By Allen Payton

Antioch Realtor and rental property owner Mark Jordan sent a “Cease and Desist Demand” to the members of the Antioch City Council on Friday, April 3 in response to their vote on March 31 to place a moratorium on evictions for both residential and commercial properties. The council’s actions give renters up to 90 days to repay for each month of rent they are unable to pay during the coronavirus pandemic. (See related article)

Following is Jordan’s email sent to Mayor Sean Wright and the four council members:

“Mr. Write (sic) and Council Members,

Please be advised that this letter constitutes a Cease and Desist Demand concerning the City of Antioch’s tortious interference in the terms of all rental agreements executed within the City of Antioch and which effect non owner occupied real property both residential and commercial.  (See action taken by Council March 31, 2020).

This Demand in no way acts to invalidate or argue the validity of Executive Order N-28-20 issued by the State of California.

You must rescind and revoke your order made March 31, 2020 and cease from your unlawful actions.  If you fail to act it is highly likely you will be faced with class action litigation which will most likely include significant punitive damages.  Understand clearly, this will most likely cost the City of Antioch million of dollars. You are not acting within the authority of Executive Order N-28-20.

Yes, I fully understand the nature of our world wide heath issue and the shelter in place order issued by the County Health Department. I further understand, and have read Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N-28-20.  The question is; have any of you?

In your meeting of March 31, 2020 you have gone far beyond the State’s granted authority.  There is nothing within the Paragraphs 1 through 6 inclusive, granting you the power to determine the deferred rent payment and time period for a deferred payment.  This City governmental interference is therefore tortious interference at its face.

These are matters to be determined by the parties to the contracts and are subject to judicial review, not City dictate.

Given that you have acted illegally it is my position that your entire moratorium and action taken is without force or effect. Please remember you have no power or authority except through the State of California and an authority granted to you by the State. Please review the State Constitution.

Your rescission of the moratorium is required immediately.

Mark Jordan”

In the past, Jordan has been successful suing the city. In 2016 he sued the City of Antioch for misappropriating funds from the water fees paid by residents and using them to pay for police. As a result, the City had to repay the water fund the amount that had been spent on police services. (See related article)

Asked if he had lined up other property owners to join him in a class action lawsuit, Jordan simply responded, “No I have not.”

An email to City Attorney Thomas Smith was sent Saturday morning seeking a response to questions about the threatened lawsuit. Please check back later for updates to this report.

By Allen Payton

Due to the current shelter in place order, the Antioch Unified School District Board of Trustees will hold its regular Board of Education meeting of April 8, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. online via teleconference.

There are no items for information, discussion or action on the agenda. Only essential items will be placed on the agenda until the shelter in place is lifted.

But there is one resolution for immediate action on the agenda. Although the board didn’t have to vote to close the schools, since the superintendent already has that authority form previous board policy, the trustees will discuss and decide how to vote on “Resolution No. 2019-20-38 Designating Certain District Construction Projects as an Essential Governmental Function and Delegating Authority for the Superintendent or her Designee to Make Such Determinations on Such Construction Projects as are Necessary to Comply with State and Local Health & Safety Orders Issued in Response to COVID-19.”

Before the regular board meeting, they will hold a closed session to discuss the discipline, dismissal or release of a public employee. Because it’s a personnel matter details are not available to the public.

The board will also discuss and decide on a variety of Consent calendar items, including:

1. Award of Bid and Contract for Wide Area Network Services
2. Award of Bid and Contract to Company for Wide Area Network Services (Month-to-Month)
3. Award of Bid and Contract for New Wireless Network Controllers
4. Notice of Completion with S+B James Construction Management Company for the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Replacement Project at Mission Elementary School
5. Services Agreement with Learned and Associates
6. Addendum to Services Agreement with Marzano Resources
7. Contra Costa County Office of Education Medi-Cal Administrative Claiming Agreement
8. Master Contract with Cinnamon Hills Youth Crisis Center
9. Services Agreement with California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF)

You may refer to the district’s website  http://www.boarddocs.com/ca/ausd/Board.nsf/Public to view the Board agenda in its entirety. Or view it, here:

This meeting can be viewed on livestream video on the district’s YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/GLTJ1Hx9vHI.

ases and deaths from COVID-19 in Contra Costa County from the CCHS dashboard.

As of Friday, April 3, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS) is reporting 31 more cases of COVID-19/coronavirus for a total of 305, and two more deaths in the county. There are 32 people diagnosed with the virus currently hospitalized, an increase of just one from Thursday’s update.

27 of the new cases are from the senior care home in Orinda. (See related article)

To see the all the statistics provided by CCHS, click here.

By Allen Payton

Google released a treasure trove of information, Friday labeled Mobility Reports, based on cell phone users’ movements, during the coronavirus pandemic, that includes statistics showing activities such as shopping, use of parks, and going to work.

“Each Community Mobility Report is broken down by location and displays the change in visits to places like grocery stores and parks. This is an early release and reports will be updated regularly”, Google shared on their website.

In California, from February 16 through March 29, the data show a 50% drop in retail and recreation, a 24% decrease in grocery shopping and pharmacy visits, a 38% drop in visits to parks, a 54% decrease in use of public transit, but only a 39% drop in going to work. An even more interesting statistic is the data show only a 15% increase in going to places of residence.

The stats for Contra Costa County were similar, with a 48% drop in retail and recreation, a 21% decrease in grocery shopping and pharmacy visits, a 49% drop in using public transit, a 41% decrease in going to work, as well as the same 15% increase in visits to home. But there was only a 15% decrease in visits to parks.

Under the title “Helping public health officials combat COVID-19”,  Jen Fitzpatrick, SVP, Geo and Google Health’s Chief Health Officer, Karen DeSalvo, MD, M.P.H. issued the following statement, today, Friday, April 3:

“As global communities respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increasing emphasis on public health strategies, like social distancing measures, to slow the rate of transmission. In Google Maps, we use aggregated, anonymized data showing how busy certain types of places are—helping identify when a local business tends to be the most crowded. We have heard from public health officials that this same type of aggregated, anonymized data could be helpful as they make critical decisions to combat COVID-19.

Starting today we’re publishing an early release of our COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports to provide insights into what has changed in response to work from home, shelter in place, and other policies aimed at flattening the curve of this pandemic. These reports have been developed to be helpful while adhering to our stringent privacy protocols and policies.

The reports use aggregated, anonymized data to chart movement trends over time by geography, across different high-level categories of places such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential. We’ll show trends over several weeks, with the most recent information representing 48-to-72 hours prior. While we display a percentage point increase or decrease in visits, we do not share the absolute number of visits. To protect people’s privacy, no personally identifiable information, like an individual’s location, contacts or movement, is made available at any point.

We will release these reports globally, initially covering 131 countries and regions. Given the urgent need for this information, where possible we will also provide insights at the regional level. In the coming weeks, we will work to add additional countries and regions to ensure these reports remain helpful to public health officials across the globe looking to protect people from the spread of COVID-19.”

Google also provided additional information about their reports, how they gathered the data and what they’re doing with it:

Preserving privacy

The Community Mobility Reports were developed to be helpful while adhering to our stringent privacy protocols and protecting people’s privacy. No personally identifiable information, such as an individual’s location, contacts or movement, will be made available at any point.

Insights in these reports are created with aggregated, anonymized sets of data from users who have turned on the Location History setting, which is off by default. People who have Location History turned on can choose to turn it off at any time from their Google Account and can always delete Location History data directly from their Timeline.

We also use the same world-class anonymization technology used in our products every day to keep your activity data private and secure. This includes differential privacy, which adds artificial noise to our datasets, enabling us to generate insights while preventing the identification of any individual person.

Visit Google’s Privacy Policy to learn more about how we keep your data private, safe and secure.

How long will these reports be available?

These reports will be available for a limited time, so long as public health officials find them useful in their work to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Gun, bullets and drugs confiscated from one suspect by Antioch Police officers Thursday night, April 2, 2020. Photos by APD.

With help of K9 Officer Purcy

By Antioch Police Department

Good morning Antioch! Just wanted to let you know APD Night Crew was providing continuing education for crooks about shelter in-place:

Thursday night, our coppers got a call over on Lemontree Way about some suspicious activity. They swooped in and found a miscreant in possession of a loaded handgun, in addition to drugs for sale. Since we love to impress the good taxpayers of our city (because you pay our salaries), we decided to find an occupied Infinity stolen from Concord a few streets away on Mahogany Way.

And then, K9 Purcy led a team of officers over to Sunset Drive for a reported video alarm showing two bandits in the fenced-off yard of a business. Purcy found one guy hiding behind a building and another in the bushes.

More arrests were made at Comfort Inn on Mahogany Way, on Sunset Drive and Buchanan Road.

And lastly, we got another video alarm showing a hoodlum siphoning gasoline from vehicles on Buchanan Road. A bunch of blue went over there and found the petro pirate hiding under a van with a five gallon can of gasoline.

Five arrests and five individuals who would’ve been better off staying at-home.

ATTENTION ALL CROOKS!!! Don’t come to our city to commit shenanigans, because you’ll soon learn that we aren’t havin’ it. Eh, I guess not many of them follow us on social media, but hopefully they get the message.

Sleep tight Antioch! We are watching over things (like we do every night) to keep you safe!!! BTW – Purcy’s a good boooooooy. #AntiochStrong

Antioch Police K9 Purcy and suspect arrested on Wed., April 1, 2020. Photos by APD.

By Antioch Police Department

While our fine residents were sheltering (and hopefully sleeping), APD Night Shift was patrolling the town making sure y’all were safe. A little after midnight, a call went out of a man banging on the doors of closed pizza parlor on Contra Loma. This fella was using a metal object (later determined to be a knife) to hit the door and was reportedly wearing a ski mask. Officers arrived in one-minute flat but the pizza prowler had already left.

While they were figuring things out, a man approached and said someone tried to rob him at knifepoint of his bicycle. Team Blue flooded the area and flushed out a guilty conscience who took off running (failed application of social distancing) when he saw the arrival of our fine-looking cruisers. He quickly gave up when he saw the lead car was Officer Amiri and his loyal sidekick, Purcy (good choice). Upon the fitment of the metal bracelets, this bandit was found in possession of a knife and ski mask, allowing us to trace him to both incidents.

Moral of the story? Shelter in-place keeps everyone out of trouble (oh, and don’t mess with OUR TOWN!) Sleep tight Antioch – we are here for you morning, noon, and night!

Only 31 currently hospitalized out of 276 confirmed cases in the county

By Allen Payton

After requests by the public and the Herald, on readers’ behalf, the Contra Costa Health Services updated their webpage, today and are now reporting more statistics and information on what they refer to as the “dashboard.”

The only statistic not included that the public has been requesting, is the number of people diagnosed with the virus who have recovered.

“We’re working to get additional information to the public, as much as possible,” said Will Harper, Contra Costa Health Services spokesperson.

One bright spot in the additional statistics is that out of 276 confirmed cases in Contra Costa County, only 31 are currently hospitalized, which is a little over 11%, as of 1:00 a.m. Thursday morning, April 2. That’s out of 4,083 people who have been tested.

While the statistics show a greater number of people age 41-60 that have been diagnosed with COVID-19 than those age 61-100, which goes against international statistics, “What it doesn’t show is the severity of the cases,” Harper explained.

“We’re trying to prepare people for the fact that we haven’t seen the worst of it, yet,” he added.

Following the announcement by Governor Newsom on Wednesday that schools will not reopen this session, Antioch Superintendent of Schools, Stephanie Anello sent this letter to parents:

INFORMATION FOR GRADUATING SENIORS AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Good afternoon again families. We know the announcement of school closing until the end of the school year is very difficult for all families and in particular for our graduating seniors. Please know:

-Any student who was on track to graduate will graduate and receive their diploma.

-Graduations will be held at a later date, but your child will be celebrated!

-UC, CSU, and most private colleges just announced that students will be held harmless for this quarter up until the year 2023 so even freshman, sophomores, and juniors will not be affected.

-Seniors and other high school students will receive a grade of Pass or No Mark. No Mark does not affect a student’s GPA.

Again, please know that we will do everything to help you through this difficult time that we can possibly do. Additionally, we know that this has provided a lot of stress for our students. As a result, our counselors will provide a way for your children to participate in online counseling beginning next week if they would like someone to talk to regarding their feelings, etc.

Please take care and be kind to one another. This is a difficult time for so many in our community and your kindness may be the very thing that gives them strength. Together we will get through this.

Sincerely,
Stephanie Anello

Superintendent