Last night I got a phone call from a pollster. I asked what the poll was about and the woman replied that it was about the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors so I said I would participate.

It only took a question or two for me to ascertain that it was a vicious attack on Supervisor Mary Piepho, and a plug for former Antioch City Council member and Mayor Joel Keller. Keller, who is a BART Director, apparently intends to run for the Board of Supervisors.

Three questions asked by the pollster included a statement that Keller was a retired Peace Officer. That’s not true. Keller retired as Probation Mgr. for Contra Costa County in 2003 and as a Chief Deputy Probation Officer for Solano County in 2008.

Questions also alluded to Mary Piepho being an ineffective leader and not working well with the rest of the Board. I challenge that statement. Frankly, I don’t think Keller was a good advocate when it came time to assuring that Antioch got a REAL BART line.

In addition, I question some of his decisions as a BART Director, e.g. his attendance, along with 4 other BART Directors and 9 BART employees, at the annual American Public Transportation Agency (APTA) conference in New Orleans this fall.

On Thursday Keller, along with the rest of the BART board, voted unanimously to authorize an exclusive negotiating agreement with the Oakland Economic Development Corp. to contract with UrbanCore, a minority-owned real estate development company. BART and the City Oakland want to turn a 1.3 acre parking lot of Snell Street and 71st Ave. into apartments.

Since when are transit funds used for real estate purchases? (Sorry, I forgot the Bay Area Toll Authority recently voted to give MTC the go ahead to spend $93 million, funded in part by bridge toll money, for a new headquarters in San Francisco.)

The “rationale” for BART’s participation in the apartment purchase reportedly is to create a true “transit village,” increasing the ridership for BART and paving the way for economic growth in the area. Barf.

Incidentally, did you know that BART’s estimates for replacing train cars will cost about $3.2 billion to $3.4 billion? Although state and federal grants will cover most of the bill, an alert taxpayer pointed out to me, $3.4 billion divided by 669 is $5.1 million per car. Allegedly, BART sells the cars to investors and then leases them back, which makes me wonder if taxpayers will be further on the hook for this financing trick.

To the editor:

As expected, Don Freitas is going to run for mayor next election. And he should. He controlled the city council meetings very well. But that’s no reason to re-elect him. Since he left office two years ago, he has not made any appearances at council meetings, never any input on anything.

The same can be said of Arne Simonsen. Never shows at council meetings and little input in the newspaper. But I could vote for Arne if he would make a commitment to run as a full-time mayor and eliminate the position of city manager.

Arne is the only council person to ask questions. I always thought him to be the smartest of them all. He has the time to be full-time mayor and we need him.

Bob Oliver
Antioch

To the editor:

There should be an article about this problem. Honest. Neighbors celebrating the fact the house is getting some much needed love and attention may not know that the company hired to do the cleanuout isn’t always a reliable company.

Antioch is a victim of not so honest people doing foreclosure cleanouts that then illegally dump all the trash on the back roads in Antioch (instead of hauling the trash to the dump and paying like they are supposed to).

The lastest one I had to deal with came from a house on West 6th Street that was then dumped near a water source on McElheney Road. It took 5 people over 3 hours to clean up.

Impossible to track down who did it with the limited resources at hand. When I do get an address, and I usually do, they are, of course, bank-owned. But someone associated with the foreclosed home hired somebody to clean it out and the cleanout crew decided to keep all the money and illegally dump it instead.

I do not have the resources nor does the City to follow up every time this happens I do have pictures of what was recently dumped on McElheney Road by what we believe was one of these trash cleanout companies. Yet another side of foreclosures, unfortunately.

Neighbors need to take notice. If you see a trash cleanup at a foreclosed house, get the license plate number or take a picture or ask for a business card.

R.C. Ferris

Former Antioch City Councilman, Contra Costa County Supervisor and biker Tom Torlakson rode off to a new position in Sacramento.

Now as the state school’s chief, Torlakson is touting his “Schools of the Future” initiative designed to change California laws to encourage more renewable power systems for state schools. (California just lost out on the race for a share of $300 million in Race to the Top funds because of an “incomplete” application.)

Interesting to note that U.S. Congressman George Miller is also touting renewable energy, more specifically a failing California solar company called SunPower. (Miller is now the senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee.)

SunPower received a $1.2 billion federal loan guarantee for a photovoltaic electric ranch project three weeks AFTER announcing it was building a new manufacturing plant to build the panels for the project in Mexicali, Mexico.

What was Rep. George Miller’s connection to the project? The answer is his SunPower lobbyist son, George Miller IV. Although not a registered lobbyist in Washington, he’s a member of its bar, although not a member of the California bar, home of his lobbying firm, Lang, Hansen, O’Malley and Miller.

SunPower and its officers are defendants in a federal shareholder lawsuit whose plaintiffs include the Austin, Texas Police Retirement System, the Arkansas Teachers Retirement System and a number of institution investors in an alleged scheme to deceive the investing public by making false statements contrary to nonpublic information known to the insiders.

All this was known at the time it received it’s $1.2 billion loan guarantee from US taxpayers to build a new manufacturing plant in Mexico.

Frankly it’s time for a change in Sacramento and Washington D.C. where lobbyists hold sway and members of Congress benefit from insider trading. Let’s start with voting for passage and enforcement of HR 1148, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act.

To the editor:

Bittersweet, yes, but given the state of affairs, progress. St. Ignatius of Antioch Catholic Church tallied its receipts from the Fall Festival, raffle and gala dinner and exceeded expectations with a net profit of $32,000.

The sad news is that normally that money would have gone towards the ‘Complete the Vision Campaign’ to build an educational center. Due to three copper thefts in a matter of months that stripped air conditioners and perimeter wires, some $26,000 of it is earmarked for a perimeter fence, which is hoped to go in by the end of the year.

The projected fence installation follows in the steps of the Dhyanyoga Center across the street which was also repeatedly vandalized, as was a number of other churches and schools around the city.

In the meantime. a contingent of men, and one brave woman parishioner, are doing three hour shifts through the night watching the church. New security cameras and increased city police patrols add to the security effort. In addition, the church has volunteers patrolling the parking lot during services because of past car break-ins. Anybody with any tips on either variety of thief, please contact the Antioch police.

The church, incidentally, is just shy of a million dollars in pledges, a third of its goal. Parochial Administrator Robert Rien has been tirelessly pursuing foundations and under the leadership of Finance Committee Chair Ron France, the church is pulling out all the stops with recyclable collection, loose change jugs, fish fries, crab feeds, restaurant incentive nights, gourmet coffee and tri-tip sandwich sales and just about any fund-raising enterprise that is legal and wholesome.

The church welcomes ideas if you have any. Seems thieves may come and go, but men and women of good faith and resilience are a constant at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church.

Walter Ruehlig

To the editor:

No mistaking me and Thanksgiving sentiments; I thoroughly admire the holiday’s essence. I find it, though, a telling remark on the vagaries of life that we need a day to remind us to be thankful.

I guess that forgetfulness is due to nature seeking the path of least resistance. As rivers run down, not up, hill, so to moan, to complain, to whine is the more beaten path of the human condition. The less traveled attitude of gratitude seems the direction we need pointers on.

Growing up, my older step sister, who as a child fled the Soviet occupiers of East Germany, oft posed this provocative reminder of relativity. How many of us, she asked, would willingly put all their troubles in a brown paper bag and throw them up in the air with all our neighbors’ bags, randomly collecting what rained down? Our lot is, in truth, often better than what we credit it to be.

I offer, then, my own life ledger:

How generously I note how serious life can be; how stingily I see the ironies, remembering, after all, that since nobody gets out of this Big Tent alive, we may as well just enjoy the show. Grin and bear it.

How generously I disparage our national political strife and intrinsically messy democracy; how stingily I trumpet that we’re not rioting in the streets, blowing each other up, or displaying our bloodied former leaders in refrigerated market stalls.

How generously I wake up decrying an assortment of age-related aches and pains; how stingily I praise the simple miracle of rising vertically and ambulating.

How generously I bemoan diminished reading sight; how stingily I exult not being blind, deaf or mute.

How generously I curse being a working stiff; how stingily I sing the blessings of having a job to report to; a loving family to feed; and a son at college eager to make something of himself.

How generously I sigh over lost home value; how stingily I admit that my abode would be a veritable mansion in Japan or Europe; it’s blessedly not foreclosed; and, unlike 40% of the world’s population, I enjoy indoor plumbing. All of this, no less, nestling in a region without snow storms or humidity stifling misery indexes.

How generously I lament Antioch’s hunger for downtown development matching Brentwood’s and Pittsburg’s; how stingily I toast the Highway 4 expansion, beckoning eBART and ferry, new marina ramp, and A and L Street remakes.

How generously I focus on blight; how stingily I acknowledge that we sit on the Delta, boasting gorgeous parks, a handsome community center and golf course event center, career-themed schools and an hour or so proximity in any direction to world class cities and stunningly gorgeous recreational areas.

How generously I dwell on crime; how stingily I note that America’s crime rate is the lowest since 1968 and that Antioch went down last year 16 percent in violent crime and on all indices except burglary.

Surely, brothers and sisters, we all have our untold presents. Is the arithmetic too hard to take a few of the 86,400 seconds in a day gifted us to count our blessings? Thanksgiving, after all, is not just the last Thursday in November. It is a state of mind.

In the grand scheme of things, Meister Eckhart seemed to have had it right: “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”

Walter Ruehlig
Antioch

Ballot measures are going to be crowded in 2012. Seems everyone from the Legislature in Sacramento on down to our local school district board wants to ask taxpayers to pay more, except for BART.

Although BART directors also considered asking voters in three counties for more money next year, they’ve apparently decided to wait until 2013 to ask voters to approve a parcel tax to replace aging train cars. The measure would require two-thirds approval. (Board members, Joel Keller and Gail Murray said they favor an even later date such as 2014.)

BART says their decision was based on a poll in which 65% of those surveyed in the spring generally supported the ballot measure for a parcel tax of $45 per home per year. Wonder who BART surveyed? Was it those who ride BART daily or just a phone poll survey like the numerous ones I’m receiving these days? I don’t know as the poll results were presented to the Board not in a general meeting at Board headquarters, but at a retreat on Nov. 12.

According to my query to BART’s new communications chief, the retreat was held at the Renaissance ClubSport Hotel in Walnut Creek. I guess we should all be grateful the retreat wasn’t held in New Orleans where 4 BART Directors and 9 BART employees recently attended the annual APTA conference.

Frankly I object to any public agency retreating and holding meetings behind closed doors. BART directors receive a monthly stipend of $1,386.19 per month for 2011, minus a deduction of $100 if a director misses a meeting for a committee of which the director is a member.

Directors are eligible for the same benefits as most employees e.g. medical, dental and vision coverage for director, spouse/domestic partner and eligible dependents (director share of monthly premium is currently $86.95, the same as most employees.) Eligibility of former directors for health benefits upon leaving service is dependent on when directors first served and length of service.

Directors who served before 1/1/95 and serve a minimum of 12 years are eligible for benefits on the same terms as district employees/retirees. Others may participate in health plans on a fully self paid basis as long as they serve at least ONE full term.

BART also makes contributions equal to approximately 8.3% of the directors’ compensation into the Money Purchase Pension Plan in lieu of Social Security, have a $10,000 life insurance policy while active and upon leaving service if served for 12 years and receive a BART Transportation Pass, which is good not only for the director but his eligible spouse/domestic partner and eligible dependents while actively serving and upon LEAVING service. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.

I won’t be approving any BART tax measure – whether it’s in 2012, 2013 or 2014. If BART is seeking more revenues they should just raise fares now.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan was justifiably criticized for vacillating about whether or not to evict protesters at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza.

I find the Antioch City Council equally negligent for once again not standing up to the neighboring city of Pittsburg, where the Seeno construction family, which operates under various names e.g. Discovery Builders, A.D. Seeno Construction, and West Coast Home Builders, rules the roost and city leaders jump to obey. (The Albert D. Seeno Construction Co. and Discovery Builders offices on Port Chicago Highway were raided last year by the FBI, IRS and Secret Service.)

Why was the Antioch City Council mute while West Coast Home Builders spearheaded a ballot measure to get voter approval to place 194 acres of the former petroleum tank farm west of Somersville and Buchanan roads, currently within Antioch’s limit line and within the Antioch School District, inside their urban limit line where they could develop at a much higher density. (Although Measure I passed, only 5,455 of Pittsburg’s more than 63,000 residents turned out to vote.)

Regrettably, Council’s lack of aggressive action, is similar to what happened when Antioch let Pittsburg annex the Baker property north of Highway 4 which became Century Plaza and Delta Gateway.

What can the City of Antioch do now? Trust LAFCO to make the right decision this time around? I think not. County Supervisor Federal Glower is currently a member of the LAFCO commission as he was back when Roddy Ranch was seeking annexation into the City of Antioch. Although that annexation was approved on a 5-2 vote, he and Gayle Ulkema voted against.