said, the new normal may be permanent distance learning for a large portion of our student population if, hopefully, being vaccinated becomes a requirement for in-class learning.  Developing a strong distance learning model is imperative.

AUSD needs to get real and go all in on distance learning now.  It is prudent to consider that the new normal for all of 2021 will likely be solely distance learning and to put all effort into making that model work.

Superintendent Anello said that many parents want in class teaching and that the social and emotional needs of the students are a major concern.  But in-class teaching may actually cause emotional harm, really.  Has it been explained to parents how in-class teaching will be done?  The students will be practically seat-belted into their chairs, they will not be able to touch anyone, share anything, or play in any groups, they even need to each their lunches alone at their desks.  They won’t be able to mix with their friends, before, during, or after school.  They will constantly be admonished to keep their masks on, don’t do that, stay over there, etc.

The governor requires that every school day, that  anyone entering the campus must receive and pass a health screen, what emotional toll will that take?  Will a student’s cohort’s parents be told that a classmate of their child didn’t pass the health screen, does AUSD plan to inform parents when that happens?  Since cohorts can’t be mixed, what is the protocol for when a teacher is absent?  Oh, and while the governor says that K-2 students are only encouraged to wear masks rather than being required to, mask wearing in public is required for everyone over the age of two, will AUSD require all K-12 students to wear masks?  The governor’s Pandemic Plan states that, “Over the course of the pandemic, most schools will likely face physical closure at some point…”, have the parents been informed that in-class learning will be variable and unpredictable at all levels from classroom, to school, to district?

I would really appreciate a reply to my questions, they are not rhetorical.

I believe that if all parents were provided with a clear picture of their child’s likely in-class learning experience and emotional challenges, that many of those parents who may have wanted in-class learning back in May would not feel that way now.

Sincerely,

Mark Hadox

Antioch Resident and Parent of AUSD graduates

Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11) will host a telephone town hall to discuss coronavirus, the classroom, our community, and what comes next when school resumes in Contra Costa on Thursday, July 23rd at noon.

Congressman DeSaulnier will be joined on the call by Dr. Bill Walker, former Director of Health Services and current Director of Legislative and Governmental Affairs for Contra Costa Health Services, as well as Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools Lynn Mackey. During the event, Contra Costa residents will have an opportunity to ask questions about the upcoming school year and local districts’ plans for instruction.

Coronavirus, the Classroom, and our Community Telephone Town Hall
Thursday, July 23, 2020
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. PT

This event is open to the public.

To RSVP and submit a question, click here: https://tthm.wufoo.com/forms/teletownhall-with-congressman-mark-desaulnier/