Committed to education, community

Dear voter,

I am a lifelong resident of Antioch, a parent volunteer, community liaison coordinator at Antioch Senior High, the daughter of a former four-term school board member and a parent to an Antioch High School graduate. I have the experience to serve as a trustee for Antioch Unified School District Board.

My commitment to education and my community has spanned 30 years. I have successfully forged strong relationships with parents, business partners and service organizations to bring resources and funding to improve our district. I have had the unique opportunity to see what works and doesn’t work for children and students in Antioch.

Our oldest schools have been in serious need of restoration for many years, so I volunteered to be the chairperson of our successful $61 million School Improvement Bond in 2008. These bonds will restore and provide new infrastructure, technology and opportunity for our kids. Additionally, I was able to fund-raise over $60,000 from local businesses and service organizations for new scoreboards, campus murals, beautification projects and monies to celebrate academic improvement.

Strong parent involvement is absolutely necessary for our children’s success. My vision is for teachers, families and administrators working together to provide new and innovative ideas to tackle the challenges we face in these financially difficult times. I am ready and able to make the tough decisions to provide the very best in education for all of Antioch’s children. They deserve no less. If you would like more information please visit my website, www.joymotts.com.

I would appreciate your vote on November 2, 2010.

Thank you.

Joy Motts
Candidate for Trustee Antioch Unified School District

Fresh ideas needed on school board

Editor,

My name is Jack Yeager and I am running for the Antioch School Board.

Why should you vote for me? As a new comer to Antioch, I bring a fresh perspective on old problems that seem unresolved by former school boards. Being an educator I can bring new ideas to help our students receive the needed information to achieve the knowledge to be financially independent at graduation. Having been involved with the creation of businesses over the last 20 years, my experience can benefit both the board and students.

On the subject of campus security, steps are planned to help tackle this problem with uniforms, but not all families will participate for various reasons. This will lead to a mix population, clothing wise and not resolve the problem.

I know there are other solutions while perhaps not popular would keep our campuses free of unwanted visitors.

The community, including parents, business partners, teachers, classified personnel and administrators need to cooperate in understanding our current situation, to establish a plan to deal with it. I can help with this process succeed.

My name is Jack Yeager and I would appreciate your vote.

Jack Yeager
Antioch School Board Candidate

Highway 4 Peace

Teri Shaw has lent her time, energy and resources for more than 15 years in her Antioch, California community.  All of her efforts have been for the care, mentoring and betterment of young people. She started as a mom, after-school transporter and daycare provider. She has evolved into a leader, school board member, anti-violence advocate and most recently television producer. Ms. Shaw has become a creative force by bringing her message via a television show, “Highway 4 Peace” (H4P) to hundreds of thousands of local homes on Comcast Cable.

H4P is a joint effort between Shaw and local teens. It is about youth, for youth and by youth. It uses the most desired, utilized and innovative tool – media – to get teens involved in the process of healing their own lives and those of their peers. The interactive effort allows them to use their own vision, talents, hard work and creative minds to get the message out about what’s really going on with them. Going a step further than the popular social media craze, H4P is a multicultural mix of teens expressing what they feel.

They explore current issues that affect them and they discuss life, love, school, family and other issues. H4P gets them in a place that most people just dream about – on TV. Typically, the most common way to get these same faces on television is on local news, where the stories are more often than not, tragic circumstances. H4P showcases not only the best and the brightest. It is an open invitation for the willing. Teens are offered a chance to show off their talent and use their voices that have until now been unheard.

H4P is an entertainment-based, socially conscious, multimedia (television, Internet) platform to improve lives, give direction and boost the self esteem of the local under-served teenager. The show’s crew is teens who have already shown an interest in media careers. They are able to utilize and enhance their skills. They work with adult professionals who mentor, guide and teach real world production and life skills, simultaneously. On-camera interaction with adult community leaders gives the youth a chance to express their own opinions on a level playing field. This strengthens their confidence and shows them that they are valuable and important members of society. It enables them to see more clearly how their positive input can affect positive change.

As crime rates rise alarmingly and violent deaths of young people soar out of control, H4P offers a road map to a civil and fun solution. The use of television, music, dance, theater, poetry, rap, writing, etc. can be an alternative, a positive expression to idle minds and negative, destructive behavior. Creative solutions have been used to help redirect lives of young warlords as far away as West Africa. It can work just as well in East Contra Costa County.

Darlene Brooks
Media Relations Director
Hwy 4 Peace Teen TV Talk Show
Comcast Channel 24

Measure P  saves police

Editor,

As a political conservative, I am normally against any increase in taxation. However, the dire circumstances of our economic situation in Antioch have made it necessary for me to reconsider my position.

I have always been and continue to be actively involved in our Neighborhood Watch program. As such, I witness first hand the devastatingly negative impact that the lack of manpower at the Police Department has on public safety. To exacerbate the situation, we are informed that unless the city can find other sources of income, 10 additional police officers will be laid off. This brings the police manpower down to an unacceptable level.

Measure P is a means to raise the income level of the city so that we can maintain if not improve the manpower situation. We desperately need this funding in order to maintain the level of service in order to safe guard our neighborhood from an onslaught of criminal elements. Funding from Measure P will be for our city only, not to be shared with the county or state.

Let’s be realistic, Measure P funding will not be only used for the police department, but will be used for other services as well. However, if you look at the city’s budget, 65% of the budget is allotted to the police department. So if you follow the same share of the pie chart, the majority of the funding will be spent on the police. If one needs convincing, the Antioch Police Officers Association (APOA) has endorsed Measure P on their website, www.AntiochPOA.com. To me, this is half a loaf of bread, not as good as the whole loaf, but much better than no loaf at all. I am voting for Measure P in the November ballot and I hope you will too.

Hans Ho

Time for change on council

Enough!  There is enough division, enough apathy, enough violence and fear.  It is time for a change. There is no more time for talk, idle promises, and the dominance of special interests. Quite frankly, our city suffers from neglect.  Her streets are becoming dirty and increasingly more unsafe.  Our beautiful riverfront lays dormant.  We stand divided on important issues when what we need more than anything is unity. There is a need for a partnership between our school district and the city, with our police, community groups, labor and business.

This is my home.  It is where my wife Robin, a school teacher, and I have raised our 3 children for the last 15 years. It is where I successfully served on the school board, attend church, and volunteer with helping our youth and families who are likely to commit or become victims of violence without intervention, through the Youth Intervention Network. It is where I shop, work, and serve whenever, and however I am needed.

I will not sit and watch what is happening to our city! If elected to the City Council, I will use my experience on the Antioch School Budget Advisory Committee, School Board, Antioch Economic Development Commission and 27 years in business management to govern, manage and develop our cities assets. I will work to unite us, restore us, promote us and preserve us.

Will you stand with me this November? I need your vote. Call me direct at 925-978-0938 or email me at garyagopian@comcast.net.

Gary Agopian
City Council candidate

Ruehlig is dynamic, dependable

As founder of the United Filipino American Association of Antioch (UFAAA), I have worked with Cynthia Ruehlig on numerous community projects. Whether it was in her role as co-founder of the Antioch Music Foundation, curator for the Buhay Pinoy cultural exhibit, program designer of the UFAAA  Leadership Conference or co-organizer of the Saringhimig Singers Concert at the El Campanil Theatre, Cynthia  has been extraordinarily dynamic and dependable.

Time after time, I have seen Cynthia demonstrate an unwavering resolve in seeing a job done with an eye for perfection from start to finish. Our students deserve this quality of dedicated leadership on the County Board of Education, Area 5. Vote Cynthia Ruehlig.

Rudy Fernandez

Parsons is good for Antioch

Dear citizens of Antioch and our city council,

As a resident of Antioch for 13 years and of Rivertown, Antioch for nearly half that time (yes, we have a river) I have learned to care for my town like a wayward teenager – she has so much potential, but has not had the right kind of influences and not enough care.

In an era of do-little city councils and underwhelming leadership, one of our council members and current city council candidates stands out: Martha Parsons. In addition to her being an exemplar of responsive city government (that’s how it is supposed to be), she understands that she, and the city she helps direct, works for us, the citizens. When our neighborhood has an issue, she will not only look into the problem, but she will also help solve the problem, even if it means she does it herself.

Martha Parsons gets her hands dirty. Of the many formal and informal city clean ups, Martha is there. Martha Parsons is good for Antioch. Martha has done what no one else on the council has done, which is to get and keep the interest of the Water Emergency Transportation Authority, and to secure state funds in hopes of obtaining a ferry boat station for Antioch; a project that could help revive downtown (Rivertown) Antioch.

If you want someone who will actually get things done for our city and who genuinely cares for our city and will work for us, vote for Martha Parsons, Antioch council, she has already worked hard to earn my vote.

John Dodson

Dump dumb Boxer

Dear Editor:

We can strike hard at the Democratic Party by dumping California’s 18-year toxic asset, Senator Barbara Boxer. We can also keep Jerry Brown from becoming governor again.

Boxer is the Democratic Party at its worst – and she represents no one else, despite her grossly misleading, now-repudiated “VFW PAC” endorsement. She is an unthinking, non-listening, surly leftist hack who disgraces her office and appears to despise large sectors of our society. She is widely considered among the dumbest members of the Senate, but there she sits, one of the most powerful people in the country. Her career is built on an irresponsible 2 + 2 = 22 federal spending philosophy we will be paying for endlessly, on tyrannical over-regulation and government by trial lawyers, on pro-abortion absolutism and methodically trashing any opponent whose conscience suggests a different approach to the issue, and on the type of callous ultra-environmentalism that’s killing the Central Valley.

To see and hear what is wrong with America, look at our toxic asset Boxer. If you want to do something about it, replace her with sensible, decent business executive Carly Fiorina. If you don’t, stop complaining about such malfeasances.

As for Jerry Brown, consider the company he keeps, agrees with, and owes allegiance to: the crowd that backs Boxer and has come very close to wrecking California. Meg Whitman – who is pragmatic, mature, tough, brilliantly successful in the private sector Brown doesn’t get, and unlike Brown owes nobody anything – gives our state a fighting chance to turn around before it’s too late.

David Frisk