Payton Perspective: Ron Bernal will provide Antioch with much needed mature, respectful, responsible leadership as mayor
Offers a calm approach and years of experience to end the chaos, cronyism and corruption
By Allen D. Payton, Publisher
After four years of chaotic leadership under Antioch Mayor Lamar Hernández-Thorpe and his fellow councilmembers, current Mayor Pro Tem and District 4 Councilwoman Monica Wilson and District 1 Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker, with their far left, progressive politics and policies, inability to hire and keep good city staff leadership, and growth in the size and cost of our city government it’s clearly time for a change.
More than enough has been written by other news organizations and me over the past several years that I don’t have to beat up on Hernández-Thorpe further about his personal behavior and antics to support my argument that his time on the council and as mayor needs to end. While I endorsed him for city council in 2016 to give him the opportunity to prove himself, and although I defended him in 2020 against a false attack mailer during his first run for mayor, I couldn’t endorse Lamar, then and I can’t, now and most of it is based on his foolish decisions, lack of leaders inside City Hall, lack of police, unwillingness to accept responsibility, as well as government and political-related activities, specifically his corruption, name calling, hypocrisy and arrogance.
Foolish Decisions
Unnecessary Rental Protection Overreach: The bottom line is Hernández-Thorpe didn’t have a majority of voters who supported him in 2020, yet he governed as if he had a mandate, pushing forward and supporting his and the two councilwomen’s agenda. They took issues only affecting some people such as renters at a few apartment complexes with irresponsible owners and property managers and instead of using Code Enforcement to require they follow existing state law, they approved unnecessary, citywide policies affecting all rental properties in Antioch. It will end up having the reverse effect with fewer investors owning single-family homes renting the and instead selling them to buyers who will make them owner-occupied.
Vote to Shutter the Natural Gas Pipeline: The mayor also took other unnecessary and irresponsible votes such as against the renewal of the franchise agreement for the low-pressure, natural gas pipeline based on false information that it could cause an explosion like the one that occurred in San Bruno in 2010, while following Wilson’s lead, who was following controversial Brentwood Councilwoman Jovita Mendoza’s lead, to please the out-of-town climate change activists. Yet, when shown the action actually worked against their desire to reduce carbon emissions, because some of the supply of gas to serve the Chevron refinery in Richmond now originates as far as 3,500 miles away in northern Canada instead of just 35 miles away in the Delta, Hernández-Thorpe wouldn’t bring the item back for a revote. Plus, it’s been costing the City hundreds of thousands of dollars in outside attorney’s fees to defend the lawsuit by the pipeline owner.
Ban on Tobacco Shop Sale or Transfer to Heirs: Then and although I don’t support any additional tobacco and liquor stores in town, it took Hernández-Thorpe a few years to reverse the ridiculous, unfair and seemingly unconstitutional vote to not allow the owners to either sell or pass on their shops to their heirs.
Amtrak Station Closure: On another matter, in September 2022 he foolishly chose to not inform his fellow councilmembers or the public about the impending vote in March 2023 to decommission the Antioch Amtrak Station, wanting to be the hero and save it. But he went to the meeting without the support of the community and failed. Then he repeatedly blamed former City Manager Ron Bernal for approving the decommissioning which was later proven false as a result of a Herald investigative report. Then it took the mayor 16 months to even have the council respond to the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority board’s vote asking them not to close the station. Finally, with the closure now delayed until late 2026 or early 2027, an informed public and multiple speakers at the SJJPA Board meeting in September, keeping the station open is a possibility. But the vote remains unchanged to decommission Antioch’s station as they wait on a plan from the City to reduce crime and homelessness, there which were the main reasons for the decommissioning.
Lack of City Staff Leadership
We finally have a city manager, who started just a month before next Tuesday’s election and given an expensive one-year $260,000 severance package on just a two-year contract, even though Hernández-Thorpe and the councilwomen hired her on a 3-2 vote. But before she arrived, we went through multiple permanent, interim and acting city managers during the mayor’s four-year tenure. Plus, the City doesn’t currently have an Assistant City Manager, and onlly has an Interim Police Chief, Acting Public Works Director and an Acting Community Development Director. That’s unacceptable and is indicative of the incumbent’s lack of leadership.
Lack of Police
Although Chief Brian Addington is doing a great job in recruiting and adding officers and leaders to the department, we’re currently still down 43 sworn officers from the 115 in the city budget which only gets us to 1.0 officers per 1,000 population which is low in an of itself. That’s because cops don’t want to work for a council with a mayor and councilwoman (Torres-Walker) who irresponsibly called for firing all those being investigated in the text scandal before the investigations had been completed, saying they were guilty before being proven innocent – which is anathema to our form of jurisprudence in America. Most of the officers merely received the texts and returned to work.
Worse, the incumbent blatantly lied, recently in one of his video posts on his Facebook page reels saying “dozens of officers” had violated residents’ rights. That video can no longer be seen.
Won’t Accept Responsibility
But Hernández-Thorpe won’t take any responsibility for either, blaming what’s happening nationally with regards to city leadership vacancies and the DA and FBI investigations – from which only 10 officers were fired – for the depleted police department staffing. In a KTVU interview earlier this month he literally blamed Bernal, who retired in December 2021 from his position as city manager, for all the current crime problems and lack of police.
Corruption
I’ll provide just four examples of the current mayor’s corruption. First, was the obvious, unfair gerrymandering of District 3 Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock by him and his two council allies literally drawing the line around her neighborhood live on the council meeting video, moving her into neighboring District 4, and forcing her to run against Wilson in 2022, which Ogorchock lost, and preventing her from running for re-election, this year. Worse, Hernández-Thorpe and the councilwomen violated state redistricting rules by unnecessarily dividing a Community of Interest, specifically the Mira Vista Hills neighborhood, south of James Donlon Blvd., between Districts 2 and 4.
Second, were the private meetings he had with the two councilwomen at his house – in violation of the state’s Brown Act open meeting law – where they planned the redistricting and were later investigated by both the Contra Costa DA’s Office and Civil Grand Jury. Due to a lack of evidence other than the verbal testimony from Hernández-Thorpe’s former friend who attended at least one of those meetings, the three council co-conspirators were not prosecuted.
Another example is the mayor misused his campaign funds during the recall for apparently personal purposes, because he had to “reimburse” – his words – the racist-named Stop the #KAREN Recall for Mayor Lamar Thorpe 2022 campaign committee with funds from his own pocket. It was the personal use of campaign funds that resulted in the resignations, prosecutions, convictions and fines of both the former Contra Costa District Attorney and County Clerk-Registrar of Voters.
Finally, just last week, Hernández-Thorpe had his council secretary post announcements on his social media accounts about his appearances at two political events for his campaign, misusing taxpayer funds. The mayor was asked about it but not surprisingly, he didn’t respond. He has since removed the announcements from his social media accounts. Both the Contra Costa Deputy DA for Public Corruption and the Fair Political Practices Commission state watchdog agency have been contacted and asked about it, as well as the City Attorney. Once responses from them have been received a separate article will be published.
Name Calling, Hypocrisy and Arrogance
Not only did he refer to his recall opponents with the racist epithet of being “Karens” which he also called Ogorchock and District 2 Councilman Mike Barbanica, according to former City Manager Cornelius “Con” Johnson, during the campaign Hernández-Thorpe has called Bernal, his main opponent in the race, “chicken” for not attending two candidate forums. One of them was clearly biased with a local activist and supporter of the mayor serving as the moderator. Yet, the mayor is the one who is chicken as he limits who can comment below posts on his official Facebook page, has blocked my phone number on his cell phone for years preventing me from texting him for a quick question and comment, forcing me to leave a voice mail or catch him on his home line, at a meeting or community event or email his multiple accounts hoping he will see one; he won’t respond to most questions from me that are asked of him about things he says and does, showing utter arrogance in office; says he will have his council secretary invite me to his self-promoting press conferences – where he repeatedly airs Antioch’s dirty laundry, as Supervisor Federal Glover, at the Chamber of Commerce’s recent State of Business luncheon, referred to them and told him to stop doing. But then Hernández-Thorpe doesn’t invite me because he can’t handle being challenged and asked the tough questions by me and another local news reporter who know the details that the Bay Area TV media reporters don’t, as those stations have nine counties and 101 cities to cover.
However, recently and finally, Bay Area TV reporters have caught on and begun asking the mayor tough questions and challenging him, which is the role of the media.
So, Hernández-Thorpe has had eight years on the council including four as mayor to do what he wanted to get done. We literally can’t afford another four. Like the name of that old TV series, I say, “Eight is Enough”.
Side Note: To be clear, I don’t hate or even dislike the mayor and frankly, when we see each other from time to time, we’re friendly toward each other and as I told him, I pray for him. Because I attended Ron’s campaign kick-off, which I rarely do for any candidate in campaigns I cover for my news websites, I offered Lamar to attend one of his events. He invited to be one of the roasters at his annual fundraiser earlier this year and I spent two hours preparing softball jokes. But unfortunately, Lamar didn’t return my calls the day before or the day of and never told me where or what time the event was being held. He later told me he didn’t hear my voicemail messages. What I don’t like are many of the decisions he has made and things he’s said and done while in office, and most importantly, the negative impacts it’s had on our community. Should Lamar lose, I wish him well in his future and frankly, think with two children who are still young, he should make them a higher priority in his life and be spending his extra time with them instead of trying to lead our city. He also needs time to mature, see things differently from outside of government and now in private business, and perhaps someday Lamar can return to elected office. As I’ve repeatedly told him, “Do better. Be better.”
UPDATE: A Positive Note
After thinking about it further, I do want to offer something positive about the mayor, and give credit where credit is due. I agree with his votes in favor of the new, more upscale home developments in the Sand Creek area and the City’s first transit-oriented development housing project, the condominiums near the corner of Hillcrest Avenue and Deer Valley Road, known as The Landing at Wildflower Station (near KFC), just about a mile away from the Hillcrest BART Station. More of that needs to be approved nearby.
Plus, while I would prefer the private sector handle things with the homeless, I have not opposed Hernández-Thorpe’s efforts to provide transitional housing using the Executive Inn motel on E. 18th Street. I have witnessed a difference in Waldie Plaza on W. Second Street across from City Hall, where my office is located, as there are periodically, only a few homeless residents who show up there, now, no longer living there in tents and taking care of their personal business in our doorway. The challenge will for the next council will be how to continue that once the federal funds run out, which will happen, soon.
Rakesh Christian
The third candidate in the race, Rakesh Christian, who is running for mayor for a second time, I have been getting to know over the past few years and find him to offer common sense views for what Antioch faces. I like his idea to bring a four-year medical college to Antioch. He has experience as a scientist and in business and offers a different life experience as an immigrant. I also respect the fact that he’s made himself available for all four candidate forums during the campaign and has shown he isn’t afraid to challenge both the mayor and Bernal on their records.
But the biggest challenge Christian has is, due to English being his second language, he’s very difficult to understand and that just won’t work in City leadership. I hope he works on his English skills and remains involved, perhaps with an appointment to a city commission or committee.
Bernal Offers Calm, Mature, Experienced Leadership
In a complete contrast to the incumbent, challenger and first-time candidate for public office, Bernal, offers a calm, mature, respectful, responsible alternative with decades of leadership experience inside City Hall to help guide Antioch in the top position on the city council.
A 25-year Antioch resident, having worked for the City of Antioch for most of that time, moving up from Public Works Director / City Engineer in his first year and my final year on the city council when I first met him, to Assistant City Manager, then Interim City Manager and finally City Manager, Bernal understands what it takes to get things done while working in collaboration with all fellow council members, as well as the city manager, department heads and staff. He has a more mellow personality, not prone to self-promotion and doesn’t care who gets the credit for accomplishments.
His campaign and his term as mayor if elected, will be focused on the major issues Antioch faces including crime, homelessness and our struggling economy. As Bernal said at his campaign kickoff in January why he’s running for Mayor of Antioch, “Because I want to make it a better place and want to improve it…I love this community. I love the people of Antioch…my neighbors, my neighborhood…everything this place has to offer.”
From my own experience in and covering government through my own and other newspapers and news websites for the past 19 of 24 years, I’ve witnessed there are two types of people involved: those with an empire building mentality who see all the wonderful things that government can do, and then go try to find ways to raise this tax or that tax to do it, or spend more than is received in revenue. Then there are those who recognize the limits of government, prioritize spending on those things that matter most to the residents and taxpayers, and how the private sector can usually do many things better and for less money.
Bernal will help lead Antioch away from the impending double-digit deficits projected for the next three fiscal years, due to the overspending by Hernández-Thorpe and his fellow council members.
Like the mayor, Bernal operates a consulting business and has since retiring at the end of 2021. But unlike Hernández-Thorpe, he didn’t start it while working for the City which has raised questions about who the current mayor’s clients are and if they have any business before the council creating potential conflicts of interest.
On a personal note, Bernal is married to Irma, and together they have children and grandchildren who live in the area, and he’s respected throughout our city, East County, the county and beyond. I truly believe Bernal will not do anything to embarrass us as a community, he’ll never yell at members of the public from the dais nor challenge anyone to go outside for a fight.
The former city manager says, “I am committed to developing a safer, more inclusive, and better tomorrow for our residents and businesses. Our city has immense potential, yet we find ourselves at a crossroads. I invite you to join me on this journey to transform Antioch into a place that values relationships, delivers real results, and operates in a spirit of collaboration and trust.”
I agree about the potential of Antioch. While the City’s slogan is Opportunity Lives Here, we need a mayor who understands how and will work to fulfill it.
Furthermore, that last word is the most important. I know I can trust Ron Bernal as both a man and as our next mayor, who gives me hope for Antioch’s future, again.
As his campaign theme states, “Change Starts Today!” together we can make that day next Tuesday, November 5th and it couldn’t happen any sooner. Please join me in supporting and voting for Ron Bernal for Mayor of Antioch for the next four years.
For more information about Bernal’s campaign visit https://ronbernal.org.
