Dear Editor:

There is a season meant for talk and a season meant for action. Antioch has had it’s day lamenting runaway crime. Hand-wringing over back to back yearly bad news grabs needed attention but is ultimately just a temporary psychic release. It’s time now for townsfolk to take the bull by the horns.

The Friday Breakfast Club, a group of concerned citizens, has been working with an attorney on a ballot measure proposing a business tax levied on owners renting property in Antioch. The fees would be designated specifically for augmenting police services. Specific policy details, such as whether the first parcel is waived and/or what the precise fees should be, can be worked out by City Council and Staff. There is a growing general consensus, though, that renting property should be treated as a business and that any monies collected from licenses/fees should be police manpower targeted, with citizen oversight.

Let’s face a not so pretty picture. Since plummeting from 126 sworn officers to 89, with yearly attendant crime spikes of 30%, Antioch’s living a hellish page from the Wild West. Like others, I hold my breath coming home from a day trip or a vacation hoping my house has not been broken into.

This proposal generates tangible hope and seems the most pragmatic and least painful way of raising needed resources. Consider Antioch’s numbers; some 11,000 rental units, including 1,971 Section 8 homes and some out of town investment consortiums controlling literally scores of properties.

Other towns, like Daly City, Oakland, Pinole and Rancho Cordova have a property business fee.

Shouldn’t we likewise charge for the right of putting an investment shingle up in our town and using our public services? At, say $20 a month, we could potentially raise two to three million dollars annually for more sworn officers and/or in hiring for support less costly community service officers.

Yes, I despise taxes, fees and excessive government. I despise lawlessness even more, though. If government is not meant to insure law and order, then what is it there for?

Truth is, we are silently paying by not collectively acting. Paying through the nose, actually.

We are being robbed of peace of mind; of real property loss; of lost insurance deductibles; of lowered property values; and of the price of personal prevention initiatives. The ornamental gate I installed on my home’s

RV side cost me a cool $1,345. How about dog food for my trusty canine sentinel; alarm installation and fees; outside cameras and motion sensor costs? Yet with now ten successful and/or thwarted break ins in a three block area of my home over the past 15 months, I still justifiably worry without a moat around my castle.

I applaud the Friday Breakfast Club for going beyond complaining; implore the City Council to put a rental business fee unto an upcoming ballot; and urge citizens to carefully consider the alternative to inaction. As the ad goes, pay me now or pay me later. Passivity, as we’ve seen, comes with a price tag.

Walter Ruehlig

Antioch

Dear Editor:

As long as we citizens of Antioch have to lock our doors and windows, turn our alarms on, install motion lights, keep watch dogs and keep looking over our shoulders then the tax for police is a no-brainer.

Without the added police presence, our safety and that of our loved ones will be held in the hands of the criminal element- Those scum who prey on the unprotected.

I advocate for the 3/4% sales tax.

Richard Asadoorian

Antioch

Dear Editor:

This letter is written in response to an editorial written by Greg Enholm appearing in your March 2013 edition.

The CCCCD Board supports the expansion of services to East Contra Costa County.  After extensive review, the District purchased a 17 acre site in Brentwood to expand services to the area and the District fully intends to construct a campus on that 17-acre site when funding is available.  Despite what Mr. Enholm reports in his editorial, the Governing Board has not had a discussion about also purchasing a 110-acre site and constructing a campus in Brentwood.  The research we have conducted does not support such an action on the part of the District, and there is no plan for further consideration of such a project at this time.

The Board has discussed placing a District-wide facilities bond on the June 2014 ballot.  Details of what projects will be identified in that bond still need to be discussed and polling conducted to determine whether the District should place such a measure on the ballot in June or November of 2014.

Sincerely yours,

Sheila Grilli, Board President

John E. Marquez, Board Vice President

Tuesday, February 12th was the best of nights; it was the worst of nights. The bad news was the grim crime numbers in Chief Cantando’s annual ‘State of the Antioch Police’ address.

The good news was what one Council member described as the Chief’s refreshingly, brutal honesty. If you like getting an unvarnished story this is a guy who gives “just the facts, ma’am.”

We are blessed that the Chief is a great communicator, straight up guy, and Antioch resident, who as a parent and homeowner, lives and breathes our daily dilemmas.

The Council, as well, is to be commended for their unity of resolve. Any ideological differences were cast aside as Mayor Harper, Vice Mayor Rocha and Counselors Gary Agopian, Tony Tiscareno and Monica Wilson all committed to fully supporting the Chief.

It is going to take everyone on deck, from top city brass to everyday citizens, to turn this ship around. To their credit this Council acutely realizes crime is the City’s pivotal issue. Safety, after all, consumes Antioch’s conversation at the office water cooler, the beauty salon and the family dining table.

Some positive underscored in that we seemingly have hit bottom on police staffing with a handful of recruits gestating. It was heartening to also hear that deteriorating response time is finally flattening out.

Other news, though, was chilling. We have 88 sworn officers, one more than in 1995 when we had 28,000 less citizens. The Chief said that our previous high water mark of 126 officers is minimum baseline, with 144 ideal. Remember, we currently have no school community resource officers, gang prevention, narcotic, or traffic control units. Community service officers are just trickling back and code enforcement is bare minimum.

You can’t make filet mignon out of hamburger, try as our dedicated officers do. Antioch violent crime is up 30.6% from last year; burglaries seem epidemic; our crime rate doubles that of neighboring Pittsburg; and, as perspective, Antioch High had four lockdowns last year due to shootings within proximity.

Obviously, we can’t afford to do nothing because, like it or not, we pay a price everyday; in daily anxiety, looking over our shoulders as we walk the dog or go to our cars in the store parking lot; worrying when we get back home from work if our house is undisturbed; fearing vacation absence; and seeing depreciated real estate values.

The Chief, our brave men and women in blue, and our City Council, need and welcome your ideas and your unwavering support. Please come to a Town Hall Meeting on crime at Beede Auditorium at 6 p.m. on Thursday, February 28^th.

We are a resilient lot. Antioch can and will reclaim public safety.

Walter Ruehlig, Antioch

As promised, one in my hat collection still stands ready to be eaten should this current Antioch City Council buck it’s Union label. So far, the fedora hasn’t come close to the carving knife as Big Labor, Big Government and Big Spending rule the local roost.

Let me first applaud this Council for working hard and getting out into the public, especially the tireless, impassioned Wade Harper.  Kudos, too, for,  the Council’s 3-2 vote rejecting pot dispensaries from sporting their shingle in Antioch. The food union workers were disappointed, but, in the end, two of the usual four member voting bloc showed that they are not, in fact, monolithic. Hats off for the independent thinking.

Timing is everything in life and Antioch ‘s current plate is simply better off without the attendant issues of pot dispensaries. Common sense considerations of city reputation, setting  teen example, and police manpower shortage prevailed. After all, Pittsburg, with half Antioch’s rate of crime, voted 5-0 against allowing dispensaries and didn’t even consider the topic deserved discussion.

I wish, though, that I could be as cheerful about the holiday time emergency vote on retirement packages circumventing the new state reform by four days. The new Council voted 4-1 (businessman Gary Agopian objecting) to scrap the deal made earlier in the year to bring new police pensions back from 3% at 50 to 3% at 55. On top of that, in a Christmas-giving frenzy, they threw in a bonus to twenty-one incidental city employees, increasing pension accruals from 2.0 to 2.7% yearly at age 55.

Let’s count the reasons why all this hurt so bad.

#1) Let’s, for argument’s sake, assume it a sensible proposition that we will, in fact. have trouble recruiting experienced officers without such a package (which many of our neighbors, tellingly, don’t have). Why, though the incidental, non-police personnel give-away?

This was not Chief Cantando’s thrust or intention when he initially proposed the police sweetener. The package simply got hijacked by city staff wanting to be ‘fair”.

#2) The earlier assumption is just that, assumption. We are speculating and rolling dice that this deal will attract seasoned officers, Agreed, early on still, but note, not one officer has yet been hired from this.

#3) What kind of an example doe this set to reverse a deal painstakingly negotiated earlier in the year? What does it say to the four or five other city bargaining units? They must be salivating.

#4). Consider the shaken trust level of Antioch voters, who invariably will someday be asked to pay a sales or parcel tax for additional police services? Kiss that proposition goodbye.

#5) Where’s the sobriety? City staff claims that this will only cost Antioch $23,670 a year, which if inflation, shortfalls and unfavorable actuarials don’t bite us, amounts to us paying some $700,000 over, say, thirty years.That’s no pittance but, worse yet, a citizens committee that went to City Hall raised no hackles when they showed staff calculations of three million in real actuarial benefit.

Who, then, pays the rest? The Public Employees Retirement System (PERS)  gets stuck. Is that fair? Isn’t that the very reform we all want, where one city can’t sock it to others by passing on their largesse? Is three million dollars, even if not all comes from the Antioch pot, not an inordinate sum to bet on a gamble that might attract only a handful of officers? How much is that per recruit? Brotherly love aside, won’t we all eventually get dinged with increases for a system shortfall, just like insurance payoffs aren’t free?

I, for one, begrudge no one generous retirement. If only we could wave a magic wand and let every citizen in the country eat of the fatted calf. Fact is, though, we just can’t keep printing and spending money without becoming Greece. Sound budgets and sound pension plans are not made by wands but by sharpened pencils, not made by politicians who rise and shine wanting to give things away, but by bean counters who are paid to object.

Antioch is facing a two million dollar plus deficit next year. We have tens of millions already in unfunded retirement liability. We also owe it to the State not to take advantage. This Council, which has charitable, good-intentioned people who like to please, simply has to learn the operative fiscal word of this age, no.

Walter Ruehlig, Antioch

If you have driven by Antioch City Park, at 10^th and “A” Streets lately, on Saturday around 7:30 a.m., most likely you have noticed a group of men with heads bowed. Rain or shine, 20-40 men of various races and ethnicities, from various denominations, gather around a monument to pray for revival in our city. We are not honoring that monument but what it represents. On July 4, 1851 Antioch was given its biblical name. On the 100^th anniversary city leaders erected this plaque:

July 4, Anno Domini, 1951

This city was named 100 years ago for Antioch in Syria where the disciples of Jesus Christ were first called Christians. (Acts 11:26). Today we rededicate ourselves to Him in grateful memory of our founding fathers who envisioned a city and a world under the rule of the spirit of Christ.”

To a man, we believe our only hope for Antioch and our country for that matter, can be found in the words on that plaque. So why is “Men praying together” so vital? Recent headlines in Washington Times:

“Fathers disappear from households in America. Big increase in single mothers.”

As men we believe that strong families benefit everyone in the community. When men humble themselves before God, that is the beginning of revival. We draw on Him for our source of strength. We will not stop praying for our city. Join us.

Mike Pollard

Antioch

Editor:

I avoided throwing my line off the pier for Antioch City Council appointment precisely so that I could not be blamed in post-derby comment for personal-driven sniping.

Hence, I could now easily just button the lip and get along by going along. Silent acquiescence is not my stripe, though. If the Emperor has no clothes, let’s call it.

As feared by many, this appointment was a charade. Applications, interviews and ‘whittling down’ were window dressing, my friends. The die was long cast for patronage.

In truth, I had my doubts about the wisdom of the appointment process. It’s not because the ideal is flawed; it is, in concept, a noble idea, like communism, that on paper works. Practice, though, is another kettle of fish. You see, if you don’t use an objective measure like next highest vote getter you leave yourself open to subjectivity. Likely to enter left stage, politics as usual, i.e., the buddy system, payback, and the temptation to stack the deck.

Again, in the abstract, picking someone who is the most experienced in governance, most involved in the community and most complimentary to the existing skill set of the Council is noble and conceptually doable. It’s just a darned hard assignment for most folks, human nature given what it is.

Case in point; by a 3-1 vote this Council took the subjective, lower and less enlightened road, choosing someone notable principally as a past union leader and political operative who worked aside them on many campaigns. Bless her family style, but Mr. Tiscareno also happened, from all accounts, to have grown up as a virtual third son to Mary Rocha.

Those are not “bad” things, but in doing so, though, the Council bypassed people overflowing with civic and governance accomplishment. The rejected resumes sported the likes of a Citizen of the Year, Stanford graduate with a Masters degree, past Mayors, Chief of Staff and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce.

Lost was more than experienced talent but a golden opportunity to show Council leadership, to rise above petty politics, and to do best for the City and 105,000 residents. After all, in a marriage or in a business partnership is it wise to favor a spitting image of yourself or, in fact, better to choose one complimentary, enriching and suitably challenging?

Don’t get me wrong, Tony Tiscareno seems a sincere, smart and determined chap who deserves commendation. I wish him nothing but the best. I simply bemoan favors trumping fairness and the process of like choosing like with dispassion forfeited. Yes, count me foolishly old-fashioned but isn’t public service allegedly a public, sacred trust, not tit for tat?

I already miss veteran Brian Kalinowski whom I always admired as an experienced, unvarnished, straight-shooting, unpredictably blue dog style democrat. We now have a Board with only Member Rocha having substantial Council experience. Agopian and Harper have two years each; Wilson and Tiscareno none.

Expect a highly partisan, public employee and union-dominated Council that will echo each other 4-1. Save lone wolf Agopian, where, pray tell, is a business community counter weight?

Is this Council a Solomon-like rudder for balanced, non-partisan decisions in turbulent waters? I fear not and, like legions of others, am rooting for courage. I hope my fears are baseless and am always eager to eat my hat if proven wrong.

Walter Ruehlig

Antioch

Dear Editor:

I’m putting my money where my mouth is and, on principle, not applying for appointment to Wade Harper’s vacant City Council position.  This is despite some flattering encouragement for throwing my hat in the ring as some suggest that after a series of anticipated deadlocks the Council might possibly default to a non-partisan centrist who prides himself on being a harmonizer and a dialogue stirrer. Others, though, believe that this Council has political debts to pay and will inevitably pick a true blue union/party loyalist.

My bottom line, though, centers not on the risk to reward of a probable futile fight but on a moral dilemma.  In my humble opinion, the third top vote getter clearly deserves the spot. In fact I hope that they enshrine this as a city ordinance for future precedent. I’d champion the same fairness rule regardless of who of us five Council contenders had placed third.

Facts are, we know who committed to running, an exhausting exercise,  and we clearly heard the voters ranking. It was relatively close, no landslide, and though I applaud Ms.Wilson for a smart and tireless race had Mr. Davis, and not her, been first on the random ballot or had two men, not three, run against two women the results could well have been reversed.

Citizens of good will are all hoping that this Council gets off to an enlightened start, rising above partisan politics, resisting pressure to pay back chits and to stacking the deck 4 to 1. Fair is fair and this group of leaders, coming off a wave of history setting, can aspire to lofty heights and transcend pettiness.

Inspired leadership is, of course, Solomon-like and inclusive, not isolating the occasional “loyal opposition”. Why stifle healthy debate and lord over as, anyway,  the voting majority already exists?

Truth be told, it would be therapeutic for the city at large to balance a Council now having three liberal-minded public employees with someone from the private sector more middle of the road. Gary Agopian, unarguably versed with budgets and property value determiners, should not stand alone. To my humble reckoning, if Jim Davis gets spurned this Council can still benefit by at least choosing an alternate counterweight from the business community.

Walter Ruehlig

Antioch