BART, which is busy with labor negotiations, the Warm Springs extension project, the Transbay Tube retrofit and the Powell Street modernization, has just released its fiscal year 2012 First Quarter Financial Report. According to the report:

Ridership: Core system average weekday trips grew 6% and SFO extension trips grew 9% compared to a year earlier. Gains attributed to higher gas prices, higher tolls on the Bay Bridge and increased attendance at sports events.

Sales Tax Revenue: After falling nearly 20% ($36 million) over FY09 and FY10, there have now been 6 straight quarters of growth. First quarter FY12 grew 6% from one year early and was $1.9 million over budget.

Operating Costs: Expenses were favorable to budget by 0.4% ($0.6 million). Labor was slightly favorable ($0.7 million) and non labor very close to budget.

Perhaps that’s why BART distributed 65,000 vouchers for free roundtrip rides in December, compared to 60,000 in the prior year, and gave out 5,000 Freedom Train flash passes on Martin Luther Day. (BART also co-sponsored the 10th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Musical Tribute at the Oakland Paramount.)

Note: The BART Car Replacement Project will replace BART’s existing 669 rail cars and is currently projected to cost approximately $3.2 billion in year-of expenditure dollars.

The overall funding framework calls for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to fund approximately $2.4 billion, or 75% of the total $3.2 billion project costs. BART would provide approximately $800 million or 25%. Phase 1 of the funding plan totals $1 billion and includes project development and procurement of the first 200 rail cars.

None of the five companies that bid for the job are located in the U.S. and although bidders must use at least 60% U.S. materials and parts, federal law prohibits BART from specifying where in the country the final assembly work will be done.

CCISCO and the PICO National Network released the following statement in response to President Obama’s announcement last night to launch a joint investigation into the mortgage crisis:

As clergy and faith leaders on the front lines of what has come to feel like a never-ending housing crisis, we applaud President Obama’s announcement last night that he will be launching a federal investigation into the abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the crisis.

This is a positive development for the millions of families whose lives have been affected by the reckless conduct of the nation’s largest banks, and for the thousands of everyday people who organized and fought to make last night’s announcement happen. We commend the leadership and courage of Attorneys General Schneiderman, Harris, Biden and others who have continued to demand a stronger settlement and launched their own investigations into the banks.

We will continue to organize to make sure that this investigation holds those responsible for the economic crisis accountable and provides meaningful relief for homeowners commensurate with the scale of the misconduct.

This is the first step towards reaching the broader goal of $300 billion in principal reduction and an additional $50 billion in restitution for those who have lost their homes, especially targeted to the hardest-hit communities. We also need the President to act immediately to make sure that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stop standing in the way of reducing underwater mortgage debt. Only with these pieces in place will we begin to see the housing market, our economy, and our communities make a lasting recovery.

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The Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization (CCISCO) is a federation of 25 religious congregations, 7 different denominations, representing 35,000 families in Contra Costa County. CCISCO is an active member of the PICO National Network and the New Bottom Line Campaign (www.newbottomline.com)

PICO National Network is the largest grassroots, faith-based organizing network in the United States. PICO works with 1,000 religious congregations in more than 200 cities and towns through a network of 48 member federations and 10 state networks. More information at www.piconetwork.org.

CCISCO
202 G St., Suite 1 – Mailing: P. O. Box 883
Antioch, CA 94509
P: (925) 779-9302
F: (925) 779-9303
www.ccisco.org

In order to prepare an annual budget, all departments in the City of Antioch are required to submit requests for appropriations to the City Manager by April 1st. In turn, the City Manager must present a proposed budget to City Council for review prior to June 30th, the close of the city’s fiscal year.

At mid-period of the budget cycle, the City Council reviews the budget and makes adjustments as needed, which is why at the January 24th council meeting, members are being presented with the following financial information for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011.

The report noted the following:

• The City has experienced significant declines in the General Fund revenue.
• Property tax revenues decreased 27.5% over two years.
• Sales tax decreased 6% over 2 years and development fees decreased 8% from prior period.
• On the positive side, “business type” activities increased the City’s net assets by $7,049,234, mainly attributable to approved water and sewer rates increases that took effect July 1, 2010, as well as savings in personnel costs and contractual services.
• Therefore, total expenses declined from $90,498,792 in 2010 to $87,506,225 in 2011.
• Additionally, total long term outstanding debt obligations for governmental activities decreased by $247,980, and total long-term obligations for business type activities decreased by $814,293 during the current fiscal year.
• The total net increase in the City’s investment in capital assets for the current fiscal year was $3,476,339. Among the significant construction commitments were $2.9 million towards the Marina Launch Ramp and Markley Creek Culvert projects.
• Overall, the City’s total long term outstanding debt at the end of the fiscal year was $48,992,561. $30,710,000 representing bonds secured solely by specified revenue sources (i.e. revenue bonds), $10,980,498 representing tax allocation bonds and $3,435,545 representing loans payable and $3,866,518 representing leases payable.
• At the end of fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, the fund balance of Antioch’s General Fund increased by $1,038,047, primarily attributable to higher than projected revenues (primarily motor vehicle in lieu and sales tax) and lower than anticipated expenditures (primarily contractual services).
• The City appropriated $92,420 of Genal Fund assigned fund balance for spending in the 2011-2012 fiscal year budget.

By Walter Ruehlig
School Board Trustee, Antioch Unified School District

I often get asked by concerned community members as to what single attention can best advance education? It’s a complex challenge that, truth be told, defies single remedy.

Actually, education can be likened to a three-legged stool, with any one unstable leg, student, teacher or parent, causing potential wobble. The student needs exercise discipline and motivation; the teacher effective communication, passion, rigor, relevancy and classroom management; the parent guidance and strict vigilance.

Needless to say, volumes have been written extolling the crucial role of good teachers. Substantial data, in fact, indicates that a child having three consecutive years with high performing teachers has a virtual lock on succeeding. Given three years with mediocre or poor teachers, the adverse is also more likely true.

Hence, we place great premium on recruiting, and then peer training, the best teachers available. The fact remains, though, that like police officers, dentists, or landscapers, for that matter, there will always be the good, the bad and the ugly in the mix.

One thing, though, that rests firmly in our personal control is effective parenting.

Every three years the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development examines fifteen year olds in the worlds’ leading industrialized nations through the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Reading comprehension and the ability to use what has been learned in math and science to solve real problems is tested.

The U.S., once among educational world leaders, sadly now scores in the middle of the pack, right above Cyprus, and far trailing Finland, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Compelled to find some success denominators, in 2009 the PISA team went beyond the classroom and interviewed 5,000 parents to find out what they were doing. The conclusion shows that students whose parents often read to them during their first years of primary school, performed, regardless of socio-economic status, significantly better. The average difference was 25 points or the equivalent of half a year of schooling.

Little surprise as competent parenting was never, we’d agree, a spectator sport. Spending time with your children by talking, playing, or sharing a family meal, is the most priceless treasure youth can inherit. Reading to your child, though, now there is true ‘quality time.’ Stress, then, the written word by having books and magazines around the house. Lead by example and read to yourself as well.

If you can’t get involved in helping with homework, at least show an interest and ask what your child is doing. Check into School Loop, which allows you to computer monitor your child’s attendance, homework and grades. Let them know you are involved and consider education paramount. Praise and reward their efforts, for filling their bucket of self-esteem insures it can never run short. Know your child’s associations and keep them busy.

“Hanging out” and boredom germinate mischief. Contrarily, youth involved in clubs and organized activities channel their energy with a positively reinforcing circle of friends. Though I think ‘tiger parenting’ can be taken, like anything, to excess, and that some free time is needed to keep childhood from uber- seriousness, it is o.k. to keep expectations high.

Truth be, I am a zealot on parental involvement because I have been hit by lightning twice on family matters. I grew up in Great Neck, Long Island in a predominantly Jewish town. The prevailing question wasn’t ‘if’ college, but ‘what’ college. Little wonder, neighbors routinely entered professions like accounting, dentistry or law or started profitable businesses like furrier or jewelry.

I owe gratitude, then, to my blue collar dad, a chef, for sacrificing so we could move from working-class Queens into a community where expectations were unlimited. I then married a Filippina and, double bingo, again saw the effects of a parental culture dead set on education. Though the Academic Performance Index (API) for Antioch is 727 out of a possible 1,000, with 800 the California goal, the Filippino sub-set scores 835.

Certainly, its’ not Asian Wheaties the kids are eating for breakfast that makes such a profound difference. Credit family values. Of course, there is no substitute for an inspired teacher. We can’t, though, put all our marbles there. We also need better parents. They will inexorably make our teachers better.

As Shakespeare said, “the voice of parents is the voice of god, for to their children they are heaven’s lieutenants.” Teach your children well. After all, isn’t it a funny thing how fortunate parents who have conscientious children usually have fortunate children who have conscientious parents?

Pittsburg: The City of Pittsburg has just put out to bid a Central Harbor Dock Replacement project, Engineer’s estimate $1,900,000 – with the city hoping that, due to the current poor economy, the bids will come in lower than estimated.

The bid specifies, “The work of the project consists in general of removal of old wooden docks and pilings, manufacturing and installing new berthing system including all new docks, all necessary utilities, and construction of a new floating restroom, all complete in place and ready for use including all related incidentals and other items of work as specified.”

Antioch: The City of Antioch is finally getting around to building a new four-lane boat launch at the city marina six years after receiving $3.7 million state grant from the California Dept. of Boating and Waterways. By the time city leaders got around to approving the $3.2 million dollar boat launch facility project in June 2010, they found themselves short about $376,000 in funding, necessitating limiting the launch to 3 lanes and no public restrooms.

Fortunately for boaters, the state Dept. of Boating and Waterways stepped forward again and gave the city additional grant funds to complete the project based on the original plans.

Incidentally, the Antioch Marina project includes the paving over of Barbara Price park for parking purposes. Frankly, the park was misnamed from the get go. Former Councilwoman Barbara Price was supposed to oversee the original Waterfront Commission of which I was a member. She never attended one of our meetings.

She was also on the council’s subcommittee studying solid waste issues and was questioned by fellow councilman Frank Stone regarding the propriety of her going on an Austrian junket as the guest of California Co-Composting Systems Inc. She was also criticized for allegedly receiving a job offer to do community relations work for the Marina Del Rey-based firm.

By Lou Davis

Apparently, if it’s left up to President Obama and a confused group calling itself the Occupy Wall Street protest movement, this country could very well be headed farther downhill, amid an already deepening recession.

These ragtag “occupy” groups, fanned out across the nation, claim to represent 99 percent of poor and/or disadvantaged Americans. Most are well supported by ultra-rich anti-capitalists, who supply them with expensive cell phones and other high tech gadgets. After all, they want to be assured that protesters can maintain contact with the likes of film maker Michael Moore and other organizers.

These front line occupiers are also well supported and advised by a variety of union labor leaders, who in many cases are paying them to demonstrate.

Yes, you read right, much of the reason why the protesters are able to exist is because of President Obama’s supportive position on their activities. On several occasions the President has stated that protesters are only airing out their frustrations. Not one time has the President suggested that he is against their actions, even though many are very costly, destructive, and oftentimes they are quite violent.

Only a few of our elected officials have spoken out about the harm that protesters are causing, and the money it is costing financially strapped cities like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Millions of dollars are being spent to pay for cleanup and overtime pay for police.

The exceptions to speaking out against protesters comes from Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York. Governor Jerry Brown of California certainly needs to address the problem.

In Oakland apparently no one has pointed out that blockading port operations is clearly a violation of Interstate Commerce laws. And the Department of Homeland Security is certainly shirking its duties by not controlling this form of internal terrorism.

By Rosa Koire

On Monday night, January 9th, about 50 citizen activists turned a ONE BAY AREA public Delphi meeting in Santa Rosa, CA upside down. WE REFUSED TO BE GOOD GERMANS.

What happened? We spoke out, video’d, entered the meeting without signing in, refused to be railroaded, continually corrected the government/consultant lies and called them out, did not participate in the phony ‘voting’, did not give our names to the establishment press, brought in cameras and signs, flyered warning the organizers not to violate the open meeting laws, and did not get arrested although police were called. We exercised our rights as Americans.

Who are we? A coalition of independent citizens from all over the SF Bay Area, Democrats, Property Rights Advocates, Tea Party members, Republicans, Libertarians, non-affiliated Independents – brave Americans standing together to resist tyranny.

What is ONE BAY AREA? A regional plan to direct federal and state transportation dollars over the next 25 years to specific cities that have agreed to ONLY approve smart growth and ONLY approve it in limited pre-designated areas of just a few towns in the entire San Francisco Bay Area. Using ridiculously inflated population projections, ONE BAY AREA states that future housing must designed in one of their ‘approved’ smart growth models and developed in a Priority Development Area.

What is that? A Priority Development Area (PDA) is a so-called transportation corridor—usually a busy street
with a bus line or near a proposed train station. This PDA can be as small as a half-block or as large as a square mile. All of the projected new population for the next 25 years will be accomodated by housing within this designated area.

No other housing developments will be approved for the next 25 years—or the city will not get their piece of the transportation funding. We’re talking about 200 Billion dollars of federal and state transportation dollars for the SF Bay Area over the 25 year term.

Do you see what this will do to property values outside of the specific PDA’s? It will destroy them. Do you see what this does to individual cities? It destroys their sovereignty. ONE BAY AREA is a regional plan that breaks down boundaries and pushes UN Agenda 21.

Northern California is one of 11 Mega Regions in the US. It includes 31 counties, 48,000 square miles, 15 million people, and part of TWO STATES–California and NEVADA. Do you see how this happens? We thought we had 50 states, but now we have ELEVEN MEGA REGIONS. Using transportation dollars, grants, legislation (SB 375 & AB 32 in
California), and pressure, your government is destroying your ability to be self-determining.

www.DemocratsAgainstUNAgenda21.com will have the video on this site and YouTube later today or tomorrow. Watch it and USE IT. We guarantee you that you’ll have a chance real soon.

Rosa Koire, ASA
Executive Director
Post Sustainability Institute
www.PostSustainabilityInstitute.org
www.DemocratsAgainstUNAgenda21.com
www.SantaRosaNeighborhoodCoalition.com

NEXT POST: HOW WE PREPARED FOR THE ONE BAY AREA DELPHI MEETING

I thought you might like to see what we did here in Santa Rosa, CA, to block UN Agenda 21. ONE BAY AREA is a plan (they’re calling it YOUR Plan!) to regionalize the SF Bay Area and dissolve the city, county, and state boundaries. The consultant is holding Delphi meetings all over the Bay Area to get buy-in for the plan. We were there with our partners in freedom: Heather Gass and the East Bay Tea Party, Orlean Koehle and her crew, the Santa Rosa Neighborhood Coalition, Democrats Against UN Agenda 21, property rights activists, and many others.

Here are our flyers:
NOTICE
YOU ARE BEING DELPHI’D
This meeting is designed to manipulate and direct public opinion to approve the One Bay Area Plan

The Delphi Method is being used to create the illusion that this is your plan and that you have some part in crafting the outcome. This is a technique developed by the RAND Corporation in the 1960’s which is used by meeting facilitators to block opposition and discard opinions that do not support their plan. This propaganda method uses peer pressure to shame and silence you.

ONE BAY AREA is being used to regionalize the SF Bay Area and erase the city, county, and ultimately, State boundaries. Your transportation tax dollars will be used to build apartments and condos in designated areas of your city—and nowhere else. Your money will directed to favored developers building stack and pack housing.

You are losing the ability to direct your elected officials through this plan to destroy local representation. This is happening across the US. There are now 11 Mega Regions designed to replace States. Northern California is one of the Mega Regions (it includes part of Nevada), with over 48,000 square miles and 15 million residents.

ONE BAY AREA is UN Agenda 21
Reverse side of flyer:
NOTICE
YOU CANNOT BE DENIED ACCESS TO THIS MEETING
OPEN MEETING LAWS IN CALIFORNIA:
THE BROWN ACT
Meetings of public bodies must be ‘open and public,’ actions may not be secret, and action taken in violation of open meeting laws may be voided. (Section 54953(a), 54953(c), 54960.1(d)

WHO IS COVERED?
· Local agencies, including counties, cities, school and special districts (Section 54951)
· Legislative bodies of each agency—the agency’s governing body plus ‘covered boards,’ that is any board, commission, committee, task force, or other advisory body created by the agency, whether permanent
or temporary (Section 54952(b))

WHAT MUST HAPPEN?
Under the Brown Act an agency must:
· Post notice and an agenda
· Notify the media
· Hold meetings in the jurisdiction of the agency in places accessible to all, with no fee (Section 54961(a))
· Not require a ‘sign-in’ or registration for anyone
· Allow non-disruptive recording of the meeting
· Allow the public to address the covered board
—
Rosa Koire, ASA is Executive Director of the Post Sustainability Institute
www.PostSustainabilityInstitute.org
www.DemocratsAgainstUNAgenda21.com
www.SantaRosaNeighborhoodCoalition.com

Restore the Delta is challenging the accuracy and value of the Public Policy Institute’s recent report on the Delta: Transitions for the Delta Economy. Executive Director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla says, “It is disheartening that a report, now funded by a public university, fails to fully and properly analyze Delta water quality, current project proposals, and the real Delta economy.”

The PPIC report assumes that the new dual conveyance system, more commonly known to Californians at the peripheral canal/tunnel, will only divert 4.9 million acre feet of Delta water, despite the reality that water contractors will have difficulty justifying the sale of billions of dollars in new revenue bonds to finance the project if they are going to receive a significant smaller share of Delta water.

Conner Everts with the Southern California Watershed Alliance says, “Southern California rate payers cannot afford to pay more and more to Metropolitan Water District for an unsustainable water supply. Regional self sufficiency, which can be achieved through conservation, storm water and reuse projects, is a much more affordable way to make more water for Southern California water users.”

Restore the Delta policy analyst Jane Wagner-Tyack explains, “The report is so out of touch with reality that it actually places the new Stockton water supply project under water because the authors have decided that the way to fix the Delta is to permanently flood it. By depriving Stockton of a water supply, it seems that someone has made a decision to relocate the Delta’s largest urban population of 300,000 residents somewhere else.”

Despite multiple attempts by Delta water agency representatives, Delta engineers, levee experts trained at other renowned universities, economists, and Delta advocates, the authors of the PPIC reports on the Delta have rebuffed attempts to incorporate local input into their research.

In closing, Barrigan-Parrilla adds, “The PPIC models regarding salinity changes in the Delta and how such changes would alter our economy are flawed. If people in California want to know the real value of the Delta economy presently and how exporting water could destroy it, they should read the Economic Sustainability Plan recently published by the Delta Protection Commission – a rigorously reviewed document produced by experts who know the Delta best.”