I am Walter Ruehlig’s toughest critic. Whatever arguments there are for or against his campaign and candidacy for Antioch City Council; I vouch my husband will bring to the Council one undeniable and most important character trait. Walter Ruehlig cannot be bought nor bullied.

The German origin of the Ruehlig last name means calm or steady.  However, adversity has toughened the spirit underneath the gentle facade. His mother, Marie, died of cancer at age ten.  At age fourteen, Richard, an older brother, was institutionalized for mental illness.  Walter worked his way through college and graduated Cum Laude from the State University of New York in Albany. One of his first jobs was teaching English-As-A-Second-Language for the Peace Corps in Sultandag, a village in Turkey which had neither running water nor electricity.

It is no surprise then that Walter was undaunted when he joined the Antioch Unified School District (AUSD) Board of Trustees in 2004 while the District was on the fiscal watch list with a 9 million dollar deficit and a 703 Academic Performance Index (API) score.  Today, the District has a 34 million ending fund balance, has climbed to a 742 API score with eight schools hovering or above the vaunted 800 mark and has become a state trailblazer in link learning with five career academies.

Walter will not be deterred by the challenges of crime, blight and economic lethargy.  This gutsy, transplanted New Yorker will help build the city that we envision and stand unfazed by allures or threats from special interest groups that carry a price tag for their loyalty.  For Antioch, the best is yet to come.

Cynthia Ruehlig

Antioch

On November 6th, the voters of Antioch will be asked to fill three open seats on the Antioch School Board. I highly recommend Barbara Cowan as one of those selected for a board seat.

Mrs. Cowan is a newly retired teacher/administrator. Her 39 years of experience in this noble profession has given her the many experiences necessary to bring valuable knowledge to the Antioch School Board. She will be open and honest in her communications and continue a climate of trust and openness. Her understanding of education and willingness to hear new ideas and suggestions on how to continue improving the system will be a benchmark in her contributions.

Barbara Cowan has taught at all levels and has been a principal of middle schools and high schools. She has also been a special education coordinator. Mrs. Cowan is fluent in Spanish and has had many years of experience in predominately Hispanic schools.

Excellence in the classroom begins with excellence in the boardroom. I urge you to vote for Barbara Cowan.

Richard Asadoorian, Antioch

Trustee, Contra Costa County Board of Education

(the views expressed here are mine as a private citizen and do not reflect the opinion of the other board members)

Dave Roberts who served as the first Editor of the Herald has written an analysis on Proposition 30 on the November ballot. To read his column on the Cal Watchdog website, click here.

By Allen Payton, Publisher

The Antioch police cost too much. There, I said it. (Actually I wrote it). But, someone needed to and for a long time. We must face facts.

The reality is, after the hiring of five officers through additional revenue in the city’s budget and another five officers with the $1.5 million federal grant for three years, and the loss of one more police officer, according to Chief Allan Cantando, Antioch will still be down 25 officers.

The largest budget item in the city’s General Fund is police.

While I advocated for placing a police tax on the November ballot – a 4 to 6 year parcel tax of no more than $100 per year, dedicated to only paying to hire more police – and complaining that the council blew their opportunity to make that happen, but let pettiness and politics get in the way – I’m not so sure one would have passed anyway.

At least not after I learned that the new police contract included 13% in pay raises over the next three years. Yes, the police agreed to pay 9% of the 39% toward their retirement which I applaud. But 6% of that was back-filled immediately with a pay raise, this year.

That may have been the best this current council could have achieved, in order to buy out the cops’ previous six-year, overly generous contract approved by a previous city council – led by a Mayor who lost in 2008 and is running and wants to be Mayor of our city, again (go figure), and which included two of the current council members, one of whom isn’t running again.

Because had the council not bought out that previous contract, the city would have been faced with two, multimillion dollar balloon payments at the end of this year, due to the two pay raises in the previous contract that the police agreed to postpone.

One problem with that is the cops called that postponement a “sacrifice.”

Since before the 1/2 cent sales tax measure was on the ballot in 2010, I’ve been telling my friends on the police force that they have to join with the rest of us – who have lost jobs, lost our homes, etc. – and make a sacrifice, first.

Do they deserve to be paid well? Yes. Do they earn it? No doubt. Can we afford it? No way. Not when we have 25 fewer officers than we need.

So rather than just complain, I offer a three-part solution:

1. The Antioch police must give up the pay raises in their new contract and make a real financial sacrifice.

2. The Council must find a revenue stream to pay for the 25 needed police officers, the additional Community Service Officers and more Code Enforcement Officers – whether it be a dedicated, temporary parcel tax or another approach – and if it requires a vote of the people, we pass it.

3. Once our city is safer, we must grow our local economy by attracting business – retail and employers – which will create more revenue for the city to pay for more cops without the tax.

We’re all in this together. Our Antioch police offiers need those additional 25 officers, as do we. But we need their help to pay for them and now.

Over Troubled Waters, a documentary about the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, will premiere in Antioch on Tuesday, October 2, at the El Campanil Theatre. Following the screening will be a question and answer session with water policy advocates. Over Troubled Waters will be the centerpiece of a public education effort to stop the building of peripheral tunnels.

In this visually rich documentary, Ed Begley Jr. narrates the story of how the people of the Delta are fighting to protect the region they love and to encourage saner, sustainable water policies for all the people of California.

“This is our chance to tell the real Delta story,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, which produced the documentary. “This film reveals how powerful forces are using fear of flooding and earthquakes to make a case for transforming a unique, beautiful, productive region into a permanent way station for water going somewhere else. They are trying to shore up an outdated water system with a massive, multi-billion dollar water transfer project that Californians will be paying for decades.”

It should be noted that, Over Troubled Waters has been designated as a participant in this year’s 9th Annual Artivist Film Festival to be held November 1-4 in Hollywood, California. “ARTIVIST” is the only Film Festival dedicated to ‘Raising Awareness for Human Rights, Children’s Advocacy, Environmental Preservation, and Animal Advocacy through International Films’. In 2012, the UNITED NATIONS officially accepted the Artivist Collective, Inc., producer of the annual Artivist Film Festival and Artivist Awards, as an NGO member of the United Nations Department of Public Information (UN-DPI). For more information go to www.Artivist.com.

Tickets are sponsored by Assembly candidate Jim Frazier. For information on additional screenings, go to http://overtroubledwaters.org/buy-tickets/.

What: Over Troubled Waters
Film screening: 7:00 p.m.
Where: El Campanil Theatre, 604 W. 2nd Street, Antioch
When: Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Who: Water advocates, Delta residents, including farmers and fishermen

No More Solyndras – and No More McNerneys

The year Jerry McNerney was elected to Congress, he declared that “green energy” would be his “signature issue.”

It turns out his signature was written in disappearing ink.

On the defensive, McNerney is suddenly running away from the issue that defined his candidacy and his entire record in Congress — the advocacy of green energy, its supposedly endless economic potential, and the need for costly government incentives to promote its development. 

Despite his ostensibly dogged commitment to green energy, Jerry McNerney was one of only two California Democrats who voted last week for the No More Solyndras Act in the House of Representatives. The legislation, H.R. 6213, calls for a complete end to clean energy loan guarantees.

McNerney’s vote is more transparent than Solyndra’s discarded solar tubes (which now feature in a Berkeley art installation). It was a flip-flop designed to help McNerney survive an increasingly difficult re-election campaign. This is the same Jerry McNerney who supported loan guarantees for Solyndra, the now-bankrupt recipient of $535 million in US government-backed loans — the same McNerney who pocketed a $2,400 campaign contribution from Solyndra’s lead investor.

In a recent interview, McNerney defended government loan guarantees even in the face of Solyndra’s bankruptcy. “It’s not a good argument to say that the failure of one company is an indication that the whole industry has a problem,” he said. “I think it’s reasonable that renewable resources companies can look to the government for help both in research and in incentives.”

“I think there is a need for loan guarantees,” McNerney said in the interview, designed to promote his book, Clean Energy Nation. 

Seems like McNerney’s true “signature issue” is saving his political career. 

Kevin Spillane, Ricky Gill for Congress campaign

Editor,
I would like to apologize to the citizens of Antioch for the misrepresentation which took place in a political advertisement published in the Antioch Herald last week.

A photograph of Walter Ruehlig who is running for City Council, was published standing alongside Rudy Fernandez and Michael Manalac. The photograph was taken in front of the grotto at St. Ignatius of Antioch Catholic Church and the endorsement alongside the photograph gives the impression that Mr. Ruehlig is being endorsed by the Catholic Church, St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish,and the Filipino-American Society. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The photograph and endorsement were done without permission and the publishing of this advertisement was very unfortunate. It is an indication of poor judgment that reflects upon the qualifications of the candidate.

Again, my apologies to all those who were offended by this ad.

Father Robert Rien, Parochial Administrator, St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish

According to a recent article in the Contra Costa Times entitled “City’s police chief aims to add diversify his force,” Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando is seeking to recruit more minority candidates. Commendable? Yes, however I find the Chief’s decision to hold meetings in Spanish at Holy Rosary Catholic church and other churches objectionable. Let religious institutions do what they do best rather than utilizing them as public forums.

The proper way to recruit minority applicants, according to Police Chief Magazine, is to engage stakeholders. Stakeholders are groups and individuals that have an interest or stake in enhancing minority recruiting and selection. Core stakeholders might include police executives, police human resource specialists, labor and union officials, city/county executives, neighborhood associations, minority and special interest groups.

Hiring should, of course, seek to reflect the ethnic and racial composition of the area. The 2010 Census Interactive Population Search for Contra Costa County shows population by ethnicity as 255,560 Hispanic or Latino, 793,465 Non-Hispanic or Latino. The county’s population by race is as follows:

White 614,512

Black 97,161

Asian 151,469

American Indian/Alaska Native 6,122

Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander 4,845

Other 112,691

Identified by two or more 62,225

For the record, qualified candidates have always been welcomed on the Antioch Police force regardless of race, gender or socio-economic status. In fact, during the period July 2006-07 Antioch hired 24 police officers: 23 of the officers were male, one a female, 12 of the officers were white, 6 Hispanic, 3 black, and 3 Asian. (2 officers, 1 Hispanic and 1 white failed the department’s 16 week field training program.) My complaint at the time was the department wasn’t hiring enough women officers.

Allegations that the Antioch Police Department targeted and used excessive force against unruly black teenagers in the 2007 Gas City incident have no merit and ultimately led to the expulsion of seven Deer Valley High School students. Nor do discrimination charges by a few Section 8 tenants during the reign of Chief Jim Hyde, whose proactive approach to policing led to formation of the department’s Community Action Team (CAT) which made me feel a lot safer than I do today. In fact, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed the federal trial court’s decision in the Tuggles case finding no discrimination by the City of Antioch in its community policing efforts.