Concord, CA – On Thursday, October 6th at 11:30 a.m., STAND! For Families Free of Violence’s 24th Annual Rebuilding Lives Luncheon and more than 350 civic, business, and community leaders gathered at the Concord Hilton this year to honor Domestic Violence Awareness Month, celebrate the resilience of domestic violence survivors, and raise more than $140,000 for programs that help survivors of family violence.

Keynote speaker Tony Porter, Co-founder and CEO of A CALL TO MEN, addressed the role of men in ending violence against women. Exploring the influence that men have with boys and other men as fathers and coaches, he discussed how to encourage boys and men to stand up to those promoting men’s violence. “It is time to stop asking why women stay and starting asking men to stop.”

“Today it is clearer than ever that domestic violence is a men’s issue too. We will end this problem only when men, too end their silence around violence and tell each other this is no longer acceptable behavior. We need to change the conversation.” said Gloria Sandoval, CEO of STAND! For Families Free of Violence.

Though the movement to end family violence has made great progress, there is still work to be done: On average, one in four women and one in seven men will experience intimate partner violence severe enough to send them to the hospital; one in five teens will experience teen dating violence; and 3.2 million children will experience domestic violence in their homes annually. Awareness-raising events, such as the Rebuilding Lives Luncheon, are important for strengthening the movement as well as inspiring new supporters to help end domestic violence.

About STAND! For Families Free of Violence

STAND! helps 15,000 people in Contra Costa County break the intergenerational cycle of violence each year by saving lives, rebuilding families, and changing the future: intervening when violence strikes, supporting victims as they rebuild their lives, and guiding the community as a whole toward nonviolence. Visit www.standffov.org for more information.

The Chancellor’s Search Committee has announced the selection of three finalists for the position of Chancellor of the Contra Costa Community College District (District). The finalists are: Eugene Huff, Dr. Kindred Murillo, and Dr. Fred Wood.

The 20 members of the Search Committee have been working since May 24th to recruit and interview candidates and narrow their choices down to the top three.

Public forums have been scheduled at each college and the District Office on Monday, October 31, 2016, beginning at 8:30 a.m. The three finalists will make statements and answer questions from attendees. The public forums will be 50 minutes each and are open to the community, students, faculty and staff. A detailed schedule of the public forums is available at www.4cd.edu.

If anyone is unable to attend the scheduled public forums, the public forums held at Contra Costa College will be streamed live, and links to these recorded public forums will be available on the District website. Online comments about the finalists will be accepted through November 1, 2016, 5:00 p.m.

The Governing Board will interview all three finalists on November 1, 2016, and conduct additional deliberations as needed. It is anticipated that a public meeting will be scheduled within a couple of weeks following the interviews at which time the Governing Board will take action on the Chancellor search.

The Chancellor serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the District and reports directly to the five-member elected Governing Board. The Chancellor, in collaboration with the three college presidents and other District leadership, is responsible for assessing, planning, organizing and evaluating the resources, programs and services of the District to meet the educational needs of the students and the community.

As the educational and administrative leader of the District, the Chancellor represents the District to community groups, business and industry, labor organizations, public school districts, the Chancellor’s Office of the California Community Colleges, the University of California, California State University, private colleges and universities, city and county agencies, and the California legislature.

Following are the three finalists for Contra Costa Community College District Chancellor

Gene Huff (top left) has been with the Contra Costa Community College District since 2001. He has served as Executive Vice Chancellor, Administrative Services, since 2013, overseeing the fiscal services, human resources, information technology, police services and risk management areas for the District. He first served as a contract administrator, Vice Chancellor of Human Resources, in 2004 and has been the District’s chief negotiator since that time. Prior to joining the District, Huff worked for Whirlpool Corporation in operations and human resources for eleven years. Huff serves on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors for the Contra Costa County Schools Insurance Group, and chairs the District’s Retirement Board of Authority. He is best known for training and presenting on collective bargaining, and interest-based bargaining in particular, to human resources and other groups for almost a decade. He graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in management.

Dr. Kindred Murillo is a passionate college educator serving for twenty years in the California Community College System. Serving for the past five years as the Superintendent/President of Lake Tahoe Community College, Kindred has worked with the campus and the local community to financially stabilize the college through Measure F, transparent and accountable budgets, and a focus on scheduling for “student access and success.” Before arriving in Tahoe, she served as the Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services for Contra Costa Community College District. Kindred also served as the Vice President of Administrative Services at Pasadena Area Community College District. She was promoted to Vice President of Finance and Administrative Services when Copper Mountain Community College became a separate district. Kindred was hired as an adjunct faculty at Desert Community College District in 1996, served as a full-time faculty member, and moved into college administration in 2000. She brings a unique background to community college with 13 years of business and six years of governmental relations experience. Kindred is a product of the community college system, graduating from Barstow College with a liberal arts degree.  She completed her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at Redlands University and earned a Master of Science in Organizational Development and a doctorate in Organizational Leadership at Pepperdine University. Kindred enjoys spending time with her family riding bikes, hiking, and paddle boarding. She loves to read and is an avid seeker of knowledge.

Dr. Fred Wood presently serves as Chancellor at the University of Minnesota Crookston (UMC). UMC, which was a two-year technical college beginning in 1966 and transitioned to a baccalaureate granting institution in 1993, is a work-force focused campus of the U of M system of which half of the degree seeking students are on-campus students and the other half are on-line. UMC offers an experiential learning based curriculum where on-campus students are required to complete an internship and currently offers 14 degrees fully on-line. Chancellor Wood joined UMC after a 26-year career at the University of California, Davis, where he served as vice chancellor of student affairs from 2007 to 2012, leading one of the largest student affairs portfolios in the nation. His career at UC Davis included other leadership positions, as well, such as interim vice provost for undergraduate studies and associate dean of the College of Letters and Science, while concurrently serving as a faculty member in chemistry. He began both his college education and professional career at the community college. Prior to UC Davis, Dr. Wood was a faculty member at North Idaho College and his first teaching assignment during graduate school was at Diablo Valley College. A first-generation college graduate, Chancellor Wood earned an A.A from Diablo Valley College, and B.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from UC Davis. He is married and has three grown children. He enjoys hiking, biking and skiing with his family.

The Contra Costa Community College District (CCCCD) is one of the largest multi-college community college districts in California. The CCCCD serves a population of 1,019,640 people, and its boundaries encompass all but 48 of the 734-square-mile land area of Contra Costa County. The District is home to Contra Costa College in San Pablo, Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, as well as educational centers in Brentwood and San Ramon. The District headquarters is located in downtown Martinez.

Following are the Members of the Chancellor Search Committee:

By Nick Goodrich

On Tuesday, October 11th, the Antioch City Council heard a report on the city’s ongoing efforts to combat blight and homelessness, and also oversaw a public hearing concerning the proposed financing of the Delta Pines Apartments.

Public Comments

During public comments at the beginning of the meeting, and the Council once again heard from Save the Yard supporters, as well as a few Antioch business owners.

Joy Motts, a leader in the Save the Yard effort, read aloud from the city’s General Plan, which presented Antioch’s waterfront as a possible “major attraction.” She and several others expressed their frustration that the city had decided to build townhomes on the property, rather than a park and event center.

“The Beede Lumber Yard is a perfect place for a park,” Motts said. “Houses are not a legacy that anyone will remember you for. It’s time that you incorporate a public discussion into the decision of the Beede Lumber Yard.”

Two business owners in downtown Antioch also spoke before the Council on the state of the city.

Antioch resident Jim Lanter, a 12-year downtown business owner, listed several concerns, including the state of downtown at night, and blight affecting much of the surrounding area. He suggested installing better lighting to make people feel safer in downtown Antioch at night, and encourage businesses to stay open later.

Nicholas Olivier, owner of Urban Jumble in downtown Antioch, agreed with Lanter. He asked for increased police presence downtown, especially at night.

“Downtown is beginning to grow, but we definitely need help,” he said.

Efforts to Eradicate Blight & Homelessness

Ron Bernal, Assistant City Manager and Director of Public Works for the city, was on hand to give the report on blight and homelessness to the Council. He noted that the 2008 recession had contributed greatly to the blight problem by leaving behind a number of neglected residential properties and vacant buildings of businesses that were forced to close their doors.

The city was forced to shut down its Code Enforcement department and let go several park and street workers who had previously helped keep Antioch clean.

Since that time, the city has gradually built up the department, including the hiring of three new Code Enforcement Officers, one technician, and two laborers. The city has also reinstated the 40-hour work week, allowing Code Enforcement to do more each week.

In addition, Bernal reported that the Antioch Police Department’s hiring of an outside company – SP Plus Corp. – to ticket and tow vehicles, has seen great success. In the past six months, 528 unregistered, inoperable, or illegally parked vehicles were removed from Antioch’s streets.

The Council recently approved a three-year extension of the contract with SP Plus Corp. Bernal cited several other successes, such as the restriping of streets and curbs, and a new shopping cart ordinance slated to go into effect on November 1st, as signs that the city is making strides in combating blight.

“We’re trying to be very responsive to things that are offensive in our community, we’re making every effort to do that,” he told the audience at Tuesday’s meeting.

Bernal then addressed the homelessness problem in Antioch. In the last year, the city has seen a 33% increase in its homeless population, from 122 to 164. That increase paces East County’s 33% raise, while West County actually saw a 45% decrease.

The closure of the Don Brown Center earlier this year, which had provided services and resources for many of the East Bay’s homeless, and of Shelter Inc.’s transitional housing on Delta Fair Boulevard, created problems, Bernal said.

The city currently has budgeted $50,000 for the funding of homeless services, and the Antioch Shelter Project, which aims to replace the closed Don Brown Center, is in the process of finding a new location.

But Bernal emphasized the importance of the community in fighting the city’s homelessness problem, noting that faith-based institutions and individual citizens continue to do their part.

“Everybody needs to get involved,” he said. “We all need to try to work together.”

Delta Pines Apartments

Council also oversaw a public hearing on the proposed financing of the Delta Pines Apartments, on Sycamore Drive.

Delta Pines was constructed in the 1970’s and consists of 186 units on 7 acres, and is part of Antioch’s affordable housing stock. The Council voted 5-0 to approve a $35 million bond issued by the California Statewide Communities Development Authority for real estate investment firm Levy Affiliated to finance the complex.

The proposed financing will include its purchase and renovation by Levy Affiliated, which aims to provide energy upgrades, handicap accessibility, and new kitchens, energy-efficient appliances, and floors to the units.

No representatives of Levy Affiliated spoke on behalf of the project during the hearing, and no opponents spoke against it.

“I’m grateful that this is happening,” said Councilmember Monica Wilson, “That we have organizations coming in to rehab some of our older buildings, to make them handicap accessible, and for our low income and affordable housing. So hopefully we see some more of these come up.”

Mayor Pro Tem Lori Ogorchock agreed, citing recent rent increases.

“I’m just happy that they’re doing them, and that they’re making them ADA compliant,” she said. “We have several people with disabilities that were forced out of their rentals because their rents were increasing. So we need more of these.”