Agopian, Motts Widened their Leads

County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Steve Weir has announced that the November election has been certified and provided the final numbers in the two close races in Antioch.

Gary Agopian came in second, winning one of the two seats up for grabs in the Antioch City Council race. His 7,795 votes beat third place finisher (and former Councilman) Arne Simonsen by 157 votes, who ended with 7,638. The first place finisher was Wade Harper, who had 9,228 votes (or 24 percent of the vote).

Councilman Reggie Moore lost his bid for re-election to a second term, coming in fourth with 18 percent of the vote. He was followed by Councilwoman Martha Parsons, who was appointed to the council two years ago and received just under 17 percent.

In the Antioch School Board race, Joy Motts won one of the two available seats, expanding her winning margin to 252 votes over John “Jack” Yeager. Motts had 6,525 votes to 6,273 for Yeager (Motts had led by only four votes on election night). Coming in first in the crowded, eight-candidate field is Gary Hack with 6,853 votes. Teri Lynn Shaw failed to win re-election to a second term, finishing fourth with 13 percent of the vote.

The City Council is expected to accept the election results and seat Agopian and Harper as new Council members at tonight’s meeting. Ceremonies begin at 6 p.m. in the council chambers, 300 H Street, Antioch.

For final details on all candidates and races in the county visit www.CoCoVote.us.

Final Results Expected Today 

As of 12:30 p.m. today “the county has 18,000 provisional ballots left to count, and Antioch will have a fair number of those,” said County Clerk/Registrar of Voters Steve Weir.

Weir was asked if the outstanding ballots could have an effect on the outcome of the City Council election, which currently shows a spread of 153 votes between second-place finisher Gary Agopian and third-place Arne Simonsen.

He replied, “They can’t overcome that. Simonsen was doing better in the mail-in ballots. It will help whoever was doing better on Election Day.”

When asked if he would request a recount, Simonsen, who is vacationing in Scotland, gave this statement, “True that the race between Gary Agopian and I is probably the closest in the county. I trust the work of the County Elections office and will live with the results, as we accomplished the goal of replacing the two incumbents.”

He added, “I’d be shocked if the final results changed anything.”

Weir said, “We hope to have the final update posted this afternoon. So look for it.”

To see the election results, please visit www.CoCoVote.us.

Members sworn in at 6 p.m.

Budget Study Session at 7:30 p.m.

By Allen Payton

The Antioch City Council will say farewell to outgoing Council Members Reggie Moore and Martha Parsons and give the Oath of Office to newly elected Council Members Wade Harper and Gary Agopian, during a special council meeting this Tuesday, Nov. 30. 

The council will first certify the election results from the County Clerk. In addition, as the top vote-getter in the election, earlier this month, Harper will be voted in as Mayor Pro Tem for the next two years. He will replace Councilwoman Mary Rocha in the role, although she will remain on the council.

The meeting will start one hour earlier than normal, at 6:00 p.m., to accommodate the ceremonies, followed by a closed session conference the city’s labor negotiator and the various employee groups.

At 7:30 p.m.the regular meeting will begin with only one agenda item, a study session on the city budget, allowing the new councilmen to hear from city staff and the public, and participate in the decisions of what cuts to make to balance the budget for the next two years.

According to Councilman Brian Kalinowski, the city only has to cover an approximate $2.2 million shortfall, as almost $1.6 million in additional revenues and savings were realized by the city as of the end of the last fiscal year, which ended in June.

The staff report by City Finance Director Dawn Merchant states: “The City realized more fund balance than projected at June 30, 2010 due to several factors:

· Approximately $200,000 more in sales tax revenue than projected

· Approximately $150,000 more in miscellaneous revenues than projected

· Approximately $230,000 in Police Department salary, overtime and part time help savings

· Approximately $650,000 in Public Works salary and contractual services savings

· Approximately $338,000 in Legislative & Administrative salary and contractual services savings

The additional fund balance has boosted the June 30, 2011 projected fund balance above 10% and helped eliminate the negative fund balance projected for June 30, 2012 presented in the adopted budget.”

However, in order to fill some or all of the current 22 vacant sworn police officer positions, the council will have to find other savings and make other cuts to the budget and/or consider another tax increase, such as the temporary parcel tax proposed by a citizens’ group known as the Friday Morning Breakfast Club, during a possible special election next spring.

To view or download a copy of the City Council meeting agenda, visit:

http://www.ci.antioch.ca.us/CityGov/agendas/CityCouncil/2010/agendas/113010/113010.pdf

The staff report on the budget can be found under item 7 or at: http://www.ci.antioch.ca.us/CityGov/agendas/CityCouncil/2010/agendas/113010/07.pdf and http://www.ci.antioch.ca.us/CityGov/agendas/CityCouncil/2010/agendas/113010/07A.pdf

 New members sworn in at 6 p.m.

Budget Study Session begins at 7:30 p.m.

By Allen Payton

The Antioch City Council will say farewell to outgoing Council Members Reggie Moore and Martha Parsons and give the Oath of Office to newly elected Council Members Wade Harper and Gary Agopian, during a special council meeting this Tuesday, Nov. 30.

The council will first certify the election results from the County Clerk. In addition, as the top vote-getter in the election, earlier this month, Harper will be voted in as Mayor Pro Tem for the next two years. He will replace Councilwoman Mary Rocha in the role, although she will remain on the council.

The meeting will start one hour earlier than normal, at 6:00 p.m., to accommodate the ceremonies, followed by a closed session conference the city’s labor negotiator and the various employee groups.

At 7:30 p.m. the regular meeting will begin with only one agenda item, a study session on the city budget, allowing the new councilmen to hear from city staff and the public, and participate in the decisions of what cuts to make to balance the budget for the next two years.

According to Councilman Brian Kalinowski, the city only has to cover an approximate $2.2 million shortfall, as almost $1.6 million in additional revenues and savings were realized by the city as of the end of the last fiscal year, which ended in June.

The staff report by City Finance Director Dawn Merchant states: “The City realized more fund balance than projected at June 30, 2010 due to several factors:

· Approximately $200,000 more in sales tax revenue than projected

· Approximately $150,000 more in miscellaneous revenues than projected

· Approximately $230,000 in Police Department salary, overtime and part time help savings

· Approximately $650,000 in Public Works salary and contractual services savings

· Approximately $338,000 in Legislative & Administrative salary and contractual services savings

The additional fund balance has boosted the June 30, 2011 projected fund balance above 10% and helped eliminate the negative fund balance projected for June 30, 2012 presented in the adopted budget.”

However, in order to fill some or all of the current 22 vacant sworn police officer positions, the council will have to find other savings and make other cuts to the budget and/or consider another tax increase, such as the temporary parcel tax proposed by a citizens’ group known as the Friday Morning Breakfast Club, during a possible special election next spring.

To view or download a copy of the City Council meeting agenda, visit:

http://www.ci.antioch.ca.us/CityGov/agendas/CityCouncil/2010/agendas/113010/113010.pdf

The staff report on the budget can be found under item 7 or at: http://www.ci.antioch.ca.us/CityGov/agendas/CityCouncil/2010/agendas/113010/07.pdf and http://www.ci.antioch.ca.us/CityGov/agendas/CityCouncil/2010/agendas/113010/07A.pdf

Article by Allen Payton, Photos by Dena Jeglum

Antioch officials, city staff, residents and representatives of the business community gathered for the ribbon cutting marking the official opening of the new Antioch Community Center at Prewett Family Park in Southeast Antioch, on Saturday, November 13. Also in attendance was Reddi Prewett, the widow of Ed Prewett who donated the land to the City of Antioch, and for whom the park is named.

Funded by $26 million from the Mello-Roos assessment district, the long-awaited 35,000 square foot facility, originally slated to be a library, includes a technology center where residents can order, pick up and drop off books from the county library system. It also includes a police services center replacing the mobile trailer that’s been used by the police department in front of the water park, a gymnasium, large community hall, preschool classrooms, meeting rooms, recreation services access area and a city hall kiosk. (more…)

Harper & Hack in First for Council, School Board; Second Places Still Too Close to Call

By Allen Payton, Publisher

As of Wednesday afternoon, November 10, the Contra Costa County Elections Office reported Wade Harper was still in first place in the race for Antioch City Council, while Gary Agopian had widened his lead over third-place finisher Arne Simonsen from 70 votes to 150.

In the Antioch School Board race, Gary Hack had a commanding lead for first place, while Joy Motts, also expanded her lead to 150 votes from just four votes on election night, over third-place finisher John “Jack” Yeager.

Over 5,000 additional votes were added to the total in the council race, since the total counted through last Tuesday, November 2. Harper had 8,617 votes, Agopian had 7,368 and Simonsen had 7,218 votes. Councilman Reggie Moore was in fourth place with 6,456 votes and Councilwoman Martha Parsons had 5,953.

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By Allen Payton, Publisher

It was a day of celebrating accomplishments and new beginnings, with a cake, hardhats and gold-painted shovels, as all the key current and former elected officials, and staff who had anything to do with the eBART extension in East County gathered for the ground breaking of the Transfer Station on Friday, October 29 at the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station.

BART Director Joel Keller, who served as MC and first proposed the idea of eBART, pointed out that it took “all the local officials in our community working together. If it wasn’t for all that support, we wouldn’t be standing here, today.”

“I think it’s important for East County that we’ve made a down payment on our long awaited, long overdue extension to East County,” he added.

The $26 million first-phase, will provide a facility approximately 400 feet east of the BART station, where an expected 14,000 travelers each day, from Antioch and Pittsburg will get off the eBART cars, cross a platform, get onto a BART train, and then travel to the BART station to pick up the rest of the passengers before heading West to the North Concord/Martinez station and beyond.

On the dais representing the various participating agencies, were BART Directors Keller, Gayle Murray and Tom Blaylock, Congressman John Garamendi, State Senator Mark DeSaulnier, Supervisor Federal Glover, CalTrans District 4 Director Bijan Sartipi, the four East County Mayors: Jim Davis of Antioch, Sal Evola of Pittsburg, Pat Anderson of Oakley, and Bob Taylor of Brentwood, who is also Chair of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA), as well as Steve Heminger, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Randy Wysocki, Executive Director of the CCTA.

(more…)