Continues to provide incorrect figures of additional sworn officers funded by Measures C and W – actually 26 more not 32; Code Enforcement staffing and activity increased

By Allen Payton

During the Tuesday, March 23, 2021 Antioch Council meeting, the Citizens’ Sales Tax Oversight Committee presented their 7th Annual Report on the use of Measure C and Measure W funds. There was a total of $15,582,340 in Measure W funds and $120,468 in Measure C funds received in Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2020. The report is required by April 1, each year.

Measure C was approved by Antioch voters in 2014 and established the city’s half-cent sales tax for seven year. “Measure W was approved by the voters in November 2018 and went into effect on April 1, 2019, which increased the tax to 1% and extends for 20 years,” the report states.

The presentation was provided by the outgoing chair of the committee, Susana Williams and current Vice Chair Dr. Kate Svyatets.

“Based on our review, we can ascertain all Measure C and Measure W monies are accounted for and meet the objectives of these Measures,” the report begins. “The entire balance of Measure C monies remaining were allocated to police per the City Council.”

“Measure W will continue to maintain our public safety services, as well as other quality of life services such as code enforcement, we are cleaning up blight, repairing roads, we’re supporting youth and senior services, recreation, etc.,” Williams shared. The report also shows the funds area used to attract new business and jobs to Antioch.

Incorrect Figures of Net Additional Sworn Officers

“Since the start of Measure C in 2014, the City hired 85 sworn police officers with a net gain of 32 sworn police officers,” Svyatets said. “By the end of the latest fiscal year 2020, the city of Antioch has 115 sworn officers.”

However, the information she provided is incorrect. There were 89 officers on the Antioch Police force at the time Measure C was placed on the ballot, according to the ballot argument in favor of the measure by the mayor and council at that time. The Arguments For Measure C read, “A Yes on Measure C will allow us to immediately hire 22 new police officers, decreasing the time it takes to respond to 911 calls. Our police force has dwindled from 126 officers four years ago to only 89 today.”

That means the City had an actual net gain of 26 sworn officers funded by Measures C and W.

Violent & Property Crime Continues to Decrease

There has been an “Overall reduction of 13.9% in Part 1 Crime compared to 2019 for the eighth consecutive year. ‘Part 1 Crimes’ are those which are mandated to report to the FBI under our Unified Crime Reporting (UCR),” the report continues. They include violent crimes of homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, and property crimes of burglary, theft and motor vehicle theft. Arson is also included but categorized separately.

The report shows that 83.77% of Measure W funds were spent on police in the 2019-20 Fiscal Year, and 8.3% on recreation, 6.92% on code enforcement and the remaining 1% on other city services.

Police Calls for Service

The report shows there were a total of 92,557 police calls for service during the fiscal year with the top four being 21.2% for quality of life calls, 17.7% person or vehicle stops, 14.3% for fire or medical and 12.7% for information.

Recreation Programs Funded

The report shows that $1,293,382 was allocated for Recreation Programs and that there is a $350,000 balance remaining of those funds due to facilities/programs being closed because of the pandemic.

Key Programs Funded by Measure W:

• Rolling with Rec bus
• Family Nights (including Summer Movie Nights, Paw Parade, Game nights, and Performance/Concern Night)
• Pop-Up Recreation (Afterschool Park Programs): offered at different parks throughout the City
• Preschool Academy Classes (expanded the program to make Montessori curriculum)
• Dance team Classes (expanded to include Afro Beats and Hip-Hop classes)
• Camptoberfest (expansion of camp for the fall break)
• Big Truck Day
• Adventures in fun and fitness (ages 6 through 12); and
• Tumbling Program (for ages 2 through 12)

Code Enforcement Expanded

A total of six additional Code Enforcement Officers were hired as a result of both Measures C and W, plus two Development Services/ Engineering Technicians, four maintenance workers and two laborers.

The report shows the following Code Enforcement activity for FY 2020:

• 2,087 Code Enforcement cases opened in 2020 and 1,066 cases opened in 2019
• 2,788 cases closed in 2020 and 1,127 cases closed in 2019
• 5,538 cubic yards of blight and rubbish abated in 2020 and 7,056 cubic yards in 2019
• 1,394 shopping carts abated in 2020 and 1,506 shopping carts in 2019

Vehicle Abatement

The report also provided that, “The City continues its active Vehicle Abatement Program with 488 Vehicle Abatement Notices Issued 407 citations issued in 2020.”

Sources of Funds

The report also shows the top sources of sales tax revenue from Measure W.

“As you can see general retail and transportation were the bulk of the monies that came in,” Williams said. “That was followed by business-to-business and food products, and then the rest of it went in the construction area and there’s a miscellaneous area. These figures are sourced by the City of Antioch’s finance department.”

“We’re really blessed in having some very large, big box retailers,” she continued. “So, you can see 7-11 tops the list, followed closely by Amazon. We’ve got a lot of our auto dealerships in here, Best Buy, Costco. So, you can get a really good idea of the types of businesses that are contributing to this sales tax.”

the attachments to this post:

FY2020 Antioch 1% Top 25 Sales Tax Generators

2019-2020 FY Measure W Revenue Sources

2020 Antioch Police Calls for Service

2019-2020 Measure W Expenditures

This entry was posted on Monday, March 29th, 2021 at 12:58 pm and is filed under Government, News, Police & Crime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.