By John W. Whitehead

“What’s past is prologue.” ― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

What a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year this has been.

Endless wars. Toxic politics. Violence. Hunger. Police shootings. Mass shootings. Economic downturns. Political circuses. Senseless tragedies. Loss. Heartache. Intolerance. Prejudice. Hatred. Apathy. Meanness. Cruelty. Poverty. Inhumanity. Greed.

Here’s just a small sampling of what we’ve suffered through in 2016.

After three years of increasingly toxic politics, the ruling oligarchy won and “we the people” lost. The FBI’s investigation of Hillary’s emails ended with a whimper, rather than a bang. FBI director James Comey declared Clinton’s use of a private email server to be careless rather than criminal. Bernie Sanders sparked a movement only to turn into a cheerleader for Hillary Clinton. Clinton won the popular vote but lost the election. Donald Trump won the White House while the American people lost any hope of ending the corporate elite’s grip on the government.

The government declared war on so-called “fake news” while continuing to peddle its own brand of propaganda. President Obama quietly re-upped the National Defense Authorization Act, including a provision that establishes a government agency to purportedly counter propaganda and disinformation.

More people died at the hands of the police. Shootings of unarmed citizens (especially African-Americans) by police claimed more lives than previously estimated, reinforcing concerns about police misconduct and the use of excessive force. Police in Baton Rouge shot Alton Sterling. Police in St. Paul shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop. Ohio police shot 13-year-old Tyre King after the boy pulls out a BB gun. Wisconsin was locked down after protests erupt over a police shooting of a fleeing man. Oklahoma police shot and killed Terence Crutcher during a traffic stop while the man’s hands were raised in the air. North Carolina police killed Keith Lamont Scott, spurring two nights of violent protests. San Diego police killed Alfred Olango after he removed a vape smoking device from his pocket. Los Angeles police shot Carnell Snell Jr. after he fled a vehicle with a paper license plate.

We lost some bright stars this year. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia’s death left the court deadlocked and his successor up for grabs. Joining the ranks of the notable deceased were Muhammad Ali, David Bowie, Fidel Castro, Leonard Cohen, Carrie Fisher, John Glenn, Merle Haggard, Harper Lee, George Michael, Prince, Nancy Reagan, Janet Reno, Elie Wiesel, and Gene Wilder.

Diseases claimed more lives. The deadly Zika virus spread outwards from Latin America and into the U.S.

The rich got richer. The Panama Papers leak pulled back the curtain on schemes by the wealthy to hide their funds in shell companies.

Free speech was dealt one knock-out punch after another. First Amendment activities were pummeled, punched, kicked, choked, chained and generally gagged all across the country. The reasons for such censorship varied widely from political correctness, safety concerns and bullying to national security and hate crimes but the end result remained the same: the complete eradication of what Benjamin Franklin referred to as the “principal pillar of a free government.”

The debate over equality took many forms. African-Americans boycotted the Oscars over the absence of nominations for people of color, while the Treasury Department announced its decision to replace Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. North Carolina’s debate over transgender bathrooms ignited a nationwide fury. Meanwhile, the U.S. military opened its doors to transgender individuals. A unanimous Supreme Court affirmed a Texas law that counts everyone, not just eligible voters, in determining legislative districts. The nation’s highest court also upheld affirmative action, while declaring a Texas law on abortion clinics to be an unnecessary burden on women.

Environmental concerns were downplayed in favor of corporate interests. Flint, Michigan’s contaminated water was declared a state and federal emergency, while thousands protested the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline and its impact on water sources.

Technology rendered Americans vulnerable to threats from government spies, police, hackers and power failures. The Justice Department battled Apple in court over access to its customers’ locked, encrypted iPhones. Microsoft sued the U.S. government over its access to customers’ emails and files without their knowledge. Yahoo confirmed that over half a billion user accounts had been hacked. Police departments across the country continued to use Stingray devices to collect cellphone data in real time, often without a warrant. A six-hour system shutdown resulted in hundreds of Delta flights being cancelled and thousands of people stranded.

Police became even more militarized and weaponized. Despite concerns about the government’s steady transformation of local police into a standing military army, local police agencies continued to acquire weaponry, training and equipment suited for the battlefield. In North Dakota, for instance, police were authorized to acquire and use armed drones. Likewise, the use of SWAT teams for routine policing tasks has increased the danger for police and citizens alike.

Children were hurt. A 17-year-old endangered silverback gorilla was shot preemptively after a 3-year-old child climbed into its zoo enclosure. In Disney World, an alligator snatched a 2-year-old boy off one of the resort’s man-made beaches. A school bus crash in Tennessee killed five children. And police resource officers made schools less safe, with students being arrested, tasered and severely disciplined for minor infractions.

Computers asserted their superiority over their human counterparts, who were easily controlled by bread and circuses. Google’s artificial intelligence program, AlphaGo, defeated its human opponent in a DeepMind Challenge Match. Pokemon Go took the world by storm and turned users into mindless entertainment zombies.

Terrorism took many forms. Brussels was locked down in the wake of terrorist attacks that killed dozens and wounded hundreds. A shootout between a gunman and police wrought havoc on a gay nightclub in Orlando. Terrorists armed with explosives and guns opened fire in Istanbul Airport. A trucker drives into a crowd of revelers on Bastille Day in France. Acts of suspected terrorism take place throughout Germany, including attacks using axes, knives and machetes. Japan undergoes a mass killing when a man armed with a knife targets disabled patients at a care facility. Syria continued to be ravaged by bomb strikes, terrorism and international conflict.

Science crossed into new frontiers. Doctors announced the birth of the first healthy three-parent baby created with DNA from three separate people. Elon Musk outlined his plan to populate Mars.

Tragedies abounded. An Amtrak train derailed outside of Philadelphia. A commuter train crashed through a barrier in New Jersey. Floods in Texas killed nine soldiers stationed at Fort Hood. Heatwaves swept the southwest, fueling wildfires. Flash floods and heavy rain devastated parts of Maryland and Louisiana.

The nanny state went into overdrive. Philadelphia gave the green light to a tax on sugary drinks. The FDA issued guidelines to urge food manufacturers and chain restaurants to reduce salt use.

The government waged a war on cash. Not content to swindle, cheat, scam, and generally defraud Americans by way of wasteful pork barrel legislation, asset forfeiture schemes, and costly stimulus packages, the government and its corporate partners in crime came up with a new scheme to not only scam taxpayers out of what’s left of their paychecks but also make us foot the bill. The government’s war on cash is a concerted campaign to do away with large bills such as $20s, $50s, $100s and shift consumers towards a digital mode of commerce that can easily be monitored, tracked, tabulated, mined for data, hacked, hijacked and confiscated when convenient.

The Deep State reared its ugly head. Comprised of unelected government bureaucrats, corporations, contractors, paper-pushers, and button-pushers who are actually calling the shots behind the scenes, this government within a government is the real reason “we the people” have no real control over our so-called representatives. It’s every facet of a government that is no longer friendly to freedom and is working overtime to trample the Constitution underfoot and render the citizenry powerless in the face of the government’s power grabs, corruption and abusive tactics. These are the key players that drive the shadow government. They are the hidden face of the American police state that has continued past Election Day.

The U.S. military industrial complex—aided by the Obama administration—armed the world while padding its own pockets. According to the Center for International Policy, President Obama has brokered more arms deals than any administration since World War II. For instance, the U.S. agreed to provide Israel with $38 billion in military aid over the next ten years, in exchange for Israel committing to buy U.S. weapons.

Now that’s not to say that 2016 didn’t have its high points, as well, but it’s awfully hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel right now.

Frequently, I receive emails from people urging me to leave the country before the “hammer falls.” However, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, there is nowhere in the world to escape from the injustice of tyrants, bullies and petty dictators. As Ronald Reagan recognized back in 1964, “If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.”

Let’s not take the mistakes of 2016 into a new year with us. The election is over. The oligarchs remain in power. The police state is marching forward, more powerful than ever. All signs point to business as usual. The game continues to be rigged.

The lesson for those of us in the American police state is simply this: if there is to be any hope for freedom in 2017, it rests with “we the people” engaging in local, grassroots activism that transforms our communities and our government from the ground up.

Let’s get started.

ABOUT JOHN WHITEHEAD

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People (SelectBooks, 2015) is available online at www.amazon.com. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. Click here to read more of John Whitehead’s commentaries.

Editor:

I appreciate the posting of this commentary by the Antioch Herald and look forward to much more factual news and commentaries regarding the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary in future publications. What happens with the water that passes through the river by Antioch is of utmost importance to every Antioch citizen.

Like the consistent reportings of killings, robberies, etc. in Antioch from the Herald, I encourage civic articles related to civic government and leaders, our environmental resources to water, clean air and utilities, healthcare issues in Antioch, issues that are addressing the homeless, highlighting leadership that is actually changing the way the Council operates to enhance business growth, stop spending dollars on the same-ole (the raise to city workers-excuse me, they, too should pull in their belts-and do the work that they are hired to do).

Antioch at this point is now as a high-crime area, government that is running as they did in the good ole days. This city is large in population, most of its residents are in cars for hours getting to and from work. How could they engage in this community? They are exhausted.

Yet the beat goes on for the 12 years I have been a resident. Many have moved and will move including me. I am not a killer, robber, pay good taxes, have pride in my home and neighborhood though many living right by me don’t. Please help change the “culture and thus image” of Antioch, CA.

Linda Soliven

By Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore The Delta

These are not good times for Governor Brown’s Delta Tunnels (WaterFix) proposal.

The twin 40-foot-diameter, 30-mile-long tunnels would harvest Sacramento River water before it flows through the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary. A vast majority of this water would be sent to Big Ag operations like The Wonderful Company in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. It will destroy the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas.

But as the San Francisco Chronicle recently editorialized, “The tunnel project, now marketed to Californians as WaterFix, lacks community trust and political will and is saddled with a $16 billion (and growing) price tag that appears much larger than water agencies are willing to pay.

“Water districts, rural users, and entire cities like San Diego and Santa Monica are starting to question the wisdom or affordability of such a big project that does not deliver one new drop of new water.
“This November, a coalition of conservation and public interest organizations sent a letter to the Obama administration asking them to terminate the proposal so his legacy isn’t dragged down by a financial and environmental nightmare. The groups explain how the next administration will blame the boondoggle on Obama. They will say:
“We inherited the WaterFix from the previous administration and presumed that they knew what they were doing and had fully evaluated the project in good faith when they determined it should go forward.”
As environmental and financial obstacles continue to mount for the proposal, California water policy wonks are now scrambling for a viable Plan B.

The influential Public Policy Institute of California recently took a step back from support for the Twin Tunnels and offered a scaled back, Plan B. In an op-ed for the Sacramento Bee they offer, A Grand Compromise for the Delta.
PPIC now proposes a smaller plan they believe can settle the water wars over the Bay-Delta. Their proposal includes one-tunnel, managing water flows for entire ecosystems not just specific species, strengthening Delta levees, and letting communities tap into tunnel water supplies where local water is salty.

Restore the Delta is certainly encouraged the Public Policy Institute of California has backed down from support for the highly destructive Twin Delta Tunnels proposal. But the scaled-back project the PPIC now proposes is a completely different and new project. Before it can be analyzed, we still need to figure out how much water the Delta needs to maintain ecological health for the communities who live there and the species who depend on a healthy estuary.

The State Water Board’s flow hearings for the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers must be completed before any project can be analyzed.

Independent fishery experts now say that the San Joaquin River needs at least 50 percent unimpaired flows to stop extinction and achieve legally required doubling goals for salmon.

Any new tunnel proposal would, we hope, include a more comprehensive public scoping process so as to include Delta environmental justice communities, made up of hundreds of thousands of residents. We would also hope for a more transparent environmental and economic review process with better science and better public debate than what was put forth for the current Delta Tunnels proposal. CA WaterFix touts hundreds of meetings over the last ten years, but most were never properly noticed to Delta communities for meaningful participation.

If, indeed, support for the Big Twin Tunnels project is fading, let’s kill that proposal once and for all. Californians who voted in 1982 against the Peripheral Canal assumed we had made that decision long ago.
In an era of climate change and shrinking snowpack in the Sierra, less snowmelt means that by the time the expensive Twin Tunnels project would be finished, it may sit empty most of the time. The same may be true for one tunnel.  We don’t know yet.

Instead, we should invest in California’s water future. Southern California already taking the lead on the cutting edge of a water technology. Stormwater harvesting, conservation, water recycling, and groundwater recharging are reducing the need for imported water to the Southland. Many of these ideas can be found in a report titled A Sustainable Water Plan for California by the Environmental Water Caucus.

The Delta Tunnels, even a scaled back version, may not be the best use of limited funds. Let’s kill off the big Delta Tunnels plan once and for all. Then we can redirect those funds to create local jobs that build water sustainability by adding new water into the system. That is the path to provide real security for California’s future.

Originally published by KCET, December 19, 2016. Republished with permission. Commentaries are the opinions of their authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of KCETLink.

By Dr. Lamont A. Francies

Last Wednesday, in what was truly a watershed event for the city of Antioch, the Antioch Unified School District Board of Education voted 3-2 to approve the application by Rocketship Education to open a public, elementary, charter school in our town.  A multicultural coalition of community members turned out in large number to support a better future for our children. The community rejected the soft bigotry of low expectations often placed on students of color, and instead advocated for educational opportunity for all, not just those with the economic means to obtain a better option for their children.

The night was not about reproving teachers, but improving students. The decision gave parents options when facing educational obstacles. We can no longer afford to be more interested in saving schools than saving the children that actually occupy them. For people of color, education has long been a ticket to freedom, a ladder out of the pit of poverty, thus making it the civil rights issue of our time. African-Americans seeking a better life have been proponents of school choice since the days of slavery.  They created Freedom Schools, now the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which rebelled against Jim Crow and economic exploitation.

In the end, though, enough Board members recognized that the conversation had to change.  This wasn’t about good versus bad teachers, but a lack of viable options, a lack of real choices, a lack of competition that has resulted in a system that, for too long, has simply become, “a pipeline to prison” for many young people in our community.

Too many of our schools have become failure factories more interested in filling seats than filling minds.  Wednesday night was about breaking up the bureaucracy and giving parents today the choice for a better tomorrow. In 2016, failure is no longer an option, good intent must be replaced by better outcomes. The arrival of high performing schools is good for all mediums of education in Antioch because at the end of the day: rising tides lift all boats.

Francies is a former counselor in the Antioch school district and pastor of Delta Bay Church of Christ in Antioch.

By Allen Payton

There’s an old saying that competition breeds excellence. Why? Because when you compete to win, you’re forced to become better and hopefully, better than your competition, whether it’s in sports, business, politics or, yes, even in education.

Yet, the education establishment and lobby, made up mostly of teachers, administrators and those on the left of the political spectrum in America, California and in Antioch, who have had a hold on education policy for far too long (and how’s that been working for our children?) in general, oppose competition in education. They prefer that all students are educated in government-run schools, where they can be indoctrinated and taught what to learn, not necessarily how to learn. They also want to ensure the money will continue to flow based on how many behinds are in the seats, regardless of whether or not the student gets advanced on to the next grade without mastering what was taught in their current grade level, and then graduating and being sent out into the world, sometimes without even being able to read or write properly.

And they really hate being proven inferior in what and how they teach our children, and just can’t admit it when something or someone else does it better.

They clearly oppose vouchers in K-12 education, giving parents the choice of where best to spend their own tax dollars and send their children to whichever school they want. Yet, that’s exactly what happens with the federal Pell Grant at the college level. If it’s good enough and has been working fine for years at that level, why isn’t it good enough at the K-12 level of education? That makes no sense to me.

The education establishment has learned to live with public charter schools started by a school district. But, they and others on the left, with their nanny-state mentality think they can run our lives better than we can and spend our money better than we can. They also think they can educate our children better than the parents can or private schools, including those run by religious institutions. They complain that it’s not fair that the better and more well-off students get to escape the failing, public institutions and leave the rest of the lower performing students behind.

But, now they’re even opposed to the private, non-profit organizations that run public charter schools, which receive and use public tax dollars. That’s in spite of the fact those schools, like Rocketship’s are taking some of the lowest-performing students and helping them advance at a much faster rate, to where they out perform their former classmates.

Those schools are one of the ways  the leaders on the left in our state government have been willing to compromise on the issue, to allow for competition and choice in education to ensure  a better one for our students. But, the education establishment and lobby still opposes them and will say and do whatever is necessary to keep them from being approved. Since they can’t win their argument on the merits, they have to come up with other reasons to oppose the more successful programs and schools, like Rocketship’s, such as their charter petition isn’t acceptable or that they can’t achieve what they claim.

Really? Have they not seen the statistics of students in the Rocketship schools? Are they choosing to ignore the facts?

What makes me scratch my head is that those same individuals on the left usually support choice when it comes to killing children before they’re born through abortion on demand and now, even government funding of abortion, but not when it comes to educating them? That makes no sense to me, either.

First of all, they’re our children and grandchildren, not the government’s, the teachers, the faculty’s or the staff’s. Second, the primary educators in children’s lives are their parents or whoever is raising them, be it a guardian or grandparent, not the government, nor the teachers, faculty or staff of any school. They are merely agents of the parents, etc.  who are contracted to educate the children during the time they have them each school day. I recognize that not all parents do a good job and just want and expect the public schools to educate their children for them. On the other hand, many parents want a better education for their children, but don’t have the time or ability to home-school them or the means to send them to a private, parochial school and need an option like Rocketship.

Even Antioch’s own Tom Torlakson, a former Antioch Unified teacher and now the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, recognizes that fact and was instrumental in approving Rocketship’s newest charter school in Concord in the Mt. Diablo School District, earlier this year. Interestingly enough, he was backed for office by the California Education Association, the state teachers’ union. It’s time for Tom’s friends and supporters to join him in recognizing what’s best for Antioch’s and California’s public school students.

With the abysmal performance of the students in Antioch elementary schools, we need Rocketship, now more than ever and many parents want the choice of their better performing schools.  Hopefully, our school district can learn a thing or two from Rocketship and apply their better practices, for the benefit of all Antioch students, not just those fortunate enough to win the lottery that will be held for students to be included in their new school.

Frankly, while I don’t expect it, seeing who was backed by the local teachers and staff in the most recent election, the bottom line is if the five current Antioch School Board Trustees really care about the education of the students in the district – as they each claim, – they will ignore the district staff’s opposition, and all vote “yes” on Rocketship’s petition, Wednesday night. Anything else is just pandering to a special interest group and not voting in the best interest of the students, their parents or the public.

While my only child, who is a product of a mix of both private and public schools in Antioch, is an adult, now – and he hasn’t yet married and given me any grandchildren, who attend Antioch public schools (but that’s OK, because I’m far too young to be a grandfather), from a self-interest standpoint, I and others without children or grandchildren in district schools will benefit by an improved education for the students. Because, where there are better schools, property values increase, which results in greater property taxes being paid to our city, which results in more and hopefully, better city services, including more police and Code Enforcement, without tax increases, which will reduce crime and blight in Antioch. That will in turn attract executives and business owners to our city to buy the new homes that have recently been approved, and who will bring their businesses and create local jobs in town, so fewer of our residents will have to commute to work. Those folks, in turn will be home earlier each work night, and available to their children and able to be more involved in the community.

So, we all have a stake in improving the education of students in Antioch schools and it can and needs to be an upward spiral, instead of the downward one we’ve been experiencing for the past 10 years.

In Proverbs 27:17 in the Bible it is written “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” So, even working with someone can make you better and it doesn’t always require competition. That’s what needs to happen in the case of Rocketship’s charter school petition. Right now, with Antioch’s proficiency levels in math and English among elementary students being so low, in fact the lowest in school districts in East County, anything that’s proven successful, that can and will improve the education of the students in our district, must be done.

So, instead of working against Rocketship with their proven success rate, the Antioch Unified School District should be working with them. Sure they’re imperfect and can most likely improve on what and how they do things, and can even perhaps learn from things that Antioch schools do different and better. But, Rocketship schools are doing much better than the schools in Antioch and I’d say there’s more for Antioch to learn and benefit from if the relationship is consummated, Wednesday night.

One thing must be said about the recent election and Rocketship’s involvement in it. I don’t appreciate the fact that at least one Rocketship Board member chose to make a contribution to each of Fernando Navarro’s and Alonzo Terry’s campaigns, giving an appearance of an attempt to influence the vote, fodder for their opponents to use it as a sign of some kind of lack of integrity on both the candidates part and Rocketship’s part, and serving to publicly embarrass the candidates. I would advise Rocketship’s CEO and Founder to ensure that doesn’t happen again. How foolish can he and his board members be? What were they thinking would happen?

But, on the other hand, they were small contributions of $125 each and Terry chose to return the contribution to his campaign, and there was nothing illegal about it. At the same time, anyone who opposed those two candidates or uses that as a basis to oppose Rocketship’s charter petition, or expect Navarro – who didn’t return the contribution to his campaign – to recuse himself from the vote, better be consistent and have the same opinion of the candidates backed financially by the Antioch teachers and staff, from whom they received much more money, when it comes time for a vote on their next contracts.

In words similar to what Moses said to Pharoah, when demanding the release of the Israelites from their captivity and enslavement, I say to the school board – “let our students go.” So, my encouragement to the Trustees is to vote for choice in education, vote for competition, vote for excellence, and vote yes on the Rocketship petition.

By Argentina Dávila-Luévano

Earlier this month, I attended a hearing on the petition by Rocketship Education to open a public, elementary, charter school in Antioch. The meeting was attended by about one hundred supporters, mostly families, and mostly African-Americans and Hispanics. It was also attended by about fifty teachers and school district staff who opposed the petition, primarily members of the Antioch Education Association (AEA) and other union members.

I have a long history of supporting organized labor. I believe it is a fundamental right of workers to be able to band together for the purpose of collective bargaining. Because of my history as an advocate of workers’ rights, and my continuing efforts on behalf of workers, I’m sure many were surprised to see me supporting a petition that the local teachers’ union so strongly opposes.

So, why do I support Rocketship? First, I don’t see this as an issue of workers’ rights. I see it as an issue of children’s rights, and, more than that, as an issue of civil rights. The fact is, our public schools are failing our students, especially students of color and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The ability to obtain a high-quality education is one of the most important, if not the most important, factors that contributes to children achieving their potential. But for years, the great majority of students in the Antioch Unified School District (AUSD) have not been able to achieve even basic proficiency in core subjects.

Without changes to curriculum and other elements of pedagogy, instead of student success, we’ll continue to have the same results.

Families who are better off have other choices. They send their kids to private schools. They get  them into charter schools, even if they must make long commutes to do so. Indeed, some of the  opponents of Rocketship talked about having their children in charter schools. Many families, though, don’t have another option. Their children are stuck in the local public  school, even though it might spend years on the state’s list as low-performing.

All families should have a chance at their children receiving a first-rate education, not just those  who can afford it. Rocketship helps make that happen, as they’ve proven repeatedly by opening  schools in some of the worst-performing areas in the country, and finally providing children with  the chance that only their well-to-do peers previously had. They’re getting results, as has been repeatedly verified.

We can’t afford to leave vast segments of our community without better educational options. Let’s give our parents a choice for something better. Let’s give our students a real chance at success. I urge the AUSD school board to put our children first…and to vote yes on Rocketship.

Dávila-Luévano has a bachelor’s degree in Social Work – Child Welfare and is President of the California Leadership Institute.

By Allen Payton, Publisher & Editor

Just as we entered the holiday season, and Antioch residents were preparing for Thanksgiving, they got an early Christmas present from the city council, in the form of a big lump of coal in our stocking, when they unanimously voted for the new contracts for all city employees – tentatively.

Repeating Past Mistakes

What the mayor, council members and city manager have demonstrated is their failure to learn from the mistakes of the past. Here’s a little reminder of recent city history, if you’re not familiar. First, in the early 2000’s the city council approved the 3% at age 50 retirement benefit for police, which is explained below. Then, in 2007, the city council approved a rich and unusually long, six-year contract for the police. That was followed by the economic downturn in 2008, which created the situation we’re currently in and the hole in police staffing the city has been digging out of, ever since.

But, it was the rest of the city staff who took the hit, with a 10% pay cut, with an equal 10% reduction in work time, while, by the way, cutting out 20% of city time available to the public with the Furlough Fridays.

Two Tax Increases

So, we the people gave them two tax increases in the forms of Measure C’s half-cent sales tax and Measure O’s rental property business license fee, to use to get out of the hole.

Yet, even after the current council staff was put back to work full time, ending the 10% cut in pay and work, at the beginning of last year, they also got an additional 3% pay raise at that time. Still, the council voted to give them all another 4.5% pay raise plus increases to their benefits packages, in the new contracts.

Unfulfilled Promise to the People

Now, while the council members may be acting like Santa Claus to the city employees, they’re acting like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas to the taxpaying residents of Antioch because we’re the ones paying the bill. We’re the ones who don’t have the 22 more police officers we were promised “immediately” by soon to be former Mayor Wade Harper and all council members, including Mary Rocha, Monica Wilson and Tony Tiscareno, (except for current Mayor Pro Tem Lori Ogorchock who wasn’t on the council at the time) in the ballot argument they all signed in the summer of 2013, in favor of Measure C, if we passed it – which we did.

Instead, they’ve only given us a net seven more police officers and it took them three years to accomplish. At that rate, we won’t have the other 15 additional officers on the force for another six plus years, long after Measure C will have expired. Of course they’ll tell you they’ve given us an additional 14 officers, because they’ve chosen to conveniently use the figure of 82 sworn officers as the base figure, which the city had in November, 2013 at the end of the Measure C campaign, rather than the 89 Antioch had at the beginning, which is the figure Harper and the council members used in their ballot argument.

But, even using their manipulated base figure of 82, they still owe us another eight sworn officers, for a total of 104, which at the current pace, will take another three and a half years to achieve. That brings up the question, since they owe us 104, why have they only included 102 sworn officers in the annual budget? It’s just more game playing with Measure C money, the budget, our tax dollars and city staffing.

Yet, Ogorchock is aware of the promise for 22 additional police officers, and has the responsibility for helping the city achieve it for we the people – for whom they’re all supposed to be working. Plus, she voted along with the rest of them for these irresponsible contracts. So she needs to be held accountable on this, as well.

Furthermore, the fact that all the contracts extend beyond Measure C’s sunset, four years from now, is another aspect of what makes them wrong.

Politics Played on Contract Timing

What’s also wrong with the contracts is that they weren’t completed and approved in a timely manner. Instead of the council directing Duran to finalizing the negotiations and the council taking their vote before the contracts expired on August 31st and September 30th, when what is in the contracts could have been revealed to the public before the November 8th election, Duran and Harper – whom together set what is on each agenda – chose to wait until the next meeting on November 22nd to place them on the agenda. The fact that the contracts were voted on by a lame duck city council, during the week of a major holiday when most people are focused on getting ready for the holiday weekend or already gone on vacation having taken the entire week off, shows a serious lack of integrity and transparency.

Even if they didn’t intentionally delay finalizing the contracts and placing them on the agenda until after the election, which is clearly how it appears, then it’s just plain mismanagement of the process and a demonstration of incompetence. Either way it’s unacceptable. But, come on. They knew that if the voters were made aware of what is in the contracts before the election, none of the incumbents would have stood a chance of being re-elected or even close to it, as in the mayor’s race.

It’s Our Government & Money

What they all have failed to recognize is that it’s our government and our money they’re spending. The council members put the commitments they made to the various employee groups, including the one to the Antioch Police Officers Association – who, not surprisingly rewarded Harper, Rocha and Wilson by endorsing them for re-election in November – above their commitment to the people to give us the 22 more cops.

That commitment should have been fulfilled, first and still needs to be. They need to give Police Chief Allan Cantando whatever resources he needs to hire the rest of the 15 additional officers, now.

I’m sick and tired of politicians over-promising and under-delivering, especially when it comes to taxes. Here’s another bit of Antioch history, which this council is ignoring and could learn from – and it’s my own mistake as well as a success, during my time on the city council.

In 1994, during my first year in office, I along with three other council members, including Rocha, voted for a 1.9% utility tax to pay for 19 more police officers. Knowing it was going to pass without my vote, anyway, I tried to get the council to agree to look at the budget before it went into effect that July 1^st and then have a vote by the people on it, that November. So with their agreements I voted for it. But, even after I presented a budget cut plan developed with the help of 45 Antioch residents, to eliminate the tax and still hire 14 more police, the other three council members rejected it. Plus they voted against funding a ballot measure in November for the public’s approval. Fortunately, the council unanimously approved my budget cut plan later that year, but the recall still went to the ballot. A majority of the voters recognized what I had done for them, that I had learned my lesson, so to speak and I was able to beat the recall. The other council member who voted for the tax increase and also faced recall, defended her vote and the tax, and she lost her recall election.

The city ended up hiring the 19 additional officers during my remaining three years on the council, and we did it without a tax increase, by reprioritizing city spending, trying to reach the goal of 1.2 officers per thousand. But, we never reached it, bringing us to 85 sworn officers on the force by the end of 1998, with about 85,000 residents, or one officer per thousand population.

The current situation is much worse. The city has grown by about 25,000 residents since then, yet we only currently have 96 sworn officers on the force, and with a very different population then we had, back in 1998. We’re now down to about 0.85 officers per 1,000 population.

Plus, most of the current police officers still have a much richer retirement now, compared to back then. With the 3% at age 50 approved in the early 2000’s, they get to calculate that figure times the number of years they’ve been on the force, times the average of their last three years’ salary to determine their annual pension payments. So, if a cop has worked for the department for 25 years, at age 50 he or she will get 75% of the average of their last three year’s salary. Fortunately, that changed under the leadership of the late Gary Agopian when he was on the council and they renegotiated the benefit to 2.5% at age 55 for new hires. The current council later changed that for a few lateral hires from other departments, and gave them the 3% at 50.

Council, Manager at Fault

Let’s be clear. I don’t blame the city employees at all for trying to get everything they could in the new contracts. I believe in the old adage, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. Plus, I believe in what is written in the Bible of “pay the worker his due.” But, it’s the city council members who determine what the amount of that due is for city employee.

So, I blame Duran who shepherded the contracts through the negotiation process, and ultimately the mayor and council members who demonstrated a serious lack of backbone. They caved in to the desires and requests of the city employees, and forgot about their first commitment to us, by giving us the 22 additional police officers, they promised, before offering a pay raise.

Some Antioch residents, including me, are wondering who was at the table negotiating on behalf of we the people, the taxpayers and our interests against the special interests of the employee groups? That’s what the mayor and council members were supposed to be doing. But, it surely wasn’t any of them, who instead all demonstrated a complete disregard for fiscal responsibility. They forgot who it is they’re supposed to please and who are their bosses – we the people.

Huge Salaries, Threat of Massive Layoffs

Now, Duran is telling us that if we don’t approve an extension to Measure C in 2020, there will be “massive layoffs in police and Code Enforcement.”

This coming from a city manager who earns over $300,000 per year in pay and benefits – including over $8,000 per month in benefits alone. Sorry, but Mr. Duran has a conflict of interest making any arguments in favor of the contracts that personally benefit him, and will increase his pension, as he prepares to retire next year.

He and the council members know we will be left with the bill after he’s long gone and some, if not all of the current council members will be, too, yet they still voted for them.

At the same time many of our top city staff and police officers earn well over $200,000 a year in pay and benefits, with Cantando being the top income earner of all city employees during 2015, at $338,000 in pay and benefits, earning even more than the city manager.

Perhaps the rest of the city workers needed a pay raise, but did the police officers, police management and city management staff really need a 4.5% pay increase on top of what they’re already earning, or any pay raise, at all? I’d say no, not until we got the 22 more police we were promised.

For a real eye opener, click here to see what each Antioch city employee earned last year, according to public records. While the average is about $58,000 per year, there are many city employees earning over $100,000 and many over $200,000 in pay and benefits.

Using Basic Services to Pass Tax Increases

Why is it, that the first employees that will be laid off are police, when that’s a basic reason for local government and why, going back to 1872 when Antioch was incorporated, our city was formed – “for police and other matters?” Why must our government officials always go after and threaten the basics of government in order to scare us into voting and paying for another tax increase?

How about, instead pay cuts for those earning exorbitant salaries already and implementing a no overtime policy? How about selling Humphrey’s instead of the city trying to be in the landlord and restaurant business? How about closing or contracting out the Antioch Water Park which costs the city’s General Fund (which pays for police) $200,000 to $300,000 per year?

The fact is, the extra half-cent sales tax was only to be temporary, and the city was supposed to increase revenue from basic sales and property taxes over the seven years of the lifespan of Measure C to replace the $7 million per year it currently generates. But that’s not going to happen if the city spends an extra $1.7 million per year on increases in pay and benefits which are included in the new contracts.

But, There’s Hope

Using a compound metaphor, there is a silver lining to this picture, not just lumps of coal. First, the contracts are tentative and won’t be finalized until the city council votes to approve the Memorandums of Understanding (MOU’s) in either January or February.

Second, with the election of Dr. Sean Wright as our new mayor and Lamar Thorpe to the City Council, who will also be our new Mayor Pro Tem, hopefully they can get at least one of the remaining council members – Tiscareno or Ogorchock, who aren’t up for election until 2018, or Wilson, who was just re-elected – to join them in getting the city employees to work with them and renegotiate at least the length of the contracts. Frankly, all the council members should rethink their vote and join the two newest council members who will be the new leaders of the council in asking for a renegotiation.

The contracts should be shortened to no more than four years, when the city’s extra half-cent sales tax from Measure C will end, and preferably three years, so the contracts don’t end during another election year. Never again should we have contracts end during an election year nor voted on by a lame duck Council.

By Fernando Navarro

On Thursday, November 10, an incident took place in Pittsburg and Antioch which illustrated a major failing of our public education system.  Hundreds of Pittsburg High School students, apparently protesting the results of the presidential election, walked out of their classes, off campus, and made their way to Antioch. During their journey, some of them committed acts of violence which resulted in three arrests…and a strain on police resources for both cities, as 23 police officers (15 from Antioch and 8 from Pittsburg) had to be called out to deal with the situation.

Statements by some officers indicated that the PHS principal, Todd Whitmire, joined students in the protest.  This has been disputed by Whitmire and Pittsburg Unified School District (PUSD) Superintendent Janet Schulze, who claim Whitmire was with the protesters only to make sure they were safe.

Neither story speaks well of the PUSD leadership.  The first would indicate that PUSD administrators are actively working to incite students away from learning and discourse and toward yelling and violence.  The second would indicate that PUSD administrators have lost control of their school, and that student whims rule the day.

What we witnessed didn’t come out of nowhere, and didn’t come about because the, “election has been especially emotional,” as a statement by Schulze said.  This is the result of years of inept classroom management, which has led to a lack of respect for authority.  It comes about because, as with English and math, students don’t appear to be learning basic civics.

I recently lost my bid for election to the Antioch Unified School District (AUSD) Board of Trustees.  That doesn’t mean I’ll be silent, though.  I’ll continue to advocate for the change that’s needed to turn our schools around and deliver better educational, and life-choice, outcomes for our students.  And I’ll be encouraging parents to educate themselves about school policies, and to make sure their voices are heard.  But I’ll be doing so by speaking and writing in the appropriate forums, not by disrupting traffic, disrupting classes, or by otherwise impinging on the rights of my fellow citizens.

Finally, I applaud Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando for speaking out about this incident at the PUSD School Board meeting.  I applaud AUSD Superintendent Stephanie Anello and Antioch High School Principal Louis Rocha for taking swift action to prevent similar disruptions in Antioch schools.

Now, let’s all come together to provide our students with the educations they deserve.

Navarro is a member of the Antioch Unified School District Board of Trustees.