Dear Antioch voter:

It has been an honor to serve you these past eight years as your Antioch City Clerk and I ask for your vote to continue to serve the residents of Antioch.

Understanding the responsibilities of a City Clerk, I graduated from Technical Training for Clerks alongside appointed & elected City Clerks; and in August 2017 the International Institute of Municipal Clerks designated me a Certified Municipal Clerk (CMC).

I continued alongside City Clerks from throughout California attending the annual New Law & Elections Seminars, the City Clerks Association of California Annual Conferences and graduated from the Master Municipal Clerk & Clerk of the Board Academy in February 2020.

In April 2020 the IIMC designated me a Master Municipal Clerk (MMC), becoming the first Antioch City Clerk to obtain that designation and become only one of some 1,300 Master Municipal Clerks worldwide!

Antioch is the 54th largest city in California and the 259th largest city in the United States. With the increase in population, the workload has increased significantly; but the staffing of the City Clerk’s Office has not. The elected City Clerk needs to be returned to the full-time salaried status that it was from 1872 to 2010 to properly serve you, our residents, in a prompt and timely manner.

The City Clerk is also the City Elections Official and Records Manager. As such, I have instituted electronic filing of Campaign Finance Reports and Public Record requests to better serve you.

I respectfully ask for your vote on November 3rd.

Arne Simonsen, MMC

Antioch City Clerk

Dear Antioch voters:

As your Councilwoman, my biggest strengths are that I’m big hearted and solution-minded. I have a big heart and genuinely care about people; and once I set my mind to doing something, I won’t give up. Your trust in me has enabled us to accomplish many things together.

• COVID-19 Assistance for Seniors – Whether it’s delivering meals, providing resource information, or leading a team of volunteers to clean/repair seniors’ homes … We must continue to help/protect Antioch’s elderly citizens.
• More Police, not Less – Since being elected, we’ve hired 20 additional police officers. Crime is down. Chokeholds are banned, but we need to do better. I support body cams for every officer, NOT “defunding the police.” I’m proud to be supported by our Antioch Police Officers.
• Helping Victims of Domestic Abuse – Together we celebrated the opening of Antioch’s Family Justice Center, where victims of domestic violence, elderly abuse and human trafficking can get hands-on help/support.
• First to Stand Up – I marched with Black Lives Matter, organized Antioch’s first women’s march for equality, and brought the first Veterans’ Memorial Banners to Antioch to honor our fallen servicemembers.
• Protecting Our Open Spaces and Hillsides – I support the Urban Limit Line and preserving our beautiful open spaces from development.

We are living in challenging times. We can get through this together by remaining compassionate toward others and staying focused on creating meaningful solutions. I am here to serve you and am honored to be working on your behalf.

Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock

Ogorchock@comcast.net

Cell (925) 628-7764

Marie Arce. From her campaign Facebook page.

Dear Antioch,

I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself and share some of my thoughts on how I can serve Antioch.

My family moved to Antioch in 1988 where they purchased our first family home. I attended Antioch schools starting with Sutter Elementary, Park Middle School and eventually Antioch High School where I played softball for four years. My love for softball started on our Antioch Little League fields which sparked a love for the game that would eventually lead to lifelong friendships, the foundation for my work ethic and the love for my community.

Over the last 10-years I have worked in nonprofit finance administration working for various organizations in Northern California.

Growing up in a family that owned a small business and I experienced and observed the challenges that family businesses face. Small businesses play a key role in our local economy. As we continue to deal with COVID-19, we need to start thinking about a post-COVID-19 future. Developing solutions that will help our businesses here in Antioch remain open and to keep their employees employed. I support expanding our current small business grant program, developing tax incentives for small businesses to hire employees from Antioch, and building engagement with the city to help our local businesses prosper.

In addition to the importance of small business growth I am a firm believer in taxpayer accountability. The residents of Antioch have the right to have access to easily digestible financials, for transparency, accountability and to promote a more informed community. The taxpayers of Antioch want to see a return on investment for their tax dollars.

The recently approved ballot measures (C and W) called for: cleaner streets, a restoration of police officers patrolling streets, job opportunities, and a plan to attract small businesses. Our tax dollars should be spent responsibly, transparently, and with cost consciousness to improve the livability in Antioch for all its residents.

I am a firm believer that building engagement between our residents and the police department improves trust and strengthens our community. We have an opportunity to be the model for how policing is done in communities like ours by reviewing our existing policing practices and looking for ways to evolve as necessary. Continuing to evolve our policing will empower our police department and protect our residents. I do not support defunding police. The voters in Antioch voted to support Measure C and W to increase police services.

Blight is another issue that plagues our community. I plan to attack blight by developing blight initiatives such as the one passed by the Brentwood City Council that fines neglectful owners that don’t maintain their vacant properties. We need to provide our code enforcement the tools that they need to enforce our codes on illegal dumping and littering. And developing codes that will punish the illegal dumpers further than they are today.

Sadly, homelessness is plaguing our community as well as California and the nation as a whole.

We should approach the unhoused individuals and families with a compassionate lens that provides resources for those seeking help. At the same time, we need to continue to support our businesses and neighborhoods, by preventing homeless encampments near their storefronts and within neighborhood side streets.  Antioch is not equipped financially to solve homelessness alone.

Reducing homelessness will need to be a regional effort. We need to collaborate with our neighboring Delta cities on how to resolve an issue that impacts all our communities. Taking a regional approach will prevent Antioch from having to absorb the financial burden alone and allows more collaboration and opportunity to develop an impactful strategy for those seeking assistance.

I care deeply about our community. This is my home. I grew up playing in our parks, playing ball on our diamonds, swimming at the water park, hiking in our hills, going to the Big Little Game (Go Panthers), and boating in our Delta. I am a parishioner & parent of a child at Holy Rosary Church, volunteer in Antioch Little League and Chair of the Parks & Recreation Commission. This is where I chose to raise my daughters and build my community.

My campaign team is made up of friends and family that grew up here in Antioch. These friends have donated their talent and time because they care about Antioch as much as I do. These are unprecedented times and it is more important now than ever to shut down the divisiveness and come together as a community to promote forward thinking, new solutions and to do the right thing. I personally understand the hardships that some families are experiencing at this time. I want to be your candidate. I want to help.

If you want to know more about me, please visit www.mariearce.com or ‘like’ my campaign Facebook page to get the latest news and information from our campaign. Reach out if you would like to connect and be part of the change Antioch needs and deserves.

I am Marie Arce and I am fighting for a better Antioch for our families and for our future. I look forward to connecting with you online or around town.

I hope to earn your trust and your vote.

Marie Arce

Candidate for Antioch City Council District 3

www.mariearce.com

Posted on Facing Homelessness in Antioch by City Council District 3 candidate Nichole Gardner

Raw video warning: Includes profanity.

Dear Antioch Residents,

First and foremost, I would like to say, “Thank You” to Officer Lenderman for doing his job.  In response to the video by Nichole Gardner, candidate for Antioch City Council District 3 and Member of the Contra Costa County Democratic Central Committee, that was uploaded on Facebook about our police officers responding to a 72-hour notice for the homeless to leave the area, I am personally grateful for the things they do.  Through their continued actions of upholding their oath to “Serve and Protect”, I am proud to stand with them as they are the ones who we depend on in the event of an emergency.  Defunding the police is a mistake and would lead to total lawlessness.

We do not have the ability to police ourselves, or is that what we want?  In the video the phrase “That is why I want to defund the police” was used.  Do we really want to live in a city where the police are not capable of doing their jobs due a lack of resources or even the ability to perform overtime duties when necessary?  We cannot move forward if the crime rate in our city does not decrease.

We all deserve to feel safe in our homes or even when we are out and about.  Personally, I want my family to feel and be safe at home knowing that there is a police presence in the community.

As a military veteran, I stand with all Armed Forces, to include the Antioch Police Department (APD). As part my military career, I had the honor to “Serve and Protect” downrange in Iraq.  Putting your life on the line for others is the most honorable profession.  I honor what our officers do and continue to do for us.

In closing…thank you APD for everything you do.  Through “Unity and Collaboration” we can be better and will do better.

Respectfully,

Antwon Webster, Sr.

Antioch

Dear Editor:

First let me start by saying how proud I am to see the Antioch youth finding their voices, and working to make a difference in this town.  I am also proud of the parents that have been supporting their children’s voices, took the time to listen, and also provide comments to public forms, both for and against SRO’s entering the Antioch Schools.  I am excited to hear how these conversations went between parents, students, and teachers as they discussed what this might mean for our schools going forward.  The students of Antioch asked for security evaluations within their schools, heightened security measures, and while they may not be pleased with the initial outcome of the process, there is some movement within their request.

Youth of Antioch, I know you feel your voices were not heard, but do not let this discourage you from continuing to speak up. The coordination of SRO’s entering your schools is not over, you can still have a say in how this happens.  During the 8/5 meeting Trustee Crystal Sawyer-White requested that safety commissions should be set up as campus organizations, and they should include students. I urge you to push for these safety organizations to be implemented, become part of it, maybe even volunteer to organize such a group at your school.

SRO’s are going to happen, that is a reality. So, let us work to ensure there is a positive outcome from this joint effort between APD and AUSD.  On Aug. 12 the MLU of how these officers will be implemented into the school environment will be discussed, let us have a say in that.  As an Army instructor and security evaluator, I personally would be happy to speak to anyone who would like to discuss their schools campus procedures, I am even willing to offer up my experience and training to assist the AUSD, APD and AUSB for no cost to evaluate campuses, security and emergency procedures, and help to implement how SRO’s can safely work on campuses.   I have worked on joint task forces that trained American Soldiers on how to work in other countries during deployment and helped to arrange training sessions, safety protocols, and Army immersion in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In my civilian career, I have over 10 years’ experience developing and implementing customized training sessions for military and law enforcement agencies here in the United States and in countries have created and assisted in training exhibitions at events such as Urban Shield in Oakland CA, multi-day law enforcement and military training expo and real-world scenario training event, and Shotshow in Las Vegas, Nevada. In my military career, I served on a security planning commission that was in charge of selecting and securing the polling sites in three major cities in Iraq for their first-ever government elections in 2005. I consulted and assisted in the training leading up to and including the security turnover from US forces back to the Iraqi National Guard and Iraqi Police which was placed under the direction of the Ministry of Defence. I managed a Civil-Military Operations Command Center as part of a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Khowst, a province in Afghanistan less than 40 miles from the Pakistan border. With that being said, I know that 40 hours of additional training is in no way enough to make students and parents feel that an officer is qualified to work on campus.

Below are my suggestions for bringing SRO’s to campus without having full exposure to Chief Brookes SRO plans:

• Ideally, RSO’s should be assigned in pairs. Require all SRO’s to attend, in paired teams, and complete all sensitivity training, diversity training, conflict resolution training, and safety training on all campuses they are assigned to work along with campus staff
• Require refresher courses annually
• Officers should not carry a firearm while walking around campus during the school day. There are plenty of other techniques and tools to subdue a student, break up a fight, or conflict management without the fear of a gun. However, the officers should have access to a firearm available that can get to quickly in case it is needed. There should be a discussion on whether officers carry firearms, less than lethal launchers, or a combination of both.
• Officers should be in street clothes, or a school appointed uniform, not in full APD uniform, and should be completely integrated into the school staff.
• AUSB mentioned they would like the officers to be role models to students. For this to happen, the hiring practices will be paramount. Offers should be handpicked for the school that they will be working. Officers need to be able to connect with the students at the school they will be serving. If possible, there should be every attempt at finding applicants that either went to the school they would be serving or went to a school that resembles their potential work site in demographics and social/economic at least one officer should be female. Students are more likely to approach a female officer when reporting rape, abuse, bullying, or domestic issues. Also, students should be represented in the final interview process.
• Create campus safety committees that include at least 3 parents, and are open to students, make it mandatory that officers attend these meetings and address concerns
• SRO’s are to attend all after school activities (fully armed) and provide security at school-sanctioned events, staying the entire length of the event + 1 hour to help clear any loitering on campus following event conclusion

I would be happy to meet with anyone in our community to further discuss security plans on our campuses, and while I was unable to have a say in the SRO Grant, my goal if elected to the Board for District 1 is that my unique experience will assist in making the SRO program a positive for students, staff, and officers.

Thank you,

George Young III

SSG, Civil Affairs Section NCOIC;

Team Leader; Observer/Controller – Trainer

1005th Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Training CO, Airborne

1st Training Brigade; Special Operations

georgeyoung4change.com

george.young4change@gmail.com

925.783.5663

2020 Antioch Unified School District District 1 Candidate

Dear Editor:

The members of the Woman’s Club of Antioch are outraged and extremely disappointed in the behavior and actions of the protesters of the Antioch School Board meeting of August 5th. Banging on walls and windows in an attempt to stop the board meeting is not a peaceful protest and should have been stopped the moment it started. Further protesters that pushed and shoved two women board members, causing minor injuries, should have been charged with assault.

Blocking board members’ departure, requiring them to get police escorts home, is unacceptable behavior.  It causes one to ask, “Who raised these people?” Were you taught to shove your grandmother around or shout and scream to get your way? One of our board members is now over 80 years old and this behavior was a traumatic experience. You should be ashamed. We might conclude this is a result of State school laws changing over these many years prohibiting teachers to take any discipline against unruly students thereby diminishing the level of education for all students in a classroom.

There is no excuse allowing this behavior on the part of the protesters. In fact, we are currently experiencing the most significant movement for equality since the 1960’s and Martin Luther King, Jr’s peaceful marches. Significant as it unifies all peoples under the banner of Black Lives Matter. These unruly protesters threaten the success of this movement by alienating the public and furthering the attempt to divide us again.

It is time for all members of our community to speak out against violence and to speak for equality, reason and civility to bring our nation back together. We do this by VOTING and by denouncing violent behavior. Antioch will not be another Portland as long as good people speak up for our democracy.

The Woman’s Club of Antioch has supported our schools, students and education and our community since our inception in 1902.  118 years later we still support and stand with our elected representatives in the community.

Respectfully,

Angela deVictoria, President              Lynn Confetti-Ledbetter, 1st VP Mount Diablo District

Elizabeth Rimbault, Auditor              Teresa Hernandez-Cain, 1st VP Antioch

Bari Costello, member                        Lanette Clark, 2nd VP Antioch + numerous members

By Antonio Hernandez

For years, our community has struggled with providing a safe, supportive learning experience for our students. This has resulted in a decline in enrollment in the Antioch Unified School District, as more parents have opted for private education, inter-district transfers, homeschooling and charter schools.

But when parents opt out of our local public schools, they are not protesting the great teachers at AUSD. They are saying no to a system that continues to overstretch staff resources. Within the last year, AUSD has cut counselors, teacher aids, college and career staff, librarians, custodians, bilingual aids, and much more. Most recently, AUSD cut 26 similar positions (totaling $1.8 million) from its budget.

Now, both the City of Antioch and AUSD are facing a tough question: whether or not to fund over $3 million to place six cops on our school campuses known as student resource officers (SRO). But is it really the right response?

It’s understandable that as a community we may feel that adding police to our schools will make our children safe. But cops on school campuses are not an effective solution, which is why schools throughout our country are moving away from this practice in favor of more holistic solutions.

A recent paper by the Brookings Institution found that increasing investments in SROs does not lead to safer schools. Instead, they found that academic achievement is a much stronger predictor of school safety. Another paper published in Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice found that students felt less safe in the presence of SROs.

Often by the time an SRO is involved in a student’s life, we have already failed them in a million different ways. More than two-thirds of children report experiencing at least one traumatic event by the time they reach the age of 16. Based on a 2018 survey of our students, a full 70 percent of 11th graders in Antioch identified with the statement, “I felt sad and down.” And according to the most recent Census statistics, 24.9 percent of AUSD students — more than 7,000 kids — are living below the poverty line.

It’s not hard to imagine how these factors can lead to trouble at school. Yet school incidents could be prevented with the right resources. For the same cost as the six SROs, we could hire around 20 counselors to staff nearly all of our schools. But our efforts don’t have to end there. By providing quality after-school programs, access to food and shelter, and a supportive community, we can begin to address the true underlying causes of student underachievement issues rather than just the symptoms.

When we invest in SROs over education, not only are we teaching our kids that we see them as violent and in need of policing, but we are ignoring the root of the problem. On the other hand, by addressing the basic needs of our students such as access to food, shelter, and mental health resources, we can dramatically improve not only the safety of the school, but student achievement as well.

By connecting troubled students with a trusted counselor, we can reduce their feelings of hopelessness. Kids could learn to express their anger in healthy ways as well as develop resilience to help them through traumatic events.

Too often, the lack of student resources and support leads to tragedy. How many more students does the community have to mourn before our city leaders can make bold, innovative decisions to address the equity issues at the heart of the challenge with school safety?

Cops are a band-aid solution to under-resourced schools, and a very poor one at that. We must resist the temptation of using our overstretched police department to solve our communities most complex problems, even if it makes us feel better.

Now more than ever, we need to let our leaders know this is not the way we want to solve this problem. Join in this conversation on my facebook page: facebook.com/antonioforausd

Hernandez has taken out Nomination Papers to run for Antioch School Board in District 1 to challenge Board President Diane Gibson-Gray.

By Terry Ramus

It is certainly crazy times for many reasons, but now even reality means little to some of our opportunistic local politicians. For the last thirty years, we have watched as the City of San Francisco has failed to “solve the homeless problem”. Even with all of the money in SF and all of the progressive politics, homelessness is worse than ever in SF and in California. Did they ever consider if maybe the permissive, anything-goes approach is actually the wrong direction? Of course not, just throw more money at it in another example of the definition of insanity.

So recently in Antioch, Council members Lamar Thorpe and Joy Motts (with Monica Wilson who joined them in a 3/2 vote) rushed to a hastily arranged podium in front of the cameras to announce that they now have the solution for homelessness in Antioch. Oh, and by the way, we have an election in three months …

Their dramatic claim to a brilliant idea is to open Motel Thorpe, Wilson, Motts in one of the more challenged areas of Antioch, near the corner of Cavallo Road and East 18th Street. The existing motel would become a homeless motel and the annual cost would be at least a million dollars to the city. An area of town that needs a range of upgrades to help the local businesses and residents would instead be further burdened with more drugs, addiction, and the crime that goes along with these lifestyles. This is really very disrespectful to this area of town.

Homelessness is clearly a problem, but it is really a problem with drug and alcohol addiction and the mental illness that results from continuous abuse. The homeless motel idea does not even begin to deal with the actual problem, and it is just a cynical election year waste of money that the City of Antioch does not have now or ever. I will also point out that my family has firsthand experience with family members that have chosen to descend into this type of mess, but they do not emerge until they get tired of it. That is the sad reality and “enabling” this type of lifestyle just means that it takes longer for that choice to arrive. Honestly, the programs that are partially successful often involve the faith community and there are already people in this are area of town working from this perspective. As a reminder to the opportunistic politicians, a solution takes far more than a motel room with four walls.

Periodically, the illegal homeless encampments in the area are removed and the City must follow a legal process. Then they must clean up months of trash and thousands of pounds of unsanitary mass. Part of the process includes an offer for an official place for people to stay. Recently approximately 90 people were removed from an illegal encampment that had been in place for several months. Only two of the approx. 90 people accepted the offer for a place to stay. Solution oriented people might wonder why? The reason is that the places to stay come with rules, and 97% of the people in this case chose to refuse an official place to stay, with rules.

Financial considerations are very important to understand. Over the past several years, the people of Antioch have agreed to tax ourselves with a total 1% additional sales tax via Measure C and Measure W. These measures were passed based on promises to expand the police services in Antioch. Chief Brooks has led an amazing turn around in the City of Antioch with APD, and I thank him. Still far from perfect, but better. I do not believe that the people of Antioch want to return to the chaos of 2012 after the last recession! However, Council members Thorpe, Wilson and Motts suggest taking a million dollars from the APD police or other existing city services. Currently, the City of Antioch only meets the demands of our city via a slight spending deficient over time. Over decades, the city is on a glide path to a very low and unacceptable reserve fund. So, the City of Antioch must use our financial resources wisely. We must also make Antioch a place in which future and existing businesses and residents want to come and live. Instead, this unwise political proposal would move Antioch along a path as a magnet for the challenges of more crime and homeless people.

With their three votes, the Council Members Thorpe, Wilson, and Motts have forced the City of Antioch to do a “feasibility Study” on Motel Thorpe, Wilson, Motts for only a few percent of the homeless addicts to stay at without rules. This effort is another election year cynical political move and a waste of time and money. What is my suggestion? Homeless and addiction issues need to be solved at the State level as even the County does not have resources for a solution. Similar unwise politics in other cities have made many cities unlivable in many parts of these cities. Unfortunately, homelessness and addition will never be solved with progressive and permissive policies toward criminal behavior.

Terry Ramus, Ph.D. is a resident and business owner in Antioch, a former member of the Mello-Roos Board and co-author of Measure H, Antioch’s growth management advisory ballot measure passed by over 69% of the voters in 1997.