Council to reconsider more expensive 3% at 50 pension plan

By James Ott

Antioch’s first African-American Mayor Wade Harper was sworn in during last Tuesday’s special council meeting.

In another first for the city – newcomer Monica Wilson became Antioch’s first female African-American council member as well, when she was sworn in during the same ceremony.

Harper won a decisive victory to become mayor, beating out competitors by garnering over 40 percent of the vote. The runner-up was current council member Gary Agopian who managed to pull in over 32 percent of the mayoral vote.

The council voted for long-time council member Mary Rocha as Mayor Pro-Tem – a position Harper held under former Mayor Jim Davis, since she was the top vote-getter in the council election.

During his speech at the swearing in ceremony, Harper thanked his supporters and his family and went directly to listing some of his plans for Antioch.

“I’ll forego the usual victory lap speech,” Harper said. “We can do the victory lap as a council when we reduce crime and improve economic development in this city.”

The first thing Harper asked for was a Mayor’s office so that he and the council have a place to meet and discuss plans for Antioch.

He also said he plans to create subcommittees to help deal with crime and beautify the city, particularly in well-known crime hot spots such as L Street and A Street and the infamous Sycamore area.

Harper also announced that he would be retiring from his job as a police officer effective January 4. The announcement perhaps lends some weight behind his goal to become “the best mayor in East County” over his upcoming tenure as mayor.

Harper has his work cut out for him. Antioch’s crime has skyrocketed over the last few years as its property values and city revenues have fallen.

Council will make appointment to fill Harper’s vacant council seat

With Wade Harper elected mayor, his former council seat – with two years left – is now vacant and there is some controversy over how that position is to be filled.

During last Tuesday’s special meeting the council voted three to one to choose the new council member themselves after allowing people to apply for the vacant council seat through an application process. New Mayor Wade Harper and council members Mary Rocha and Monica Wilson voted for the application/selection process to fill the empty council seat. Council member Gary Agopian was the lone dissenter.

This “application process” was selected over two other options that the city could have chosen in order to fill the available council seat.

One of those options would have been to hold a special election to allow Antioch voters to decide who should fill the vacant position. But this option was ultimately rejected by all of the council members because City Attorney Lynn Tracy Nerland said that such a special election could cost the city over $200,000.

The third option considered was to allow Mayor Harper to appoint someone to fill the vacant council seat.

Although this option at first seems undemocratic, in the past Antioch has used this process to fill the vacant seat with the runner-up from the recent election for city council. In this case that person would have been former Mayor Jim Davis, who decided only to run for city council this time around.

In fact, Davis was only narrowly defeated by Monica Wilson and Mary Rocha in what was a very close race for council.

There were two council seats available during the election; the first was won by Mary Rocha who received 24.75 percent of the vote, or 11,795 votes. Wilson won the last remaining council seat with the second most votes, but she did so by getting 11,190 votes to runner-up Jim Davis’s 10,524. The two candidates were separated by just 1.4 percent or 666 votes.

Supporters of this option say that by appointing Davis to the newly vacant council seat, the Mayor and other council members would effectively be appointing someone who was “voted” in by Antioch citizens.

Gary Agopian made it clear that he believed this option to be the most ethical and democratic option available to the council. He said that regardless of the application process, council would still be choosing who they believed should be on the city council rather than Antioch voters, who should be the only ones to select their leaders.

“Government is instituted by the people,” said Agopian. “The people reserve the right to choose their leaders. It is an American tradition that many have fought and died to protect: The right of the people to choose – not a council – the people.”

Agopian said that he would be inclined to support the option to hold a special election so voters could officially elect someone but that the cost would be too great considering the poor financial state of Antioch.

The next most democratic solution, Agopian argued, was to appoint whoever received the third-most votes to the newly available third council seat.

Harper – the only other council member to make comments of any notable length on the subject, – said that he thought a special election was too expensive and so allowing people to apply and then selecting from that pool who council thinks is the best candidate is the preferred, and most democratic option available.

“I believe this is a fair process,” said Harper. “It had its flaws in the past but it can be done better.”

Those interested in applying for the vacant council seat must live in Antioch and be a registered voter.

Applicants must write a statement s to why they should be considered for council and it must not exceed 400 words or exceed three minutes when the statement is read allowed during interviews.

Aspiring council members must also fill out an official application, Conflict of Interest 700 form, (available at city hall), and have a minimum of 20 and maximum of 30 signatures from registered Antioch voters who support their bid for a council seat.

All of these items must be completed and turned in to the city by Thursday, Dec. 13 at 4:30 p.m.

Interviews will be held by the city council on Tuesday, Dec. 18 at 6:00 p.m.

Also At the Meeting

The council voted unanimously to consider increasing the retirement plans of future police hires as well as other miscellaneous hires the city might make. The city feels it would be unfair to increase retirement rates for new police but not for other new employees.

Currently, new police hires would receive a 3 percent at age 55 retirement plan.. This means that a police officer could start collecting their pension at age 55 that is equal to 3 percent of their top salary for every year on the job.

If the city votes to make the increase, new police hired will instead be able to start that same collection five years earlier, which will inevitably cost the city more money.

If miscellaneous employees receive an increase as well, they will go from the current two percent at age 55 formula to a new 2.7 percent at age 55 retirement plan, which would also cost the city more money.

Human Resources Director Michelle Fitzer gave a presentation at the council meeting to try and determine how much the new pensions would cost the city, but the answer is a little tricky.

Her best estimate was that the city would be paying roughly 4.4 percent more per new police hire if the city goes with the new 3 percent at 50 formula. That rate, like all CalPERS rates, will go up over time.

Fitzer estimated that if the city were to hire one experienced officer on July 1 of next year it would cost the city about $4,502 more with the old retirement plan versus the proposed 3 percent at 50. The city currently needs 15 officers and expects that number to double over the next month or so.

If the city hires 15 new experienced officers under the proposed pension increase, it will cost the city about $67,530 extra per year. That number will also climb roughly every year.

By James Ott

Citing the need to attract more experienced police officers to the city, Antioch city council will decide whether or not to increase retirement benefits for police officers hired from other cities at a special meeting tonight at 6 p.m. The change could also see retirement package increases for all new city hires.

At last week’s regular city council meeting, new Human Resources Director Michelle Fitzer, City Manager Jim Jakel and Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando suggested changing the city’s PERS retirement package for new police hires from three percent of pay at age 55 to back to three percent at age 50 formula the city had prior. The new benefits package, if passed would allow new hires from other cities to collect pension five years earlier. Council voted unanimously to move the item forward for a decision.

This comes only months after the city worked with the Antioch Police Officer Association to reduce pension benefits for new hires to the current 3 percent at 55 formula in order to combat a poor economy and some $59 million in underfunded retirement benefits debt.

Police Chief Cantando said that the city is having trouble filling the current 15 vacancies in the police department, something he thinks reverting back to the “3 percent at 50” formula would help remedy.

Cantando said that he has not personally had any potential hires tell him that the city’s current retirement plan would prevent them from taking up a police position with Antioch. But he said that there are far more inexperienced officers applying to Antioch instead of experienced officers from other cities, and so he believes offering a better retirement package could change that.

Cantando and the city say they would prefer to hire mostly veteran officers because they have more experience in a variety of situations and don’t need as much training as recent police academy grads. Though Cantando and several city council members such as Wade Harper and Gary Agopian said they would like a “nice mix” or experienced and new officers.

Included in the staff report was a comparison of retirement benefits for 15 surrounding cities – 8 of those 15 used “3 percent at 55” and only 6 used the “3 percent at 50” that Antioch is currently considering switching to. The city of Clayton uses an even lower “2 percent at 50” formula for its safety employees. It’s interesting to note, however that of the 8 nearby cities that use the “3 percent at 55” formula, every one of those cities recently switched to this formula for new hires in either 2011 or 2012.

At last week’s meeting the city had no available data that would show the financial impact that this increase in benefits would cost the city of Antioch, but as Jakel stated during the presentation last week: Antioch has seen a fiscal crisis over the last five years that has seen staffing levels decline nearly forty percent from 401 positions in 2007 to less than 250 employees in 2012.

Antioch has had to restructure all of its employees pay and pension including eliminating all deferred compensation and medical after retirement.

Jakel said of the recent restructuring: “It was painful but action was needed to ensure the financial integrity of the city. We’re off the bottom but we’ll remain in choppy waters for the coming two years.”

But Jakel said that the council has seen it’s time to act and are acting on this new item.

Indeed the council voted unanimously to move forward on the issue of increasing pension for not only new police hires but it also voted to look at increasing the pension of all new city hires from a “2 percent at 55” formula to the “2.7 percent at age 55” pension plan that similar employees hired before 2007 received. There wasn’t very much discussion as to why this move was made but it is assumed it is to be “fair” to all new hires, not just police officers.

Financial impact figures are supposed to be available, at tonight’s meeting, before a decision is made.

Simonsen elected Clerk

By James Ott

Antioch voters have spoken and the new Mayor is current Mayor Pro Tem Wade Harper who makes history as Antioch’s first African-American Mayor.

Harper beat out fellow city council member Gary Agopian for the Mayor position by garnering 12,594 votes for 40.77% of the vote versus Agopian’s second place total of 10,129 for 32.79%. Next up was former Mayor Don Freitas, who took 6,329 votes for 20.49% and Michael Anthony Leon who had just 1,740 votes for 5.63% of the vote. There were 102 write-in votes.

As a Lieutenant for the City of Tracy Police Department, Harper rode his campaign mostly on a “zero tolerance for crime” slogan.

Antioch has had problems with crime in the past but has recently seen huge increases in crime rate with some property and violent crime categories rising 50 percent as police were cut by the city as a result of drastic budget cuts.

Harper said he will look for “out-of-the-box solutions” to hire more police and Harper also voted for new police as a city council member, although every council member voted to hire more police officers, including Agopian.

When told about the historic significance of his election, Harper jokingly said, “That’s what I’ve heard. I’m the first mayor elected who owns an I-Pad.”

Harper also said he will work to clean up blight and decrease truancy for minors in school.

The race for the two vacant council seats was much closer, with the top vote-getters, incumbent Mary Rocha, newcomer and Economic Development Commissioner Monica Wilson and former Mayor Jim Davis all coming within six to seven hundred votes of one another.

When the final ballots were counted, the two vacant council seats were taken by incumbent Rocha who garnered 11,795 votes for 24.75% of the vote and Monica Wilson with 11,190 votes for 23.48%. Davis followed with 10,524 votes for 22.08%. School Board Trustee Walter Ruehlig placed fourth with 8,465 votes for 17.76% and newcomer Noel Pinto coming in last with 5,538 votes for 11.62% of the vote. There were 147 write-in votes.

Rocha, who will be Mayor Pro Tem for the next two years, as the top vote-getter, campaigned on her 30 plus years working with the Antioch Unified School District, the City of Antioch and many other community groups in Antioch and across the East Bay.

She said she plans to fight blight through Code Enforcement, increase public safety programs and increase employment and business opportunities in Antioch.

Rocha admitted that it has been hard to get things done as a city council member with the rough economy.

“With the recession all it’s been is cut, cut, cut. My goal this time is to get things back the way they were. One thing I’d like to do is to look to see how we can work with the other cities for job creation.”

The poor economy might be one reason that voters chose Wilson, as she has a business background which she said has “taught her to not take no for an answer – persistence = results.”

Wilson is also making history as the City of Antioch’s first female African American council member.

 

In her first term Wilson said she plans to “promote business and job growth, find funding to increase the number of officers protecting us, keep our road and transit improvements on track and stand up to protect the Delta from plans to divert water south.”

Wilson’s campaign obviously made an impact on Antioch voters who also seemed to say they wanted change by bringing in Wilson over Mayor Davis – who did not run for re-election and instead just ran for a council seat.

Davis may be in luck however, a third council seat will be filled either an appointment of the council or another election, when Harper steps down from his council seat to become Mayor. Traditionally that position is filled by the next runner up, which would be Davis as he lost to Wilson by a scant 666 votes,  just 1.4% of the vote. But not always.

The council in 2008 voted to pass over then Councilman Arne Simonsen who was the next highest vote-getter in that council election, and instead appointed Martha Parsons to the remaining two years of Davis’ term, when he stepped down to become Mayor. The issue will be decided by the new council of Harper, Rocha, Agopian and Wilson.

Also elected in November was former Antioch Councilman Arne Simonsen, who beat Argentina Davila-Luevano by 3,670 votes or 56.41% to 43.27% for City Clerk. Donna Conley was re-elected as City Treasurer with no one running against her.

The new mayor and council members, as well as City Clerk will take their oaths of office at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, December 4, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Antioch City Council Chambers located at City Hall, 3rd and H Streets in downtown Rivertown.

For detailed election results, visit www.CoCoVote.us.

Publisher Allen Payton contributed to this report.

Measure B passes

By James Ott

Antioch voters elected one new member and chose to keep the status quo and voted back in the two current Antioch Unified School District Board Members who ran for re-election, while approving Measure B to improve Antioch High School.

Newcomer Barbara Cowan took the top spot with 13,933 votes for 19.65% of the vote, followed by school board incumbents Diane Gibson-Gray and Claire Renee Smith with 11,033 votes for 15.57% and 9,167 votes for 12.93% of the vote, respectively.

Those figures are as of today, December 3rd. But, the County Elections Office finalized their vote count, earlier today.

The vote wasn’t all that close. The next highest vote-getters were Debra Vinson with 7,860 votes for 11.08% and Jack Yeager with 10.79% of the vote for a total of 7,654 votes. In sixth place was retired school nurse and former teacher’s union representative Linda Anderson with 7,043 votes for 9.93%; seventh place finisher was Randy Benevides with 5,667 votes for 7.99%; Synitha Walker placed eighth with 5,005 votes for 7.06% and Zandra Raphael who was unable to campaign much due to knee surgery in October, was last with 3,358 votes for 4.74%. There were 188 write-in votes.

Trustees Gibson-Gray and Smith were part of a school board including Walter Ruehlig and Gary Hack, who were faced with large state budget cuts to education. Although they made changes including laying off teachers, renegotiating teacher contracts, and increasing class sizes they also currently have surplus general fund balance of about $30 million, which may have swayed voters to bring them back.

Both Cowan and Gibson-Gray said they believe their educational experience as well as Gibson-Gray’s experience on the school board, helped them gain a majority vote. They were both endorsed by the teacher’s union, known as the Antioch Education Association.

In addition to the financial difficulties the board has faced in recent years they are also facing angry teachers who are upset at the cuts to their pay. Teachers have flooded recent school board meetings demanding some type of raise after they say they made pay sacrifices to get the school district back on track.

Teachers say they have not received a pay raise of any significance in six years and now that the board has a surplus, they are asking that the board pay them back for their willingness to take pay cuts when the district was struggling in the past.

Cowan said that she is looking forward to working with the teachers and the students to improve the district.

“I’m looking forward to continue a fiscally conservative policy in that we need to keep a healthy reserve but we need to allow for teachers and employees to make a living wage,” said Cowan. “I’m looking forward to assisting school teachers and students in making Antioch schools a better institution.”

Gibson-Gray also said that she believes that the district is on the right track because of their surplus and said that negotiations with teachers are underway.

“I don’t see much changing because we are on the path for negotiations and Prop 30 passed which is a windfall,” said Gibson-Gray. “I’ll be a fiscal conservative and continue what I’ve done for the last four years.”

Prop 30 is expected to raise billions for public schools and community colleges over the next seven years by increasing income tax on earnings over $250,000 and by increasing sales tax by a quarter cent over the next four years.Measure B monies cannot be spent on administrative costs and decisions on how the money will be spent must be decided in public meetings and is subject to an annual audit.

The school board members will take their oaths of office at their regular meeting on Wednesday, December 12, which will include reorganization of the leadership, with a new Board President and Vice President, as well as committee assignments.

Also benefiting the school district was the passage of Measure B, the $56.5 million bond for improvements to Antioch High School. It required only a 55% vote to pass and garnered over 62%, with 11,520 votes in favor and 7,008 votes against the measure.

According to the Impartial Analysis from the County Counsel, the bonds will cost “$49.80 per $100,000 of assessed valuation during each year beginning in fiscal year 2013-2014, when the first bonds would be sold, and continuing through fiscal year 2046-2047, which is 30 years after the last bonds would be sold.”

There will be an citizen’s oversight committee formed and appointed by the school board, who will keep an eye on the use of the Measure B bond funds.

NOTE: Claire Smith was unavailable for comment for this article, due to a family emergency.

Publisher Allen Payton contributed to this article.

 

By James Ott

Antioch’s crime rates in most categories are still on the rise while arrest rates and the clearance rates of most of those crimes are still trending down according to a report by Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando.

Cantando’s presentation at the Antioch City Council meeting on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 compared crime statistics from the first three quarters of 2012 – Jan. through Sept. – through those same months in 2011. Comparing this year from last showed that total violent crime was up 37.8 percent and total property crime was up 45.4 percent over last year in the first three quarters.

While those numbers seem alarming, when compared over a longer period of time, some of those numbers seem a little less overwhelming. During his presentation, Cantando provided a chart that compares the same crime totals from Jan. to Sept. of this year with those same months in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. This chart provides a more accurate and detailed look at the changes to crime rates so far this year.

For example, when looking at violent crime, cases of homicide, rape and robbery in Antioch are actually at or slightly below the averages of the previous four years. But aggravated assault is way up at 498 cases so far this year; well above the previous four-year average of 365.

Mostly because of that sharp rise in aggravated assault cases, total violent crime is at 784 cases in the first three quarters of this year, that’s 137 cases – or 21 percent – more than the previous four-year average of 647. A 21 percent increase in violent crime, while not good, is a little easier to swallow and a lot more accurate than the 37.8 percent increase shown when just comparing last year and this year.

When comparing property crime, (burglary, theft, and auto theft), rates from the last four years with this year, however – it’s an entirely different and more alarming story.

From 2008-2011 there was an average of 743 burglary cases from Jan. to Sept. From Jan. to Sept. of this year there are already 1277 burglary cases. That’s 534 more burglary cases or 72 percent more burglaries than the previous four year average.

It’s a similar story with cases of theft in Antioch. There was an average of 868 cases of theft during the first three quarters of the year from 2008 to 2011. There are 1458 cases of theft in those same three quarters this year. That’s a 68 percent increase over the previous four-year average.

And auto theft? Antioch averaged 600 auto theft cases in the first three quarters of 2008-2011. In those same three quarters, (Jan. to Sept), of this year Antioch had 844 cases of auto theft – 41 percent more than the previous four-year average.

So when compared to last year property crime seems to be up 45 percent, when you compare the average property crime rates over the last four years with the same period this year, it’s actually up an average of about 62 percent.

Chief Cantando blamed the large increase in both property crime and violent crime to the city’s reduced police force, the overall poor economy and the passing of assembly bill AB 109 which allows some convicted criminals to serve short stints in jail instead of prison. He stated that several nearby cities are experiencing rises in property crimes as well.

He also said that the new ability for residents to report crimes online could make the numbers skewed.

“I equate the change in the numbers for Property Crime to the change in reporting,” said Cantando. “We have online reporting now. Many of those cases can be reported online and that’s why I think we’re seeing a rise in [property crime] because it’s easier for the public to report [crime].”

Cantando also cited the reduced police force as a main reason that arrest rates are down.

Total arrests were down 7.99 percent from 3,306 arrests from Jan. to Sept. 2011 to 3,042 arrests from Jan. to Sept. 2012.

Antioch police response times are also down. The average response time from the time a police officer is dispatched to the time they arrive at the scene was 4 minutes and 41 seconds in 2010. In 2012 that response time is now an average of 5 minutes and 39 seconds.

Due to previous budget cuts, Antioch has 86 full time police officers – far below the 126 it is approved for.

Update: 11/30/12 6:20 p.m.

New council will decide how to fill Harper’s council seat

By Allen Payton, Publisher

The Oath of Office induction ceremony for Antioch’s new mayor and council members has been moved from Tuesday, December 11 to next Tuesday, December 4, by a decree signed by Mayor Jim Davis at this past Tuesday’s council meeting

The special council meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m., instead of the usual council meeting start time of 7:00 p.m., in the City Council Chambers, located at 3^rd and H Streets in downtown Antioch.

UPDATE: When asked why the meeting date was changed and who made the decision, Davis said “[City Manager Jim] Jakel convinced us that the new council needed to be seated ASAP, for business on the 2^nd and 4^th Tuesday meetings.”

However, the fourth Tuesday in December is Christmas, so the council is considering holding meetings on either or both Wednesday and Thursday, December 26 and 27.

Mayor Pro Tem and Mayor-Elect Wade Harper responded “The swearing in was always planned for the 4^th. I wasn’t aware of the time change until it was already posted. This created a little bit of a problem for me as I have invited guests and family.”

“I think with outgoing speeches and a choir singing, there will be sufficient delay,” he added.

Councilman Gary Agopian stated the change in meeting date was for the reorganization of the council, the decision on how to fill Harper’s council seat – as he will step down to become Mayor – and to discuss the police pension issue.

Councilwoman Mary Rocha, who was re-elected earlier this month, and, as the top vote-getter, will be the city’s new Mayor Pro Tem, said she didn’t mind either way if the ceremony was held next Tuesday or on the 11^th.

Newly elected City Clerk, Arne Simonsen stated “I don’t know why they are moving up the swearing-in to the first Tuesday at a special meeting.”

One challenge with scheduling the meeting on the 4^th is that’s the day the County Elections Division will finalize the vote count and won’t have the election certified until 5 p.m., that same day. With the race between Monica Wilson and Davis currently separated by just 458 votes, or less than 1% of the vote, the final results could change who won the second council seat. So, it might be Davis being given the oath that night, instead.

At the meeting on Tuesday, December 4, the current council will first vote to accept the results of the election, then the ceremony will occur for Harper, Rocha, and currently Wilson, as well as re-elected City Treasurer Donna Conley. While the ceremony for Simonsen is scheduled for that night, he stated “I’m back on December 12 and being sworn in at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Decem 13th at city hall.”

Following next Tuesday’s ceremony, at the meeting the new council will vote in Rocha as the new Mayor Pro Tem, then decide how to fill Harper’s council seat for the remaining two years. They have three options: either make an appointment that night, approve an application process to fill the position by appointment or hold a special election on June 4, 2013 to fill the seat.

Past council practice has been to appoint the third-highest vote-getter in the most recent election to the vacancy. That would then mean either Davis or Wilson would be appointed, depending on who wins the second council seat and who places third in the election. However, that didn’t happen in 2008, when the council bypassed Simonsen, who was the third-highest vote-getter in that council election and appointed Martha Parsons, instead, who had not run for city council, prior.

Finally, the newly seated council, of either four or five members, will decide whether or not to rework the police pension benefit from the current 3% at age 55 for new hires, to 3% at 50 for hiring current police officers from other agencies, known as lateral hires.

As part of this construction work on Highway 4 (SR-4), the contractor will be demolishing the inactive eastbound SR-4 bridge at Somersville Road. In order to ensure crew and public safety during this work, the contractor will close all lanes of Somersville Road/Auto Center Drive in the northbound and southbound directions between the westbound SR-4 on-ramp and the eastbound SR-4 on-ramp overnight during the next several weeks. The closure will take place Sunday through Thursday evenings 10:00 pm to 5:00 am and Friday evenings 10:00 pm to 6:00 am, beginning Sunday, November 18, however, no closures will occur between Thursday, November 22 and Sunday, November 25 due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

The detour for this work will be as follows:

o Northbound motorists will be directed left on Delta Fair Boulevard, right on Century Boulevard, straight to Auto Center Drive. For detour map, please see attachment.

o Southbound motorists will be directed right on Century Boulevard, left on Delta Fair Boulevard, straight to Somersville Road. For detour map, please see attachment.

Motorists are advised to expect delays and allow extra time for their commute. Please drive with caution through the detours and leave a safe traveling distance between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead of you. Caltrans and CCTA appreciate your patience as we work to improve the highways. For the most current information on all SR-4 corridor closures please visit our web site at: http://widensr4.org.

As part of the Highway 4 (SR-4) widening construction work, the contractor will begin installing temporary supports at Loveridge Road for the construction of the new bridge. In order to ensure crew and public safety during this work, the contractor will close all lanes of SR-4 in the westbound direction overnight during the next several weeks. The closures will take place on Sunday through Thursday evenings from 11:00 pm to 3:30 am and on Friday evenings from 11:59 pm to 6:00 am.

The detour for this work will be as follows:

o Westbound motorists will be directed off the highway at Somersville Road/Auto Center Drive exit, left on Auto Center Drive, left on Tenth Street, straight on Pittsburg Antioch Highway, left on Loveridge Road, right on California Avenue, and left onto the westbound SR-4 on-ramp. For detour map, please see attached.

Motorists are advised to expect delays and allow extra time for their commute. Please drive with caution through the detours and leave a safe traveling distance between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead of you. Caltrans and CCTA appreciate your patience as we work to improve the highways. For the most current information on all SR-4 corridor closures please visit our web site at: http://widensr4.org.